"Pakistan has more than 80,000 thalassaemia patients, and 250,000 patients require lifetime blood transfusions" stated Dr Mohammad Ata, Clinical Professor Shifa College of Medicine, here at a seminar on Monday, organised by Shifa Foundation Falahi to mark and raise awareness about international thalassaemia day.

Experts speaking at a seminar on Saturday said that swine flu (A H1N1) virus, if at all entered the city, would have little chance to survive or surge owing to the hot and humid environment here. However, they warned, health providers were required to remain alert till the advent of winter.

With cases of swine flu, or A(H1N1) influenza, increasing and spreading worldwide, the ministry of health (MoH) called a conference yesterday for all relevant authorities to coordinate preventive and response measures to the possible entrance and outbreak of the flu in Bhutan.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that 2,371 people in 24 countries now had confirmed cases of swine flu.

A bus stop in Mexico City on Wednesday as some people began returning to work.

Only 46 people are known to have died of the virus, all but 2 of them in Mexico.

A consignment of drugs (Oseltamivir) required for Swine Flu treatment arrived in Sri Lanka in response to a request from Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. The consignment contains 15,000 capsules for the use of adults and 240 bottles of syrup for children and 2000 N 95 masks, a Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

Globally a third of total HIV positive people are affected by tuberculosis, a bacteria-borne disease that affects nearly 300,000 people and kills 70,000 annually in Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh ranks five among the 22 high burden TB countries in the world," Professor Dr Pravat Chandra Barua, Line-Director of National TB and Leprosy Elimination Programme, said here on Monday.

The government has set up check posts at air, river and land ports as pre-cautionary measurers to prevent Swine Flu, a respiratory disease caused by H1N1 virus.

This was stated at a meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare held at Sangsad Bhaban yesterday with Committee Chairman Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim in the chair.

Dead pigs in China, evil factory farms in Mexico and an Al Qaeda plot involving Mexican drug cartels are a few wild theories seeking to explain a deadly swine flu outbreak that has killed up to 176 people.

Chickenpox is a rather common infectious illness among children, particularly those under the age of 12 years. The maximum incidence of the disease is in those aged 1-6 years while children older than 14 years account for only about 10% of cases. Annual global incidence is estimated to be around 80-90 million cases.

With the rising temperature, most people are worried how to deal with the spreading viral fever, but a medicine specialist says the best way is to take complete bed rest to get rid of it.

"Complete bed rest is usually called the actual treatment of viral fever, Dr M Foyjul Islam Chowdhury, Associate Professor (Medicine) of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) told the UNB correspondent.

Pages