An experimental skin patch containing E. coli toxins may protect travelers from diarrhea, an illness that sickens millions each year.

The new patch, developed by U.S. biotechnology company Iomai Corp., has been found to reduce the likelihood of contracting traveler's diarrhea among people going to high-risk areas like Mexico

A recent breakthrough in the field of science and medicine was reported, this time referring to a protein on special immune cells that would tell one's body immune system to kill invading cancer cells.

Researchers in the United Kingdom saw a protein, called DNGR-1 in the dendtritic cells, a special type of cell that specify the immune system to act on a disease by, in the case of cancer, striking at a tumor as soon as they are detected

Britain's leading drug manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has won European Union approval for the first human bird flu vaccine that will protect people against the H5N1 strain of the deadly disease.

Glaxo, which has already spent $2 billion developing the vaccine, has orders from Switzerland and the United States for the vaccine

A possible vaccine against meningitis B has shown "encouraging" results when tested on 150 babies in Britain in the preliminary trial. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis had successfully concluded phase II trials and had moved on to large-scale trials that will show whether the vaccine is protective in everyday life.

In the phase II trials, the babies were injected with the new vaccine at two, four and six months of age, with a booster at 12 months. Blood samples taken a month after the third dose and again a month after the booster showed the children had developed good immune responses against certain strains of meningitis B bacteria

All adults aged 60 and older should be vaccinated against shingles, a skin rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended on Thursday.

The ZOSTAVAX vaccine for shingles reduces the chance of developing shingles for those 60 and up, though the odds get worse with increasing age. The vaccination was recommended by an influential government advisory panel in 2006. The CDC officially adopted the recommendation this week