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French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi said Monday it had reached an agreement to purchase US biotech company Bioverativ, which specialises in treatments for haemophilia and rare blood disorders, for $11.6 billion.

Sanofi's chief executive Olivier Brandicourt said the acquisition "enhances its presence in specialty care and leadership in rare diseases... and creates a platform for growth in other rare blood disorders."

The purchase should also translate into a boost in profits per share beginning this year, rising to a gain of up to 5 percent in 2019, Sanofi said in a statement.

Bioverativ has latest-generation treatments for haemophilia, a disorder where blood does not clot properly to stop bleeding.

The haemophilia drugs market is "the largest market in rare diseases", worth around $10 billion per year and projected to grow by seven percent annually over the next five years, Brandicourt said in an audio conference with analysts.

He said he harboured a "strong admiration" for Bioverativ, which is a leader in the field with two drugs, Eloctate and Alprolix, already in the market and estimated overall sales of $1.2 billion in 2017.

Sanofi said it would be able to help Bioverativ with the research it has underway on the development of other haemophilia treatments, as well as for other rare diseases.

The agreement to purchase all of Bioverativ's outstanding shares for $105 each in cash represents a premium of 64 percent from the closing price on Friday, Sanofi said.

The operation is to start in February and close three months later, Brandicourt said.

But investors were not convinced, sending Sanofi's shares sharply lower on the Paris stock exchange as they wondered about the wisdom of putting so much money on the table.

The deal "looks logical, but expensive", with only modest potential to drive growth in the medium term, judged analysts at the Jefferies firm.

Furthermore, Sanofi may run into competition concerns from regulators with the takeover, they said.

The French firm said it would use funds on hand and borrow to finance the acquisition of Bioverativ.

But although pricey, the acquisition will still leave Sanofi with enough financial firepower to go after other acquisition targets, Jefferies said. One such target could be Pfizer's consumer healthcare business, they said.

The purchase of Bioverativ is the largest Sanofi has made since it acquired US biotech firm Genzyme for $20 billion in April 2011.

The French group failed in its 2016 bid to take over US cancer drugmaker Medivation which instead went to Pfizer.

Sanofi shares were 4.2 percent lower at 69.89 euros in late afternoon trading Monday, vastly underperforming the benchmark CAC 40 index in Paris which was up 0.2 percent.

Source: AFP

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has pledged $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in new humanitarian aid for the country.

It will also increase the capacities of Yemeni ports to receive aid and cargo shipments, and set up 17 "safe-passage corridors" for humanitarian groups.

Three years of conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have caused what the UN calls "the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time" .

Three quarters of Yemen's population - 22.2 million people - need assistance.

They include 8.4 million people who are considered severely food insecure and at risk of starvation - a 24% increase since April 2017.

At the same time, Yemen is grappling with outbreaks of cholera - with more than 2,244 associated deaths reported in less than a year - and diphtheria.

Fighting between pro-government forces, which are backed by the coalition, and the rebel Houthi movement has also left more than 9,245 dead and 52,800 injured.

Sunday, seeking $2.96bn to provide life-saving assistance to 13.1 million people.

Later, the Saudi-led coalition announced that it would provide $1.5bn in new funding "for distribution across UN agencies and international relief organisations".

A statement said the coalition would also help expand the capacities of Yemeni ports to boost imports of aid and cargo to 1.4m tonnes annually, up from 1.1m last year. However, it did not mention ending the restrictions on access to the rebel-held port of Hudaydah, which handles 70% of Yemen's imports.

The coalition will also set up 17 "safe-passage corridors" to facilitate overland transport for humanitarian organisations, and begin daily flights of cargo planes from Saudi Arabia to the government-controlled province of Marib.

"We are backing a professionally planned and detailed humanitarian mission with military power and precision to guarantee that the humanitarian aid reaches the people who need it to lift their suffering," said spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki.

The charity Save the Children said it welcomed any measures to allow more access to humanitarian supplies and support the UN appeal, but warned that "aid can only provide a fraction of what Yemen needs to survive".

