A human trial of a large-scale experimental AIDS vaccine has been cancelled following advice by a top scientist that it was unlikely to give useful results, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said Thursday.

The vaccine trial, similar to a failed Merck and Co. product, was developed by the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. In a study called PAVE 100, the agency planned to include 2,400 men in the United States

A new study shows a statistically significant link between industrial release of mercury and increased rates of autism in children at a time when more Americans are using compact fluorescent light bulbs that can release mercury if thrown in the trash instead of being carefully recycled.

The study published in the journal Health & Place by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, showed that there is a statistically significant association between autism risk and the distance from a mercury source. It is the first time such a link has been published in scientific literature

Following the Saturday warning of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency advised consumers that cantaloupes grown in Honduras are being recalled after salmonella outbreaks in North America.

Officials have cautioned the public not to eat melons from Agropecuaria Montelibano, a Honduran grower and packer. The melons may be contaminated with salmonella bacteria and appear to be related to salmonella litchfield reports in Canada and the US

Giving young children vitamin D supplements may ward off the development of type 1 diabetes in later life, research suggests. Children who took supplements were around 30 percent less likely to develop the condition than those who did not.

The study, by St Mary's Hospital for Women and Children, Manchester, appears in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Type 1diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, in which insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the body's own immune system, starting in early infancy

As the National Rabies Awareness Week begins in Virginia, the Department of Health reported on Monday that 2007 saw the highest number of rabies cases in more than 20 years.

In 2007, 730 cases of the disease were reported in animals in Virginia, the highest since 1982, when the Health Department received 745 reports. The most common animals to be diagnosed with rabies are raccoons, followed by skunks, and then foxes