Fearful of a surge of Ebola cases, Mali placed nearly 600 people under surveillance, as the country battles to contain the spread of the deadly tropical virus.

Malian officials met on Monday to consider increasing security at its border following two confirmed cases of Ebola due to infection in neighboring Guinea.

An Egyptian woman has died of bird flu in the southern province of Assiut, a health official said Monday, the second death from the H5N1 virus in Egypt this year.

The 22-year-old woman died on Sunday after she was diagnosed with the disease on November 10, said Ahmed Abdel Hamid, a health ministry official in Assiut, 385 kilometers (230 miles) south of Cairo.

Britain on Sunday reported an outbreak of bird flu at a duck breeding farm in northern England but said that the risk to public health was "very low".

A restriction zone has been set up around the farm and culling has begun, said a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

A surgeon who was infected with Ebola while working in his native Sierra Leone has died, becoming the second patient in the United States to succumb to the hemorrhagic virus, officials said Monday.

Martin Salia, 44, a .U.S resident, was infected with Ebola while treating patients in his home country. The virus has killed thousands in West Africa since the start of the year.

Dutch officials were on Monday checking poultry farms for a highly infectious strain of bird flu following an outbreak in a central village of the virus which could infect humans.

Public health authorities on Sunday banned the transport of poultry nationwide after the discovery in Hekendorp village of the "highly pathogenic" form of avian influenza that is very dangerous to birds and can contaminate humans.

Millions of people with stents that prop open clogged heart arteries may need anti-clotting drugs much longer than the one year doctors recommend now. A large study found that continuing for another 18 months lowers the risk of heart attacks, clots and other problems.

Even quitting after 30 months made a heart attack more likely, raising a question of when it's ever safe to stop. It's a big issue because the drugs can be expensive and bring risks of their own. The result also is a surprise, because the trend has been toward shorter treatment, especially in Europe.

A large team of Chinese health workers arrived in Liberia to boost the Ebola fight as a US-based doctor infected in Sierra Leone was described as being "extremely ill".

The 160-strong Chinese deployment to the west African country worst hit by the virus came as the world's most powerful economies vowed to "extinguish" the epidemic, which has claimed more than 5,100 lives.

It should be every child's dream: with the sun blazing on a sweltering afternoon exams are off, lessons have been cancelled and school's out for the summer -- and possibly the rest of the year.

But the opposite is true for Ebola-hit Liberia's children, so bored after months of school closures that they actually visit their teacherless classrooms every day to meet friends.

India's new government has launched a drive to promote the country's ancient therapies as it seeks to cash in on the multi-billion dollar global market for holistic medicine.

India claims to have natural remedies for everything from cancer to the common cold, but ministers say it has failed to capitalise on its traditions as the world has woken up to alternative medicine.

Tainted drugs apparently killed 13 women who underwent sterilization procedures in central India after autopsies ruled out any surgery faults, officials said Saturday.

Amar Agarwal, Chhattisgarh state's health minister, said a preliminary finding suggested that a poisonous chemical compound, zinc phosphate, got mixed with the drugs at the manufacturing firm whose owner has been arrested. Government laboratories are expected to give a final report by Monday.