"There is a misconception that the Saudi-led coalition has lifted its blockade on Hudaydah port - but fuel is still being blocked, leading to crippling shortages across the country and unsustainable rises in the price of basic goods," it added.

Last week, Saudi Arabia deposited $2bn in Yemen's central bank after the government appealed for help to save the country's currency from collapse and prevent a famine.

The coalition has faced widespread criticism over the number of civilian casualties resulting from its air strikes and the impact of its blockade, which was tightened in November after the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The US, which has provided logistical and intelligence support to the coalition and supplied it with weapons, last month called on Saudi leaders to immediately allow in all humanitarian aid.

Source: AFP

Robust population growth, lower child mortality, increased life expectancy and changing lifestyle risk factors such as chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have in recent years led to increased pressure on Kuwait’s healthcare system. To their credit, the government and the ministry of health have responded by introducing several measures and reforms aimed at addressing many of the capacity constraints in the sector and improving quality of health services.

Despite relatively low oil revenues, healthcare spending has continued to be a priority for the government, with reforms to the health sector forming a key component of the state's ‘New Kuwait 2035’ development plan. The plan, which outlines the country’s long-term development priorities aimed at transforming Kuwait into a financial, cultural, and institutional leader in the region, is organized around five themes, or desired outcomes, and seven pillars, or areas of focus for investment and development.

Healthcare is one of the seven pillars that support the New Kuwait vision and is centered on several strategic programs and projects designed to have the most impact on achieving the vision. The strategic programs envision improving Kuwait’s relative ranking on the global quality of health care index from 51 percent in 2014 to 54 percent by the end of development plan in 2035.  

The projects planned or being implemented as part of the reforms are expected to improve the quality of medical services and, increase the number of healthcare facilities and hospital beds in the country. The plan also aims to develop a national cadre with the requisite capabilities to offer efficient and effective health services to the public.

Other development goals under the New Kuwait healthcare initiative are in line with the changing demographics and disease patterns in the country. These include augmenting preventive health services to reduce the rate of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD); developing occupational health services to treat the labor force; enhancing health services aimed at students; increasing the level of exercise and sports among citizens and residents; and creating awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices among all sectors of society.

Projects being implemented as part of health sector reforms are expected to bring about a sharp increase in the number of available hospital beds and provide health facilities with cutting-edge capabilities. Some of the new hospitals that form part of the reform initiative include a 780-bed Maternity Hospital, a 792-bed Children’s Hospital, a new Police Hospital with 500 beds and a Physical Medicine Hospital with over 700 beds.

Ongoing expansions to existing hospitals will also see a significant increase to their existing bed-capacities and health service capabilities. In addition, construction of the new 1,166-bed Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital, one of the largest health facilities in the Middle-East, has been completed and is awaiting handover to the Ministry of Health. There are also three new hospitals, under the expatriate insurance program, with a total of 750 beds slated to open in the near future.

The plan to build more hospitals and expand existing ones in a bid increase the number of available hospital beds and health facilities in the country is a welcome move. But new hospitals and beds are only one part of the healthcare equation; equally important is improving the quality of medical services provided to residents.

Apparently, it is a lack of this quality quotient, or at least confidence in the available quality, which has prompted many Kuwaitis to seek specialized medical services abroad at government expense. Until recently, the government had a policy of liberally funding specialized treatment abroad for Kuwaitis requiring complex medical procedures. The funding covered all medical costs for the patient’s treatment, as well as the expenses of spouses and other family members accompanying them abroad.

But by signing on to this 'medical tourism' policy, the government had inadvertently been questioning the competency of local doctors and medical facilities to handle complicated medical procedures. Besides encouraging a rush of outbound 'medical tourists' this policy led to the government incurring huge overseas health bills that could have been better utilized to improve the quality of local healthcare. In a damning report, the State Audit Bureau pointed out that the government spent in excess of KD440 million in 2014 to fund 11,000 medical trips abroad for citizens.

Repeated annual expenditure overruns and an avalanche of citizens seeking medical treatment abroad led the government to begin reining-in this unsustainable practice. In 2015, the authorities slashed the daily allowance granted to patients and their spouses during their stay abroad. Simultaneously, the authorities made the approval process for treatment overseas more arduous, so that politicians could no longer easily peddle medical tourism jaunts abroad in exchange for votes from their electorates.

