GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Thursday a single case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a family in Pakistan but said there was no apparent risk of it spreading wider.

A statement from the U.N. agency said tests in its special laboratories in Cairo and London had established the "human infection" through presence of the virus "collected from one case in an affected family."

But it said a WHO team invited to Pakistan to look into an outbreak involving up to nine people, from late October to December 6 had found no evidence of sustained or community human-to-human transmission.

No identified close contacts of the people infected, including health workers and other members of the affected family, had shown any symptoms and they had all been removed from medical observation, the WHO added.

Full Story here.

I remember telling people who were afraid to travel to places with an outbreak of bird flu not to fear the disease unless they were going to travel to chicken farms! Back then there was no incidence of human-to-human transmission of the disease.

But with this latest report from the WHO the probability of the H5N1 virus spreading from human to human has become higher. It has been proven from this one case in Pakistan that it is possible for the virus to be transmitted from human-to-human.

That's a very scary thought! It is possible that virus can mutate into something that will make the transmission from human-to-human even more likely. It it does, it could cause a pandemic that could kill many millions of people. A scary thought, indeed!

BANGKOK (AFP) - Parliamentary candidates in Thailand's upcoming election are trying to buy the votes of elderly men by passing out free Viagra, a local government official said Friday.

Thais head to the polls on December 23 for the first time since the military toppled the elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last year.

Residents in Prathumthani, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, reported some of the candidates were passing out doses of the anti-impotence drug in exchange for promised votes, said Sayan Nopkham, a local government official.

Full story here.

I guess I have heard it all now about vote buying. In Malaysia, money as little as RM 20 (about US $ 7.50) buys you a vote. Viagra?

Viagra is definitely more valuable for elderly male voters! It costs about RM 45 a pill so a couple of those blue pills will definitely be plenty for elderly Thai men! Plenty enough to buy their votes, I guess! I can't blame these elderly men either for coming back for more! :-)

SEOUL (Reuters) - Lack of proper toilet facilities and sanitation kills almost two million people a year, most of them children, the World Toilet Association said at its first meeting on Thursday.

"It is regrettable that the matter of defecation is not given as much attention as food or housing," Sim Jae-duck, the association's South Korean head, told the meeting at its recently opened lavatory-shaped headquarters south of Seoul.

Full story here.

We take our clean sit down flushable toilets for granted. But for many in the world, a toilet is just a pit dug on the ground.

When I was working in Vietnam ten years ago, one of my students took me to his village during the Tet celebrations. The family was very welcoming and the food served was delicious.

When I asked to use their toilet, I think they were quite embarrassed. It was outside, drafty and it was not the kind of toilet I was used to. It was a hole dug in the ground and it wasn't particularly clean. There was no water nearby where you can wash your hands with. I don't think their toilet was any different from the other villagers'.

I can see how the lack of proper toilet facilities can be a health hazard. It is amazing to discover as many as "1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases that are mainly blamed on inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene."

I don't know if governments, especially in third world countries, are motivated enough to improve the sanitation and hygiene problem faced by the poor people in their countries. People's mindset also need to be changed. Teaching them to take care of their hygiene and observe clean sanitary habits takes time.

But I am glad though that awareness about good sanitation and proper hygiene through World Toilet Day, is being raised, and that charities are also taking part in that effort.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - One Saudi woman ignored the cancer growing in her breast because she didn't want to risk a referral to a male doctor. Another was divorced by her husband on the mere suspicion she had the disease, while a third was dragged away from a mammogram machine because the technicians were men.

Breast cancer is still considered a taboo in oil-rich Arab Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia even as the disease claims more and more victims, but some women are pushing for greater openness about the illness.

Their efforts received a boost this week: a visit from U.S. first lady Laura Bush to the region to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Full story here.

This story really saddens me. About 70% of breast cancer cases go unreported in Saudi Arabia until they are in the late stage. 30% of the patients are under 40 years old compared to only 5% in the US.

