Nearly all babies born to HIV positive mothers can be free from the deadly disease if appropriate treatment is given to a woman in her pregnancy, a new study shows.

Nearly 99 percent of babies were born uninfected if recommended interventions were followed during pregnancy, University College London said in a study

From Tuesday until Friday, 30 percent of clinics in Germany will remain close as a sign of protest by physicians over the federal government's healthcare policies. Their main concern is the lack of younger medical doctors.

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians had earlier warned that one in five German doctor is due for retirement. Andreas Koehler, KBV director, said by 2012 more than 34,000 medics will retire. Germany has around 100,000 registered physicians

About 4,000 members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) in different hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area will hold a strike lasting from one to 10 days starting on March 21. The job walkout will protest unsafe patient care policies, contract disputes and the closure of three community hospitals. The CNA is also demanding better medical benefits and pension.

Eight facilities of Sutter Health, an organization of not-for-profit hospitals and health care providers in Northern California, are to be affected by the strike. According to Bay City News, the clinics slated to close are; St. Luke's Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch and Sutter Solano in Vallejo

The House on Wednesday passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. Forty-seven Republicans joined 221 Democrats in voting for the bill. Three Democrats voted against it. The vote was 268 to 148.

Current federal law now allows insurers to discriminate by setting higher co-payments or stricter limits on mental health benefits. Advocates of the bill say the measure would help end the stigma of mental illness and would be beneficial to cater needs of people needing mental health and addiction treatment

In the face of criticisms aired by California physicians that a request by Blue Cross to uncover pre-existing medical conditions of new policy holders may violate the patient-physician confidentiality, Blue Cross stopped sending letters to the doctors.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Blue Cross said, "Today we reached out to our provider partner and California regulators and determined this letter is no longer necessary and, in fact, was creating a misimpression and causing some members and providers undue concern. As a result, we are discontinuing the dissemination of this letter going forward