The government also initiated the opening of several specialized medical treatment facilities at local hospitals and enhanced the quality of services provided. To maintain the quality of medical services, the Ministry of Health also signed a number of agreements with prestigious global institutions to regularly train medical staff and periodically evaluate the quality of healthcare being delivered. By the end of 2016, these actions on their own had resulted in a drop by half the number of people seeking treatment abroad at government expense.

Initiatives aimed at improving quality of medical services and facilities, and policies designed to enhance the healthcare system in the country are undoubtedly necessary and welcome moves, but these policies should not come at the expense of one section of society. Segregating people on the basis of citizens and non-citizens, and apportioning the morning hours of the day for Kuwaitis and evening hours for expatriates at hospitals and clinics, is clearly a policy that the authorities have not thought through.

While this strategy might help alleviate rush during morning hours and relieve Kuwaitis from having to wait for services at public healthcare facilities, it will definitely increase the rush of expatriate patients in the evenings. The huge influx of patients and the limited work hours will in turn increase workload on doctors, nurses and other medical staff in the evening shift. The pressure is bound to add up and eventually impact negatively on the quality of services provided, besides further straining the country's healthcare system.

Similarly, the recent move to increase fees for healthcare services provided to foreigners will certainly help increase health ministry revenues, but it will also prevent many non-citizens from availing of needed health services. Most Western expatriates and others having health coverage as part of their work contract generally do not seek medical attention at government-run facilities, but there are those in the weakest sections of society who rely entirely on public healthcare to meet their health needs. The high fees now being imposed by the government will deter this group of people from seeking the medical services that they might urgently need, but can no longer afford.

The authorities may feel that segregation of patients and selective fee hike for healthcare services are necessary steps, but for a country that takes pride in its generosity and humanitarian credentials these are definitely steps in the wrong direction.

 The United Nations on Sunday made what it said was a record appeal for aid to Yemen, calling for nearly $3 billion in humanitarian relief for the war-torn country.

A man whose body rejected a face transplant he received seven years ago has been given a second donor face after living nearly two months without one, French medical agencies said Friday.

It is the first time in transplant history that doctors have replaced one donor face with another, according to Olivier Bastien of France's biomedicine agency.

More than 12 years since the first-ever face graft was done, in France, it remains a high-risk procedure.

A transplant can help recipients -- often victims of accidents, violence, or rare genetic disorders -- to resume basic tasks such as breathing, eating and speaking, and restores non-verbal communication through smiles and frowns.

But it also means a life-long reliance on immunosuppressant medicines, to stop the body rejecting the "foreign" organ. These drugs can leave a person vulnerable to infections and cancers.

It is a rare procedure with fewer than 40 operations performed to date, and at least six patients have died.

The latest recipient, in his 40s, went under the knife at a Paris hospital on Monday, for a procedure that lasted nearly a full day, according to a joint press statement issued by the biomedicine agency and the AP-HP public hospital system.

The man's original graft had been removed in an operation on November 30, and he was kept on life support in an induced coma until the follow-up procedure.

"This graft shows for the first time... that re-transplantation is possible in the case of chronic rejection" of a donor face, said the statement.

It will be weeks before doctors can say whether the second graft has taken.

The recipient of the world's first face transplant, Isabelle Dinoire, died of cancer in April 2016, 11 years after her groundbreaking operation.

Doctors said her body had rejected the transplant, and she had lost partial use of her lips by the time she died.

Source: AFP

The number of births in China fell last year even though the world's most populous country has relaxed its one-child policy to allow all couples to have two children.

The country saw 17.23 million births in 2017, compared to 17.86 million in the previous year, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ning Jizhe, said on Thursday.

The nation of some 1.4 billion people began to phase out its one-child policy in 2015 in response to concerns about an ageing population and shrinking workforce, prompting the number of births to rise the following year.

While last year marked a decline, an unnamed official from the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement the number of births remained "at a relatively high level".

