Chen Shui-bian made a final plea for Taiwan to be admitted as a member of the World Health Organization, three days ahead of a crucial meeting that will almost certainly reject his appeal. The World Health Assembly is set to take up the Taiwanese application Monday, but pressure from rival China seems highly likely to doom the bid.

Indonesian health officials say they are hopeful a new international agreement will be reached next week over the sharing of bird flu samples for vaccine research. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta, where Indonesia's 75th human death from bird flu has just been announced.

Since mistakes made in health care affect one out of every 10 patients in the world, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today launched a new programme called "Nine patient safety solutions" to reduce the harm done to people during medical treatments.

China is preparing to send the latest samples of human bird flu virus to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said Thursday. The announcement came days after the WHO complained China was not sharing samples of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus since May 2006 even after several requests.

The World Health Organization is urging greater cooperation among nations to tackle the growing number of cross-border threats to public health.

A 13-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, bringing to seven the number of people in the country who have died from the virus. The World Health Organization and Cambodian Health Ministry have confirmed that the girl was infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

There is the unknown extent of the deadly new strain of tuberculosis in South Africa and the region. This problem is a cause for concern, an international health expert said Wednesday. Dr Fabio Scano, a TB expert from the World Health Organization in Geneva, has been sent to South Africa at the request of the government to assist with the outbreak of the extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis strain, or XDR-TB.

The World Health Organization has conducted a test of their ability to avert a bird-flu pandemic. Monday's drill involved officials at the WHO's Western Pacific regional headquarters in Manila talking by phone with counterparts in Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan.

The general director of the World Health Organization says that the global community must adopt a broad approach to deal with health threats that cross borders, taking lives and damaging economies.

Indonesia has agreed to resume its sharing of bird flu samples with the World Health Organization (WHO), ending a four-month standoff between the two sides.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the rise of a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis (TB) is threatening efforts to bring the global epidemic of ordinary TB under control.

The UN's health body says that almost one-third of the world's population will not have access to enough safe water by 2025.