The fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health begins today in Parma, Italy.

A new iPhone app that helps people to stop smoking was launched today

New health inequalities tool allows local NHS to focus their resources.

Public Health Observatories mark 10th anniversary

A new pilot scheme Jobs First will support people with learning disabilities to find paid jobs

Holiday hosts urged to help visiting relatives avoid costly mistake

Local NHS organisations will receive £8 million to fund campaigns that improve early diagnosis of cancer.

Val Davison has been appointed Head of the National Healthcare Science School of Genetics

Frank discussions about the importance of being tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia are an important indicator of a lasting relationship, according to a surprising new survey out today.

New cases of pandemic H1N1 (2009) Influenza in communities in England remain at around their lowest level since the disease first appeared in the United Kingdom. Patients continue to be hospitalised and admitted to critical care facilities, though in declining numbers.

Letter announcing funding for 2010/11 to develop or build on existing services/interventions that aim to promote early diagnosis of cancer, and inviting proposals from primary care trusts by 28 April 2010.

This letter draws attention to important considerations in managing funding for NHS services provided by community pharmacies and appliance contractors, following devolvement of the centrally held funding to PCTs from 1 April 2010.

This letter informs that the Review of Central Returns Steering Committee (ROCR) have approved a national survey of cancer patients' experiences in all Trusts who offer adult acute cancer services . This survey is highlighted as a priority in the NHS Operating Framework 2010/11, section 2.24.

Each year approximately 24,000 men and women leave the British Armed Forces and return to civilian life. This report reviewed the available evidence on the health and social outcomes, and the health experiences, of former members of the Armed Forces.

The consultation on the future strategy for adults with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) closed on 15 September 2009. Over 1,100 responses were received, including from people with ASC, families and carers, voluntary sector organisations and health and social care bodies. This report highlights the findings from the consultation including the importance of training, awareness raising and better diagnosis pathways.

In May 2009 the Department of Health commissioned the Primary Care Foundation to study the impact of using primary care within or alongside A&E. The report highlights that use of primary care clinicians in A&E departments can benefit patients where services are integrated and clinicians work together.

This document sets out the background detail of the NHS constitution

This letter from Gavin Larner, Director, Professional Standard regarding the reinstatement of the NHS appraisal toolkit on Thursday 4 March.

This guidance provides information and advice to local authorities (and certain other bodies) on the indentification of the ordinary residence of people in need of community care services. It is effective from 19 April 2010 and on this date LAC(93)7 (the existing guidance on ordinary residence) will be revoked.

The first autism strategy for England will kick-start fundamental change in public services helping adults with autism to live independent lives and find work

A high street chemist is investigating after a religious employee refused a customer in Sheffield the contraceptive pill.

Hopes of reaching a cross-party deal on funding social care appear to be dead in the water.

Coronation Street actress Beverley Callard reveals she has been receiving treatment for depression.

Who can read my notes? Electronic records explained

A vaccine is available - why don't we use it?

Doctors leaders urge ministers to halt the development of a medical records database for patients in England.

An MP writes to police to ask if there is a basis for a criminal inquiry into activities at Stafford Hospital.

Why extra fat can turn you into a killer behind the wheel

There is no evidence acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicine boost the chance of IVF success, fertility experts warn.

Children with behavioural problems are twice as likely to suffer chronic pain as adults than others, say researchers.

The UK donates £1m ($1.5m) to South Africa to buy 42m condoms, as the nation builds up to the football World Cup.

The US soft drinks industry says it has dramatically cut full-calorie beverages available in schools as part of a drive to tackle obesity.

Health officials begin the TB screening of around 250 people in Rhondda Cynon Taf following an outbreak in 1996.

Patients are being treated in mop cupboards, storerooms and kitchens due to wards being full, a survey suggests.

Psychologists say they have treated hundreds of survivors of the 2005 London bombings for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Parents, hospitals and private firms are being warned over risky and illegal collections of umbilical cord blood

Women can enjoy a tipple and stay slim, according to a study showing moderate drinkers gain less weight than teetotallers.

Hospital managers start an investigation after a newborn baby is given an overdose of a tuberculosis vaccine.

UK's first pooled kidney transplant hailed a success

Millions of pounds intended to fund respite breaks for voluntary carers in England has been spent on other areas of the NHS, two charities say.

A Panorama investigation finds 60% of hospitals inspected gave inaccurate performance data for assessment.

A technique that "washes out" the brains of severely ill premature babies may aid survival, a study suggests.

Patient benefits from rare ankle replacement

In this week's health opinion column Scrubbing Up, paediatrician Dr Tony Waterston, warns of the health dangers of a big carbon footprint and says doctors are leading by example

From fertilisation to birth, an outline guide to a typical pregnancy and how the baby develops inside the womb.

Information and statistics on common types of cancer

What happens to your body under anaesthetic?

During an appeal to government and private donors to pledge money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe warned of the repercussions tightening budgets could play in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports...

