The number of new HIV infections and deaths from Aids are falling globally, according to new statistics from the UN's programme on HIV/Aids.
There are now signs the epidemic is declining, it says, however, stigma and discrimination continue to cause problems for the estimated 33m people living with HIV.
Last year there were 2.6m new HIV infections.
This is down almost 20% since the peak of the Aids epidemic in 1999.
In 2009, 1.8m died from Aids-related illnesses, down from 2.1m in 2004.
Mixed progress
The report says rates of treatment using anti-retroviral drugs have risen from 700,000 in 2004 to over 5m people in 2009.
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected by the epidemic, with around 70% of all new HIV infections occurring here.
But infection rates are falling, particularly in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
There is a mixed picture in other parts of the world.
Eastern Europe and central Asia show sharp rises in new infections and Aids-related deaths.
And the UN says bad laws and discrimination, particularly in respect to drug users and homosexuals, continue to hamper the fight against Aids.
"We are breaking the trajectory of the Aids epidemic with bold actions and smart choices," said Mr Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAids.
"Investments in the Aids response are paying off, but gains are fragile - the challenge now is how we can all work to accelerate progress."
23 November 2010Last updated at 06:44 ETBy Dominic HughesHealth correspondent, BBC News
The number of extra deaths occurring in England and Wales last winter fell despite the coldest weather for 14 years.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show there were an estimated 25,400 extra deaths.
That marks a reduction of around 30% on the previous year.
The fall is possibly because while it was certainly cold last winter, there was no big outbreak of seasonal flu.
The figures measure the number of extra deaths that occur between December and March - usually the coldest months of the year - when compared to the average deaths that occur in autumn and spring.
The official term used by the ONS is "excess winter mortality".
The elderly are especially vulnerable during the colder winter months but although there are more deaths in winter, few die directly as a result of hypothermia.
We would urge anyone with symptoms such as nasty cough, wheezy chest or breathlessness to ask their GP for a lung function test or to take our online breath test"
End QuoteDame Helena Shovelton,British Lung Foundation
However, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said that a few may be early symptoms of lung cancer.
They said that a cough that lasts more than a few weeks, coupled with breathlessness, or fatigue, deserves the attention of a GP rather than just more cough medicine.
Graham Phillips, a member of the society's board, said: "Many people will repeatedly buy cough medicines or maybe iron tablets for tiredness and a lack of energy.
"If you can't seem to shake off symptoms that seem similar to colds and flu, such as a persistent cough or chest infection, or if you keep losing your voice, feel breathless or tired and lacking in energy, then ask your pharmacist for advice instead of buying an over-the-counter medicine or picking something up in the supermarket."
Lung cancer is difficult to treat in many cases because, by the time symptoms become obvious, it is well advanced.
Only one in 10 of more than 30,000 people who develop it each year are alive after five years.
A survey by the Roy Castle Lung Castle Foundation found that only a third of people questioned associated a cough with lung cancer, and only 11% said that a persistent cough would be a worry.
Dr Jesme Fox, the charity's medical director, said he hoped that the joint campaign would increase early detection, and save lives.
The British Lung Foundation agreed that a persistent cough deserved a GP appointment, but said there were other, more likely explanations than cancer.
Dame Helena Shovelton, its chief executive, said: "A persistent cough can be an early sign of lung cancer but it can also be an early symptom of other lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which includes chronic bronchitis.
"Our research has shown that nearly 3.5 million people in the UK are at a high risk of having lung conditions such as COPD and 28% of smokers would think their cough was just a 'smoker's cough'.
"We would urge anyone with symptoms such as nasty cough, wheezy chest or breathlessness to ask their GP for a lung function test or to take our online breath test.
"The earlier people are diagnosed with lung cancer or other lung conditions the better their chances of getting treated successfully."
Young children are to be immunised against six diseases at once, the Government has confirmed.
After their first birthday toddlers will be offered a single appointment to have three injections to guard against measles, mumps, rubella, two types of meningitis and a form of pneumonia.
This replaces the existing NHS policy for England and Wales of spacing the vaccines over a couple of months.
The change is designed to boost vaccination rates.
Currently around 85% of all toddlers turn up to get immunised.
Boosting uptake
Although this is more than in previous years, experts are still having to work hard to get the figure up to the 95% level that is necessary to effectively stop the spread of the disease in the community.
Independent scientific research has shown that providing these vaccines at the same time is safe, effective and more convenient for parents"
End QuoteDepartment of Health spokeswoman
The vaccination rate has been well below this level for several years, ever since the Lancet medical journal published controversial research about the MMR vaccine in 1998.
The study has since been discredited, but confidence has been slow to return in the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Government advisors believe simplifying the immunisation schedule will help boost vaccine uptake by making it easier for parents to get their children vaccinated.
