Cholera is spreading quickly in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where rebels are fighting government troops, the UN Children’s Fund warned Tuesday.

Veronique Taveau, a UNICEF spokeswoman, told journalists that 127 fresh cases had just been discovered in the village of Ishasha, north of Goma and near the Ugandan border.

She said aid agencies could not get to many areas because of the fighting health experts could not assess the scope of the outbreak. “There are numero…

The Dutch health ministry announced plans Tuesday to impose tougher fines and heavier punishments on restaurants and pubs that continue infringing a new smoking ban.

“In this country, laws are made to be obeyed, and that goes for everybody,” Health Minister Ab Klink said in a letter to parliament amid reports of growing resistance to the ban in the hospitality industry.

His spokeswoman, Saskia Hommes, told AFP that contravention of the ban, which came into operation on Ju…

Police across Southeast Asia have arrested 27 people and seized 6.6 million dollars worth of counterfeit anti-HIV drugs, antibiotics, and other medicines, Interpol said Tuesday.

The global police organisation said 16 million fake pills, also including anti-malaria and anti-tuberculosis drugs, were netted in Operation Storm, a five-month sting that ended in September.

Nearly 200 raids were carried out in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with …

A Singapore-based non-profit organisation proclaimed World Toilet Day on Wednesday, but said it was no laughing matter.

The World Toilet Organisation, founded in 2001, aims to make sanitation a key global issue.

“Each year lack of toilets causes 200 million tons of human waste to go uncollected and untreated around the world, fouling the environment and exposing millions of people to diseases,” the organisation said on its website.

“November 19th is World Toil…

The pioneering transplant of a windpipe stripped of its cells and seeded with recipient stem cells has given a 30-year old Colombian woman a new lease on life, according to a study released Wednesday.

The operation is the first of its kind, and shows that adult stem cells combined with re-engineered biological materials can “radically improve the ability of surgeons to treat patients with serious diseases,” said Martin Birchall, a professor at the University of Bristol in Britain, an…

One-third of Canadians with asthma have likely been wrongly diagnosed by their doctor, said a study Tuesday that blames an explosion of asthma cases in developed countries on lack of proper testing.

“About one-third of individuals with physician-diagnosed asthma did not have asthma,” said the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

“This finding suggests that, in developed countries such as Canada, asthma is over-diagnosed.”

Thus, m…

A congressionally-mandated panel has concluded that “Gulf War syndrome” is real and that more than a quarter of the 700,000 US veterans of the 1991 conflict suffer from the illness.

The most extensive-ever report on the debilitating, multi-symptom illness released Monday concluded that it is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals including pesticides, used against sand flies and other pests, and a drug administered to protect soldiers against nerve gas.

“The extensive body…

Up to 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe are at risk of cholera, which has already claimed 73 lives, health experts said on Tuesday, as local doctors warned they lack the drugs to fight the outbreak.

The state-run Herald newspaper said that cholera had killed 73 people, including 36 who died just since Friday in the southern border town of Beitbridge, where another 431 have been hospitalised.

“Most of the admissions were on Sunday afternoon, after people had learnt of the out…

Lesotho’s effort to give HIV tests to everyone in the country over 12 years old has failed due to lack of funding and poor training for health workers, rights groups said Tuesday.

The campaign began in 2005 with the goal of testing 1.3 million people, but by August 2007 had tested only 25,000 people for HIV, Human Rights Watch and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa said in a report.

Thousands of counselors were supposed to receive training under the scheme, …

A drug which increases the release of growth hormones has failed to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in humans, despite having offered promising results in studies on mice, a study published Tuesday has found.

Previous studies on mice had shown that a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 helped reduce the accumulation of plaque on the brain.

This plaque, called beta-amyloid, is thought to be an important cause of the memory and behavioral symptoms of Alz…

The illicit global tobacco trade is on the agenda Monday as more than 150 countries meet in South Africa to discuss an international protocol to eliminate the illegal cross-border market.

The six-day meeting falls under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that sets out measures to fight tobacco use through global cooperation.

“This is a global epidemic,” Haik Nikogosian, head of the tobacco control secretariat, told AFP. “You don…

Regular physical activity can significantly lower a woman’s risk of developing cancer, but skimping on sleep can eliminate those gains, a study released Monday has found.

