U.S. regulators have approved a new, more effective vaccine to prevent painful shingles, which is caused by the chickenpox virus. GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine will be the second in the U.S. market. Merck launched the first one in 2006. Studies paid for by Glaxo found it prevents shingles in about 90 percent of people. Merck's is about 50 percent effective. Both versions are for adults 50 and older. Last week, a federal expert panel recommended the new and more effective shingles vaccine over the older one.

Therapy may block HIV with fewer drugs

A new therapy for HIV that does not require a lifelong regimen of daily drug cocktails may be on the horizon if early indications from studies on mice prove effective in people, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida announced in the journal Cell Reports. Combining a new drug compound with existing antiretroviral medicines in HIV-infected mice, scientists reported that they had reduced the virus to undetectable levels and stopped it from rebounding for at least seven days after all treatment had stopped — raising the possibility of what the study's authors called "a functional cure."

Lack of sleep, gestational diabetes risk linked

Lack of sleep may raise the risk for gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes — abnormally high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy — can lead to excessive birth weight, preterm birth or respiratory distress in the baby, among other problems. Researchers pooled data from eight studies involving 17,595 women and found that women who slept less than 6.25 hours a night were almost three times as likely to have gestational diabetes as those who slept more. The study is in Sleep Medicine Reviews. The reasons for the link are not known.

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