Eight people have died from swine flu in England since early September, health authorities have told AFP, with Britain seemingly at the forefront of a winter resurgence in Europe.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) insisted it was to be expected that the H1N1 strain of flu that caused the 2009 pandemic would be the most common strain this winter.

Haiti's cholera toll has risen above 900, including dozens of deaths in the teeming capital, as the epidemic showed no sign of abating just two weeks ahead of presidential elections.

Health Ministry officials reported Sunday more than 120 new deaths since the previous toll, as authorities and international aid agencies struggled to contain the latest crisis afflicting the desperately poor Caribbean nation.

A drug designed to treat high blood pressure also diminishes the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice, a study published Thursday has reported.

Because the drug, isradipine, has already been approved for human use, it could soon be available for Parkinson's patients, the lead researcher told AFP.

Mutations in a single gene can predict whether leukemia patients will suffer a more severe form of the disease, said a study released Wednesday that could change treatment for the blood cancer.

Patients with the gene mutation lived for a median of just over one year, while those without it lived for a median of three and a half years, according to the study in the November 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Speaking two languages can help delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms by as long as five years, Canadian scientists said.

The Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute researchers examined clinical records of 211 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and found that those who spoke two or more languages consistently over many years experienced a delay in the onset of their symptoms by as long as five years.

Higher doses of statins cut the risk of heart attacks and stroke by one-seventh compared with regular statin treatment, according to a review published online on Tuesday by The Lancet.

The study looked at five trials in which around 40,000 patients, advised to lower their levels of blood cholesterol, received either regular statin treatment or intensive treatment.

Stem cell researchers have found a way to turn a person's skin into blood, a process that could be used to treat cancer and other ailments, according to a Canadian study published Sunday.

The method uses cells from a patch of a person's skin and transforms it into blood that is a genetic match, without using human embryonic stem cells, said the study in the journal Nature.

German doctors on Wednesday announced a breakthrough in retinal implants, the fledgling technology that aims to restore sight in people cursed by a form of inherited blindness.

Three patients fitted with the new device were able to see shapes and objects, and one was able to walk around a room by himself, approach people, read a clock face and distinguish between seven shades of grey.

New York is still such a noisy city that its inhabitants could suffer from significant hearing loss in coming years, a study made public Wednesday has found.

Presented at a conference of the New York Academy of Medicine, the study found that 98 percent of noise measurements taken were at levels harmful to human health.

Fifteen countries in Africa are undertaking a mass polio immunization campaign for 72 million children this week, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

"This week Africa will be conducting a 15 country synchronized immunization campaign with oral vaccine," said Rod Curtis, a spokesman for the WHO in Geneva.