Gene sequencing tools allows scientists to untangle the genetic roots of many diseases and they’re looking at genetic variation in Africa.
Europe is experiencing its first sustained transmission of dengue fever since the 1920s, with more than 1 300 people infected in Madeira, Portugal.
A Qatari man struck down with a previously unknown virus related to the deadly Sars infection is critically ill in hospital in Britain.
Science shows music has a profound effect on an athlete before and during a major sports event.
Most of Africa’s languages don’t have a word for cancer. How can a continent hope to treat, let alone fight, a disease that has no name?
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/ 21 February 2012
Studies into a chemical involved in the brain’s sensory and reward systems could help in the development of drugs to treat gambling addicts.
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/ 25 January 2012
British scientists say teaching autistic children to "talk things through" in their heads might help them solve tricky day-to-day tasks.
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/ 30 November 2011
UN health agencies say extraordinary progress has been made in the fight against Aids but a funding crisis is putting those gains at risk.
Sending daily SMS reminders to health workers can mean nearly 25% more children are properly treated for malaria.
Epidemics of HIV are emerging among gay and bisexual men in the Middle East and North Africa, researchers said.
A professor of complementary medicine accused Prince Charles and other backers of alternative therapies on Monday of being "snake-oil salesmen".
Messages from years of Aids campaigns are finally filtering down to the dingy streets of Johannesburg where sex workers turn tricks.
It may have become acceptable to question Muammar Gaddafi’s state of mind but it’s a futile exercise to try to predict his behaviour.
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/ 9 February 2011
Fear of infection and social change have driven a huge decline in HIV rates in Zimbabwe, offering important lessons on how to fight the Aids pandemic.
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/ 1 December 2010
A generation of babies could be born free of Aids if the international community stepped up efforts to provide universal access to HIV prevention.
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/ 10 November 2010
It’s no great medical breakthrough, just a simple colour-coded box packed with HIV drugs and pictures.
Women who have one or two alcoholic drinks a week during pregnancy do not harm their children’s behavioural or intellectual development.
An outbreak of polio in Angola is now a matter of international concern and health authorities there must step up the fight to stamp it out
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/ 15 September 2010
Scientists say they have cooked up a way of using nanotechnology to make fat-free foods just as appetising and satisfying as their full-fat fellows.
Mind-altering drugs like LSD and ketamine could be combined with psychotherapy to treat people suffering from depression, Swiss scientists say.
People who embark on "health tourism" trips to India and Pakistan risk picking up and spreading a new superbug, according to scientists.
An updated edition of a mental health bible for doctors may include diagnoses for "disorders" such as toddler tantrums and binge eating.
An international Aids conference has exposed a gulf between scientists and politicians on how to tackle the deadly HIV pandemic.
More than four million new HIV infections could be prevented in Eastern and Southern Africa by 2025 if male circumcision rates were increased to 80%.
South Africa is considering rolling out use of a vaginal gel which can protect women against HIV before it is officially licensed by drug regulators.
It might have been better for the environment to have done nothing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico except to keep the oil out at sea.
An international collaboration by major research bodies wants to take the fruits of the genetic revolution to a continent it has largely bypassed.
Nurses are as good as doctors at monitoring treatment for Aids patients, and shifting this role to them could help ease a shortage of health workers.
Babies born just one or two weeks before their 40-week gestation due date are more likely to develop learning difficulties such as autism or dyslexia.
Genetic differences have a limited role in causing breast cancer and work independently of lifestyle factors such as weight, diet and breastfeeding.
Governments around the world could save huge health costs and avert millions of early deaths if they introduced laws to cut salt levels in food.
An effort to develop a vaccine triggered by human sweat was among 78 science projects backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.