By Amy  Vanderzanden

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for women in 40 of the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the most reliable health statistics.

By Bjørn Lomborg

In rich countries, the biggest causes of death are strokes, heart attacks and cancer, accounting for more than two-thirds of all deaths. But for the poorer world, people often assume that infectious diseases like diarrhea, tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, measles and tetanus are the biggest killers. That is no longer true. While they are still substantial threats, broader availability of medication and vaccines along with higher living standards has caused such communicable diseases to drop dramatically to below 9 million deaths each year.

Forget cake and ice cream. For her 13th birthday, Judith Wasserheit got a cadaver. The gift was from her mother who, as chair of Special Anatomy at the first Podiatric Medical School in the United States, was able to provide a very special introduction to the human body. The two would dissect the cadaver together on weekends at the morgue.

By Maggie Fox

Researchers have developed a new, long-acting malaria drug that they believe may help fight one of the world's biggest killers.

The drug, still known by its experimental name "DSM265," can stop the malaria parasite at several stages in its life cycle, the researchers report in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Tests in people have begun.