Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Making voluntary family planning available to everyone in developing countries would reduce costs for maternal and newborn health care by US$ 11.3 billion annually, according to The State of World Population 2012, published Wednesday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - After successfully undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia, Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir returned home Wednesday evening to a huge and official airport reception here. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The death toll from the Yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's western Darfur region has gone up to 107 from the 358 cases reported, khartoum local media reported, quoting the Health Under-Secretary, Dr. Isam Mohamed Abdulla. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – The new death toll in the outbreak of yellow fever in the two central and southern provinces of Darfur is 97, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday evening in a statement. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) are mobilizing 2.4 million doses of Yellow Fever vaccines, provided by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine (ICG), to enable them conduct an emergency response vaccination campaign in Darfur, a press release by the WHO indicated Tuesday. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The prevalence rate of diabetes in Congo is estimated at 7%, according to a statement issued Tuesday in Brazzaville by the association, Diabaction-Congo. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A total of 176 countries Monday adopted what World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan called a "game-changing" global agreement to combat the illegal tobacco trade. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have agreed on the first-ever global monitoring framework to combat several of the world’s noncommunicable diseases (NCD), such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Humanity has no excuse not to put in place measures to mitigate Africa's maternal mortality, the Africa Progress Panel (APP) has said in its latest bulletin, insisting that all stakeholders have a moral responsibility to improve maternal health on the continent. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - A Yellow fever outbreak has claimed 78 lives out of 211 cases in Sudan’s western Darfur region, health authorities said. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese Red Crescent Society on Tuesday said it dispatched a medical team to help fight yellow fever, which reports say claimed the lives of dozens of people in the Central Darfur state, one of five states in the war-fatigued Darfur region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Fifth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP5) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) will hold in Seoul, South Korea, 12-17 Nov. Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) – Angola will keep its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate below 3% until 2015, the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP) reported Tuesday, quoting a study conducted by the National Institute for Fighting against the disease. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan is recovering from a minor vocal cord surgical operation he underwent in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, according to the Presidential Press Secretary, Imad Sidahmed. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Mining companies operating in Mali have granted the Malian government FCFA 380 million (US$742,000) for the fight against neglected tropical diseases, PANA learned from the Ministry of Mines Tuesday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir left Khartoum Monday for Saudi Arabia for medical check up and a meeting with senior Saudi officials, according to a press release by the presidency, carried by the Sudan News Agency (SUNA). Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) has said that an outbreak of yellow fever in a number of localities in Darfur has killed at least 32 persons and affected dozens others. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Four in five children (83%) worldwide received the recommended three doses of diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis (DTP) vaccine during infancy in 2011, according to new data being released in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) Friday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Rift Valley Fever (RVF), which was declared in Mauritania 4 Oct., has so far killed 17 people out of 34 cases, according to the latest update by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - The Chinese ambassador to Angola, Jao Kexiang, on Wednesday pledged that the Chinese government would fund the expansion of the Luanda General Hospital, to enhance better medical services to the people. Full text...

