World Health Organization

Of the thousands of entrepreneurs, protesters, do-gooders and policymakers here for the World Water Forum, few can match the passion of Suresh Baral. Infants and young children were dying in Baral's village in Nepal of intestinal diseases spread by bad hygiene, primitive sanitation and lack of clean water, as they do by the hundreds of thousands each year throughout the Third World. So 13-year-old Suresh and his friends started going door-to-door to save some of them.

A senior World Health Organization official complained Friday that China has not shared with his agency any samples of a deadly bird flu virus strain from its dozens of outbreaks in poultry. WHO Asia-Pacific Director Shigeru Omi said that sharing samples of the H5N1 virus is crucial to diagnosing new cases and developing a vaccine. China's Agriculture Ministry shared five samples collected from infected birds last year but has failed to provide any this year, Omi said.

Physical and sexual violence against women is extremely common -- most often by their partners -- and many women believe it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife if she disobeys or refuses sex, according to a World Health Organization report released Thursday. The WHO's first multi-country study on violence against women found that in the 10 countries surveyed, the percentage of women who had been physically or sexually abused at least once ranged from 20% to 75%.

Critics of the United Nations cite a long list of splashy failures by the world body. Here are half a dozen of the many lower-profile deeds the U.N. does around the world, as described by three former U.N. officials. -- DANIEL OKAMURA 1. Feeding the world The World Food Program started in 1962 as a three-year program and provided relief after a devastating earthquake in Iran, a hurricane in Thailand and the resettlement of 5 million Algerian war refugees.

People should not panic about a possible influenza pandemic, despite the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu, leading health officials and politicians said. More than 60 people in Southeast Asia have died of avian flu, and the outbreak among birds has made its way to Europe. Margaret Chan, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, said people should remember it is still relatively difficult for humans to catch bird flu.

Shipments of a killer influenza virus sent to Mexico and Lebanon remain unaccounted for, but the World Health Organization said 15 other countries were expected to have destroyed their samples by today. The specimens were sent out by mistake, and the labs in Lebanon and Mexico never got them, even though they were on the distribution list, said Klaus Stohr of the WHO.

Thousands of scientists were scrambling Tuesday at the urging of global health authorities to destroy vials of a pandemic flu strain sent to labs in 18 countries as part of routine testing. The rush, urged by the World Health Organization, was sparked by the slight risk that the samples could spark a global epidemic. The vials of virus prepared by a U.S. company went to nearly 5,000 labs, mostly in the United States, officials said.

World Health Organization teams fighting an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Angola were forced to suspend work after scared residents in one afflicted area stoned the workers' vehicles, officials said Saturday. The United Nations agency halted operations in parts of the Uige province in northwestern Angola on Friday following the attack Thursday.

The World Health Organization is organizing an unprecedented summit of flu vaccine makers and nations to expand plans for dealing with the growing threat of a flu pandemic. Sixteen vaccine companies and health officials from the U.S. and other large countries will attend the Nov. 11 summit in Geneva, said Klaus Stohr, influenza chief of the U.N. health agency.