Health Highlights: June 26, 2008

Gardasil protects against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer later in life. According to a Merck-sponsored study, Gardasil prevented 91 percent of precancers and external genital lesions in women ages 24 to 45.

The FDA's concerns about the use of the vaccine in older women don't affect Gardasil's approved use for girls and women ages 9 to 26, Bloomberg reported.

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$30 Billion a Year Needed to Fight Hunger: U.N. Official

About $30 billion will be needed each year until 2050 to stave off world hunger, the director general of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday at an agricultural conference in Innsbruck, Austria.

The bulk of the money is needed to increase worldwide agricultural production, Jacques Diouf told reporters before the conference, Agence France Presse reported.

He also said strong demand, low food reserves and harvesting problems caused by climate change mean the global price of food commodities will remain high.

Ways in which the FAO can help countries worst hit by the current food crisis will be among the topics discussed at the conference, AFP reported.

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Cuban Scientists Develop Lung Cancer Vaccine

A vaccine to fight lung cancer was unveiled Tuesday by Cuban scientists, who said the vaccine extends the lives of patients by up to five months, improves their breathing and decreases their pain.

The vaccine, the first of its kind in the world, is based on two proteins and triggers an immune response against lung cancer, Agence France Presse reported.

Advanced tests of the vaccine are currently under way at 18 Cuban hospitals and other tests were conducted in Canada and Great Britain. Further tests are scheduled or under way in a number of countries, including China, India, Malaysia, Peru and Singapore.

The vaccine is available in Cuba and will be commercialized in Latin America, AFP reported.