The decrease was due to the declining population of women of child-bearing age and people's decision to get married and have children later in life, the commission said.

"Socioeconomic factors have more obviously influenced people's willingness to give birth and child-bearing behaviour," it said, citing financial costs, lack of childcare services and women's career development pressure as three major reasons.

While overall births fell, the proportion of newborns born to parents who already had a first child rose to 51 percent in 2017, five percentage points higher than 2016, commission said.

Since the late 1970s, strict measures restricted most couples to one child, with violators facing fines and even forced abortions.

Around 53 percent of one-child families have no desire for a second, according to a survey of 10,000 families with children under 15 by the All-China Women's Federation.

A sharp rise in the currency of war-torn Yemen Thursday following a $2-billion Saudi bailout sparked hope of relief for millions at risk of famine and reliant on imported food.

The Yemen conflict has claimed more than 9,200 lives since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened to help the government fight rebels in 2015, pushing its frail economy to the brink of total collapse.

For more than a year, the government has been unable to pay salaries and the riyal has more than halved in value against the dollar, leaving Yemenis unable to afford food staples and bottled water.

But after Saudi Arabia announced a massive cash injection in the central bank, the Yemeni currency rose 16 percent against the dollar on Thursday.

Riyadh's decision Wednesday to transfer $2 billion to the central bank to boost the riyal followed a desperate plea for help by Yemen's president and prime minister.

"As the value of the riyal goes up, the living conditions of Yemeni citizens will change for the better," the Saudi information ministry said.

Yemen's riyal stood at 215 to the dollar in early 2015.

After Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab allies entered the fight against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels in March of that year, the riyal began to plummet, dropping to 500 against the dollar by 2018.

Money changers across the country -- including in the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the government bastion of Aden -- reported the dollar trading at between 420 and 450 riyals on Thursday.

The Saudi-backed government has now capped the exchange rate against the dollar at 390 riyals, but money changers across the country appeared to have turned a blind eye.

More than one million civil servants lost their jobs in 2016, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Haditransferred the central bank from Sanaa to his hometown of Aden.

The rebels still operate their own central bank from the capital.

Saudi Arabia, which itself faces a hefty budget deficit, on Thursday sent its ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber to Aden, three years after he fled Yemen as the Huthis overran the capital.

Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher, receiving the ambassador, thanked the kingdom and asked Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to send experts to audit the funds transfer, the loyalist news agency Saba reported.

The Yemen conflict has left more than three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid and 8.4 million at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.

Source: AFP

 French police raided the headquarters of dairy giant Lactalis on Wednesday over a baby milk salmonella scare that has sickened dozens of children and led to a major international recall.

Stifling a sneeze can rupture your throat, burst an ear drum, or pop a blood vessel in your brain, researchers warned Tuesday.

Two Italian populist parties running in March elections are promising to scrap a compulsory vaccination law, a hot-button issue after a measles outbreak claimed four lives last year.

Under the decree, which sparked heated public debate when it took effect six months ago, children cannot enrol in a creche or kindergarten unless they have been vaccinated against measles as well as nine other diseases.

Parents of unvaccinated children aged between six and 16 face fines of up to 500 euros ($610).

Previously only four vaccines not including measles were mandatory.

Now the far-right Northern League and the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) are proposing to scrap the decree ahead of the March 4 elections in which the two parties and a divided left will go up against a strong centre-right coalition.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio says the law should revert to the previous four compulsory vaccines while adding measles after last year’s outbreak sickened nearly 5,000 people and killed four.

He notes that Italy’s measles immunisation rate of 87 percent is far below the 95 percent threshold recommended by the World Health Organization.

Northern League leader Matteo Salvini opposed the decree from the start, saying that while he had his children vaccinated he believed the shots should be optional.

The stance is at odds with the party’s ally, the conservative Forza Italia movement of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, which voted in favour of the measure last year.

Meanwhile, ruling Democratic Party leader and former premier Matteo Renzi said he backs the law.

“You don’t mess around with vaccines. The health of our children is at stake, not an extra (percentage) point at the polls. We are on the side of science, research and medicine and won’t turn back.”