The saddest thing about the whole thing is that everyone in Saudi Arabia has access to free health care and the country has the best medical equipment and doctors. It is hard to change the mindset of a deeply religious and conservative society.

TORONTO (Reuters) - More girls than boys are born in some Canadian communities because airborne pollutants called dioxins can alter normal sex ratios, even if the source of the pollution is many kilometers away, researchers say.

Dioxin exposure has been shown elsewhere to lead to both higher cancer rates and the birth of more females.

Researchers at the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health say their findings, released this month, confirm the phenomenon in Canada.

Read the full story here.

As if we don't have enough to worry about! :-( I don't think the fact that more girls than boys being born is all that much to worry about, but the cancer risks associated with dioxin pollution is something everyone should be worried about.

I was born and raised in a town that had an oil refinery. For a long time the refinery caused severe pollution in a small river near where it was built because refinery waste was dumped into the river. Naturally the pollution was not confined to the river alone. The sea area near the river constantly smelled of oil.

I had often wondered what was in the water or in the air in my home town, because at my age I knew too many people who had died of cancer. Close friends and neighbors who had died of cancer. Only a few survived breast cancer.

Now with this piece of news out of Canada, I am beginning to suspect the possibility of dioxin pollution being the main culprit in the high incidence of cancer related deaths. Not only did we breathed the air near the refinery, we frequented the beach and swam in the sea, and ate the fish harvested from the sea there.

The refinery is no longer in existence now. It stopped operating about 10 years ago and the whole structure has been taken down.

The refinery may be gone but there are saw mills in the town or about 25 kilometers away. I guess we cannot be sure if the cancer risks that residents of that town used to face because of the presence of the oil refinery is completely gone.

A middle school in Portland, Maine is considering giving birth control pills to middle school students.

Students at King Middle School in Portland, Maine can already get condoms from their school and now the school committee is considering letting them get birth control pills as well.

The average age of a middle school student is 11 to 13 years-old. King Middle School would be the first middle school in the state of Maine to provide birth control pills.

Children need their parents’ consent to be treated at the school’s health center, but the kids do not have to tell their parents the reason they are being treated. The identities of the children receiving birth control pills would be kept confidential.

According to the State of Maine, 13% of middle school students are sexually active.

Source: MyEyewitnessnews.com

Sex happens. Because of that young girls should be given birth control pills to prevent unwanted pregnancies. What is wrong with this scenario?!

In the first place why are 11 to13 year-old kids having sex? Where are the parents? Aren't they watching what their children are doing?

By what authority is the school allowed to give out birth control pills to 11 to 13 year-old girls? It is just unbelievable that the school is bypassing parents and giving out these pills behind the parents' back! Why is it ok to give out birth control pills without the parents' consent yet it is not ok to even give tylenol, a harmless pain killer, to kids without the parents' permission?

I am practically frothing at the mouth at what is going on here! Just because sex happens, is there no reason to teach children to abstain from sex until they are adults? Don't these adults who are proponents of giving kids the pill care what the possible long term effects of taking pills this early in one's life?

Parents, wake up, and take back the control over your young daughters' lives instead of giving it to your local school or government by default!

I love The Body Shop products and I still have some massage oil that I bought from one of The Body Shop stores in Malaysia. White Musk is my favorite fragrance from The Body Shop. :-) Where I live right now, I have not seen any Body Shop stores.

I am sorry to hear of the passing of the founder of The Body Shop, Anita Roddick.

(CNN) -- The founder of The Body Shop, which grew from one shop in southern England to an international chain, has died, the chairman of Body Shop International confirmed Monday.

Anita Roddick, 64, died after suffering a major brain hemorrhage, her family said in a statement to the UK Press Association. Her husband, Gordon, and daughters, Sam and Justine, were all with her at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, England.

Roddick had revealed in February that she contracted hepatitis C through a blood transfusion while giving birth to a daughter in 1971, according to The Associated Press.

Full story here.