In a long-term study of nearly 6,000 US women, researchers found that those who exercised the most had a 25 percent lower chance of developing cancer than those who were the least active.

But among younger, physically active women, those who slept less than seven hours a night had a 47 percent higher ris…

Health providers must arm themselves against a deadly drug-resistant germ that is becoming increasingly common in hospitals and other settings, a study warned on Tuesday.

Headlines about hospital superbugs have focussed overwhelmingly on bacteria called MRSA, for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

But a different pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii, is an expanding threat and controlling outbreaks of it are proving extremely difficult, said the study, publi…

In China’s supermarkets, an apparent shift is taking place that suggests one of the legacies of the nation’s contaminated milk scandal is that consumers are caring more about what goes into the food they buy.

A saleswoman in a yellow hat and blue apron calls out brightly to shoppers across the Shanghai supermarket aisle: “No preservatives! No MSG!”

“The more you can convince them your product is free of additives, the better sales you can get,” 20-year-old Chen Xiuyin exp…

The number of Canadians who used the Internet to purchase goods and services in 2007, climbed 61 percent from 2005 to 12.8 billion Canadian dollars (10.5 billion US), Statistics Canada said Monday.

The increase reflected a larger volume of orders, from 49.4 million in 2005 to 69.9 million in 2007, said the government agency.

Not all online buyers participated equally, however.

The top 25 percent of online consumers who spent an average of 5,000 dollars (4,100 …

It’s not unusual in cities across India to see giggling children chasing each other around piles of sand or playing with shovels as their mothers keep an eye on them from nearby.

But these scenes of childhood glee rarely take place in playgrounds.

Hundreds of thousands of children in India grow up on construction sites, living with parents for whom childcare and workplace safety are all but unknown.

“We just put them down beside us,” said a woman in pink worki…

A low-calorie fish fillet, ideal for diabetics!

Number of Servings : 3

Serving Size : 3 fillets

Ingredients

• ½ kg fish fillets (seer, pomfret ideal)

• 2 Tbsp black pepper

• 1 dash ginger garlic paste

• 2 medium sized onions thinly sliced

• broccoli florets 1/2 cup (50gms)

• 1 green bell pepper/capsicum thinly sliced

Nutrition Info

Amount per serving

• Calories: 300 app

• Fiber: 10gms

• Fat and cholesterol: 1.5gms

• Sodium 250 mg

• Carbohydrate 100 gms

• Protein: 60gms app

Preparation Steps

Place the fillet on the foil. Spread the ginger garlic paste over the filet with a small spoon or pastry brush and sprinkle pepper. Arrange the vegetables over the fish.

To microwave, place the filet and other ingredients directly on a microwave safe plate. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 5 minutes or until done. Remember to turn the fillet halfway through the cooking time for even cooking.

A German who made history after becoming the first woman to give birth following a whole ovary transplant said in a British newspaper on Saturday that she felt a “sense of completeness”.

Susanne Butscher, 39, told the Daily Telegraph that her daughter Maja, named after the Roman goddess of fertility, would give hope to millions of infertile women around the world.

Recovering from the birth on Tuesday at the Portland Hospital in London, she said: “Being a mother at last is…

An Australian scientist who developed a vaccine for cervical cancer is set to outline a breakthrough which could pave the way for a skin cancer vaccine, reports said Sunday.

Professor Ian Frazer told The Sunday Telegraph that tests of the vaccine on animals had proven successful and that human trials could begin as soon as next year.

“If we can get encouraging results, we will try and push it on as fast as we can,” he told the paper.

Frazer, who will deliver h…

Tens of thousands of gay rights advocates took to the streets across the United States on Saturday to protest California’s recent vote to ban same-sex marriage.

From Los Angeles to New York, protesters gathered in several cities to condemn the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which the state’s citizens voted on during the November 4 presidential election.

The controversial ballot measure, sponsored by socially conservative opponents of gay marriage and paid for by r…

Among a slew of executive orders Barack Obama is said to be drafting, observers believe one may lift a ban on US funding for overseas family planning groups that even dare mention abortion.

“I think there’s a very good likelihood that he will lift the ‘global gag rule,’” said Steven Mosher, head of the pro-life, non-profit Population Research Institute.

