Americans consume innumerable amounts of medicine, but only one pill is known precisely as "the pill." This year marks the 50th anniversary of oral contraception, an innovative collaboration between Gregory Pincus and John Rock that some have called the development of the 20th century...

AU Summit To Examine Progress Toward Child, Maternal Mortality MDGs When leaders of African states gather for the African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda, in July, they will assess the continent's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals relating to child and maternal mortality, Isaac Musumba, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs said M...

Scientists have identified a new class of drug target that tricks tuberculosis bacteria into suicidal self-poisoning. New therapies are urgently required to control the tuberculosis pandemic. Even in the UK cases are on the rise. "With the advent of antibiotics, TB became treatable and at one point eradication was believed possible," says Dr Steph Bornemann from the John Innes Centre...

Over 20M In S. China Face Water Shortages Due To Drought Chinese state media on Thursday reported regions of southern China "are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant," the Associated Press reports...

Physician scientists from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute presented new findings on the effectiveness of routine aspirin therapy for preventing heart disease, a drug therapy for atrial fibrillation and the role left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) may play in weight reduction for obese patients with chronic end-stage heart failure who are considered for heart transplantation...

Ahead of World TB Day, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg helped public and private sector partners launch a new collaboration to significantly accelerate the development of combination treatments for tuberculosis and replace an almost 50-year-old drug regimen...

WHAT:  Match Day is the fun, frenzied day when medical students nationwide learn which hospital has accepted them for residency — advanced training in their chosen specialty. At UCLA, the ceremony climaxes in a mad scramble for the envelopes, with 150 aspiring doctors tearing them open with their families and friends. Many videotape themselves and let distant loved ones listen in on cell phones during this emotional rollercoaster of an...

With 87 per cent of the world's population or approximately 5.9 billion people using safe drinking-water sources, the world is on track to meet or even exceed the drinking-water target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), according to the new WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report titled: " Progress on Sanitation and Drinking- Water: 2010 Update Report," released today...

More than half of Britons would rather shift excess weight through drastic surgery than diet or exercise, a new poll has suggested. Women see weight-loss operations as the key to quick results while some men regard it as the "lazy option", it found. The survey was carried out among 1,305 members of the public on behalf of the Good Surgeon Guide website...