Universal access to a swine flu vaccine remains a "critical question," the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday. Speaking during a summit on the A(H1N1) virus, WHO assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda said guaranteeing the vaccine is distributed to underdeveloped nations will require "political goodwill." Fukuda was speaking at the close of the summit, which began Thursday at the Mexican beach resort town of Cancun. The American continent remains the world region worst affected by the swine flu, which first appeared in Mexico in late April. The virus has infected ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) and developing nations called Friday during a swine flu summit here for measures to ensure poorer countries have access to a future A(H1N1) vaccine. Laboratories with the capacity to produce a vaccine for swine flu, which has developed into the first pandemic of the 21st century, are mostly located in Europe. This has "obvious implications for the developing world," according to Jon Kim Andrus, an expert from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). "The producers of the vaccine have already committed 90 percent to ...

Thirty-one teenage boys have died from complications after botched traditional circumcision rites in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape region, officials said on Friday. "Since the beginning of June, two deaths are being recorded almost every day," regional health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo told AFP. "This is a grim situation that we deal with every year, the health department has rescued hundreds of boys from schools run by unscrupulous surgeons," he said. Health authorities say the main causes of death which have been concentrated in the rural Transkei area are dehydration ...