ABUJA, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Sixty-nine children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following vaccination against the disease, a World Health Organisation official in Nigeria said on Thursday.

WHO representative Peter Eriki told AFP they were vulnerable to the virus used to produce the vaccine because 'they hadn't been vaccinated enough.'

'These are extremely rare cases, however,' Eriki added.

ABUJA, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Sixty-nine children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following a vaccination against the disease, a WHO official in Nigeria said on Thursday.

'They were vulnerable (to this type of virus) which they hadn't been vaccinated enough. These are extremely rare cases, however,' WHO representative Peter Eriki told AFP.

He ruled out that the virus could have come from contamination of the vaccine. In rare cases, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a form that can paralyse, according to WHO.

GENEVA, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - European plans to cope with a possible flu pandemic have major weaknesses which might lead to chaos, a study published by the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.

The study of 29 European countries by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said authorities must urgently tackle shortcomings in preparation for vaccine and antiviral drug distribution, insufficient stockpiles, and incoherent plans for border controls.

GENEVA, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - European plans to cope with a possible flu pandemic have major weaknesses which must be tackled urgently, a study published by the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.

The study of 29 European countries by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine highlighted shortcomings in preparation for vaccine and antiviral drug distribution, insufficient stockpiles, and incoherent plans for border controls.

GENEVA, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation on Friday launched new guidelines to improve care for terminal cancer sufferers, particularly in developing countries where nearly two thirds of all deaths from the disease occur.

'Palliative care is an urgent need worldwide for people living with advanced stages of cancer,' said Dr. Catherine Le Gales-Camus, the WHO's assistant director general for noncommunicable diseases and mental health.

GENEVA, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Iran stifled a potential cholera outbreak three weeks ago, after the infection was probably carried there from Iraq, the World Health Organisation revealed Thursday.

'There were a few cases in Iran about three weeks ago, it's under control,' WHO cholera coordinator Claire-Lise Chaignat told AFP.

'Iran reacted very well, they dealt with the cases rapidly,' Chaignat said, underlining that there was no spread from less than ten known cases.

GENEVA, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation Wednesday called on Iraq's neighbours to reinforce surveillance for cholera as the disease spread in the conflict-ridden country.

The WHO said in a statement it was not recommending any travel or trade restrictions to and from affected areas in Iraq, where 3,389 cases of cholera have now been confirmed and 14 people have died from the disease.

'However, neighbouring countries are encouraged to reinforce their active surveillance and preparedness systems,' it added.

GENEVA, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A cholera outbreak in Iraq has reached the capital, Baghdad, where one case has been confirmed, the World Health Organisation said Friday.

Laboratory tests confirmed on Wednesday that a 25 year-old woman was suffering from the disease, WHO spokewoman Fadela Chaib told journalists. Two more suspected cases in Baghdad were also being tested.

JERUSALEM, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation issued an urgent appeal on Wednesday for international donors to fund essential drugs and medical supplies to avert a Palestinian health crisis.

Palestinian health minister Fathi Moghli and Ambrogio Manenti, WHO head in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, warned at a news conference that drug supplies in the Palestinian territories would be in jeopardy in six months.

GENEVA, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The cholera outbreak in northern Iraq has infected some 16,000 people since late August, of whom at least 10 have died, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

Since August 23, at least 6,000 people have been reported with diarrhoeal diseases in Sulaymaniyah province, almost 7,000 in Kirkuk province and at least 3,000 in Erbil province, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists.

The outbreak has so far remained confined to the three northeastern provinces, which have a population of three million people.

SEOUL, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - World deaths from 'lifestyle' diseases will double by 2015 unless all-out efforts are taken to combat them, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Friday.

It said about 17 million people die prematurely each year as a result of the global epidemic of largely preventable chronic diseases -- the leading cause of death in the world today.

BEIJING, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - China is making good progress in solving its food safety problems and should not be singled out as a global danger, a World Health Organisation official said Thursday.

'They are on the right track,' Jorgen Schlundt, director of the WHO's department of food safety, told AFP in a phone interview in regards to China's campign to improve its food standards.

'It's not going to solve everything, it needs more profound changes and I think they know that.'

GENEVA, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation on Wednesday confirmed that the Shigella strand of infectious dysentery is present alongside the deadly Ebola virus in the central Democratic Republic of Congo.

Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the bacteria Shigella dystenteriae type 1 among some 372 suspected cases of Ebola in the western Kasai region in the past four months, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told AFP.

SEOUL, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - A top World Health Organization (WHO) official urged Asia-Pacific countries on Wednesday to step up their fight against growing outbreaks of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific, also called for immediate action to prevent the development of extensively drug resistant-TB or XDR-TB in the region.

'There is an urgent need to scale up the management of multidrug resistant-TB, which has emerged across the region, including the Pacific,' said Omi.

GENEVA, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that five cases of the deadly Ebola virus had been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after dozens of people succumbed to an unidentified illness in recent months.

The five cases of the viral haemorrhagic illness were confirmed in western Kasai in the centre of the vast African country, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists in Geneva.

