The number of mpox cases reported in Africa in the past three months has been more than half of the total reported in the whole 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The continent has reported 39,840 mpox cases so far this year, including 9,020 confirmed ones, Yap Boum, Deputy Incident Manager for mpox at the Africa CDC, told an online briefing.

In the previous week alone, Africa reported 2,768 new cases, including 508 confirmed ones and 13 new related deaths, Boum said.

Since the start of last year, 22 mpox-affected African countries have reported 117,678 cases. Of those, 26,927 were confirmed and more than 1,700 related deaths were recorded.

North Korea's maternal mortality rate was estimated at 67 per 100,000 live births in 2023, a number dramatically lower than in 2000 but nearly 17 times higher than South Korea's figure, a report showed Friday.

The figures were released in a recent report on maternal mortality estimates, jointly published by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank Group and other international organizations, news agency reported.

The report defines maternal mortality as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of a pregnancy.

North Korea's maternal mortality rate has been on a gradual decline since reaching 129 in 2000, around the time the country fell into a severe famine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The figure came down to 78 in 2005, 72 in 2015, 66 in 2020 and 67 in 2023, but the latest rate is still about 17 times higher than South Korea's corresponding rate of 4, the report showed.

An international team of researchers from Israel, the US, and China has developed a genetic method to reprogramme a type of immune cell, turning them from cancer promoters to inhibitors.

The team, led by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, focused on macrophages -- a type of immune cell that can induce immune responses. But in many cancers, macrophages become allies that protect the tumour, help it grow, and even aid in spreading it to other tissues, news agency reported.

Using advanced gene-editing tools and artificial intelligence, the researchers analysed human tumour samples and identified 120 genes potentially responsible for the transformation.

“Macrophages are highly versatile cells, sort of a ‘Swiss knife’ of the immune system, capable of activating multiple types of functions for different tasks and in different situations,” said Prof. Ido Amit, a faculty member of Weizmann’s Systems Immunology Department.

Kenya on Thursday received 10,700 doses of mpox vaccines, a boost to its efforts against the spread of the disease.

The government acquired the vaccines in collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, Aden Duale, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Health, said in a statement.

"The arrival of the vaccines marks a significant milestone in the national response to interrupt the chain of transmission and limit further spread of the disease," the statement said.

Health authorities of Australia's state of New South Wales (NSW) have issued a public health alert for Legionnaires' disease in central Sydney.

The NSW health department said that five people with recent cases of confirmed Legionnaires' disease all visited Sydney's CDB during their exposure period.

The alert said that the five patients developed symptoms between March 30 and April 4 after spending time in central Sydney, reports news agency.

It said that "no single source" of the infection has been identified, and it is possible that the cases are "unrelated" but that an investigation of a potential source area is underway.

Legionnaires' disease is a form of pneumonia caused by infection with Legionella bacteria, which is found naturally in freshwater. Symptoms typically develop between 2-10 days after exposure and can initially include headaches, fever and a mild cough.

Suffering from migraine headaches and body pain? Blame your poor oral health, according to a study on Wednesday.

The study, which focussed on women, identified specific oral microbes correlated with certain pain conditions. It also suggested a potential relationship between the oral microbiome and the nervous system.

The research examined associations between self-reported oral health, the oral microbiome, and various pain presentations in a group of 67 women from New Zealand with and without fibromyalgia -- a chronic condition characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances.

While shift work is a known risk factor for cardiovascular events, a new study on Tuesday showed that eating only during the daytime may prevent the risks.

Sleep timing has been a major area of focus, but researchers from Mass General Brigham, US, and the University of Southampton, UK, stated that food timing could be a bigger risk factor when it comes to cardiovascular health.

Previous studies have shown that working the night shift is associated with serious health risks, including to the heart, due to circadian misalignment -- the mistiming of our behavioural cycle relative to our internal body clock.

The researchers found that cardiovascular risk factors including autonomic nervous system markers, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (which increases the risk of blood clots), and blood pressure increased after night work.

However, the risk factors stayed the same in the participants who only ate during the daytime.

UK researchers have found that one in 3,000 people could be carrying a defective gene that significantly raises their risk of having a punctured lung.

Punctured lung -- known as pneumothorax -- is caused by an air leak in the lung, resulting in painful lung deflation and shortness of breath.

In a study, encompassing more than 550,000 people, researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered that between one in 2,710 and one in 4,190 individuals carry a particular variant of gene FLCN that raises the risk of Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome.

Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome is a rare, inherited disorder characterised by benign skin tumours, lung cysts, and an increased risk of kidney cancer. However, not every case of punctured lung is caused by a fault in the FLCN gene.

Good food, sleep, and exercise are crucial for better health, said the government on Monday on World Health Day.

World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 every year. The theme this year is Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures.

“This #WorldHealthDay, let’s commit to small healthy habits for a brighter, stronger future,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shared in a post on social media platform X.

In a video posted along the post, the ministry advised people to eat good food, with more fruits and vegetables; to move more, and sit less.

“Walk, run, dance, or stretch for 30 minutes a day to stay fit,” the ministry said

People who are obese, particularly severely obese, could be at an increased risk of experiencing 16 common health conditions including obstructive sleep apnoea, Type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, according to a study.

Severe obesity, also known as Class III obesity or morbid obesity, is defined by a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or higher, or a BMI of 35 or higher with obesity-related health conditions. It is known to pose significant health risks.

Obesity is a known risk factor for adverse health outcomes involving multiple organ systems.

However, previous studies have analysed conditions individually, limiting understanding of obesity's total health burden. External validity has also been limited by the underrepresentation of individuals with class III obesity and of diverse demographic groups, said the researchers from the Johns Hopkins University in the US.