Source: AFP

The 14th Emirates International Conference on Obstetrics and Gynecology and Infertility will be held in Dubai tomorrow (Thursday) Under the theme "The Role of Genes in Gynecology", and that is under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Dubai Health Authority, Supported by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences.
The conference will be held at Al Bustan Garden Hotel from 18 to 20 January 2018, with participation more than 1,000 doctors and 28 senior lecturers from Europe, the Middle East and GCC.
"The Emirates International Conference on Gynecology and Infertility is one of the most important medical forums in the world, Where a distinguished group of lecturers, senior professors and doctors from will meet for three days, to review the latest sciences and techniques and developments that will improve the practice of field of Gynecology and obstetrics and modern methods of treatment for infertility problems". Dr. Awatif Al Bahar, Consultant Gynecology and Infertility, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Emirates Medical Association and President of the Conference, said.
Dr.Al Bahar pointed out that  the scientific program of the conference, which has been compared by the Ministry of Health for more than 45 hours of continuous medical education , will include 38 scientific sessions in addition to holding a number of specialized training workshops and a medical exhibition involving more than 22 medical companies displaying the latest products Therapeutic supplies and specialized medical devices in obstetrics, women's surgery and infertility treatments.
The worksheets and scientific sessions will include a number of important topics in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, such as the effect of estrogen deficiency on the internal organs of women except for the reproductive system, and the most variable role in the ultrasound of the first trimester of pregnancy, in addition of how to increase the rate of pregnancy in patients with ovarian multi-sac, For urinary incontinence and its complications.
The scientific sessions also address the changing trends in the management of menopausal sexual disorder and the role of hormonal therapy in the treatment of ovarian and uterine cancer, as well as the improvement of the number of Ovulation of the uterus for the success of assisted fertilization, and the new concepts in recurrent projections.
Abdullah Bin Suqat, member of the Board of Trustees of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences stressed that the hosting of the 14th Emirates International Conference on Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility provides an ideal opportunity to share experiences and develop medical performance for those providing preventive and curative services, especially in gynecological and obstetrical diseases programs. 

Pressure rose on French dairy giant Lactalis on Monday as the parents of babies who became sick after drinking salmonella-laced milk demanded answers over a scare affecting dozens of countries.

Lactalis CEO Emmanuel Besnier said at the weekend that more than 12 million packages of Picot, Milumel, Celia and other brands of powdered baby milk had been recalled in 83 countries and offered to compensate all the affected families.

An association of victim's families, which met with the government on Monday, has rejected the offer, accusing Lactalis of trying to buy their silence.

The association's president Quentin Guillemain said Monday the explanations given by Besnier in an interview Sunday -- his first since the outbreak in December -- fell far short of expectations.

"We still don't know where they are, we don't know if they have been destroyed or if they've been drunk," he said.

He said it also remained unclear when the salmonella outbreak at Lactalis's Craon plant in western France first occurred, suggesting it could have been before 2017, the period initially covered by the recall announced in December.

"It's a question we asked once again, and as of now we have not had any response," said Guillemain, who has demanded an apology from Lactalis.

His group has disputed health authorities' tally of 37 children sickened by the salmonella outbreak in France, saying that without systematic testing of babies brought to doctors, the true figure remains unknown.

Hundreds of families have filed lawsuits against the company.

Anger has been growing since it emerged that Lactalis's own tests had discovered salmonella at the Craon site in August and November, but did not report the findings because it had no legal obligation to do so.

Besnier denied claims that Lactalis had lied about the dates and number of stocks affected by the salmonella outbreak.

"At no point was there any intention of hiding things," he said.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Sunday the company's explanations were insufficient.

"When you have a case of milk on the market which has clearly caused complicated health problems for children, it means at some point there was negligence," Griveaux said.

Source: AFP

The chief executive of France's Lactalis group on Sunday vowed compensation for victims of salmonella-tainted baby milk as he revealed that recalls were now under way in 83 countries.Lactalis has recalled over 12 million packages of baby formula in 83 countries over salmonella fears

Giving his first interview in nearly 20 years, Emmanuel Besnier who heads the family-controlled company, told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that the recall involved more than 12 million packages of Picot, Milumel, Celia and other brands of powdered baby milk.

