Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - The 29th triennial congress of midwives, which saw 111 countries represented, wrapped up in South Africa's port city of Durban Monday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - A report commissioned by the UNFPA on the role of midwives in maternal and newborn health and survival, which was launched in Durban, South Africa Monday, has called global attention to the current state of midwifery practice across the globe. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Determined to make up for the shortage of nurses and midwives in the country, the Kenyan government is to train traditional birth attendants with a view to integrating them into the national health scheme. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) Regional Director in Senegal, Faustin Yao, said on Saturday in Dakar that despite the successes and achievements of the past decade in the field of reproductive health in Africa, efforts remained to be made. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) -- The UN will on Monday unveil a report highlighting the vital work of midwives in ensuring that millions of women and newborn children do not die needlessly at a time when many countries still lack enough skilled staff to serve as birth attendants. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - A measles outbreak, which raged for several weeks in Pointe-Noire, the economic capital of Congo, killed no fewer than 32, out of 800 registered cases, the Director General of Health, Alexis Elira Dokekias, said Thursday in Brazzaville. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh, has discharged 83 patients, the fourth batch of patients who went through his fertility treatment programme of the President’s Alternative Treatment Programme (PATP), the government-owned Daily Observer reported here Friday. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Cholera has killed at least six of the 347 known cases in Niger, particularly in Niamey and Tillabéry, the Nigerien Minister of Health, Soumana Sanda, indicated here, saying, however, that the situation was under control. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The National Council for fight against AIDS (CNLS) in Congo and the French Red Cross Thursday in Brazzaville officially launched activities in series 9 component of the Global Fund’s programme against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), based at WHO headquarters in Geneva and co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO, has won the 2011 Gates Award for Global Health, the WHO said in a statement released here Friday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Top UN officials on Thursday called on governments, the private sector and civil society to work together and move effectively to address cancers, diabetes and other Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which account for nearly two thirds of global deaths each year. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) – The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will from 25 to 29 June hold the fourth stage of the poliomyelitis vaccintion campaign, the Minister of Health, Victor Makwenge Kaput, said in a press briefing on Wednesday in Kinshasa. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The coordinator of the outpatient treatment centre (ATC) in Senegal, Dr. Ndeye Fatou Ngom Gueye, Wednesday stressed the need to rethink HIV/AIDS care in a holistic sense, asserting the need for a novel conceptual approach based on multi-disciplinarity. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) marked the World Blood Donor Day on Tuesday, saying: "there is a marked increase in voluntary donations around the globe. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambia on Tuesday joined the rest of the world to commemorate World Blood Donor Day by calling for safe blood and products and praising voluntary donors. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda on Tuesday launched a one-week nationwide blood donation campaign targeting 40,000 voluntary donors, according to a communiqué of the National Blood Transfusion Centre (CNTS). Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - About 900 cases of Chikungunya (an urban disease resembling dengue fever) have been recorded in parts of Bacongo and Makelekele in the south of the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, the Director General of Health, Alexis Elira Dokekias, said. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has congratulated the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) on its London conference, in which public and private donors pledged US$ 4.3 billion, which it said will save millions of lives. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Hailing Tanzania’s efforts to improve the nutrition of infants and mothers, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has challenged countries around the world to come up with national programmes that will end the global crisis of chronic under-nutrition. Full text...

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New York, US (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank on Friday said in a report that more than one billion people worldwide experience some form of disability and called for the elimination of barriers that often force the people with disabilities to the margins of society. Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - Angola is among the countries with low prevalence of HIV/AIDS, with statistics putting spread of the scourge at an average of 2 percent, the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP) reported, quoting the country's Minister of Health, Jose Van-Dunem. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The number of countries collecting all their blood supplies from voluntary unpaid donors increased by more than 50 per cent between 2002 and 2008, according to new global data from the World Health Organization (WHO), to be released on World Blood Donor Day, 14 June. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Some 36,151 people donated blood in 2010 in the different blood transfusion centres in Burundi, according to medical sources here. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - World leaders meeting in New York at the 8-10 June 2011 UN High Level meeting on HIV/AIDS have committed to a global action plan that will make significant strides towards eliminating new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping HIV infected mothers alive. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Secretary-General of La Francophonie Abdou Diouf has called on African member states of the organisation to strengthen their control and prevention against HIV/AIDS. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Two new studies published Thursday in the June issue of Health Affairs project huge benefits from a major ramp-up of vaccine development and delivery over the next 10 years in 72 countries. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Top UN officials Wednesday called for global action to end AIDS, stressing the need for a broad partnership among governments, the private sector and civil society to combat an epidemic that is still wreaking havoc 30 years after the first case was reported. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe arrived in New York Tuesday night to attend the United Nations High-Level meeting on HIV/AIDS. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Security Council on Tuesday underlined the Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Stop TB Partnership on Tuesday unveiled five simple steps that could prevent tuberculosis, which is responsible for one in four AIDS-related deaths. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Universal Postal Union (UPU) Tuesday said about 20 postal services around the world are issuing stamps and other products as part of a UN initiative to highlight 30 years of battle against the AIDS epidemic. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) Tuesday donated medical equipment, worth over 1.1 billion FCFA, to Mali, PANA learnt from official sources here. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - World Bank’s private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has earmarked US$1 billion to boost healthcare financing in most of the Africa’s impoverished states, a bank official said Monday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya's cabinet has approved the implementation of a new health insurance scheme for teachers and the military, requiring US$465 million to finance yearly, a senior official said here. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - A new International Finance Corporation (IFC)-World Bank report released on Monday finds that if governments actively engage with the private sector in health, the pace of meeting health goals in Sub-Saharan Africa could be accelerated. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré will Tuesday in New York, attend the general assembly of the fund for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, official sources told PANA here Saturday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A new UN report released Friday said the global response to AIDS had achieved significant results since the first case was reported 30 years ago, with a record number of people having access to treatment and rates of new HIV infections falling by nearly 25 per cent. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - An estimated 6.6 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS at the end of 2010, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Niger on Friday launched a four-day polio vaccination campaign in the region of Agadez, Tahoua (north), Diffa, Maradi and zinder (East), PANA reported. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The Canadian government has announced a US$21 million grant, to be spread over five years, to accelerate the reduction in maternal and newborn mortality in 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Nigeria. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Saudi Arabia has granted Niger 4.8 billion FCFA for projects aimed at equipping seven mother and child health centres. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A new joint report by the UN and the World Bank on Wednesday said that an estimated 2,500 youth are newly infected with HIV every day, with women and adolescent girls facing a disproportionately higher risk. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile telephones could possibly cause cancer, including an increased risk in a malignant type of brain tumour, Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Not fewer than 35 world leaders and other high-level figures will participate in next week’s UN meeting on combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) announced on Wednesday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's House of Representatives Tuesday passed the National Tobacco Control Bill, coinciding with the World No Tobacco Day observed globally 31 May. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A UN expert on the right to health, Anand Grover, on Tuesday, urged the Ghanaian government to remain committed to realizing the right to health while underscoring key challenges regarding maternal mortality, mental health and adequate funding. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Maternal mortality in Niger rate fell from 648 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 554 per 100,000 live births in 2010, a reduction of 11 per cent, according to a survey published here by the Ministry of Health. Full text...

Reduit, Mauritius (PANA) - Tobacco kills 1,000 people every year in Mauritius, according to a study conducted on the Island in 2009. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) is celebrating the successes of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), in the fight against the epidemic of tobacco use, as the world prepares to mark the World No Tobacco Day 31 May. Full text...