Researchers say they're a step closer to developing an Ebola vaccine, with a Phase 1 trial showing promising results, but it will be months at the earliest before it can be used in the field.

The news comes amid the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 5,700 people, mostly in West Africa.

Malaysians have a passionate love affair with their lip-smacking cuisine -- rich curries, succulent fried chicken, buttery breads and creamy drinks -- but it is increasingly an unhealthy relationship.

Malaysia is Southeast Asia's fattest country, where a nationwide foodie culture is feeding mounting concern over what its health minister calls "an obesity epidemic."

E-cigarettes contain 10 times the level of cancer-causing agents as regular tobacco, Japanese scientists said Thursday, the latest blow to an invention once heralded as less harmful than smoking.

The electronic devices -- increasingly popular around the world, particularly among young people -- function by heating flavored liquid, which often contains nicotine, into a vapor that is inhaled, much like traditional cigarettes but without the smoke.

Australian scientists Wednesday said they have developed a "breakthrough treatment" to help soldiers severely wounded in battle, with the U.S. to fund further research.

Researchers claim it could be the first big advance in treating battlefield casualties since the Vietnam War, with the potential to dramatically reduce deaths in the field.

Health campaigners Wednesday welcomed India's plans to raise the age for tobacco purchases to 25 and ban unpackaged cigarettes, hailing them as a major step towards stopping nearly one million tobacco-related deaths a year.

Health Minister J. P. Nadda told parliament on Tuesday he was drawing up legislation to raise the minimum legal age for buying tobacco products, currently 18, and to force vendors only to sell full packets of cigarettes.

U.S. regulators on Monday strengthened their warning against use of a once-popular device for gynecologic surgery that can spread unsuspected cancer, saying its risk is only justified in a fraction of patients.

The Food and Drug Administration updated its April safety warning, saying doctors should not use the devices, called laparoscopic power morcellators, for performing a hysterectomy or removing uterine fibroids "in the vast majority of women."

At a small Hanoi cemetery, Nguyen Van Thao opens a fridge and pulls out a bag of bloody foetuses to prepare for burial -- a grim reminder that Vietnam has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. 

Around 40 percent of pregnancies in the country end in abortion, according to a report by doctors from Hanoi's Central Obstetrics Hospital, the figure is double the rate given by official statistics.

Apple on Monday teamed with the (RED) campaign founded by U2 singer Bono to raise money to fight AIDS.

The move came as the California-based maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macintosh computers shows deeper support for social and environmental causes under the leadership of chief executive Tim Cook.

Nearly everyone aged 66 to 75 should consider taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke, new guidelines published Monday said.

A total of 97 percent of people in the age group, and 100 percent of men, should be on the medication even if their cholesterol levels are normal, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Experts said Monday regular tests for vitamin D levels are not proven to be beneficial or harmful, despite previous research warning of damaging effects of vitamin D deficiencies in adults. 

Studies have found that low levels of the vitamin can  increase the risk of bone fractures, heart disease, colorectal cancer, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer's disease and death.