While some parents will welcome one fewer visit to the doctor, others may be concerned about exposing their children to so many vaccines in one sitting.
But experts say combining the vaccines should not pose any additional risk.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Independent scientific research has shown that providing these vaccines at the same time is safe, effective and more convenient for parents."
Children will still be offered the usual series of baby vaccinations as well as their pre-school booster jabs after their third birthday.
Many depictions of mental illness on TV are frightening and misleading, a government-backed report says.
The study, commissioned by the Department of Health, found nearly half of all mentally ill characters were portrayed as dangerous to others.
Its author said the "axe-wielding maniac" stereotype should be ditched.
Mental health charity Mind said progress had been made in dramas such as EastEnders and Shameless, but more improvement was needed.
Television and films have been using the "madman" as a dramatic device for decades, but in reality, the vast majority of people with mental health problems pose no risk to others.
The Glasgow Media Group, working on behalf of a Department of Health campaign called "Shift", examined dozens of popular dramas and comedies to see how mental illness was presented to the viewer.
It found that most references to mentally ill people were insulting, examples being the terms "crackpot", "basket case" or "a sad little psycho".
In addition, 45% of storylines involving people with mental health problems found them posing some kind of risk to others.
Recent examples were a character in ITV soap Emmerdale who drugs the village vicar, or a schizophrenic killer in the popular US show CSI: Miami.
'Improve perceptions'
Even in BBC One soap EastEnders, which was praised for a realistic portrayal of bipolar disorder with character Stacey Slater, had the same character eventually commit murder.
There is still much work to be done until we are at a stage where accurate depictions are the norm rather than the exception"
End QuotePaul FarmerMind
Professor Greg Philo, who led the research, said: "Fictional film characters like Hitchcock's Norman Bates in 'Psycho' have long established the idea of the 'mentally ill' as crazed and dangerous in the public mind; television has been doing the same thing for decades.
"Great progress has been made in recent years, but we've some way to go before we see more of the everyday realities of living with a mental health problem properly represented and stereotypes like the axe-wielding maniac take a back seat."
Almost half of programmes did offer sympathetic portrayals, although these often showed the character as a "tragic victim", the researchers said.
The depiction of another character with bipolar disorder on Channel 4's Shameless won praise for accuracy and sensitivity.
Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, said that improvements over the past decade had been due to the willingness of scriptwriters and programme producers to involve people with personal experience of mental health problems while carrying out research.
He said: "It is also clear, however, that there is still much work to be done until we are at a stage where accurate depictions are the norm rather than the exception.
"I hope this report will encourage programme makers to follow these examples of good practice to create accurate, well-rounded characters that can improve perceptions of mental health."
At least 30 genes appear to play a role in the age at which girls reach puberty, according to an international group of scientists.
The team scanned the genetic code of more than 100,000 women, reporting their findings in the journal Nature Genetics.
In the UK, girls as young as 10 are now showing the first signs of puberty.
A specialist said early puberty was linked to an increased risk of female cancers later in life.
The reasons why girls are going through puberty several years earlier than a century ago are not well understood by scientists.
Some have suggested a relationship between early puberty and obesity, and the latest research, carried out by the Reprogen consortium of scientists from the US, Europe and Australia, supports this idea.
Among the 30 genes highlighted by their genome research were some already linked to fat metabolism and weight regulation.
However, it is still not clear whether being obese or overweight in childhood is itself the cause of early puberty, or just another consequence of a different mechanism.
In addition, the study does not show how much of the risk is due to genes, and how much other environmental factors such as diet and upbringing are responsible.
Fat stores
One author, Dr Ken Ong, from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, said: "We know that girls who are overweight are more likely to go through puberty at young ages.
You need to be aware that you may be laying down your future risk from childhood"
End QuoteProfessor Anthony Swerdlow,Institute of Cancer Research
"If rates of childhood obesity continue to rise we will see many more girls with puberty at young ages."
Dr Anna Murray, another of the researchers from Exeter University, suggested that holding larger stores of fat might signal to the brain that it had the resources to start a woman's reproductive life.
She said: "We found that the timing of puberty is related to fatty acid metabolic pathways - there is evidence that the brain can sense these types of body fats."
Aside from the confusion experienced by young children entering puberty, it carries other health risks in the longer term.
Professor Anthony Swerdlow, from the Institute of Cancer Research, said that early puberty meant a higher risk of female cancers, particularly breast cancer.
This was possibly due to a higher lifetime exposure to sex hormones such as oestrogen.
He said that good diet and exercise, or the lack of it, in early childhood might be crucial to health many decades later.
He said: "What we increasingly believe is that, at least for breast cancer, the risk starts very, very young, even before puberty.
"If you are to prevent it, you need to be aware that you may be laying down your future risk from childhood."
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