Their conditions improving, nearly all of the children admitted to health centres for nodding syndrome have now been released, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Health; less severely affected patients have also started treatment. Even as health officials bring the symptoms under control, the cause of the syndrome remains unknown, which means all of Uganda's diagnosed patients will have to remain on treatment for long periods. And gaps in the health system - highlighted by a recent two-day strike at an affected health facility - have raised questions about the government's ability to provide consistent care.

The UN deputy humanitarian chief says food shortages are 'a chronic problem' in southern Africa. More than 5.5 million people in eight countries need aid this year, a 40% increase compared to 2011, said Catherine Bragg. Bragg, winding up a five-day southern Africa trip over the weekend, said worsening food shortages are the result of drought or floods and rising world food prices.

Gunmen assassinated a well-known comedian and musician who poked fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in the Somali capital, police and colleagues said Tuesday, the latest in a string of attacks against media and cultural figures. Warsame Shire Awale, a famous composer who had worked with Somalia's national army band before joining Radio Kulmiye as a drama producer and comedian, was attacked by two gunmen late on Monday.

Scientists have come up with a test for the virus that causes AIDS that is ten times more sensitive and a fraction of the cost of existing methods, offering the promise of better diagnosis and treatment in the developing world. The test uses nanotechnology to give a result that can be seen with the naked eye by turning a sample red or blue, according to research from scientists at Imperial College in London published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Amid the doctors’ strike in Tanzania policy analysts met in Dar es Salaam recently, and they said that the on-going crises at the major hospitals are due to poor budgetary allocation, and to mismanagement of funds by some leaders in various Government circles. The analysts say the low budget allocated to the health sector is against the Abuja Declaration on Health Equity. They warned that the health sector is deteriorating fast, and it needed financial intervention.

A Civil Society Initiative has been set up to preserve the ‘collective memory’ of Madagascar by digitally archiving videos detailing its, often controversial, history. Reasons for controversy include disagreement over the tragedy of the 1947 Malagasy Uprising, a perspective limited by language, as well as destruction of historical archives during political crises.

An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Uganda has spread to the capital Kampala after an infected woman travelled to the city and the death toll from the disease, a cousin of Ebola, climbed to five, a health official said on Monday. The latest outbreak of another haemorrhagic fever, first confirmed on Friday in Kabale district, 430 km (270 miles) southwest of Kampala, has rattled a country that only two weeks ago declared itself free of Ebola after it claimed at least 16 lives.

In a major endorsement for investment in women – the bulk of food growers in the developing world – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said food security could not be achieved without women, and that the world’s hungry also needed leaders to prioritise actions. 'Girls and women are society’s best chance to overcome hunger,' Ban told a gathering of world leaders, researchers, farmers and policy-makers at the presentation of the 2012 World Food Prize. Global leaders meeting in the midwest U.S. state of Iowa to discuss strategies to boost food production worldwide say the particularly challenging food security situation in Africa will require mobilising the continent’s best scientific minds, including those of African women.

An Ebola outbreak that has killed several people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appears to be slowing down, but health workers say there is a need for continued vigilance in order to contain the virus. 'Their last confirmed case was admitted in the MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières]/Ministry of Health Ebola ward on October 10, after two weeks with no confirmed cases,' Olimpia de la Rosa, MSF medical emergency coordinator, told IRIN in an email. 'The decrease in the number of admissions in our facility makes us think that we are on the way to contain the outbreak, but containment efforts must continue until no cases are confirmed for at least 21 days.'

An estimated 20 million people are alive today as a direct result of tuberculosis (TB) care and control, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2012. 'In the space of 17 years, 51 million people have been successfully treated and cared for according to WHO recommendations. Without that treatment, 20 million people would have died,' says Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Stop TB Department. 'This milestone reflects the commitment of governments to transform the fight against TB.'

In Lakes State more than 10 children are admitted to hospital every month with acute malnutrition. John Kennedy, a nurse working in the children’s ward in Rumbek State Hospital, explained that most children admitted were severely malnourished. He said that July, August and September are the worst months for food shortages in the state.

Egyptian doctors, who have been waging a partial strike since 1 October, are now ratcheting up pressure on Egypt's health ministry by threatening to submit their resignations en masse. According to the strike's general committee, at least 15,000 doctors' resignations will be tendered within coming days if their demands go unmet.

It is estimated that in South Africa around 2,500 children develop cancer every year, but less than a third (700 children) are actually diagnosed and treated. 'We suspect some cases are treated, but just not reported [to the Paediatric Cancer Registry], but many go untreated because they are just never diagnosed,' says Professor Christina Stefan, head of Paediatric Oncology at Tygerberg Hospital.

Experts around the globe are calling for a joint effort to tackle the world's leading cause of suffering and disability - mental health disorders. Nearly 450 million people have mental health disorders and more than three-quarters live in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight in every 10 of those living in developing nations receive no treatment at all.

Thirty-five years after the death in police custody of Steve Biko, an online archive about the South African anti-apartheid activist has been published. It features documents never seen before in public, including his 1973 banning order restricting his activities. Curated by the Steve Biko Foundation, the archive is part of 42 historical exhibitions published by Google.

The Egyptian doctors' strike is entering its 'decisive week', the strike's general committee said. The doctors began an open-ended strike on 1 October to demand better working conditions and an increase in the healthcare budget. The committee confirmed its commitment to abide by decisions of the Doctors' Syndicate's general assembly and to ignore decisions by the syndicate's leadership which is 'simply against the strike'.

International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people. Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is being used largely to grow biofuels for US or European vehicles.

The government of Uganda is planning to establish a US$1 billion-dollar HIV trust fund to finance local HIV programmes. According to a working paper released in September, Justification for Increased and Sustainable Financing for HIV in Uganda, the fund will generate cash through levies on bank transactions and interest, air tickets, beer, soft drinks and cigarettes, as well taxes on goods and services traded within Uganda. Small fees will also be levied on civil servants' salaries; corporate and withholding tax will be increased slightly; and a small tax will be added to telephone calls and to each kilowatt of electricity consumed.

Doris Appiah, 57, has bipolar disorder. In her early twenties, she was sent to an overcrowded psychiatric hospital followed by a 'prayer camp' to be treated. She stayed there for five years, at times tied to a wall or forced to fast. Her story is mirrored by thousands of mentally ill people across Ghana, according to a 2 October Human Rights Watch (HRW) report entitled Like a Death Sentence. The government is trying to update the country’s mental health care laws, starting with the passing of the 2012 Mental Health Act. The act is supposed to improve access to mental health services and prevent abuse. But HRW says the law does not go far enough as it only addresses the formal health sector rather than community-based mental healthcare needs.

An outbreak of cholera along the Kenya-Somalia border has left dozens dead and many more sick, according to local residents, aid workers and government officials. 'We have recorded nine deaths of cholera patients at our health facilities in the past three weeks, and 89 cases have been diagnosed at different settlement locations close to the border areas,' Mohamed Sheikh, director of public health in Kenya's North Eastern Province, told IRIN.