"We are going to draw the lessons from this crisis and set out an even stricter hygiene framework, in collaboration with the authorities," he said.

Asked why he had not publicly addressed parents' concerns as worries about the outbreak intensified, Besnier said: "It's true, by nature I'm not very forthcoming."

"In a crisis like this, we act first, and perhaps I didn't take the necessary time to explain things."

A total of 37 babies have fallen ill in France, health authorities said late Friday, along with a case in Spain and a suspected case in Greece, but Besnier said no new cases had been reported since December 8, a week after the recall was announced.

"The case in Spain goes back to October," he added, referring to the two cases outside France reported Friday by the Eurosurveillance medical journal.

Besnier's interview included two of the first public photographs of the secretive leader in years, at the Lactalis headquarters in Laval, western France.So far, a total of 37 babies have fallen ill in France after consuming Lactalis baby formula or other infant products

It came after finance minister Bruno Le Maire summoned Besnier to a meeting over the crisis Friday, in which the chief executive agreed to pull from store and pharmacy shelves all products from the Craon factory where the outbreak was found, instead of those dating back to February.

But Besnier did not appear with Le Maire at a press conference after the meeting, despite calls by several government officials for him to face the public.

'Not hiding things'

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the group by families who say their children got salmonella poisoning after drinking powdered milk made by the company.

But Besnier, 47, denied claims by an association of victims' families that Lactalis had lied about the dates and number of stocks affected by the salmonella outbreak.

"This is false. I don't know what this claim is based on," he said.

"At no point was there any intention of hiding things."The French government said there had been a "major malfunction" in the way Lactalis handled the recall

Besnier defended, however, not informing the authorities that internal tests had discovered salmonella on a broom and on the tiles of a dehydration tower at the Craon factory in August and November last year.

"For us, these 'environment' tests are an alert to make sure we keep the bacteria far from the product," he said, adding that authorities would have been alerted only if bacteria were found in the powdered milk.

Created in 1933 by Besnier's grandfather, Lactalis has become an industry behemoth with annual sales of some 17 billion euros ($20.6 billion), making it the world's third-largest dairy group, behind Danone and Nestle.

The salmonella scare has cast a harsh spotlight on an executive and a company little known to the public, despite employing 15,000 people in France, where milk and cheese are proudly considered part of the country's heritage.

Analysts say the crisis could dent the company's reputation among anxious parents worldwide.

"This recall may undermine consumer trust in milk formula brands produced using milk from French farms in the emerging markets affected by the recall, which includes China," said Raphael Moreau, a senior analyst at Euromonitor.

source: AFP

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against French dairy giant Lactalis by families who say their children got salmonella poisoning after drinking powdered milk made by the company, an association representing victims said Friday.

The announcement came as economy minister Bruno Le Maire said Lactalis would have to extend its product recall to all milk products at the affected production site.

"I've filed a lawsuit. Hundreds of other families have already filed suits across France," said the association's president Quentin Guillemain during a press conference.

"Several hundreds more want to file suit, and will do so in the coming days," he said.

So far French officials have reported 35 cases of children getting salmonella poisoning from the contaminated milk powder, while one case has been reported in Spain and another is being investigated in Greece.

Asked about the discrepancy between the reported cases and the number of lawsuits, Guillemain said he believed the authorities were underestimating the number of cases.

"Unfortunately we have not been able to compare our own figures" with those of health authorities, he said, "and today I can't tell you how many victims there are exactly".

He estimated that "tens of millions of cans" of powdered baby milk, exported to 66 countries, may have been contaminated by the salmonella outbreak discovered in December at Lactalis's site in Craon, northwest France.

Le Maire announced the extended recall after meeting with the company's chief executive Emmanuel Besnier, saying he had asked the company to "make an effort at more transparency".

Besnier himself did not make a statement, as several officials have pressed him to do given the public alarm and chaotic recall efforts so far.

Health inspectors have discovered, for example, that several retailers, including supermarkets and pharmacies, had continued to keep the affected products on their shelves despite the recall order.

