The Government today pledged €1m to a special programme to fund Irish research into HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in developing countries.

THE country’s 13,000 civil servants have threatened to take industrial action amid concerns about dangers posed by mobile phone masts on the roofs of buildings in which they work.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern moved quickly to quell public fears today after the country’s first case of the fatal brain disease variant CJD was diagnosed in a Dublin hospital.

IT will take four more years before the national breast-screening programme is fully rolled out, the Department of Health admitted yesterday.

A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl who died after being misdiagnosed by two inexperienced junior doctors as having a tummy bug might have been saved if senior staff had been consulted.

ALMOST €25,000 of taxpayers’ money went towards financing Health Minister Micheál Martin’s trip to New York to assess the effectiveness of the smoking ban.

CIRCUMCISION services could be available on non-essential, non-medical grounds in children’s hospitals around the country by next year under a new plan being considered by the Department of Health and the country’s major health boards.

MEDICAL experts are to team up with Department of Justice officials and members of ethnic minorities to examine the provision of a national service for circumcision on non-medical grounds.

THE Government is to ask visitors from countries worst affected by outbreaks of SARS not to travel to Ireland for next month’s Special Olympic games.

THOSE charged with protecting the nation from the SARS threat faced scathing criticism yesterday as they briefed the Oireachtas Health Committee on their actions.

IRELAND must apply all its health resources together to deal with the SARS threat during the Special Olympics, Ireland’s chief medical officer has said.

CHINESE athletes competing in the Special Olympics in June may be screened for SARS in a bid to minimise the health risks posed by the virus.

THE country is facing widespread chaos as hundreds of GPs and junior hospital doctors threatened to strike after Micheál Martin accused striking public health doctors of jeopardising lives.

Fresh confusion surfaced over a Chinese woman reportedly cleared as a Sars suspect earlier this week.

SEVERE Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has killed more than 250 people worldwide and infected almost 4,000.