Beach-goers soak up the sun on Sydney's Bondi Beach. According to researchers, close to 400,000 people are diagnosed with skin cancer in the sunburnt country each year.(AFP/File/William West)

SYDNEY (AFP) -
An Australian scientist who developed a vaccine for cervical cancer is set to outline a breakthrough which could pave the way for a skin cancer vaccine, [...]

- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Medical Panel Recommends $60 Million for Gulf
War Illness Research

While the U.S. government is trying to handle the injuries and ailments
suffered by thousands of Armed Services veterans returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan, an advisory panel is recommending millions of dollars [...]

- SUNDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) — Women may have a harder time
prepping for colonoscopy than men, a new study suggests.

Patients must empty their colon to increase the rate of success in the
procedure, in which a doctor uses a flexible camera to search for polyps
or lesions along the entire length of the colon. [...]

- SUNDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) — Coming on the heels of two
studies discounting the usefulness of vitamin B, folic acid, vitamin D and
calcium supplements for cancer prevention, U.S. researchers report that
vitamins C and E supplements won't help prevent cancer, either.

The same team also recently reported that vitamin C and E supplements
weren't [...]

Ashley Potter, at left, an Exercise Physiologist with the H.E.A.R.T. Champions program at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, W.Va., uses a tape to measure around the waistline of program participant Noah Retcher, 9, of Milton on Sept. 29, 2008. Those selected to participate in H.E.A.R.T. (Helping Educators Attack Risk Factors Together) Champions take [...]

European Union flag. Residents in the European Union's wealthier nations live in good health up to 14 years longer than their more recent EU neighbours to the east, according to a major study published Monday.(AFP/File/Gerard Cerles)

PARIS (AFP) -
Residents in the European Union's wealthier nations live in good health up to 14 years longer than their [...]

Among a slew of executive orders Barack Obama, pictured in October 2008, is said to be drafting, observers believe one may lift a ban on US funding for overseas family planning groups that even dare mention abortion.(AFP/File/Emmanuel Dunand)

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
Among a slew of executive orders Barack Obama is said to be drafting, observers believe one [...]

- Vitamin C or E pills do not help prevent cancer in men, concludes the same big study that last week found these supplements ineffective for warding off heart disease.
The public has been whipsawed by good and bad news about vitamins, much of it from test-tube or animal studies and hyped manufacturer claims. Even [...]

LOME (Reuters) -
Togo will start distributing free of charge from November 17 the anti-retroviral drugs that extend the lives of HIV/AIDS patients, its government said Saturday.

“Anti-retroviral medicines distributed by the network of the Central Supply of Essential and Generic Medicines (CAMEG) will be free of charge from Monday 17 November throughout the country,” an official [...]

Li Xiaoyan sits on the lap of her mother Li Aiqing at their home in Liti village, near Runan, in China’s Henan province, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. Li Xiaoyan’s nine-month-old twin sister, Li Xiaokai who had been drinking a brand of milk formula linked to the melamine scandal died from kidney failure. (AP Photo/Ng Han [...]