China scaled up a tuberculosis control programme (based on the directly observed treatment, short-course [DOTS] strategy) to cover half the population during the 1990s, and to the entire population after 2000. We assessed the effect of the programme.

On June 5, the advertising magnate Maurice Saatchi reintroduced the Medical Innovation Bill into the UK House of Lords. Anguished and angered by the lack of effective treatment for his wife, who died from ovarian cancer 3 years ago, the Bill aims to protect doctors from litigation should they choose different treatment approaches when established treatment has failed. The Bill does not alter UK law concerning patients' consent, nor the current common law of medical negligence (the Bolam and Bolitho test). (Editorial)

Uganda recently passed a highly controversial HIV Prevention and Control Act that experts say will set back efforts to control HIV/AIDS in the country.

During China’s transition to a market economy in the 1980s and 1990s, the rural population faced substantial barriers to accessing health care and encountered heavier financial burdens than urban residents in paying for necessary health services. In 2003, China started to implement a rural cooperative medical scheme (RCMS), mainly through government subsidies. The scheme operates at the county level and offers a modest benefit package

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the only internationally binding public health treaty ever adopted under the World Health Organization's (WHO) constitution. Although an FCTC signatory, the US joins Cuba, Argentina, and a handful of other countries as one of the few signatories yet to ratify the treaty. With 176 ratifying countries and the European Union, FCTC has demonstrated global acceptance and progress on efforts to combat tobacco use in an effort to reduce the eight million tobacco-related deaths projected to occur annually by 2030.

This modelling study undertaken by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and published in latest issue of the Lancet estimates how achieving globally-agreed targets for six important health risks between 2010 and 2025 will reduce deaths caused by the big-four chronic diseases: cancers, diabetes, lung disease and cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke)