China's Ministry of Health on Monday revealed that some 1,326 people across the region died of infectious diseases between the months of September and October this year, with 660 and 666 recorded deaths respectively.

The Ministry has identified three classes of infectious diseases such as Class A (plague and cholera), Class B (25 infectious diseases including viral hepatitis) and Class C (10 infectious diseases such as influenza)

Ever since a Rio Tinto mining project began a $600 million investment into a mining project in Madagascar, local residents have been trying to cope with an influx of foreign workers and some of the problems associated with the transient labor. One such problem is prostitution and HIV/AIDS. >{?In the town of Fort Dauphin, a French settlement on the southern tip of Madagascar, hotels have been booked solid for three years to accommodate the new workers. But, according to Emanuel Haro, the regional development director for Fort Dauphin, prostitutes from all over the country are coming to the town to cash in on well-paid foreign workers.

A new problem has become syphilis, which many experts see as a precursor to larger health problems. "Syphilis in itself is not a serious thing but if we don't control levels of syphilis in Fort Dauphin then we'll get into real problems with HIV," Fenosoa Ratsimanetrimanana, head of Madagascar's National Committee to Fight HIV/AIDS said

Syphilis is no joke but for men in San Francisco, humorous ads depicting their genitalia prompted them to get tested for the STD.

The cities Department of Public Health says that the risqué ads, which caused some controversy when they were first introduced in 2002, worked to their advantage and helped reduce the numbers of STD infected gay and bisexual men

Communist China has opened its first free clinic for AIDS victims, in an apparent softening of the government's policy towards the growing problem of the disease.

The China Daily newspaper said the clinic which opened in the Chinese capital of Beijing, will offer free check-ups and treatment to people afflicted with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis, gonorrhea and genital herpes

ccording to a new study in the November issue of Pediatrics, circumcised males are less likely than their uncircumcised peers to acquire a sexually transmitted infection.

The researchers report that circumcision may reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, syphilis and genital ulcers by up to 50 percent. However, the results are more mixed for other STDs, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to call the evidence "complex and conflicting