Washington The United States plans to spend $9 billion on nutrition activities through 2014, says U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah.

By Trokon Omarley Yeabah, Nanjing, China The world entered the year 2012 facing a stark reality: one in three workers in the labor force is currently either unemployed or poor. That is, out of a global labor force of 3.3 billion, 200 million are unemployed and a further 900 million are living with their families below the US$2 a day poverty line, largely in developing countries. Liberia being among the…

By Scott Smith, St.Paul, Minn An individual employee at North Ridge Care Center in New Hope,Minnesota, was responsible for exploiting vulnerable adults at the facility by stealing narcotic medications for the employee’s own use, according to a Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) investigation.

St.Paul,Minn Twelve people have become ill with salmonellosis linked to eating a raw Mexican-style cheese, queso fresco, and state health officials are warning consumers about the risks of consuming unpasteurized dairy products.

St.Paul,Minn The total number of reportable sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Minnesota increased in 2012, according to the latest report from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). The 10 percent rise in STDs from the previous year means sexually active people should get tested regularly and take steps to prevent STDs, health officials said.

Executive Mansion, Monrovia Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has cautioned that universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene must be a post-2015 development priority. “Without greater progress, children will continue to miss school; health costs will continue to be a drag on national economies; adults will continue to miss work; and women and girls – almost always women and girls – will continue to spend countless hours every day fetching…

By Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services Enacted three years ago, the health care law is making the insurance market work better for you by prohibiting some of the worst insurance industry practices that have kept affordable health coverage out of reach for millions of Americans.

By Molly Hooven, Washington,D.C During National Poison Prevention Week, March 17-23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urges parents and caregivers to secure pesticides and other household chemicals in locked cabinets out of children’s reach.

By Doug Schultz, St.Paul, Minn More than one million people in Minnesota rely on private wells as their source of drinking water, but too many of them are not tested on a regular basis for things that can make people sick, such as bacteria, arsenic, or nitrate. While wells can provide high quality drinking water, state health officials estimate that at any given time as many as 25 percent of…

St.Paul, Minn National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NNHAAD) will be observed in Minnesota and across the nation on Wednesday, March 20. The goal of the day is to raise awareness about the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and to honor those who are infected or affected or who have died due to the disease.