Japan has mobilised its military to help with a second mass cull of 230,000 chickens amid a spreading outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said.

The highly virulent H5 strain was found in chickens at a farm in Joetsu city in Niigata prefecture, the local government said in a statement late Wednesday.

South Africa on Wednesday launched a major clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the AIDS virus, which scientists hope could be the "final nail in the coffin" for the disease.

Pope Francis on Wednesday issued a call for "responsible behavior" to prevent the spread of AIDS without specifying whether that included wearing condoms.

One in seven people with HIV in Europe is unaware of their infection, the EU and World Health Organization reported Tuesday as 2015 marked another record year for new HIV cases in the region.

"HIV/AIDS continues to be a serious problem in Europe... The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) estimate that one in seven people living with HIV are unaware of their status is particularly worrying," EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said in the report released ahead of World AIDS Day on Thursday.

Brightly-painted wards and colorful furnishings are matched by state-of-the-art equipment and pioneering operating theaters at a new children's hospital in Johannesburg honoring Nelson Mandela.

The death toll from Australia's "thunderstorm asthma" episode has risen to six and three others are in critical condition, authorities said Sunday, as they assessed the fallout from the unprecedented event.

China, the world’s biggest cigarette producer and consumer, aims to impose national smoking-control regulations by the end of this year, authorities said Tuesday.

The number of HIV-infected people taking anti-retroviral medicine has doubled in just five years, the U.N. said Monday, while highlighting high infection rates among young African women.

Camped on the baking concrete outside a gleaming transplant centre, Karachi's sick have come from miles around in desperate hope for a last chance at life. 

There, Dr Adibul Rizvi provides free medical care to hundreds of thousands of people each year, providing a much-needed alternative to Pakistan's public health sector, which critics dismiss as chaotic, corrupt and vastly under-resourced. 

Fatima was already struggling to find cancer drugs for her father when a devaluation of the Egyptian pound this month caused the imported medicine to disappear altogether.

"Before, I could still find it if I searched in several pharmacies. Today I can't," said the 34-year old teacher, who asked not to be named in full.