A 25-year-old woman from eastern Baghdad is confirmed to be the first cholera case in the city since 2003, the World Health Organization confirmed on Thursday. The disease has struck more than 1,000 people in the north of the country.

Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the WHO's representative in Iraq has confirmed that the woman, whose name has not been released, turned up at a hospital with severe diarrhea. The infectious disease broke out in Iraq in mid-August, but had been confined to northern provinces, affecting Sulaimaniyah, Irbil and Tamim, which is home to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk

Officials have warned of an upsurge in water-borne diseases in heavily flooded areas across Africa. The water surge has destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes in the region and killed tens of villagers in 17 countries in West, Central and East Africa.

The severe flooding has been described as a humanitarian disaster as most of the continent's most fertile farmland has been washed away. The United Nations has warned of more rains and urged donors for food, shelter and medicine

The number of suspected cholera cases in northern Iraq has almost doubled since late August, with 16,000 people now showing symptoms, the World Health Organization said Friday.

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said in a statement that as of Sept. 10, 6,000 have been reported with symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting in the province of Sulaimaniyah, another 7,000 in Tamim province, and 3,000 in Irbil province

Pfizer, the largest manufacturer of drugs in the United States, on Thursday has come up in its defence against the alleged lawsuit filed by the Nigerian authorities in drug abuse case.

The U.S. drug major now says that it had received a written approval from Nigerian authorities before administering Trovan- a drug that claimed the lives of 11 children in the northern Kano state in 1996

Researchers from Japan have achieved a breakthrough in the field of vaccines by developing a type of rice that can carry a vaccine for cholera. The new discovery is seen as a revolutionary way to ease delivery of vaccines in developing countries, where storage is difficult due to lack of refrigeration.

The new rice vaccine, which is tested only in mice, causes immune reactions both systemwide in the body and in mucosal tissues such as in the mouth, nose and genital tract. Standard vaccines delivered by needle do not cause immune responses in the mucosal areas