AFP Health

A long-term fall in the global abortion rate has tapered off and the number of unsafe pregnancy terminations is rising worryingly, according to a report published by The Lancet on Thursday. Between 1995 and 2003, the number of abortions around the world for every 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 fell from 35 to 29. But in 2008, the rate was almost unchanged, at 28 per 1,000, due to a surge in abortions in developing countries. The Lancet report also highlighted a dramatic increase in the...Read Full Story

A drug tipped for widespread use to prevent breast cancer in post-menopausal women also accelerates loss of bone density, thus potentially boosting the risk of fractures, a study published on Tuesday said. Exemestane -- brand name Aromasin -- is part of a drug class called aromatase inhibitors, which lower levels of the oestrogen that some breast cancers need in order to grow. Canadian bone specialists took a look at a group of patients who had taken part in a study into the effectiveness of...Read Full Story

A nine-year-old girl is making what doctors described as a remarkable recovery Sunday, days after surgeons transplanted six of her organs in a groundbreaking medical procedure. The surgery performed last Tuesday on young Alannah Shevenell, sought to remove an aggressive cancerous growth festering since 2008, and that had attacked her stomach, liver, pancreas, esophagus, small intestine and spleen. The surgery was performed in Boston, Massachusetts at Children's Hospital, one of this nation's...Read Full Story

A significant expansion in access to treatment helped slash the number of AIDS-related deaths in 2010, bringing the number of people living with HIV to a record 34 million, the United Nations said Monday. "We are on the verge of a significant breakthrough in the AIDS response," said Michel Sidibe , executive director of UNAIDS . "New HIV infections continue to fall and more people than ever are starting treatment," he noted. Speaking to journalists in Berlin for the presentation of the report...Read Full Story

France vowed Wednesday to strengthen the regulation and monitoring of prosthetics and called for Europe-wide controls after a defective breast implant case sparked a global health scare. More than 400,000 women around the world are thought to have received implants made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), which shut in 2010 after it was found to have used substandard, industrial-grade silicone gel. French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said inspections of manufacturers of medical devices will be...Read Full Story