Obesity, boozing and other lifestyle risks facing teenagers in the rich world are spreading fast to counterparts in poorer countries, a probe published on Wednesday in The Lancet said.

"The high-income world has been grappling with a rising tide of risks for non-communicable diseases, including the problems of obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use," it said.

Top beef exporter the United States revealed Tuesday it had discovered a case of mad cow disease in California, prompting a scramble to reassure consumers at home and abroad.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the country's fourth-ever case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), but stressed the outbreak was contained and no meat has entered the food chain.

The number of measles deaths worldwide has apparently dropped by about three-quarters over a decade, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and others.

Most of the deaths were in India and Africa, where not enough children are being immunized.

Uzbekistan on Monday denied media claims that it was secretly sterilizing women, calling the family program of Central Asia's most populous country a model for other states.

"Distorted information on the use of contraception and particularly surgical sterilization in Uzbekistan that regularly appears in the tabloid press has nothing to do with reality," the Uzbek foreign ministry said.

Hungarian diabetics who fail to stick to their diet will be deprived of more modern treatments from July, under a government decree published Monday aimed at cutting health spending.

Diabetics undergo a blood test on average every three months and those who score high levels of glycaemia more than twice a year could be turned away from treatments with analog insulin -- more efficient but also more expensive -- and left with the less efficient human insulin, under the new rules.

It's Sunday lunchtime in Las Vegas and Justin looks like he wants to curl up and die. He has a monster hangover after drinking for two days solid. But help, he hopes, is at hand.

The 38-year-old from Seattle is among the first customers trying out a new service, "Hangover Heaven", which promises to "cure" his throbbing head, sweaty pallor and general feeling of death, all within 45 minutes.

The World Health Organization said Monday it was "concerned" about an outbreak of a mysterious skin disease in central Vietnam which has killed 19 people, mostly children.

More than 170 people have fallen ill with the unidentified illness, which causes stiffness in the limbs and ulcers on victims' hands and feet that look like severe burns.

Chinese researchers said Monday they have discovered an HIV-blocking agent that could be developed into a gel to limit the sexual transmission of AIDS.

Scientists from Hong Kong University said joint research with Shanghai Targetdrug Co., Nanjing University and City University of Hong Kong had discovered a molecule that blocks HIV from entering human cells.

For Jennifer Stella, it's a question of informed consent. Her son had a seizure after getting childhood vaccinations and her daughter suffered a "head-to-toe" eczema outbreak; she says parents should research the risks and benefits of immunizations and decide which ones are appropriate.

For Jill Olson, a mother of two, it's a matter of trusting the experts. "There's not really any way that as an individual I can do more scientific study and research than the American Academy of Pediatrics or the Centers for Disease Control."

Asian outbreaks of a notorious antibiotic-resistant super-germ are being driven by a gene that helps the bug colonize the nostrils, lungs and skin and evade the immune defenses, scientists said on Sunday.

So-called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major worry for hospitals because of its ability to hole up in wounds, tubes and surgical devices, infecting patients whose immune system is already weak.