Nigeria’s health commissioner said on Saturday that the nation’s cholera outbreak (in the northern regions) has claimed 13 more people. The death toll now stands at 52.

“We recorded more cases of cholera outbreak in the state in the last five days,” Zainab Baba Kwanci told AFP of the outbreak in Adamawa state.

“In Demsa, we have recorded nine deaths while 120 people are hospitalised. In Fufure, we recorded four deaths and 18 hospitalised.”

On Tuesday, 39 peop…

Muslims entered the fasting and feasting month of Ramadan on Saturday with swine flu and the economic downturn adding to security fears in several Islamic countries in dampening the mood.

The threat from the A(H1N1) virus prompted a string of governments to place restrictions on citizens making the pilgrimage to the holy places in Saudi Arabia traditionally made by many Muslims during Ramadan, while financial worries forced many families to cut back on their holiday spending. br…

The gender test ordered up for the South African wunderkind who grabbed 800-metre gold this week could reveal any of several genetic disorders resulting in a physically ambiguous sexual identity, experts say.

Hormones and surgery, in other words, are not the only things that can bend gender to boost female performance by shape-shifting bodies and building muscle mass.

But taking steroids or hiding a sex-change is cheating.

Being born with unusual chromosomes i…

A recent survey gives you good reason to take down all those crazy party pics from your online web pages. The survey reports that nearly half of all US employers research the online profiles of job candidates on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.

Forty-five percent of the employers surveyed for CareerBuilder.com, the largest US online job site, said they use social networking sites to check on job candidates, up from just 22 percent in a survey conducted last yea…

Governments bracing for a second, possibly more lethal, wave of swine flu are all grappling with the same unforgiving dilemma: with not enough vaccine to go around, who is going to get jabbed first?

Any lingering hopes that pharmaceutical companies could rapidly fill orders for more than a billion doses from northern hemisphere countries alone were quashed this week by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“We need to gather advice on priority groups for initial protection…

Chilean authorities said they had detected swine flu in turkeys, but the outbreak was under now control.

“We have detected the presence of a virus type A influenza in two groups of turkeys,” a statement from the national agriculture and farming service said on Thursday.

“Precautionary measures were immediately introduced, designed to avoid the spread of the disease and to ensure the health of the population.”

The outbreak was discovered at farms near Valparais…

The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a US non-profit, launched a website on Thursday designed for health researchers to quickly share discoveries or ideas about battling influenza.

A test version of PLoS Currents: Influenza website went live with help from Internet powerhouse Google.

“In response to the recent worldwide H1N1 influenza outbreak, the first PLoS Currents research theme is influenza,” PLoS chairman Harold Varmus wrote in a message at Google’s website. b…

The Fat Duck restaurant, one of the world’s finest eateries, was awarded full marks by a top food guide on Wednesday, six months after having to shut for two weeks due to a food scare.

The Michelin three-starred restaurant in Bray, west of London, closed in February after about 40 customers said they had fallen ill after eating there, a figure which rose roughly tenfold following media coverage.

But the Good Food Guide 2010 delivered good news to the restaurant’s owner, c…

Targeting vaccines to school-age children and their parents could help manage potential outbreaks of swine and seasonal flu and avert worrisome vaccine shortages, researchers suggested on Thursday.

The study in the August 21 issue of the journal Science comes as the Northern Hemisphere braces for the start of its influenza season in the coming months, while deaths from swine flu mount in countries where it is winter.

The approach runs counter to typical recommendations to…

The Bulgarian government on Thursday banned potato crisps, soft drinks, instant soups and high sugar-content cakes from school canteens to fight obesity.

The regulations will come into effect when the new school year starts on September 15, the health ministry said in a statement.

Ministry expert Masha Gavrailova recommended that schools start offering healthier foods such as mineral water, fruit and vegetable juices, herbal teas, wholegrain bread and pasta, fish and lean…