Nguyen Thi Yen rolls up the sleeves of her white lab coat and delicately slips her arms into a box covered by a sheath of mesh netting. Immediately, the feeding frenzy begins.

Hundreds of mosquitoes light on her thin forearms and swarm her manicured fingers. They spit, bite and suck until becoming drunk with blood, their bulging bellies glowing red. Yen laughs in delight while her so-called "pets" enjoy their lunch and prepare to mate.

Doctors sounded a warning Tuesday over a rise in ADHD diagnoses, saying some children may be needlessly taking powerful drugs intended to correct a poorly understood disorder.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the researchers noted treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had risen massively in recent years, even though its causes are unclear and drugs can have adverse effects.

Evelina Gonzalez was supposed to undergo cancer surgery in July following chemotherapy but wound up shuttling from hospital to hospital in search of an available operating table. On the crest of her left breast, a mocha-colored tumor doubled in size and now bulges through her white spandex tank top.

Gonzalez is on a list of 31 breast cancer patients waiting to have tumors removed at one of Venezuela's biggest medical facilities, Maracay's Central Hospital. But like legions of the sick across the country, she's been neglected by a health care system doctors say is collapsing after years of deterioration.

An eight-year-old girl has become China's youngest lung cancer patient, reports said, with doctors blaming pollution as the direct cause of her illness.

The girl, whose name was not given, lives near a major road in the eastern province of Jiangsu, said Xinhuanet, the website of China's official news agency.

The Syrian government on Monday pledged to vaccinate children against polio after 10 cases were reported in the northeast, and also accused rebels of attacking humanitarian aid convoys.

"We must make the vaccine available to every child in Syria, whether in a "hot" zone or a region controlled by the army," Faisal Muqdad, deputy foreign minister, told a news conference.

Pharmaceuticals giant Roche said on Monday that it had joined forces with fellow Swiss company Polyphor to develop an antibiotic to fight a superbug that has taken hold in hospitals.

Hospital-acquired infections are a major global concern, causing 25,000 deaths a year in the European Union alone.

Girls of all races are entering puberty earlier than ever before, and U.S. research out Monday suggests that obesity may a contributing factor, particularly in white girls.

Early puberty has been linked to a number of medical conditions, including increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as high blood pressure and depression.

A single dose -- rather than the recommended three -- of a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease HPV may be enough to ward off cervical cancer, researchers said Monday.

The findings may lead to simpler delivery and lower costs, possibly increasing the number of young people who get vaccinated, said the report in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

At least 700 people, mostly women, have sought medical help for apparent drug intoxication in a village believed to be the largest marijuana producer in the Balkans, doctors said Friday.

All the patients, suspected workers in cannabis fields in the southern Albanian village of Lazaret, had similar symptoms and "serious disorders from cannabis intoxication," doctor Hysni Luka of the hospital in nearby town Gjirokaster told reporters.

Ten people would be preventatively treated for rabies after coming into contact with a kitten that died of the disease, which is potentially deadly to humans, French authorities said Friday.

The kitten of about two-months-old was adopted on October 25 from the streets of Argenteuil, about 15 kilometers northwest of Paris.