Pakistan

LAHORE - As many as 685 shops have been sealed by the health department in Pakistan's Punjab province for selling spurious and expired medicines, an official said.

LAHORE - An employee at a hospital in this Pakistani city died while two employees fell critically ill after they ate contaminated yoghurt, a media report said.

ISLAMABAD - A 17-year-old Pakistani girl, who had been very sick for the past few months and turned into a boy after a sex-change operation, is grateful to be healthy and alive now and said post-operation: "I don't care about whether I am a boy or a girl as long as I am alive." Farzana, who was critically ill, was taken to a hospital in Lahore from Rahim Yar Khan city in Punjab province.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan could face an increase in the number of breast cancer patients in the future because of the unhealthy lifestyle led by most women as well as late diagnosis of the disease, a US health expert has said.

ISLAMABAD - District health officials in Pakistan are "not very keen" to use swine flu vaccines donated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), thus resulting in the country's failure to control the disease, the WHO has said.