Health Blog

AP - The world's most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.

Reuters - Swiss voters on Sunday backed a scheme allowing heroin addicts to obtain the drug under prescription, angering conservatives who believe crime will rise as result.

AP - As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.

Reuters - Up to 15 percent of pregnant women in India are developing diabetes, raising the risk of their children developing the disease, said experts on Sunday, who blamed factors including malnutrition.

Time.com - For the first time in a decade, researchers say cancer rates are falling in the U.S. - at the same time that cancer death rates are also on the decline

AP - Chinese health authorities and the U.N. AIDS agency pledged to fight discrimination against people with the disease in China with the unveiling Sunday of a massive red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness, at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing.

AP - Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops.

More than ten thousand scientists across Europe will profit from new investments in the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) approved today. Over the next seven years, unique new experimental facilities for research with X-rays will come into operation.

Women who have an abortion face a small increase in the risk of developing common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, according to a new study from New Zealand.

Young women who have a miscarriage or an abortion are three times more likely to experience a drug or alcohol problem during their lifetime, according to new research published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. Recent evidence has suggested that induced abortion may be associated with later psychiatric disorders in women.