Pre-eclampsia cause high blood pressure and can lead to stroke, blood clotting and kidney, liver and lung problems in pregnant mothers. Sophie Ellis Bextor, 29-year-old singer and daughter of former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis once again suffered from this condition in her second pregnancy.

Sophie Ellis Bextor has given birth two months prematurely to her second son, named Kit Valentine Jones weighed 2lb 10z. She was admitted to the private Portland Hospital in London last week on her doctor's advice

Obesity is a not a disease itself but it increases risk of various dangerous diseases. Sedentary lifestyle and fast food culture are the main reason behind rapidly multiplying number of obese persons. Statistics revealed that almost one in four Britons is obese.

'Be Active, Be Healthy', a new Government strategy has been designed to tackle the UK's obesity crisis. It aims at motivating people to live an active lifestyle to protect themselves from diseases.

Under this new strategy, GPs are being encouraged to prescribe patients exercise.

Johannesburg - The new head of the United Nations AIDS agency on Tuesday called for global spending on HIV/AIDS programmes to be nearly doubled, but acknowledged that securing 25 billion dollars in the current economic climate would "not be easy."

Speaking in Khayelitsha, a sprawling township outside Cape Town, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe said: "We cannot let the economic crisis paralyze us.

"We cannot let down the 4 million people on treatment and millions more in need today."

Despite efforts of scientists all over the world there has been no cure for AIDS. The U. S. government is motivating scientists to find a cure against HIV. The need to find a new cure for this deadly disease has been intensified after Merck & Co.'s Ad5 vaccine, the most promising effort to date that flopped in 2007. HIV virus affects 2.7 million new patients each year

Recent Scottish Government's 2009/2010 budget has allocated £8.64bn to each health board.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said that it means health boards will have the resources they need to progress their plans and offer a first class service to patients across Scotland."

She added: "With nearly £400m for NHS building projects across Scotland, it also shows that this government will do everything within its power to support sectors of our economy, like construction, that are suffering most during the recession."

Hanoi - A man suspected of being infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus is in critical condition at a hospital in northern Vietnam, health officials said Saturday.

Ly Tai Mui, 23, has been hospitalized since February 3 at Quang Ninh general hospital, 150 kilometres west of Hanoi. Mui, a member of the Dao ethnic minority, had eaten the meat of a sick chicken in his village in rural Quang Ninh province some days before falling ill.