The Hong Kong Education Bureau and health officials Wednesday ordered all primary schools and kindergartens to close for two weeks amid a flu outbreak. The precautionary measure was also prompted by death of three children admitted to hospital with "influenza-like symptoms," city's government said.

In an announcement posted on its website, the Hong Kong Education Bureau said, "All kindergartens, kindergartens-cum-child care centres, primary schools and special schools will begin the Easter holiday from March 13 to March 28

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study Tuesday showing that one in every four adolescent girls in United States, aged between 14 and 19 years, has been infected with sexually transmitted disease (STD).

The authors of the study said that there were at least 3.2 million teenage girls between aged 14 and 19 currently infected with common STDs

A study by the Harvard School of Medicine has shown people with a better education live longer. Those with more than 12 years of education, which includes more than a high school diploma, can expect to live to 82. However for those with 12 or fewer years of education, life expectancy is pegged at 75.

Lead researcher Ellen R. Meara, an assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School said, "The life expectancy gained is really occurring much more so in the better-educated groups." The better-educated gained more than 1.5 years over the same period, the study showed

About 1,500 delegates from 57 countries attending the World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Alliance meeting in Kampala, Uganda agreed Thursday to a plan of action to solve the alarming worldwide shortage of health workers.

The agreement contained in the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action sets out a series of steps to be taken by the 57 countries over the next 10 years. The steps the countries should take include training and recruiting sufficient health personnel and providing adequate incentives and better working conditions to ensure the retention of health workers

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on its Web site that an 11-year-old Egyptian boy has become the North African nation's 46th infection of bird flu. According to the organization, the boy tested positive on February 26 with the H5N1 strain of the deadly virus that has killed 20 people in the country since it was first discovered in March 2006.

The announcement of the boy from Menoufia governorate, a few hours from Cairo, comes only a day after the ministry of health reported that a 25-year-old woman died as a result of the deadly virus