For a year, the patient suffered from a range of worsening symptoms that left doctors stumped.

His heart started failing, his sight and hearing deteriorated, he suffered from acid reflux, swollen lymph nodes and an inexplicable fever. The outlook was grim.

French doctors said on Friday they had used gene testing to help women with advanced breast cancer get access to clinical trials that may offer a better chance of treating their disease.

The study, the biggest of its kind, improves the chances of getting drugs that, like a sniper's rifle, aim at a specific type of tumour, they said.

Just as heart attack symptoms may differ between men and women, so do stroke risks.

Now, the American Heart Association has issued its first guidelines for preventing strokes in women. They focus on birth control, pregnancy, depression and other risk factors that women face uniquely or more frequently than men do.

The number of people dying from measles has fallen to a record low, driven down by mass vaccination campaigns, but outbreaks in crisis zones such as Syria remain a threat, the U.N. said Thursday.

"We have reached a record low in measles cases, with a 77 percent decline from 2000 to 2012, which has led to a record drop in the number of estimated deaths, by 78 percent," said Robert Perry of the World Health Organization's immunization department.

Eating yoghurt and low-fat cheese can cut the risk of developing diabetes by around a quarter compared with consuming none, according to a study of 3,500 Britons published on Wednesday.

The evidence comes from a long-term health survey of men and women living in the eastern county of Norfolk, whose eating and drinking habits were detailed at the start of the investigation.

An amputee with a bionic hand has for the first time been able to feel the texture and shape of objects in his grasp, European researchers said.

The success of the month-long trial in Italy has energized researchers in the hunt to solve one of the most difficult challenges in prosthetics.

Vietnam has recorded its second death from bird flu in 2014, a health official said Thursday, as regional concerns over a potential resurgence of the deadly virus grow.

A 60-year-old woman from southern Dong Thap province died on January 28 and tested positive for the H5N1 virus the following day, provincial medical department director Nguyen Ngoc An told Agence France Presse.

U.S. retail drug store giant CVS Caremark announced Wednesday that it will stop selling cigarettes, a move immediately applauded by President Barack Obama as having a "profoundly positive impact on the health of our country."

CVS said in a statement that the decision to no longer carry tobacco products in its 7,600 stores across the United States makes it the first national pharmacy chain to take such dramatic action to discourage smoking.

In the United States, pre-packaged foods loaded with artificial ingredients and chemicals can make it onto grocery store shelves boasting the label "natural."

Why? Because in America, there is no definition of "natural."

There's no smoke without ire: a ban on water pipes in restaurants and cafes has caused uproar in Jordan where $1 billion worth of tobacco goes up in smoke every year.

Under a decision based on a 2008 law that was not previously enforced, the government has announced that by the end of 2014 the licences of more than 5,000 establishments that serve hookahs will be revoked.