Health

For decades doctors and pregnant women have relied on amniocentesis - taking a sample of DNA from the amniotic fluid - to diagnose certain disorders in unborn babies, despite the risk of triggering a miscarriage.

LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- They were a perfect match. Anna Kasper, who took care of nursing home patients, delivered pizza and cleaned offices, had a down-to-earth goodness, a love of life, a spirit of giving. Connie Culp, who waited tables and painted restaurants before she became the recipient of the first near-total face transplant in the United States, rose above life's hardships, and kept her sense of humor no matter how rough things got. Today, their connection becomes public.

Scientists on Sunday said they had discovered a bouquet of proteins that play a critical role in the development of more than 130 brain diseases.

For the past four months, some 200 members of the medical staff at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn Hospital have been working hard to bring Atthapon "Pik Namwan" Daengkhamkhun's weight down from 300 kilograms to 87.5kg. The man, who was finally able to walk again, was discharged yesterday.

These are the shocking new pictures of the boy who weeps blood. Calvino Inman, 17, has been suffering from the mysterious condition for two years and doctors remain clueless as to how to stem the flow of bleeding, which can last up to an hour at a time.

One day in 2004, a 29-year-old man with a terrible stomach problem stepped off a plane from the United States in Thailand. He wasn't there for the sights, or the food, or the beaches. He had traveled thousands of miles for worms -- parasitic worms whose eggs he intended to swallow by the thousands.

Joy is just 14 and at an age when many young girls think about falling in love. But she has lived knowing she has HIV for more than half her life.

Despite great achievements in prevention and treatment, World Aids Day today reminds us that HIV/Aids remains a serious public health problem globally.

An Australian company will sell the world's first armpit testosterone lotion in American stores next year after receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, news.com.au reported Friday.

More than a million Thais had caught HIV since the first case was reported in 1984 and two thirds of these - some 644,128 people - had died of Aids, the Public Health Ministry revealed yesterday.