The 11th conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) kicked off Monday (27 November 2006) at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, where delegates from around the globe gathered to discuss the benefits and challenges that eHealth (electronic health) offers to both the developed and developing world.

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) is "deeply disturbed" by a traditional healer's claim that 500 HIV-positive people have been cured with African herbs, the SACC said on Wednesday (29 November 2006). "Herbs may play an important role in treating opportunistic infections, but to make claims of curing Aids without hard scientific evidence is irresponsible, misleading and mischievous," said SACC general secretary Eddie Makue.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has this week released a groundbreaking report highlighting the health problems affecting Africa, and says that without a serious improvement in the healthcare system, African societies will not advance. "African countries will not develop economically and socially without substantial improvements in the health of their people," the report says.

AIDS treatment in the developing world will not be sustainable unless international institutions get serious about the high cost of newer medicines, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today (29 November 2006).

The NIGH program is a competitive abstract submission and selection program designed to highlight exemplary research, policy and advocacy initiatives of new and future leaders in global health, and empower participants with global health advocacy skills.

Children are sometimes being packed in two to a bed in the dark, airless wards of Conakry’s only children’s hospital as the facility copes with double the number of starving children now than three years ago. There were 623 malnourished children admitted to the Donka Hospital Institute of Nutrition and Child Health between January and the end of September, the last time the quarterly records were compiled.

The 11th conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) kicked off Monday (27 November 2006) at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, where delegates from around the globe gathered to discuss the benefits and challenges that eHealth (electronic health) offers to both the developed and developing world.

Scientists say a drug-resistant strain of the bacterium that causes typhoid fever may be heading from Asia for Africa, suggesting the need for a shake-up in ways of combating the lethal disease. The research, published in the journal Science today (24 November), examined the genetic diversity of over 100 strains of the bacterium Salmonella enterica Typhi, revealing its evolutionary history.

Africa's infant mortality rate of 1,16-million per year placed it on a par with England's figures in the early 20th century, according to a study released on Wednesday (22 November 2006). "Opportunities for Africa's Newborns" said that half of these deaths occurred in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. Nigeria alone had over 255 000 newborn deaths a year.

While Africa confronts the world's most dramatic public health crisis, it can over time meet the challenges, given sufficient international support, according to a first-ever report to focus on the health of the 738 million people living in the United Nations health agency's African Region, released today (20 November 2006).

The next Ebola outbreak should be expected to occur "in northern Congo Brazzaville, towards Cameroon and the Central African Republic," according to African scientists that have closely studied the pattern of the deadly disease. They found that Ebola affect many Central African mammals besides humans and that the disease fluctuates with climate variables throughout the Gabon-Congo region, making predictions possible.

The avian flu threat continues to hang over the Republic of Congo because, despite a ban, imported poultry and its products still appear in the country’s markets and it is on the flight path of European migratory birds. "The avian flu worries us no end because this country is already devastated by epidemics, particularly the Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever," Jean-Joseph Akouala, head of epidemiology services for the Department to Fight the Avian Flu in the Ministry of Health, told IRIN.

Thousands of domestic poultry have been destroyed in and around the southern Sudanese capital of Juba in an attempt to contain an avian flu threat reported in the region several months ago, officials said. Samson Kwaje, the southern Sudan information minister, said a team had been visiting homes to check poultry and destroy suspected cases.

An outbreak of cholera in northern Zambia has forced the government to shut a border post with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after reported cases rose to 105 on Monday (20 November 2006). "We have closed Chiengi border post with immediate effect, in order to ensure there is no further spread of the disease.

The Internet may be a promising strategy to deliver low-cost HIV/AIDS risk reduction interventions in resource-limited settings with expanding Internet access. This is according to a November 7 report appearing in Plosmedicine, a peer reviewed open access journal, published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS).

Religious leaders from all over the world are meeting in Zanzibar to discuss several issues including the fight against HIV/Aids in their respective countries.According to a statement from the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, signed by its Media Relations Officer, Hajji Nsereko Mutumba, the conference that opened yesterday will end on November 17.

Zambia's maternal mortality ratio is 728 per 100,000 live births, Health minister, Angela Cifire, has disclosed. Speaking yesterday (14 November 2006) when she received surgical and medical supplies to the department of obstetrician and gynaecology worth US$150,000 from UNFPA goodwill ambassador, Geri Halliwell, on behalf of the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Ms Cifire said it was Government's intention to expedite the health agenda for Zambia for it to be beyond reproach.

Post-conflict recovery is affecting efforts to fight the spread of HIV in the Liberian town of Ganta, which has become "emblematic of the AIDS challenge facing the country" as it recovers from a 14-year civil war, PlusNews reports. According to PlusNews, Ganta is the "hub of trade and travel" with neighboring countries Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, and the factors fueling its reconstruction also threaten to jeopardize its long-term stability.

"When I go home, I often notice that as soon as I come, all the towels, soaps and sponges that were in the bathroom will disappear," says Isaiah Ojeabulu. He chairs the Human Rights Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy, an organisation in Nigeria, and has himself suffered from leprosy. Ojeabulu has similar tales from his earlier years. He says discrimination against him started from the moment that he contracted leprosy.

This editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry makes the case for more attention to be given to mental health. It argues that mental health is closely linked with virtually all global public health priorities, and that mental health interventions must be tied to any programme dealing with physical health.