The World Health Organisation (WHO) says governments are heading in the right direction over COVID-19.

Blood donors are being encouraged to keep their appointments to give blood following the explosion at a concert in Manchester.

At least 50 Ebola hotspots remain in the three hardest-hit west African countries, but new cases are declining and the deadly disease will be defeated, the United Nations’ Ebola chief has said.

The UN’s Ebola chief has said it will be several more months before the outbreak in West Africa is under control.

More than 5,000 additional healthcare workers are needed to fight Ebola in the three most affected countries in West Africa, the president of the World Bank has said.

The UN special envoy on Ebola says the number of cases is probably doubling every three to four weeks and the response needs to be 20 times greater than it was at the beginning of October.

The presidents of three Ebola-stricken West African nations have sought an immediate outpouring of money, doctors and hospital beds as representatives of nations gathered at a World Bank meeting promised to send more aid.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal has deferred a case of alleged unfair dismissal, taken by the former head of housebuilding group, McInerney Holdings, until Dec 12.

THE board of housebuilding group, McInerney Holdings has resigned in the wake of shareholders voting against its proposal to wind down the company through voluntary liquidation.

REBEL shareholder David Nabarro has won his appeal for a second extraordinary general meeting to be held to allow shareholders vote on the future of McInerney Holdings.

MCINERNEY Holdings looks set to be wound down, through a voluntary liquidation process instigated by the group’s management.

IN this, the Great Age of Anxiety, hard-core pessimists or even high-handicap worriers have more than enough calamities, imagined or otherwise, to fuel their agitation.

The father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has also been infected and may have caught it directly from his son, health experts said today.

Experts suspect the current spread of bird flu in Asia, Africa and Europe is a result of trade in infected live birds rather than transmission through wild birds, the UN official co-ordinating the global fight against avian influenza said today.

THE effect of the deadly bird flu outbreak in Britain, where 160,000 turkeys were culled in Suffolk, is that while this country has taken increased measures to avoid an eruption here, there is no need for panic among the general public.

The world should expect more bird flu outbreaks in the coming winter months, the UN official co-ordinating the global fight against the virus warned today.

The United Nation’s bird flu chief said yesterday that the three-year estimate of funds needed to stem the deadly virus in Africa could be as high as $1bn (€782m).

The spread of bird flu in Europe and Africa is likely to slow down over the summer months, but the threat of a global pandemic will not decrease, international health officials said at the start of a conference in Sweden today.

The discovery of a dead swan with H5 bird flu in Scotland indicates that many more wild birds in the area are likely to be infected, a leading British virologist says.

Bird flu could reach the Americas in six to 12 months or even sooner following its rapid expansion through Asia, Europe and Africa, the UN bird flu chief said yesterday.

European governments are bolstering their defences against bird flu, faced with a growing number of dead swans and the risk that migratory birds – which begin returning north next month – could bring the disease from Africa.

European Union veterinary experts today backed plans to boost surveillance of migratory birds and stricter bans on imports as officials scrambled to find ways to curb the spread of deadly bird flu in Europe.

BIRD flu has reached western Europe with Slovenia yesterday following Italy, Greece and Bulgaria in announcing they had detected the virus in dead swans.

The spread of bird flu from Asia to eastern Europe and now west Africa has increased the chance that the virus will mutate and cause a possible pandemic among humans, says the United Nations’ expert on the disease.

A bird flu outbreak that killed four children in Turkey this month seems to have stabilised after authorities destroyed 1.5 million fowl to contain the virus, and no human cases have been reported since January 18.

TURKEY yesterday reported two new cases of people infected with deadly bird flu as a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official warned that the threat of a pandemic was growing daily.

Asia must do more to prepare for quick action in case a pandemic flu strain erupts because every moment will count at the onset and rapid response will be crucial, the World Health Organisation said today.

China has reported two new outbreaks of bird flu among chickens in its north-eastern province of Liaoning, bringing the total number of reported outbreaks in the past month to six.

Southeast Asian agriculture ministers have agreed to launch a three-year plan next year aimed at stamping out the menace of bird flu in the region – a move they hope will win enough international aid to halt the disease before it becomes a catastrophic global epidemic with the potential to kill millions.

THE World Health Organisation yesterday moved to dampen fears over predictions quoted by one of its own officials that a pandemic stemming from the bird flu virus ravaging parts of Asia could kill as many as 150 million people.

The World Health Organisation today moved to dampen fears over alarming predictions quoted by one of its own officials that a pandemic stemming from the bird flu virus ravaging parts of Asia could kill as many as 150 million people.

A top UN public health expert warned yesterday that a new flu pandemic is expected at any time and could kill anywhere between five million and 150 million people – depending on action taken now to control the bird flu epidemic sweeping through Asia.

A top UN public health expert warned today that a new flu pandemic is expected at any time and could kill anywhere between 5 million and 150 million people - depending on action taken now to control the bird flu epidemic sweeping through Asia.

THE United Nations last night began to mobilise what it called the biggest relief operation in its history to cope with the disaster caused by one of the worst tsunamis in history.

The confirmed deaths in a mammoth Asian quake and tsunami soared above 60,000 today as worst-hit Indonesia readied bulldozers to dig mass graves for corpses in a rush to ward off disease, which the UN health agency said could double the toll.

THE sea and wreckage of coastal towns around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies yesterday pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami above 60,000.

The death toll from the Asian tidal waves – currently around 50,000 – could eventually double due to the risk of disease, the World Health Organisation warned tonight.

SUDAN has denied a report that 70,000 people have died since March in refugee camps in western Darfur province, with a government minister insisting that the death toll couldn’t be more than 7,000.