18 people have died and 150 more have been hospitalized after drinking contaminated water in Pakistan. Thirty people are also said to be in critical condition.

Abdur Rahim, a doctor at the local Civil Hospital says the deaths occurred over the past two days. Water samples have been sent to a lab to find the cause of the contamination

18 people have died and 150 more have been hospitalized after drinking contaminated water in Pakistan. Thirty people are said to be in critical condition.

Abdur Rahim, a doctor at the local Civil Hospital told the Associated Press that the deaths occurred over the past two days. Water samples have been sent to a lab to find the cause of the contamination

Doctors are encouraging mothers of premature babies to breast feed, citing breast milk is the perfect food for them, especially those born weighing under 3 1/2 pounds.

Many mothers of premature babies are scared to breast-feed, given the child's delicate condition, but doctors are trying to change this with strategies ranging from free breast pumps to implementing breast-feeding "peer counselors" into intensive care units to train new mothers how to nurse

Geneva (AHN)-On Thursday the World Health Organization said that the situation for pregnant mothers and babies had worsened since the 1990s in dozens of countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite defying global advances in medicine one woman still dies every minute in pregnancy or childbirth, while each 60 seconds 20 young children are victims to easily preventable disease. WHO officials believe that some countries in Africa could take another 150 years to reach U.N. targets for reducing maternal mortality. Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, AIDS and neonatal ailments were the main killers of children under five. The toll includes more than four million newborns who die before they are a month old, but not some 3.3 million stillbirths annually. "The lifetime risk for a woman to lose a newborn baby is now 1 in 5 in Africa, compared with 1 in 125 in more developed countries," the report said. WHO determined that an additional $9 billion is required for each year of the next decade to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters by the target date of 2015

Marburg virus has claimed at least 126 lives in Angola, hospital officials said Monday. The World Heath Organization said three-quarters of the virus victims have been children. The Marburg disease is a viral infection originated from the green monkey, which clinically manifested by a hemorrhagic fever syndrome, the Deputy Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem told a press conference. The transmission occurs through the contact with animals, infected human beings or through the semen during unprotected sex, as well as by way of body fluids handling. Strong headaches, muscle pains, fever, vomits and diarrhea, among others, are the first symptoms of the disease, and after seven days patients can present hemorrhage through vomits, through the vagina, skin and eyes