Chinese researchers have identified two new risk gene variants that are responsible for leprosy.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The research, led by Yao Yonggang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming institute of zoology, examine 1,433 patients with leprosy and 1,625 healthy individuals from southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Haitians battling cholera blamed on United Nations peacekeepers are getting little support with only two percent of promised funds materializing, according to campaigners accusing the global community of again failing the Caribbean nation.

Haiti was free of cholera until 2010 when peacekeepers helping after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people accidentally dumped infected sewage into a river.

Since then about 9,750 Haitians have died of the waterborne disease that has infected more than 800,000 people, with the epidemic continuing to affect dozens of people every week.

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) will on Thursday begin work with stakeholders to check the high prevalence of HIV among key populations, including homosexuals.

The NACA Programme Officer, Favour Iyamu, made this pledge at an interactive media meeting organised by the International Centre for Advocacy on Right to Health in Abuja on Thursday.

However, gaining the benefits depends on how it is prepared.

Researchers have recently discovered just how valuable garlic is on our health.

They say it can reduce risk of major health issues like heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

The 4-year-old Cote d’Ivoire boy couldn’t walk, speak or feed himself. He was so unlike most other kids that his grandparents hesitated to accept him. The slightly older Kenyan boy was so restless that his primary-school teachers beat him, until they discovered he was a star pupil.

The two children reveal different faces of autism and how society sometimes reacts to the condition.

Videos of the boys appear in “Autism: Breaking the Silence,” a special edition of VOA’s weekly Straight Talk Africa TV program. It was recorded Wednesday before a small studio audience of people who live with the condition or deal with it professionally.

A new study has warned that Britain's new generation of street lights risk severe increase in the rate of breast and prostate cancer in people.

Scientists have advised officials to consider limiting the roll-out of LED (light-emitting diode) lights after an investigation indicated a “strong link” between the technology and the deadly disease.