2010 To Be 'Decisive Year' For Global Health, Global Fund Director Says In a BusinessDay opinion piece, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine reflects on the organization's progress and impact on global health outcomes since its creation in 2002, as detailed in the organizations' 2010 annual report...

Heating Device Effectively Treats Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Study Says "A heating device that uses radio frequency energy to heat parasites and kill them could provide a new way to treat ... cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, military researchers reported Monday," the Los Angeles Times' blog "Booster Shots" reports...

AIDS leaders gathering in London today face the daunting challenge of implementing new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for earlier treatment with better AIDS drug cocktails at a time when donors are backing away from the promise of "universal access," said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)...

Washington, D.C., soon will become the first city in the U.S. to distribute female condoms at no charge, the Washington Post reports...

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects nearly 100 percent of humans in early childhood, and the infection then lasts for the rest of a person's life...

New findings from a Universite de Montreal and the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI) study, in collaboration with scientists from the NIH and the McGill University Health Center, may soon lead to an expansion of the drug arsenal used to fight HIV. The Canada-U.S...

In a Washington Post opinion piece on Sunday, freelance writer Jamie Rich examined the Cameroonian practice of breast ironing, in which women use heated plantain leaves or hot stones to "flatten adolescent girls' developing breasts, intending to protect the girls from the dangers of sex, consensual or otherwise...

By 2015, mother-to-child HIV transmission will be virtually eliminated and deaths from malaria and tuberculosis will continue to decline if health investments for the diseases are maintained or scaled up, according to an annual results report published Monday by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Agence France-Presse/Africasia.com reports (3/8)...

HIV Hides Outs In Bone Marrow, Study Finds HIV "can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease," the Associated Press reports (Schmid, 3/7)...

Researchers in the US have discovered that a latent form of HIV hides in progenitor cells in bone marrow, avoids detection by the immune system and retains the ability to reproduce and spread when the coast is clear (eg when treated people stop taking anti-HIV drugs)...

University of Michigan scientists have identified a new reservoir for hidden HIV-infected cells that can serve as a factory for new infections. The findings, which appear online March 7 in Nature Medicine, indicate a new target for curing the disease so those infected with the virus may someday no longer rely on AIDS drugs for a lifetime...

Despite being at high-risk for HIV infection, migrant workers in Southern Africa have a challenging time accessing HIV prevention and treatment services, according to a new study by the International Office of Migration (IOM), PANA/Afrique en ligne reports...

The Associated Press: "The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday. ... The lawmakers stressed that the science has changed dramatically since the ban was established in 1983 at the advent of the HIV-AIDS crisis...

Former President Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday launched MASSIVEGOOD - an initiative that allows travelers to make a $2 donation "to fight deadly diseases whenever they buy a plane ticket, book a hotel room or rent a car," Bloomberg/BusinessWeek reports (Varner, 3/4)...

During the 39th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, convening at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, lead researcher O.A. Gonzalez (University of Kentucky, Lexington) presented a poster of a study titled "TLR2 and TLR9 Activation by Periodontal Pathogens induce HIV-1 Reactivation." Although oral co-infections (e.g...

UNITAID welcomes the announcement today of the MASSIVEGOOD initiative, established to provide additional funding for UNITAID's work in expanding access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis...

Argos Therapeutics announced the publication of a manuscript in the February edition of Clinical Immunology, detailing positive immune response, safety and manufacturing data for its AGS-004 immunotherapy for HIV...

Pfizer's Prevnar 7 vaccine, which protects against pneumonia and meningitis, has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrent pneumococcal infection in patients living with HIV in Malawi, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports...

Philippines' Health Secretary Seeks To Boost Condom Distribution After Increase In HIV Diagnoses The Philippines' Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral on Thursday announced she would seek additional public funds to support the distribution of condoms among high-risk groups, after the country recorded 143 new cases of HIV in January - its highest number of diagnoses i...

University of Washington's Dr. H. Hunter Handsfield, a long-time trailblazer in sexually transmitted diseases (STD) research, will receive the nation's highest honor in the STD field during the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2010 National STD Prevention Conference in Atlanta, March 8-11. Handsfield is the 2010 recipient of the Thomas Parran Award, named for Dr. Thomas Parran, Jr...

A clinical trial of a vaccine against a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis has shown that it can prevent three out of four cases of re-infection in HIV-infected adults in Africa. The trials, conducted in Malawi and funded by the Wellcome Trust, studied the efficacy of a vaccine against infection with the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria...

A five-day workshop that opened Monday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, will address ways to improve HIV/AIDS surveillance in the Asia region, Viet Nam News reports. The workshop has brought together "surveillance technical staff from government departments, non-governmental organisations and U.S...

UNAIDS on Tuesday launched a five-year initiative to help tackle gender inequalities and human rights violations that increase the vulnerability of women worldwide to HIV/AIDS, BBC reports (3/3)...

U.S. Ambassador To U.N. In Geneva Assumes Position, Ending 13 Month Vacancy Betty King reported to her new position as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. "Washington's Geneva mission had been without an ambassador since Warren W. Tichenor left his post on Jan...