The first person to develop ebola in the US was struggling to survive at a Dallas hospital yesterday after his condition worsened to critical, the director of the US Centres for Disease Control said.

A man who flew from Liberia to Texas has become the first patient infected with the deadly ebola virus to be diagnosed in the United States, health officials said, a sign the outbreak ravaging West Africa may spread globally.

The global swine flu outbreak has worsened as US authorities said hundreds of students at a New York school have fallen ill and federal officials said they expected to see US deaths from the virus.

Restaurant chains in New York will be forced to put calorie counts on their menus as part of a healthier eating campaign.

A new strain of highly drug-resistant HIV that leads to the rapid onset of Aids has been detected in a New York man, it emerged today.

A NEW MEXICO couple who travelled to New York have been hospitalised with what is believed to be the first case of bubonic plague in the city in a century, said health officials.