ADDS Beijing, WHO, Russia, UK, Brazil by Michael Mathes, with AFP bureaus President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the US out of the World Health Organization, accusing it of botching the global coronavirus response and of being a “puppet of China” — prompting rebuke from Beijing which said Tuesday Washington was “shirking responsibility”.    […]

ADDS detail from Rohingya camps, quotes, CHANGES dateline to main refugee camp Emergency teams raced Friday to prevent a coronavirus “nightmare” in the world’s largest refugee settlement after the first reported cases in the giant shanties housing nearly one million Rohingya. Health officials said three of the Muslim outcasts living in the 34 camps along […]

ADDS extra measures, quotes, background Emergency teams raced Friday to prevent a coronavirus “nightmare” in the world’s largest refugee settlement after the first confirmed cases in a sprawling city of shacks housing nearly a million Rohingya. There have long been warnings the virus could race like wildfire through the cramped, sometimes sewage-soaked alleys of the […]

by Kelly MACNAMARA A mysterious and deadly disease rips through the population causing a fearful public to adopt hastily-made masks as experts debate how best to slow the spread of infection. A scene this week from cities in Europe and the United States tiptoeing out of lockdown? Not quite. It was more than a century […]

Deaths from preventable disease in children under five could rise by almost 45 percent over the next six months as the COVID-19 pandemic diverts scarce health resources in developing countries, a UN report said Tuesday. Poorer nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America could see an additional 1.2 million infants die over the period, according […]

Singapore’s usually bustling business district was almost deserted Tuesday as most workplaces in the city-state closed to stem the spread of the coronavirus after a surge in cases. The financial hub has won praise for using a tough regime of testing and tracing contacts of the sick to keep its outbreak largely in check, but […]

by Laurent Thomet and Jing Xuan Teng The death toll in China from the new coronavirus epidemic jumped on Wednesday, as the chief of the World Health Organization urged countries to work together against the “grave threat” posed by the outbreak. The WHO is holding a conference in Geneva on combating the virus, which has […]

by Paul Ricard and Brigitte Castelnau Chinese researchers investigating the animal origin of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China said Friday the endangered pangolin may be the “missing link” between bats and humans, but other scientists said the search may not be over. An earlier study — since discredited — pointed to snakes, and there […]

Malaysia banned visitors from the Chinese city of Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province on Monday, in a bid to contain the spread of a deadly virus. A statement by the prime minister’s office said the authorities will temporarily halt all issuance of visas for Chinese citizens from the area with immediate effect. “The government has […]

Malaysian health authorities will carry out temperature screening of passengers arriving on flights from Wuhan, China following the recent outbreak of a mysterious respiratory illness there. Health Ministry of Malaysia’s Disease Control Division (DCD) informed of this through a statement issued on Saturday (Jan 4). The move comes after health authorities in Wuhan confirmed on […]

by Haeril Halim Indonesian Mirnawati once ate rice with every meal, but its link to diabetes convinced her to join a growing movement to quit a staple food in the third biggest rice-consuming nation on Earth. As World Diabetes Day is held Thursday, the Southeast Asian nation is struggling to tackle a disease that affects […]

by Cecil MORELLA A diet heavy on cheap, modern food like instant noodles that fills bellies but lacks key nutrients has left millions of children unhealthily thin or overweight in southeast Asia, experts say. The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have booming economies and rising standards of living, yet many working parents do not have the […]

by Olivier THIBAULT E-cigarettes have become hugely popular in the past decade but a rash of vaping-linked deaths and illnesses in the United States is feeding caution about a product, already banned in some places. Here are five things to know about electronic cigarettes. Around for two decades Early designs for an electronic cigarette were […]

Purdue Pharma has filed for bankruptcy in a settlement agreement in a move it hopes will head off further legal proceedings in relation to its role in spreading the opioid crisis in the US, the company said in a statement on Sunday. Owned by the wealthy Sackler family, the pharmaceutical giant is facing thousands of […]

by Paul HANDLEY / AFP An Oklahoma judge on Monday ordered US health care giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million in damages for its role in fostering the state’s opioid addiction crisis. In the first civil trial of a drugmaker over an epidemic that has caused hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths, Judge […]