GENEVA - PREGNANT women and other people at high risk should be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus as the cold weather begins to bite in the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

GENEVA - CHINA is experiencing an epidemic of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that the country virtually wiped out in the 1960s, a senior public health official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

In the WHO Bulletin, a journal produced by the World Health Organisation, Dr Xiang-Sheng Chen of China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said mass migration of rural workers to Chinese cities has been a major factor in the viral spread.

WASHINGTON - THE fight against Aids in developing countries is facing a drastic funding shortfall amid rapidly rising treatment and prevention costs during the global financial crisis, experts said on Tuesday.

But the funding contraction also presents an opportunity to do better with less and save more lives by eliminating waste while improving the efficiency of medical care, said Dr Robert Hecht, co-author of a study published in Health Affairs.