German doctors on Friday gave details of how an experimental drug together with advanced intensive care helped save a Ugandan physician who had been airlifted from Sierra Leone with Ebola.

A prototype drug called FX06, designed to stop hemorrhage, was given to the patient after the doctors got special authorization from their hospital's ethics committee, they reported in The Lancet.

For health care workers on the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, risking their lives in stifling protective suits, relief could soon be on the way.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a new-style outfit that is not only more comfortable, but also less likely to accidentally infect its users.

People around the world lived on average to a ripe old age of 71.5 in 2013, up from 65.3 in 1990, a study said Thursday, noting the gains came despite big increases in liver cancer and chronic kidney deaths.

Global life expectancy rose by 5.8 years in men and 6.6 years in women between 1990 and 2013.

Sierra Leone on Wednesday said health workers would go door-to-door as part of sweeping efforts to stem the spread of Ebola in the west of the country, which has also been hit by a ban on New Year revelries and travel restrictions.

President Ernest Bai Koroma led the charge in a nationwide radio address saying "travel and movements between districts will be restricted during the Christmas period" across the west African nation, which has seen the highest number of Ebola cases in the current epidemic.

When John Jairo, a meticulous night watchman, lost his job for leaving all of his employer's doors open, his family knew they were hit by the "Yarumal curse."

Yarumal, a Colombian village perched in the Andes Mountains, has a high incidence of a genetic mutation that predisposes its population to Alzheimer's -- a bleak heritage that scientists now hope could help lead to a treatment to prevent the disease.

The plight of a Chinese boy with the HIV virus, reportedly pushed to leave his home by 200 villagers who signed a petition, sparked intense online soul-searching in the country on Thursday.

The case has highlighted the stigma attached to HIV in China, where many sufferers face widespread discrimination.

Following years of demands, the ministers of health and culture on Wednesday launched a long-awaited healthcare plan for artists.

In bed asleep, eating, in her underwear or even displaying her scars after weight loss surgery, photographer Jen Davis has always been as comfortable in front of the camera as she is behind it.

But when Davis, 36, set out on a "journey of self discovery" to explore her own weight problem through a series of self-portraits, she discovered a side to herself she didn't know existed.

A New Zealand government review on Wednesday recommended French-style measures banning alcohol sponsorship of sport in a bid to curb the South Pacific nation's binge drinking culture.

The ministerial review, headed by former national rugby league coach Graham Lowe, said it was concerned that alcohol firms used sports sponsorship to reach young people from an early age and shape their drinking habits.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Ebola-hit countries in West Africa this week to raise awareness about the health crisis, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Ban is to make the announcement at a year-end press conference at the United Nations on Wednesday, U.N. official said.