Tunisian minister of youth and sports appointed as acting minister of health

TUNIS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Minister of Youth and Sports Sonia Ben Cheikh was appointed by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed as acting minister of health, the government said Sunday.

"This post was vacant due to the resignation of former Minister of Health Abderraouf El-Sherif," said a government statement.

The major task of the interim minister of health is to manage public health affairs on the basis of transparency, it added.

Eleven cases of neonatal deaths, caused by septic shocks from blood infections, were recorded between March 7 and 8 in the obstetrics and neonatology departments in Rabta Hospital of the capital Tunis.