Middle East Health News

Forget stampedes, fires and terrorist attacks. The big fear this year concerning the Hajj, the annual millions-strong pilgrimage to Mecca, is swine flu. Swine flu has already killed four pilgrims this year, Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced Saturday, almost a...

The association said criticisms that the vaccine was unsafe and unneeded, were “scientifically unfounded.” Last week, the World Health Organization data showed that around 6,750 people had died from swine flu since the virus was first uncovered in Mexico and...

Folic acid and vitamin supplements had long been believed to have a critical role in the development of healthy new cells. Taking such supplements in the first months of pregnancy was also reported to prevent serious birth defects such as...

A teenager and three elderly people in Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage have died of the H1N1 flu virus, the Saudi Health Ministry said. The victims of the virus were a 17-year-old Nigerian female and a Sudanese man, an...

Days before a forecast three million Muslim pilgrims pack Mecca to begin the holy ritual of the hajj, the spectre of a possible outbreak of swine flu seems to be fazing few of them. There might be posters in the...

III In the early hours of the morning, most Polyclinics in Kuwait  are packed with patients, all waiting for an answer to their health concerns...Medical care may stand on the shoulder of nurses, but doctors provide the care and carry the...

Three H1N1 2009 deaths were registered in the Middle East over the past 10 days as the world awaits a vaccine, expected to be available in September, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest briefing note . On 27...

Evidence was growing this weekend that babies born in the Iraqi city of Fallujah – scene in 2004 of one of the few set-piece battles of the invasion – are exhibiting high rates of mortality and birth defects. In September...

Diabetes cases in Qatar are still on the rise and the assumption based on a previous survey that showed a downward trend, is unfounded, a senior official of the Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA) said yesterday. QDA along with the Supreme...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found his health reform efforts seriously complicated Monday by the explosive issue of abortion , as key centrist senators said they wanted to see airtight language in the bill blocking federal funding for the procedure....