Islamabad, Jan 1 :  A World Health Organisation (WHO) report said as many as 7,274 cases of measles were reported in Pakistan's Sindh province of which as many as 210 people died, Geo News reported Tuesday.

The report also stated that an emergency campaign against the epidemic has been kicked off from Jan 1 which will continue till Jan 9, 2013.

The campaign aims to vaccinate 2.9 million children to fight against measles while the government of Sindh has provided 1.3 million injections for the said purpose.

Electronic cigarettes are ineffective in fighting smoking addiction, according to an Italian government study.

The electronic cigarettes or e-cigarette is an electronic, plastic inhaler that has a battery and a reservoir for a liquid aroma solution. It vaporizes the aroma solutions and the user inhales the vaporized solution.

While the manufacturers say that it helps in fighting addiction for nicotine, the solution the e-cigarette contains also has nicotine. The nicotine can enter the bloodstream of the user through the lungs.

A private sector hospital in India has offered free intestinal transplantation and subsequent treatment to the young medical student who was recently raped and injured in an incidence in Delhi.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has informed Dr B D Nathani, Medical Superintendent of Safdurjung Hospital, where the victim is being treated, about the offer to provide her all the necessary medical treatment for free. Dr R S Rana, Chairman, Board of Management SGRH, said that the offer to helo has been communicated.

Ireland's health watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has launched an investigation into the death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, who allegedly died in a hospital after being refused an abortion by the medical workers.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has recommended that the government in the UK shall stop bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) testing as it is not longer required as other safety measures are in place to avoid any spread of the brain disease.

The BSE testing regime was introduced amid widespread fears over the possible spread of the brain disease. However, the authority said that there are other measures like the removal of the specified risk material at slaughter and banning protein in cattle feed are enough to protect customers and there is no need to continue with the BSE testing regime.

The first ever Pinkathon in India, which is the a marathon event for women, will be organized in the financial capital, Mumbai on 16 December, 2012.

The 10 km run for women is aimed at increasing awareness about breast cancer and will coloar the city pink this coming weekend. The event was initiated by runner and fitness enthusiast Milind Soman, who brought the event to the country trough event management agency Maximus Events.

The long-awaited National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy, which aims to keep the prices of essential drugs under control, has finally achieved the Cabinet's approval.

A government source said that the Cabinet approved the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy in order ensure the availability of essential drugs at reasonable prices.

Speaking on the topic, the source said, "The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy has been approved by the Cabinet with an objective to put in place a regulatory framework for pricing of drugs to ensure their availability at reasonable prices."

Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner in the Union Health Ministry has said that the no cases of wild polio have been reported in the country since twenty two months.

He described this as unprecedented progress in the fight against the crippling disease. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had taken India out o the list of polio-endemic nations in February 2012 but the country will have to remain free of the disease for two more years.

Kiwifruit Vine Health director Peter Ombler has warned that the vine-killing disease Psa-V disease, which was detected on the East Coast, might also spread Gisborne vineyards.

The disease has been detected in Hawke's Bay and now there are serious concerns that the fears could travel to Gisborne. Experts say that it is now known if the disease will travel through the region via wind or mechanical means.

Women more prone to depression than men; and Indians are worst hit by the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its report.

According to the WHO report "Depression and Global Crisis," women are 50 per cent more burdened by depression than men, and that the mental condition is two to three times more common in women.

Dr. Narinder Kapur, a pioneering brain doctor, is staging a five-day hunger strike to protest the "unfair" treatment he and some of his colleagues received from the National Health Service (NHS).

Sixty-two-year-old Dr. Kapur was dismissed from his job at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in 2010 after he pointed to failures of the NHS and raised concerns about poor health services in Britain.

A year after the launch of the free generic medicine supply scheme, the government of Rajasthan is now examining the viability of introducing free medical tests in all government hospitals.

The plan was revealed by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during his keynote address "Universal Access to Essential Medicines in India" conference in Jaipur on Tuesday.

The encephalitis is spreading in the populous state of Uttar Pradesh as it claimed 10 more lives in the 24 hours in the Gorakhpur division.

The total toll of the disease now stands at 361, according to the latest figures released. Officials at the health department in the area said that 39 children, who are critically ill with the disease, are beign treated at the government hospitals and Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

According to the Tuesday-released findings of an annual survey carried out by The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust, health insurance premiums in the US have increased at a much faster rate than wages and inflation this year.

Going by the findings of the survey, there has been, since the year 1999, a nearly four-fold increase in the cost of employer-sponsored family health coverage, as compared to wages and inflation.

Diabetics may soon be able to get freedom from painful pinpricks as engineers at Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits & Systems IMS have come up with a handy bio-sensor that can gauge glucose levels using sweat or tears.

Patients suffering from Type-1 of diabetes need to continuously monitor their glucose levels because their bodies can not produce the insulin required to break down blood glucose. For this, they have to frequently prick their body to get a drop of blood to conduct the test.

Health experts have warned that millions of users of eye lenses around the world could be at the risk of exposing themselves to a virus that can cause blindness.

The bug that is found in dust, sea, showers and swimming pools can reach to eyeballs and cause blindness. The number of people affected by the Acanthamoeba parasite is small worldwide but experts say that the risk is very high.

According to a new research, about 4.1 million people above the age of 65 will be livening with cancer by the year 2040.

The study suggests that the number will treble from 1.3 million in 2010, which means that about one in every four older people will receive a cancer diagnosis in 2040, according to the study funded by the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

Scientists are working to develop a male contraceptive pill, much like that for their female counterparts and have achieved a milestone after successful studies were conducted on mice.

Even as contraceptive pills for women have been around for decades, the scientists have not been able to produce a similar drug for males. A new study in the US showed that the new drug could lake male mice infertile without hampering their sex drive.

The UK government in the UK is likely to support the proposal put forward by Andrew Dilnot, an Oxford economist, which says that there should a lifetime cap on social care costs in order.

According to a new study, an antibacterial agent, called triclosan, which is commonly used in various house hold products including soaps, face washes and toothpaste may cause muscle problems.

The researchers say that 'Triclosan' may interfere with the process by which muscles receive signals from the brain. They conducted tests on mice and fish and found that the substance caused reduced muscle strength including heart function. The fish were unable to swim normally after they were exposed to the antibacterial.