“The previous Democratic president Bill Clinton just a couple of days after being sworn in signed a whole series of exec…

Residents in the European Union’s wealthier nations live in good health up to 14 years longer than their more recent EU neighbours to the east, according to a major study published Monday.

European nations averaging the fewest “healthy life years” — time lived without disability or limitations on activity after the age of 50 — face serious challenges in containing health care costs, the study concluded.

They will also be hard put to achieve EU targets of raising the emp…

Diet has been recognized as a cornerstone of diabetes management since ancient times.

• If you have diabetes, it is important to interact with your health care team
(Doctor,dietician,physiotherapist,pharmacist,clinic staff etc) on a regular basis.

• Ensure that your treatment plan is producing results. If it is not, ask your health care team to help you change the treatment plan for diabetic control.

• Your family, co-workers and friends can be requested when required.

• Work alongside with your health care team to get the best help to control your diabetes.

• Write down the date and time for your next visit.

• Make a list of questions and concerns you want to talk about at your next visit to your health care team.

• Follow your doctor’s advice on diet and exercise diligently.

• Last but not the least you should be able to get insurance to help you pay for diabetes medication.

A healthy diet for diabetes is a diet, controlled in carbohydrates, salt, calories, fat, and sugar. A healthy diabetic diet is also one, which controls your blood sugar and is good for everyone.

The amounts of fat, carbohydrate and protein that you eat impacts your blood sugar levels, so ensure normal blood sugar levels by using the following four keys.!

• Make healthy food choices,

• Eat regularly without skipping meals,

• Exercise regularly, and

• Take the medicines your doctor prescribes.
A Good Diabetes Meal Plan
• Keep portions reasonable.

• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables,

• Keep fat and sugar consumption down,
Additional guidelines to remember:
• The best way to ensure that you are eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, nuts and other forms of protein such as low fat dairy products, and whole grains/cereals is to have a colorful spread.

• Choose foods high in fiber such as fruit, cereal and whole grain breads,. You need 20 to 40 grams of fiber per day.

• If you are overweight, losing 5%-10% of your body weight could help improve your health. Maintaining a healthy weight is very much essential.

Watch out your portions.

• Eat about the same amount of food each day. Eat only the amount of food in your meal plan.

• Do not skip meals.

• Distribute meals three to five hours apart.

• Eat meals and snacks at regular times every day.

• If you are taking a diabetes medicine, eat your meals and take your medicine at the same times each day.

very nice movies

Name : thamilarasu       Country : Malaysia

A thick waist almost doubles the risk of premature death, a major European study has found, showing there’s nothing lovely about love handles.

Importantly, the risk is similar even when body mass index (BMI) fell within normal range, according to the authors of the study of 359,000 people aged 51.9 on average, including 65.4 percent women, appearing in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The research found that excess fat stored around the middle of t…

Greenland is to ask for health checks on people living where a US nuclear bomb was lost under the ice in the Danish protectorate more than 40 years ago, a senior official said Friday.

“It’s not a question for us of finding the ‘criminal’ who lost it … but of concern for the impact on the health of the Inuits living at Thule,” Lars-Emil Johansen told AFP.

Johansen is one of Greenland’s two top envoys in Denmark and heads the parliamentary commission handling the affairs …

Millions of migrants across Southeast Asia are vulnerable to HIV infection as they lack access to AIDS-related services and legal or social protection, an joint ASEAN-UN report said Thursday.

In Thailand, which has more comprehensive data, migrant fishermen showed HIV infection rates of up to 9.0 percent, according to the report published here by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations.

In the Philippines, 35 percent of registered people …

Authorities in the United States have issued a nationwide “import alert” fearing possible melamine contamination in Chinese-made food products. It has warned against several food imports from China including infant formula.

The Food and Drug Administration said it had an alert in place since October 10 for specific imports containing milk but that new data indicated that “a countrywide import alert is warranted.”

The FDA said it would test “a range of protein-containing p…

A study released on Thursday has stated that the higher standards of living and better healthcare systems in Nordic countries have left other European nations like France lagging behind. Britain’s flagging national healthcare, in fact, fares only slightly better than its French counterpart.

The annual ‘Euro Health Consumer Index’ put the Dutch healthcare system at the top of its list of 31 countries, hailing it as a “truly stable top performer” after the Netherlands took top spot fro…