On Thursday, a spokesman for Lactalis, Michel Nalet, apologised once again to parents, adding that the firm was working "in perfect collaboration" with French officials to contain the outbreak.

The claim was rebuffed by Le Maire, who told French television: "If there had been perfect collaboration, I wouldn't have had to sign an order on December 9 demanding the recall of more than 600 shipments of baby milk".

Of the 18 children hospitalised in France, all have been released and are doing fine, France's public health agency said, while the condition of the children in Spain and Greece has not been disclosed.

Source: AFP

One of the Palestinian conjoined twins from the Gaza Strip separated this week in surgery in Saudi Arabia has died but her sister is recovering, the kingdom said Saturday.

"Haneen is in stable condition and on her way to recovery five days after being surgically separated from her clinically dead sister, Farah," the Saudi information ministry said.

"Haneen is breathing normally and is receiving her nutrition intravenously," said Dr. Abdullah al-Rabiah, who led the operation team.

Rabiah said that all of the Palestinian infant's vital signs were now stable and that she had been removed from an artificial respirator.

The operation was carried out on Monday and involved the separation of multiple organs, including the liver, as well as restoring organs in Haneen.

The surgery came months after a doctor and family member of the twins pleaded from Gaza that they be allowed to go abroad for the complex surgery.

Allam Abu Hamda, head of the neonatal unit at Gaza's Shifa Hospital, told AFP in October the girls were born joined at the stomach and pelvis and that the complicated condition could not be dealt with in the enclave.

Israel has maintained a blockade of the Palestinian territory for a decade, citing security fears over Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.

Source: AFP

France said Thursday there has been a "major dysfunction" in a recall of baby milk, after stores sold potentially contaminated milk despite being told to take it off their shelves.

Lactalis, one of the world's largest producers of dairy products, in December issued a recall of all products made at its factory in Craon, northwest France, after discovering salmonella bacteria at the site.

But several retailers admitted this week that they had continued to sell the brand's milk even after the ban.

"This is a major dysfunction in the withdrawal and recall by the operators who carry the responsibility," French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told a news conference.

Supermarket chain Carrefour said Wednesday it had sold 434 boxes of Lactalis baby milk that should have been withdrawn after the ban and Systeme-U admitted to 384 boxes. Earlier Leclerc said it had sold 984 Lactalis products since the recall and Auchan 52.

Industrial leaders, intermediaries and retailers must now "shed all possible light on the failings that they discovered and assure us that none of the products concerned are still on the market or in stores," Travert said.

He said no date to lift the ban could be set "while we have not exactly and precisely identified the source of the contamination, and before it has not been clearly identified and removed," Travert said.

Last week, a report said that French food safety inspectors failed to detect salmonella contamination at the Lactalis three months before the company carried out the recall.

Officials from the food safety department carried out a routine inspection of the site in September and gave it a clean bill of health, the Canard Enchaine investigative weekly reported.

It was only in December, after around 30 infants fed Lactalis milk had fallen ill, that the health ministry sounded the alarm.

Officials from the national anti-fraud bureau swooped on the factory on December 2 and found the assembly line where milk is transformed into powder to be contaminated.

Lactalis is blaming the contamination on renovation work and issued two major recalls covering all production from the site dating back to February 15, 2017.

The plant has been at a standstill since December 8 and said Thursday it put 250 of its 327 staff on short-time working hours until at least early next month.

Salmonella symptoms include severe diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting. The illness, caused by intestinal bacteria from farm animals, is especially dangerous for the very young and elderly because it can cause severe dehydration.

At least 35 infants in France have now been diagnosed with salmonella poisoning.

The product recall, which included the Picot and Milumel brands, affected consumers in countries as far afield as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Britain and Sudan, underlining the company's global reach and the difficulty in tracing all the potentially at-risk powder.

Lactalis is under investigation over the affair.

It could face charges of causing involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others.

The Philippines said Thursday that some of the 14 children who died after receiving a controversial vaccine showed signs of "severe dengue", as investigators probe the drug whose use was suspended due to health concerns.

