Health - Top Stories latest news

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Babies born four months before the peak cold and flu season have a 30 percent higher risk of developing asthma, U.S. researchers said on Friday, suggesting that these common infections may trigger asthma.

It's easy for most of us to forget that, not too long ago, an AIDS diagnosis meant certain death.

Police are tackling the growing problem of drink-related crime by offering youngsters a re-education programme.

Under current law, patients must be admitted if they are brought in by police -- but not if they are brought in by a mental health worker. Commissioners seek a quick solution to the problem. Alarmed by reports that Los Angeles County mental health staff -- hobbled by a countywide shortage of beds for the mentally ill -- are increasingly forwarding emergency calls to police, commissioners overseeing the department on Thursday asked that a plan to end the practice be presented by early next month.

A ruling is expected that could have profound implications for UK asbestos-related cancer victims and their families.

Some advanced lung cancer patients already treated with chemotherapy might be able to skip some of the bad side effects of another series of chemo by taking a pill instead, a study suggests. An international study showed patients on Iressa, an expensive, newer targeted treatment, survived about as long as those on another course of chemotherapy.

Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday.

AP - Some advanced lung cancer patients already treated with chemotherapy might be able to skip some of the bad side effects of another series of chemo by taking a pill instead, a study suggests. An international study showed patients on Iressa, an expensive, newer targeted treatment, survived about as long as those on another course of chemotherapy.

The UK government's plan to fine hospitals for not hitting Clostridium difficile targets is unfair, experts say.

Children held in UK detention centres are not getting the medical care they need, a leading medical journal warns.