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

Some 24,000 Afghan women die every year while giving birth, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is working with the government and other partners to reduce maternal mortality and improve the overall health of women and girls in the war-torn nation.

"The biggest challenge that Afghan women face is maternal health and high maternal mortality," Ramesh Penumaka, UNFPA Country Representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in the capital Kabul on Tuesday

Egypt's ministry of health on Saturday confirmed the human infection of the deadly bird flu virus in less than one week. The 25-year-old woman is the 45th human case of the H5N1 strain of the avian flu since the disease was first discovered in the Egyptian population in March 2006.

According to the ministry, in statements reported by the official news agency MENA, the woman has been transferred to Cairo after developing symptoms similar to those of bird flu. She is currently being treated by the antiviral drug Tamiflu, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted by the news agency as saying

More British women are becoming pregnant as they approach their menopausal years. According to the Office for National Statistics, overall conception rates in England and Wales went up by almost 3 percent between 2005 and 2006. But the rise was felt most in the 40 and above age group, which registered a 6 percent growth rate.

In 2005, British women between 40 and 44 who became pregnant was at 11.5 per 1,000 women. The following year, their number grew to 12.2 per 1,000 women