Knowing no boundaries or borders; cancer is a disease that affects everyone worldwide, with over 12 million people diagnosed with cancer each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There are more deaths due to cancer than AIDS, malaria, or TB combined, however, the good news is that two out of five cancers are preventable.

Even though a hearing by the Council of Europe’s health committee questioned the World Health Organization’s (WHO) links to pharmaceutical firms and its handling of the swine flu pandemic last year, the United Nations health agency’s flu expert strongly denied any improper influences by the pharmaceutical industry.

The agency’s declaration of a H1N1 flu virus pandemic last June saw countries ordering millions of vaccine doses to fight the virus, which ultimately proved relatively mild.

The UK Faculty of Public Health, including leading doctors are urging ministers to impose a complete ban on using man-made fats to be found in thousands of foodstuffs like biscuits, prepared meals, including margarine, as they can damage health.

They are demanding artificial trans fatty acids or trans fats to be eradicated from the British diet, a move the faculty representing 3,300 doctors and public health specialists in the NHS, local government and medical research claim can reduce people’s risk of heart attack or a stroke.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the emergence of drug resistant strains of malaria, including defying its advice on crucial new medication is threatening the progress in fighting the mosquito-borne parasitic disease.

In its report, the UN health agency also pinpoints mosquitoes resistant to insecticide as being another ‘major threat’ to attempts for drastically cutting and ultimately eradicating the disease.

The discovery of a mutation of the pandemic H1N1 virus in Norway and some other countries is being assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its significance to public health significance.

WHO was informed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health of the H1N1 virus mutation detected in two patients, one of who died, while the other is severely ill.

According to the UN agency, apart from Norway, countries like Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States also detected the mutation sometime in early April.

Government officials reporting another record for chlamydia cases in 2008, reveal sexually spread diseases are continuing to rise.

There were 1.2-million chlamydia cases reported last year, up from 1.1-million in 2007 for the frequently symptomless infection that can cause infertility in a woman with the infection. Chlamydia rates are three times higher in women than men and eight times higher in African-Americans than whites.

However, Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts down the increase in numbers to better testing.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the major killers of women aged 15 to 45 worldwide; include the HIV virus, pregnancy-related conditions and tuberculosis.

Regardless of age, heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of death amongst women, diseases commonly thought to be male problems. Further, since women exhibit different symptoms than men, this complicates the diagnoses of these diseases, including the fact that women develop heart disease much later in life compared to men.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), HIV has been found to be the leading cause of death and disease amongst young women between the ages of 15 and 44.

The WHO’s first worldwide women’s health study reveals, more women between those ages die or fall ill due to human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, as compared to any other pathogen.