A patient, suffering from Aids, was refused treatment by Mumbai’s prestigious JJ Hospital because he was not Maharashtrian. The patient, a native of Bihar, approached the JJ Hospital in Mumbai for “second line of ante-retroviral (ARV) drugs”.

A Bihar hospital had told him that the “first line of ARV drugs” was not working for him so he needs “second line of ARV drugs”. He bought the drugs worth Rs6,000 from open market as the treatment is not available in any Bihar government hospital. Soon he ran out of money for treatment. Bihar Network of People with HIV+ (BNP+) advised him to approach JJ Hospital in Mumbai for free treatment. JJ Hospital refused him treatment saying that the medicines were available “only to Maharashtrians”.

Beijing - China's top leaders have urged officials across the country to respond to the growing scandal over tainted milk after one government department said it had received more than 100,000 complaints about dairy products, state media said on Sunday.

The government has ordered a complete overhaul of the dairy industry after tainted milk powder killed at least four infants and sickened some 6,200 others.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday visited a hospital treating babies stricken by melamine-laced milk powder in the northern province of Hebei, where many of the cases of melamine-related illness were recorded.

Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed satisfaction on Sunday with the response of the Chinese government in containing the spread of the tainted infant milk that has already killed at least four babies in China.

Shigeru Omi, outgoing regional director of the WHO Western Pacific Office which covers Asia and the Pacific, said that the WHO and the Chinese government are working closely to address the problem.

According to the latest information from the WHO, some 6,244 children in China have suffered health problems after being fed with infant milk contaminated with melamine

Melamine is used as a binding agent and coating for particle, fibre and laminated boards in furniture. It is also used to make fertilizer.

Geneva, Sept 21 : In its latest Annual Malaria Report, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the disease killed nearly one million people worldwide in 
2006.

According to the report, most of the dead were children below five, and African countries were mostly affected. A total of 109 countries were prone to malaria in 2008, with 45 being in Africa, the Washington Times quoted the WHO report as saying.

Playground myths about sex are misleading teenagers. According to a recent survey conducted by Department for Children, Schools and Families on 500 children aged 11 to 14, most of the children had misconceptions about sex. 

The most popular among theses misconceptions include – that first time sex does not make you pregnant, it is unhealthy for a boy with an erection not to have sex, condoms can be re used after washing, you cannot get pregnant standing up and tampons make you lose virginity. 

Farmers are being criticized for an outbreak of the deadly bluetongue virus, among cattle in North Wales this week. There are confirmed reports, of two cases of BTV8 strain of bluetongue at a farm near Ruthin, on Tuesday. 

Bluetongue is characterised by changes in the mucous linings of the mouth and nose, and the coronary band of the foot, but it is not harmful to humans at all. 

Although vaccination for BTV8 is available, but BTV1 has no vaccination and can prove fatal.