The first large-scale clinical trial of a cannabis derivative known as cannabidiol shows it was able to cut the frequency of severe epileptic seizures by 39 percent, researchers said Wednesday.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is derived from cannabis plants, but does not cause users to get high.

The World Health Organization should expand its donor base to better withstand the "shock" from planned deep budget cuts in Washington, Tedros Adhanom, the newly elected agency head, said Wednesday.

Freeze-dried mouse sperm that spent nine months in space has been used to produce healthy rodent offspring back on Earth, Japanese researchers said this week.

But could the same hold true for humans? And if conception were even possible in space, would babies born in zero gravity develop differently than their Earth-bound counterparts?

The first African to head the World Health Organization, Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom, says he aims to replicate his success in turning around his country's healthcare system on the global stage.

The 52-year-old's campaign focused on overhauling the U.N. health agency after its much-criticized handling of the west African Ebola epidemic, and speculation that the United States might cut its funding for the agency.

Cholera has killed 315 people in Yemen in under a month, the World Health Organization has said, as another aid organization warned Monday the outbreak could become a "full-blown epidemic".  

President Donald Trump is expected to propose cutting $800 billion from Medicaid over 10 years in a budget plan to be released Tuesday that would slash spending on anti-poverty and other programs, US media reported.

The plans for the massive cut to Medicaid -- which funds health care for low-income and disabled people -- come as lawmakers from his Republican Party are battling to repeal and replace Obamacare, in which Medicare plays an important role.

Nearly 23,500 suspected cases of cholera have been registered in war-ravaged Yemen in the past three weeks, including 242 deaths, The World Health Organization said Friday.

"The speed of the resurgence of this cholera epidemic is unprecedented," WHO country representative for Yemen Nevio Zagaria told reporters in a conference call, warning that there could be as many as 250,000 cases in the country within six months.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order that will impose a wide-ranging ban on smoking in public, reinforcing some of the toughest anti-tobacco measures in Asia.

Weight-loss balloons swallowed rather than surgically inserted in the stomach were shown to be safe and effective in preliminary trials, according to findings unveiled Thursday at a medical conference.

So-called intragastric balloons have been used for decades to help obese patients shed unwanted kilos. Inflated with water, the devices curb hunger and make it easier to diet by inducing a feeling of fullness.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails entered the second month of a hunger strike on Wednesday.