Father's Day

Father's Day is a day honoring fathers, celebrated on the third Sunday of June in 52 of the world's countries and on other days elsewhere. It complements Mother's Day, the celebration honoring mothers.

In the Philippines, Father's Day is not an official holiday, but is widely observed on 3rd Sunday of June. Most Filipinos born in the 60's to 70's and so on, did not celebrate Father's day but due to being under the influence of the United States as seen on television, the Filipinos most likely imitates this tradition and other American holidays. The advent of the internet also helps in promoting this holiday to the Filipinos.

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Top 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in the World 2009

1. Tiger Woods
Earnings: $100 million, Sport: Golf, Nationality: American, Born: Dec. 30, 1975
As the face of Nike Golf, Woods has helped create a brand with $600 million in annual revenue for Phil Knight's company. No wonder they named a building for Woods on the Nike campus.

2. Oscar De La Hoya
Earnings: $43.0 million, Sport: Boxing, Nationality: American, Born: Feb. 4, 1973
The Golden Boy has been the biggest draw in boxing over his long career. Revenues for his 18 pay-per-view fights totaled $612 million, the most in boxing history.

3. Phil Mickelson
Earnings: $42.2 million, Sport: Golf, Nationality: American, Born: June 16, 1970
Phil the Thrill's income has surged in recent years as sponsors look for an alternative to Tiger in the golf sponsorship game. Callaway, Ford and Bearing Point write Mickelson his biggest checks.

4. Kimi Raikkonen
Earnings: $40 million, Sport: Auto racing, Nationality: Finish, Born: Oct. 17, 1979
Ferrari made Raikkonen the highest-paid driver in motor sports last year when they gave the Finn a 3-year deal. Raikkonen delivered this year when he clinched the Formula One championship earlier this month.

5. Michael Schumacher
Earnings: $36 million, Sport: Auto racing, Nationality: Germany, Born: Jan. 3, 1969
Formula One's greatest driver retired last year after dominating the sport for 15 years and winning seven championships. During his career, Schumacher earned $650 million in salary and endorsements.

6. David Beckham
Earnings: $33 million, Sport: Soccer, Nationality: British, Born: May 2, 1975
Becks invaded America this year greeted by much fanfare, but injuries kept him off the pitch for most of the MLS season. The bulk of Beckham's income is derived from sponsors like Adidas , Motorola and PepsiCo

7. Kobe Bryant
Earnings: $32.9 million, Sport: Basketball, Nationality: American, Born: Aug. 23, 1978
The possibility of the Los Angeles Lakers trading Bryant promises to be one of the biggest stories of the NBA season. Bryant will have a say where he goes, as he possesses the league's only full no-trade clause.

8. Shaquille O'Neal
Earnings: $31.9 million, Sport: Basketball, Nationality: American, Born: March 6, 1972
Injuries caused the Diesel to average career lows in points and rebounds last season. Injured or not, the Miami Heat still owes Shaq $60 million over the next three years.

9. Michael Jordan
Earnings: $31 million, Sport: Basketball, Nationality: American, Born: Feb. 17, 1963
MJ has been out of the NBA as a player for four years now, but his Jordan brand is still a $500 million a year sales business for Nike. Jordan is back in the league as a minority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

10. Ronaldinho
Earnings: $31 million, Sport: Soccer, Nationality: Brazilian, Born: March 21, 1980
The two-time FIFA Player of the Year has lucrative endorsement contracts with EA Sports, Lenovo and PepsiCo, but Nike is his biggest deal. His current contract with the Barcelona club runs through 2010

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Dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever

Dengue is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease of humans that in recent years has become a major international public health concern. Globally, 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue viruses can be transmitted. The geographical spread of both the mosquito vectors and the viruses has led to the global resurgence of epidemic dengue fever and emergence of dengue hemorrhagic fever (dengue/DHF) in the past 25 years with the development of hyperendemicity in many urban centers of the tropics.

Transmitted by the main vector, the Aedes aegytpi mosquito, there are four distinct, but closely related, viruses that cause dengue. Recovery from infection by one provides lifelong immunity against that serotype but confers only partial and transient protection against subsequent infection by the other three. There is good evidence that sequential infection increases the risk of more serious disease resulting in DHF.

DHF was first recognized in the 1950s during the dengue epidemics in the Philippines and Thailand. By 1970 nine countries had experienced epidemic DHF and now, the number has increased more than fourfold and continues to rise. Today emerging DHF cases are causing increased dengue epidemics in the Americas, and in Asia, where all four dengue viruses are endemic, DHF has become a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children in several countries.

Currently vector control is the available method for the dengue and DHF prevention and control but research on dengue vaccines for public health use is in process. The global strategy for dengue /DHF prevention and control developed by WHO and the regional strategy formulation in the Americas, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific during the 1990s have facilitated identification of the main priorities: strengthening epidemiological surveillance through the implementation of DengueNet; accelerated training and the adoption of WHO standard clinical management guidelines for DHF; promoting behavioral change at individual, household and community levels to improve prevention and control; and accelerating research on vaccine development, host-pathogen interactions, and development of tools/interventions by including dengue in the disease portfolio of TDR (UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) and IVR (WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research).

Source: WHO

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