The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has organized the supply of two million doses of yellow fever vaccine to Paraguay as health authorities in the South American country battle a deadly outbreak of the viral disease.

The vaccine doses were obtained from the WHO's International Coordinating Group on Provision of Vaccines, the agency said in an update released today. Brazil has sent 850,000 doses and Peru has dispatched 144,000, adding to the 300,000 that Paraguay already has on reserve

More than 2.3 billion people, or about 35 percent of the world's population, are at risk for contracting a deadly form of malaria, according to a study released by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) medical journal.

Malaria is a parasitic disease that occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. About 500 million cases of malaria occur every year, and one million people, mostly children living in sub-Saharan Africa, die as a result. The parasite mainly responsible for these deaths-Plasmodium falciparum, is transmitted to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that seven cases of jungle yellow fever have been confirmed in Paraguay while four others may have also been infected from the recent outbreak in 34 years.

The United Nations' agency statement says that seven cases came from the San Pedro region, while the other four were discovered in the town of Lorenzo, near Paraguay's capital

The United States joined the government of Tanzania, the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria by funding the distribution of 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanians. The financial assistance was announced by U.S. President George Bush after he visited on Monday a bed net factory and a hospital with malaria patients.

Funding for the mosquito net project will come from a five-year $1.2 billion program initiated in 2005 to reduce by 50 percent malaria deaths in 15 African nations. Bush said vouchers were distributed for 5.2 million mosquito nets to be sold with hefty discounts, aimed at providing protection to pregnant Tanzanian women and their infants and young children

The Ministry of Health of Singapore announced that eight foreign workers were infected with Chikungunya virus, a dengue-like disease over the week since the case was first traced on Monday.

The latest cases involved two people who were apparently sent to isolation ward at the Communicable Disease Center on Friday