GENEVA, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that Iraqi authorties were dealing with an 'epidemic' of nearly 7,000 suspected cholera cases in three northeastern provinces.

Only 290 cases have been confirmed in laboratory tests, but WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said the agency considered all cases of acute watery diarrhoea should be considered as carrying the 'vibrio cholerae' bacteria.

At the end of August, authorities in Sulaimaniyah had reported 2,000 suspected cases and six deaths, while the WHO said another source was found in Kirkuk.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - A UN official and Indonesian minister said Tuesday that Indonesia had resumed sending samples of the bird flu virus infecting humans to the World Health Organisation.

Indonesia said last month that it had stopped sending samples until it was guaranteed access to affordable medicines to treat victims of the deadly virus, though it then shared one to prove it had not mutated.

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Climate change will have an overwhelmingly negative impact on health with possibly one billion more people at risk from dengue fever within 80 years, an expert said Tuesday.

While there would be some positive effects, 'the balance of health effects is on the negative side,' Alistair Woodward, a professor at the University of Auckland, told a regional meeting of the World Health Organisation.

Woodward was a lead writer for the fourth assessment report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

GENEVA, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Almost 3,000 people commit suicide every day in the world, one victim every 30 seconds on average, the World Health Organization said Monday.

For every person that succeeds in taking their own life there are at least 20 more who try, the WHO said in a report timed to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day.

'Today, too many people of all ages needlessly take their own lives,' the UN agency said. 'For family and friends affected by suicide or attempted suicide, the emotional impact may last for many years.'

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation warned Monday against complacency in the fight against bird flu, saying another human influenza pandemic is inevitable sooner or later.

'I am often asked if the effort invested in pandemic preparedness is a waste of resources,' director general Margaret Chan told a regional meeting of the world organisation.

'Has public health cried wolf too often and too loudly?' she said in a speech.

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - A top World Health Organisation official on Monday urged the world to get tough with tobacco companies, saying smoking deaths are an international scandal.

'The deaths and misery caused by smoking continue to be one of the greatest scandals of our time,' said Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.

However, he said, the region has done 'exceptionally well in fighting the tobacco scourge,' noting that all 31 member states have ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

PARIS, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - The first worldwide comparison of depression with four other non-fatal chronic diseases shows that feeling seriously blue is the most disabling of all, according to a study released Friday.

Combing through self-reported health data on 245,404 adults from 60 countries collected by the World Health Organization (WHO), researchers found that an average of 3.2 percent of those surveyed had experienced depression over a one-year period.

GENEVA, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - World Health Organisation and Chinese officials will meet in Beijing next month to help improve China's handling of food safety issues, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said Thursday.

'The food safety department of the WHO has been working with China to streamline their regulation of food and of products,' Chan told journalists.

GENEVA, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation on Thursday warned that a new deadly infectious disease like AIDS or Ebola is bound to appear in the 21st century, in a report urging more global solidarity to tackle an expanding array of health threats.

'It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, another SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), sooner or later,' the 2007 World Health Report said.

GENEVA, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Infectious diseases are emerging faster than ever before, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in a report on Thursday, urging closer global cooperation to tackle the growing health threat.

The report warned of the threat from epidemics, foodborne diseases, chemical, biological or nuclear accidents or attacks and industrial pollution.

It also evoked climate change 'that may put millions of people at risk in several countries'.

JAKARTA, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - A sample of the bird flu virus that killed a woman on Bali has been sent to a World Health Organisation laboratory to allay fears that it has mutated into human form, ministry of health officials said Friday.

Indonesia had confirmed its first human bird flu death on the popular resort island on Monday raising fears of an impact on tourism.

Triono Soendoro, head of the ministry's research and development, said on Friday that the sample had been sent to the WHO laboratory in the United States as a precautionary measure.

JAKARTA, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - Indonesia will not share bird flu samples with the UN's health body until it is guaranteed access to affordable medicines to treat victims of the deadly virus, a government official said Thursday.

The World Health Organisation this week accused Indonesia, which has suffered the highest number of human deaths from the H5N1 virus, of putting the world at risk by failing to share its samples.

GENEVA, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) - Indonesia, the country hardest hit by human cases of bird flu this year, is putting the world at risk by failing to share samples of the virus, a senior international health official said Monday.

The sharing of laboratory samples from H5N1 bird flu victims is essential to keep track of any mutations in the virus that might herald the development of an even deadlier pandemic strain of influenza, according to the World Health Organisation.

GENEVA, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - The bird flu epidemic appears to have stabilised as far as humans go but several developing nations have not been able to stem its spread amongst poultry and domesticated birds, experts said Friday.

'The number of human cases of bird flu appears to be stable when compared to the same period last year,' Gregory Hartl, World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman for bird flu told AFP.

GENEVA, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - The deadly haemorrhagic Marburg virus has appeared in Uganda, where it has killed one man, the World Health Organisation said Friday.

The 29-year-old miner died on July 14, one week after he was hospitalised in the west of the country, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said. The disease was only diagnosed on Monday.

Ugandan authorities have informed the WHO of two other suspected cases, Chaib said.