Rates of pneumococcal disease in New Zealand have plummeted since a vaccine was introduced, even among those who have not been immunised.

A Kiwi nurse who recently returned from Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone has tested negative for the deadly virus.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says negative result is “great news”, but a second test is required to confirm the result.

Parents of well-off Pakeha girls are less likely to get their daughters immunised against an STI because "white girls don't have sex", a health researcher believes.

A returned healthcare worker is being tested to rule out Ebola. The patient has recently been in Sierra Leone as part of New Zealand's contribution to the international response to Ebola.

The Christchurch child diagnosed with measles has passed the infectious period and has been given the green light to return to preschool, with no secondary cases being reported to health authorities.

Passengers on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland last month have been exposed to measles, public health officials have confirmed.

The Aids Foundation is investigating how a drug programme to prevent HIV in homosexual men could be introduced to New Zealand.

Two young children, aged under 10, are being tested for Ebola after being admitted to a hospital in Melbourne.

Researchers say gerbils, not rats, should be blamed for wiping out millions during the Black Plague.

Scientists at a top-secret military research unit at Porton Down, Wiltshire, have been assessing the potential use of Ebola as a bioterrorism weapon.

It's not often the All Blacks can be accused of running scared but there are genuine fears over July's historic match against Samoa in Apia following an outbreak of a mosquito-born epidemic.

A team of Kiwi nurses working as part of the international Red Cross Ebola response team in Sierra Leone got to meet Helen Clark this week.

Celia Lashlie, the Kiwi author whose work on the raising of teenage boys earned her respect around the world, has died this morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Celia Lashlie, the Kiwi author whose work on the raising of teenage boys earned her respect around the world, has terminal cancer.

The Republican Party was on the defensive yesterday after two of its leading presidential hopefuls indicated that they had sympathy for parents unwilling to vaccinate their children against infectious diseases, even in the midst of a dangerous outbreak of

The government has promised to disinfect it. But parents are wary as their children are sent back to school in what was recently an Ebola isolation centre.

An innovative concept which would override the damaging brain patterns of Parkinson's disease could give new hope to sufferers.

Schools are reopening, but in three Ebola-ravaged African countries, children have had their innocence stolen by a virus.

Brain, skin and testicular cancers are being found at higher rates in firefighters who trained at a Victorian fire training centre, a new report shows.

A Kiwi-led research breakthrough could see defective genes replaced with custom-designed DNA - a move that would combat hundreds of different diseases.

The British nurse being treated for Ebola is now in a critical condition after her health "gradually deteriorated" in hospital.

Doctor who sat next to Pauline Cafferkey on flight back to UK says she may have contracted the disease while attending church service without her hazard suit on.

Brant Tohu has quickly come to love his hook, fitted to one arm this month after he lost both legs and both hands within a year to an immune system disorder.

Having a sometimes debilitating disease is tough for many people. But it can be especially difficult for their children.