More than 830,000 Filipino schoolchildren were injected with Sanofi's Dengvaxia vaccine last year in the world's first public dengue immunisation programme.

But the country stopped the sale and distribution of Dengvaxia last month after Sanofi warned the vaccine could worsen symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the virus.

Philippine authorities are also pursuing criminal and public health safety investigations into any links between the drug and the deaths of 14 schoolchildren who died months after being vaccinated.

"The findings of the forensic pathologists are consistent with severe dengue or dengue shock syndrome," Health Secretary Francisco Duque told ABS-CBN television, referring to the results of autopsies on some of the deceased children.

Duque also said he had asked Sanofi to refund around 1.5 billion pesos ($30 million) worth of unused vaccines.

Officials at the government's Public Attorney's Office (PAO), which has been conducting autopsies on some of the dead children, have been trying to build a criminal case by proving the deaths were linked to the vaccine.

The health department has also commissioned independent experts to pursue a separate inquiry in the interest of public health and safety, though the results of this study have not been disclosed.

"They may or may not be investigating the same cases or deaths and would be using different methods of investigation," Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag told AFP.

Sanofi said in a statement on Thursday that it was "saddened" to learn of the deaths of the children.

"Up to this date, there has been no death established to have been causally linked to the dengue vaccine, not even among the 40,000 people involved in the clinical trials conducted across 15 countries," the statement added.

In November last year, the French company released findings of a new study that showed Dengvaxia could lead to severe infections for vaccinated people who caught dengue for the first time.

The disclosure triggered a public furore, with some parents blaming the vaccine for their children's deaths and a number of legislators accusing the government of endangering public health.

Dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries, according to the World Health Organization.

source: AFP

They planned to say "I do" in 25 countries in a joyful celebration of gay marriage. But now the lives of two women artists have been shattered by a diagnosis of terminal cancer.

Instead of planning their fifth wedding in Spain as part of a global performance artwork, Belgian Fleur Pierets, 44, is now nursing "the love of her life", Dutch woman Julian P. Boom, 39, as she gradually slips away.

After first getting legally hitched in New York in September where they had been living, Boom and Pierets had planned to work their way through all other countries where gay marriage is allowed. Symbolic ceremonies were then held in Amsterdam followed by Antwerp.

But after their fourth marriage in Paris's Hotel de Ville on November 7, Boom "felt very dizzy and I had to support her down the stairs of city hall," Pierets told AFP in an email.

Boom was feeling so ill the couple decided to rest at the home of Pierets's mother in France where, after Boom fainted several days later, scans in the local hospital revealed grim news.

"It turned out that (Julian) has numerous tumours in her head and around her heart. The doctors are giving her three more months in which she will lose her capacity to speak and to remember things, until she will slip into a coma," Pierets said.

"Things are going really fast. She has lost her memory completely and she's unable to move her limbs - since her brain 'forgot' that they are there," she said in an email to AFP.

"The doctors told me that every time she goes to sleep, there's a possibility that she won't wake up. It's a nerve wrecking nightmare."

The couple, who sold everything to finance their plans, were aiming to make a documentary, as well as a photo exhibition and a book about their adventures, which they had called Project 22.

Since launching the project, Australia, Germany and Malta have all legalised same-sex unions while Austria's top court said in December that gay couples will be able to marry from 2019.

- Last promise -

Their project seemed to capture the imagination and there had even been early plans for them to meet popular US television host Ellen DeGeneres.

"It was one of Julian's dreams to meet Ellen. Unfortunately that will never happen," said Pierets.

During their "last lucid conversation" a month ago, she promised her wife that she will however write the book. "It will keep me busy and will give me a purpose after she is gone. Otherwise I don't know if I would've been able to go on," Pierets said.

"I was looking so much forward to marrying her in those 25 countries. I'm going to miss her so, so much."

Friends have now launched an appeal on the Project 22 website to help Pierets meet the costs of Boom's palliative care, which are not covered by their insurance.

"Not only will she lose the love of her life, she shall have to face major bills once Julian is gone," said friend Bart Davenport.

Source: AFP