Kampala, Uganda (PANA) - Some nine deaths have been recorded in Uganda from a total of 18 cases since the outbreak of the Marburg Haemorrhagic fever in the country, according to Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Governments in southern Africa must implement comprehensive policies on cervical cancer in order to substantially reduce the number of deaths from cervical cancer, according to a research released Wednesday by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC). Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - The percentage of pregnant women who test positive to HIV in Angola fell from 9.8 in 2007 to 4.8 in 2011, due to the government's efforts in fighting the AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Monday jointly launched the Atlas of Health and Climate that gives practical examples of how the use of weather and climate information can protect public health. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Governor Danbaba Suntai of the northern Taraba State, injured when a plane he was piloting crashed Thursday in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, also in the north, was flown to Germany Saturday in an air ambulance for medical attention, local media reports quoted the governor’s spokesperson, Hassan Mijinyawa, as saying. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Some 52 cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as of 24 Oct., out of which 25 victims have died, according to the latest update on the outbreak by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The first ever Atlas of Health and Climate, to illustrate the most pressing current and emerging problems and identify solutions, is due to be launched in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - A programme designed as a “silver bullet” to fight malaria could actually be endangering lives, international agency Oxfam has warned, saying medicines are being distributed by unqualified shopkeepers and hawkers rather than trained health workers. Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - Worried by the influx of fake drugs into the country, the Angolan government said it planned to establish 10 mini laboratories to facilitate quick sampling of drugs to ensure that drugs imported were of very high quality. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS and the government of Rivers State in southern Nigeria are pooling resources in support of the regional bloc's campaign to eliminate malaria in West Africa by 2015, through the strengthening of vector control intervention. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The Rift Valley Fever (RVF) epidemic which is raging in Mauritania will soon disappear, the Mauritanian Information Agency (AMI) Sunday quoted Minister of Health Hamady Ba Housseinou as saying. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Uganda's fourth outbreak of Ebola in 12 years was declared over 4 Oct., a little over two months after it started, due to a timely detection of the outbreak and a vigorous public health response, according to the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHOAFRO). Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - An estimated 20 million people are alive today as a direct result of tuberculosis (TB) care and control, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2012. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The African Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (AFOG) was launched in Rome, during the just concluded International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 20th World Congress at the Italian capital. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – Heart specialists from Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia have begun a meeting on cardiology at the third conference of the Mauritanian cardiology company (SMC), sources told PANA on Wednesday. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Dame Patience, wife of the Nigerian president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, returned to Abuja Wednesday afternoon from Germany where she had gone for treatment for an undisclosed ailment. Full text...

Pamplemousses, Mauritius (PANA) - Health authorities in Mauritius have extended the Accident and Emergency Department (AED) at the SSR national hospital, the biggest hospital in the island, situated at Pamplemousses, northern Mauritius, so as to offer all services required in a modern and more conducive environment, PANA reported Wednesday. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria on Tuesday formally launched an initiative dubbed "Saving One Million Lives" aimed at saving one million lives of women and children by the year 2015. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on Monday lamented that only 20 percent of children in South Sudan wash their hands with soap and water, a crucial practice to reduce infectious diseases. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) Monday condemned attacks on health facilities in Syria and expresses deep concern about the serious implications of such attacks on medical personnel, patients and health infrastructure. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - Francophone Africa is not as involved in the fight against AIDS as the rest of the continent, according to a report presented in Kinshasa, on the sidelines of the 14th Summit of the International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF) holding in the Congolese capital. Full text...

London, UK (PANA) - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, Thursday announced new measures to further advance its commitment towards greater openness, transparency and collaboration in health challenges. Full text...

Menongue, Angola (PANA) - Ten persons died in Menongue City, capital of the south-eastern Kuando Kubango Province of Angola, following an outbreak of measles from 17 September to date, according to local health authorities. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Health authorities in Tanzania have started grappling with counterfeit anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) that find their way into the official medical supplies chain on which most of the country’s HIV/AIDS patients depend. Full text...

Beau-Bassin, Mauritius (PANA) - There has been a marked reduction in mental health cases in Mauritius, with the figure tumbling down from 130,065 in 2009 to 121,523 in 2011, the Mauritian Health Minister, Lormus Bundhoo, said Wednesday as the country celebrated the World Mental Health Day. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ) for US$ 102 million to further support the national HIV response in Zambia. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed that Hepatitis E has caused the death of 22 people in South Sudan, mainly in camps of internally-displaced persons and refugees. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an end to the stigmatisation of depression and other mental disorders and for better access to treatment for all people who need it. Full text...

Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The Mauritius National AIDS Secretariat Tuesday launched an Integrated Biological and Behavioral Survey (IBBS) among men who have sex with men or homosexuals as part of its HIV surveillance plan, PANA learnt from the Prime Minister’s Office in Port Louis. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Partners in the Harmonisation for Health in Africa (HHA) initiative have converged in Nairobi, Kenya, as a follow-up to the recent Tunis ministerial conference for African health and finance ministers. Full text...