Two Australians wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine for revolutionary research on stomach ulcers. Their research invalidates conventional understanding they are caused by bacteria and can be cured with antibiotics.

The Nobel jury says Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren "made the remarkable and unexpected discovery" in 1982 that gastritis and peptic ulcer disease are caused by the Helicobacter pylori bacterium. They had a tough time proving the theory

The dengue virus-carrying Aedes mosquito has adapted to urbanized human environments and traditional methods used in most Asian countries to control their breeding, making it more diffcult to control its spread.

"It's a global pandemic," says Dr. Duane Gubler, director at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Diseases in Hawaii. "It's quite clear that the disease...has evolved. There just is more dengue in the world

Japanese encephalitis claims another 25 lives in India, raising the death toll in South Asia to 1,243 over the last six months, but doctors say new infections are decreasing as monsoon rains ease up, causing fewer puddles for disease-carrying mosquitos to breed in.

About 400 people, mostly children, are being treated for the disease in various hospitals across Uttar Pradesh, the worst hit Indian state where at least 907 deaths have been reported in the region's worst outbreak in decades, says Vijay Shankar Nigam, head of the state's communicable disease department

As hurricane season ends, flu season begins, and health officials are working towards ensuring those most vulnerable receive preventive shots.

Officials ensure manufacturing problems that caused shortages of flu shots last year have since been resolved

The United Nation's children's agency reports about 1.4 million children under the age of five die unnecessarily each year from measles, whooping cough, and other diseases preventable by vaccines.

According to the report, about 130 million children are born each year, and since 1990, about 70-ercent have received the vital immunizations - up from some 20-percent under the age of 1 in 1980