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Jordan Reports Five Swine Flu Deaths Since Jan 1

Five people have died in Jordan since the beginning of the year from swine flu, the health ministry said Sunday, adding that it has recorded 130 cases of the virus.

"The health ministry has this year registered five deaths from the H1N1 virus and 30 cases," a senior ministry official told a news conference.

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Jordan Reports Five Swine Flu Deaths since Jan. 1

Five people have died in Jordan since the beginning of the year from swine flu, the health ministry said Sunday, adding that it has recorded 130 cases of the virus.

"The health ministry has this year registered five deaths from the H1N1 virus and 30 cases," a senior ministry official told a news conference.

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Pfizer Stops Sale of Children's Vaccine in China

American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has stopped selling one of its lucrative vaccines for children in China, the company said.

Pfizer gave no explanation for stopping its sales of the Prevnar vaccine, which helps prevent infections such as pneumonia, which killed an estimated 935,000 children under the age of five globally in 2013, according to the World Health Organization.

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Campaigner of Rare Premature Aging Condition Dies at 17

A campaigner who raised awareness of the rare genetic condition progeria, which causes those affected to age about eight times faster than average, has died at age 17.

The U.S.-based Progeria Research Foundation said Hayley Okines, from East Sussex in England, died Thursday at her home. It didn't provide more details.

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France Moves to Ban Sunbed Adverts, Access for Kids

France's parliament approved a draft law Friday banning advertising for artificial tanning beds and salons, and prohibiting people under 18 from using the popular yet potentially dangerous ultraviolet technology.

The text also prohibits selling or giving away sunbeds to non-professionals, and is part of a wider health bill expected to be voted into law by year's end.

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Pfizer Stops China Vaccine Sales as Import License Expires

Pfizer has stopped selling its Prevnar 7 pneumonia vaccine in China after its import license expired, but the U.S. drugmaker still intends to launch the world's most widely used vaccine, Prevnar 13, in that market.

The world's second-biggest drugmaker by revenue said that it stopped sales immediately, a decision that affected about 200 of Pfizer's 9,000 employees in China. Pfizer said the jobs for those employees will be eliminated, but they will be encouraged to seek other work with the company in China.

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France Bans Ultra-Thin Models

French deputies on Friday voted to ban ultra-thin catwalk models, despite howls of protest from modelling agencies in the world's fashion capital.

"Anyone whose body mass index... is below a certain level will not be able to work as a catwalk model," according to the amendment voted in the National Assembly lower house of parliament.

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Liberia Sees Resurgence in Drug Smuggling as Ebola Wanes

On a sultry March afternoon at Liberia's newly-opened northwestern border, drug enforcement agent Octavius Manning scrutinizes cars as they roll across the bridge from Sierra Leone.

The main crossing point between the west African neighbors, the road over the Mano river at the trading post of Bo Waterside, was closed for six months in a bid to halt the spread of Ebola.

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Five Americans Released after Ebola Monitoring

Five U.S. health workers monitored for three weeks by doctors in Nebraska after being exposed to Ebola in West Africa have all been released, officials said Wednesday.

They are all clinicians who worked with Boston-based aid group Partners in Health.

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Packed with Health Benefits, Coffee Gains Ground with Experts

Long viewed as a controversial dark substance, coffee is gaining ground among medical experts who say it can protect against heart disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes, even if it is decaffeinated.

Multiple studies published worldwide in recent years have concluded that coffee can be good for the health.

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