Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Ahead of the 2013 Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Striking Ghanaian doctors are questioning the decision of the government to bring in Cuban doctors to assist in health delivery in state-owned health facilities, describing it as a very expensive venture. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – Ghana on Tuesday signed an agreement with Cuba to supply the West African state with more doctors. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Ahead of the expected certification of Nigeria as a guinea worm-free nation by the World Health Organization (WHO), the government has offered a 25,000-naira (US$157) for every report of authentic new guinea worm case in any part of the country. Full text...

Bugabwe, Uganda (PANA) - Uganda has formally introduced the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into the country’s routine immunization schedule to avert infant and child deaths due to pneumococcal disease. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General’s newly-appointed Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria, Mr. Ray Chambers, on Thursday called for concerted efforts to save the lives of 4.4 million children from malaria. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - A regional initiative that aims to eliminate malaria in the Zambezi valley was launched Thursday by Zambia and Zimbabwe, with support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - While Africa is at a transition point in battling communicable diseases, it is confronted by an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases and neglected tropical illnesses continue to pose a significant threat, a senior official of the African Union Commission (AUC) said here Thursday. Full text...

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (PANA) - A new six-year plan to eradicate all types of polio disease by 2018 was presented Thursday at the Global Vaccine Summit here. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that US$5.1 billion is needed every year between 2011 and 2020 to achieve universal access to malaria prevention, diagnostic testing, and treatment around the world. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Amid the reported resistance in some parts of the world to artemisinin, the core component for the artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), the drug of choice against malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had launched an emergency response to Artemisinin Resistance. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Up to 90% of the global burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is believed to occur in Africa, where, besides thriving in heat and humidity, these diseases persist in conditions of poverty, according to organisers of the sixth African Union (AU) health ministers conference, holding here this week. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - Boubacar Ba, the first president of the University of Niamey (1971-1979) and an Associate Professor of Mathematics, has died at age 78 in Paris, PANA learnt Monday from family members in the French capital. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian authorities have strengthened vigilance at their entry points following the outbreak of the Avian Influenza Virus A (H7N9) in China. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Three out of 10 African children have not received vaccination for the first time in their life, Dr. Richard Mihigo, coordinator of the routine immunization and new vaccines programme at the World Health Organization (WHO), said. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Quoting a study by the Mauritius Institute of Health in collaboration with private health institutions in March/April 2011, the Mauritian Health Minister, Lormus Bundhoo, told Parliament Tuesday that the rate of caesarian section was around 43.9% in 2012 as against the 44.4% recorded in 2009. Full text...

Mogadishu, Somalia (PANA) - The war inside Somalia, which has raged for more than 22 years, has taken its toll on the health of the population, forced to live without any semblance of a national health infrastructure for a better part of over two decades. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has unveiled plans to fortify its interventions for child survival in Nigeria, according to the local Daily Independent newspaper. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - A new Global Action Plan launched on Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF could save the lives of 2 million children every year from deaths caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea, some of the leading killers of children under five globally. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The third African Vaccination Week (AVW), an initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and implemented by countries in the region, will hold 22-28 April, the WHO African Regional Office said here Friday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Mycotoxins within the human food chain remain one of the most potent sources of morbidity and sometimes mortality in African societies, a senior official of the African Union Commission (AUC) said here Wednesday. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – The strike by doctors and pharmacists in government health facilities in Ghana, to demand more money, entered its second day on Tuesday with no end in sight to ease the suffering of patients, PANA reported here. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, has described the death of the country's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as a great loss to the nation. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Condoling with the United Kingdom over the death, Monday morning, of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan said: "Nigerians join the Thatcher family, citizens of Great Britain, members of the Commonwealth and all those in far-flung corners of the world whose lives were positively touched by her dynamic and forward-looking policies in mourning the passage of the celebrated first female British Prime Minister." Full text...

Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius (PANA) - A five-day Regional Meeting on HIV Prevention, Treatment and Care in Prisons in sub-Saharan Africa opened Monday in Flic-en-Flac, western Mauritius, PANA reported from here. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - West Africa’s Chief Veterinary Officers have agreed on harmonised standards for key areas in animal health, to be presented to African delegates at the April 2013 meeting of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to be held first in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, followed in May by the organisation’s General Assembly to be held in Paris, France. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Over the past couple of years, a number of international organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have issued grim warnings about the growing incidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), defined as resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The director of the Foundation for Research and Medicine in West Africa (AMREF), Dr. Mor Ngom, said Wednesday in Dakar that the lack of skilled health personnel remains a major cause of maternal and infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS pandemic persists in Tanzania as a major threat to national development as much as it weighs heavily on the female population and urban residents, according to official findings of the 2011/2012 countrywide surveillance. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, has urged countries affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the region to intensify efforts, along with their health and development partners, to raise the profile of these ''diseases of poverty''. Full text...

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (PANA) - As African Finance, Planning and Economic Development Ministers gather here to discuss how to accelerate Africa’s industrialisation, a key issue will be whether or not sub-Saharan Africa is ready to harness the demographic dividend. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria, with over 190,000 people infected, has the highest burden of tuberculosis in Africa and is the 10th most infected country in the world, according to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has reiterated his plea to governments and their health and development partners to increase and sustain political and financial commitments for tuberculosis (TB) control in the WHO African Region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Lagos State Government in South-west Nigeria is to provide toll-free telephone lines for attending to urgent issues pertaining to pregnant women and nursing mothers. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - A three-day regional consultative meeting on "Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) began Wednesday at the headquarters of the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Brazzaville, Congo, PANA reported from here. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya is facing a crisis with regards to access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, according to an international non-profit organisation, WASH United. Full text...

Nouvelle-France, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian Health and Quality of Life Minister Lormus Bundhoo said Thursday that activities to sensitise and encourage the population to become regular blood donors and contribute to saving life of others are being launched as demand for blood continues to grow each year in the island. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The consultative meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) opened in Brazzaville, Congo, on Wednesday with a call by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, for increased commitment and better coordinated support by partners and donors to tackle NTDs which affect mainly people living in rural areas. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Senegalese President Macky Sall Monday in Cambérène (suburb of Dakar), inaugurated the Mohammed VI ophthalmological clinic that was built and equipped by the Moroccan Alaouite Foundation. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria Monday warned that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - In order to help address Africa's healthcare challenges, Orange has unveiled several projects that utilise information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance medicare delivery. the communication service provider said here Friday. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – A team of 16 US surgeons is conducting a series of free goitre operations at the Gitwe Hospital, in Central Rwanda, official sources in Kigali told PANA on Thursday. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is to convene a Regional Stakeholders’ Consultative Meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Brazzaville, Congo, 20-22 March, according to a statement issued Thursday by the WHO Regional Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A newly-released report has shown that between 50,000 and 100,000 of the babies born in Nigeria annually yearly are HIV positive. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The Mauritian Health Minister, Lormus Bundhoo, Friday appealed to local institutions to embark on research work in the field of diabetes, saying that the island offered opportunities for research because of its multi-ethnicity status, representing a microcosm of the world population. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and UNICEF have welcomed a new case study which found that a baby treated with anti-retroviral drugs in the first 30 hours of life, and who continued on treatment for 18 months, appeared to be ''functionally cured’’. Full text...

Algiers, Algeria (PANA) - The WHO Liaison Office in Algeria has been upgraded to a full-fledged Country Office, following the recent visit to the north African country of the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, PANA reported Sunday. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) – The US will give Burundi additional US$ 3.5 million this year to enable the African country continue its fight against HIV/AIDS and mother-to-child transmission of the disease, diplomatic sources said in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin the construction of the three factories which will produce biolarvicides under the West African regional Malaria Elimination Campaign Programme took place in Abidjan Thursday, just as the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government were rounding off their 42nd Ordinary Summit. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says it is currently responding to a recent outbreak of Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS), a bacterial disease that affects the respiratory system in cattle, in parts of South Sudan where some 2,500 cattle are estimated to have died of the disease in the first two months of 2013. Full text...