China govt under fire over new food bacteria rule

China's state-run media and web users criticised the government after it ruled that small amounts of a potentially lethal bacterium were permissible in frozen food. The health ministry ruling followed a series of recalls of products, including dumplings made by Synear Food -- one of China's largest frozen food producers -- because they contained traces of staphylococcus aureus bacterium. The bacterium, also known as golden staph, can cause a range of mild to severe infections and diseases, including life-threatening pneumonia and meningitis. Under the existing rules, food products must be recalled if any of the bacteria are discovered. But new rules announced Thursday will allow a small amount of staphylococcus...

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Britons to take part in Cuban lung cancer vaccine trial

British patients will soon take part in a trial of a Cuban-designed therapeutic lung cancer vaccine, the first of its kind, a company executive announced. "A new clinical study of the therapeutic lung cancer vaccine (called Cimavaz-EFG)" will begin "in a matter of days with a group of patients in the United Kingdom," said Erik D'Hondt, scientific director for the Malaysian drug company Bioven, who is in charge of European distribution of the drug. D'Hondt did not say how many patients were taking part in the study. The vaccine was developed by scientists at the Molecular Immunological Center (CIM) in Havana. Its tests in Cuba found promising results in more than 1,000 patients. CIM researcher Zoraida Acosta...

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British women top EU obesity chart

British women and Maltese men topped European obesity ratings according to data released Thursday that also undermined popular belief that all French women are thin. The figures released by the European Union's statistics agency showed the proportion of obese adults ranging from eight percent to 23.9 percent for women and 7.6 percent to 24.7 percent for men. Though a worry for public health, the rates are well below those in the United States, where the corresponding figure was 28.8 percent for women and 27.6 percent for men in 2009, Eurostat said. The lowest shares were recorded in Romania, with eight percent for women and 7.6 percent for men, Italy, with 9.3 percent and 11.3 percent, Bulgaria, at 11.3 and...

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Healthy foetus terminated in Australia hospital error

An Australian hospital was investigating Thursday after a woman carrying 32-week-old twins had the wrong foetus terminated in a botched procedure it called "a terrible tragedy". Doctors had advised the woman that one of the boys, whom she had already named, had a congenital heart defect that would require years of operations, if he survived at all, the Herald Sun reported. She made the heartbreaking decision to abort the child but on Tuesday the wrong baby was terminated. The woman then endured a lengthy caesarean section at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne during which the life of the sick foetus was also ended. "The Royal Women's Hospital can confirm a distressing clinical accident occurred on Tuesday,"...

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Rare strain of AIDS virus moves beyond Cameroon

A very rare strain of AIDS virus previously found only among a few people in Cameroon has most probably spread outside the West African country, according to a case reported by The Lancet on Friday. The first identified infection with the so-called "group N" strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was found in 1998 in a Cameroonian woman who had progressed to AIDS. Since then, more than 12,000 HIV-infected patients living in Cameroon have been tested for group-N infection, but only 12 cases, including two couples, have ever been found. The new case, reported by French doctors, involves a 57-year-old man who was admitted to the Saint Louis Hospital Paris in January suffering from fever, rash, swollen...

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