Chile will soon cover sex change surgeries under its public health plan in order to allow citizens of limited means to "recover their true sexual identity," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

Until now such operations were only offered in private clinics at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000, but will now be performed in public hospitals in the capital Santiago, Concepcion and Valparaiso, he said late Thursday.

The World Health Organization announced on Friday it was set to approve a new target to reduce premature deaths from chronic illnesses such as heart disease by a quarter by 2025.

Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory conditions are known in medical terms as no communicable diseases (NCDs) and represent the world's biggest killers -- accounting for 63 percent of all deaths.

After decades of indifference, big businesses and the government are turning up the heat on smokers in South Korea, a nation with one of the developed world's highest male smoking rates.

Some firms are pressing workers to kick the habit or miss out on promotion and the health ministry will toughen warnings on cigarette packs.

Scotland on Thursday became the first part of Britain to introduce a minimum price for alcohol in an attempt to change its unhealthy relationship with booze.

Alcohol will be sold at a minimum price of 50 pence (81 U.S. cents, 63 euro cents) per unit after lawmakers voted 86 to one in favor of the act. The measure could come into effect from next April.

Tinnitus, an incurable ringing in the ears that can wreck the lives of those that suffer from it, can be significantly eased by a new combination of therapies, The Lancet reported on Friday.

The approach uses psychological training and audio therapy in small groups to reduce distress and refocus the mind so that it does not dwell on the sound.

Australia moved to assure its meat export partners and domestic market Friday that its beef was safe after it was linked to an E-coli contamination scare in the United States.

Australia's agriculture department said it had recently been notified that local beef had been "implicated" in E-coli contamination of mincemeat in the United States.

Motorists along the Beirut-Jounieh highway are exposed to twice the acceptable levels of air pollutants set by the World Health Organization, a new study revealed.

The study was conducted by the American University of Beirut in collaboration with Rasamny Younis Motor Company – RYMCO, Nissan’s exclusive dealer in Lebanon, and Bank Audi s.a.l – Audi Saradar Group, and the results were announced at a joint press conference held at AUB on May 24, 2012.

Nearly 100 children under the age of five died of pneumonia between January and April in Peru due to a cold wave that swept through the country's Andean region, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry reported over 797,000 episodes of non-pneumonic acute respiratory infections in toddlers during the period, along with 9,286 cases of pneumonia.

Women who get flu shots while pregnant could also be protecting the health of their babies before and after birth, a new study suggests.

Using statistics from the Canadian province of Ontario, the findings, published this week in the American Journal of Public Health, are based on comparisons between expecting women who did and did not receive an H1N1 vaccine during the 2009-2010 "swine flu" pandemic that killed more than 14,000 people worldwide.

Women who choose birth control pills, the patch or vaginal ring are 20 times more likely to have an unplanned pregnancy than those using long-term methods such as IUDs and implants, a study released Wednesday found.

Among young women under 21 who chose the pill, the patch or vaginal ring, the risk of unintended pregnancy is almost twice as high as that for older women, according to researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.