HIV vaccine is a small breakthrough, but not a cure

Will Harris: Decoding the news: Tests produced encouraging results for researchers in Spain, but the eradication of this disease is still a long way off

Dr Dillner’s health dilemmas: should I have the flu vaccine?

Official figures show that more and more people are taking up the opportunity to have the flu vaccine, but is it safe?

China cuts childbirth mortality rate by promoting hospital births

Deaths of mothers and babies fall by almost two-thirds after programme offering women money for hospital deliveries

Venezuelans ‘obsessed’ with beauty

Many people go into debt to fund plastic surgery in country which has won 17 beauty queen titles in past 30 years

Gay men who use a condom should not face delays giving blood

Peter Tatchell: Although the new donor policy is a big improvement on the existing lifetime exclusion, a 12-month ban is still excessive

David Servan-Schreiber obituary

French-born author of a bestselling guide to the treatment of cancer

The mental illness industry is medicalising normality

Lisa Appignanesi: A reading group would do more to help individuals find relief than squeezing their unhappiness into a package labelled 'disorder'

Jamie Oliver calls for global action to tackle obesity

TV chef joins coalition of health experts and nutritionists urging UN to debate the issue at summit on disease

Abortion services aren’t about selling soap powder or shoes

Susie Orbach: Nadine Dorries's amendment to the health and social care bill is an attempt to situate women's sexuality in the marketplace

This American confession is an insult to Guatemala

Hugh O'Shaughnessy: The attitude of the US establishment to central America has barely changed since the syphilitic atrocity of 1946-8