After being removed from the market by the FDA in 2002, the makers of "Nicotine Water" are back, claiming the product is a "smoking alternative."

Launched in 1998, "Nicotine Water" maker Global Beverage Innovations says the product now meets the FDA requirement that it be reformulated as a dietary supplement. The company Monday announced two versions of "Nicotine Water" that are equivalent to three cigarettes. One includes tabacco along with nicotine while the other has 84 percent less nicotine

A medical disaster caused by a likely shortage of medical isotopes looms due to the shutdown of the Chalk River National Research Universal reactor.

Fifty percent of the global supplies of raw materials for medical isotopes are obtained from the Chalk River reactor, which was closed because it failed to meet licensing requirements that seven upgrades be fully operational by Dec. 31, 2005

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill authorizing $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. The measure, which will triple funding for these three diseases, is now sent to President George W. Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

The amount authorized for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the successful U.S. global AIDS program, is $18 billion more than what Bush had requested. It would replace and expand the current $15 billion program started by the President in 2003. That act expires at the end of September

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned of a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or MDR-TB. It said that a majority of the world's population are vulnerable to the new strain.

The Manila, Philippines-based WHO told reporters that MDR-TB can cross borders and that an "uncontrolled local epidemic" can threaten the stability of health security across the globe

Most Canadian citizens are likely to survive the often fatal disease of cancer because of the country's accessible and reliable health care system, according to a Concord study.

The study, which will appear in the August issue of The Lancet Oncology, revealed that Canada ranked second in patient survival for breast cancer, third for prostate cancer in men and for colorectal cancer in women, and sixth for colorectal cancer in men