More than 70,000 Liberian babies were born without being registered as the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaged the impoverished west African nation, leaving them without healthcare and vulnerable to trafficking, UNICEF said Friday.

With maternity wards across the country forced to close last year as health workers were infected, birth registrations plummeted by almost 40 percent compared to 2013, the UN children's fund said, citing government estimates.

An eight-year-old American has become the world's youngest recipient of a transplant of both hands, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced Tuesday.

Surgeons operated for 10 hours to carry out the incredibly complicated surgery on Baltimore native Zion Harvey.

Federal health regulators on Tuesday approved an inflatable medical balloon that aids weight loss by filling up space in the stomach.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared Reshape Medical's balloon as another option for millions of obese Americans who have been unable to lose weight via more traditional methods.

Controversy over Planned Parenthood's supplying fetal tissue for research has focused attention on a little-discussed aspect of science.

Some of the organization's affiliates, in fewer than five states, provide the tissue. That's not illegal and the organization says it has done nothing improper.

An eight-year-old American has become the world's youngest recipient of a transplant of both hands, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced Tuesday.

Surgeons operated for 10 hours to carry out the incredibly complicated surgery on Baltimore native Zion Harvey. 

An experimental vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) showed promising results in animal testing, sparking an immune system response that could lead to a vaccine for people, researchers said Tuesday.

Currently there are no licensed vaccines for MERS, which first appeared in 2012 and has caused numerous scares including a recent deadly outbreak in South Korea.

Defective or 'leaky' vaccines may lead to even more powerful viruses, according to a study on poultry that raises concerns about vaccine development in humans.

When a vaccine works as intended -- such as for smallpox, polio and measles -- it protects those vaccinated and prevents the transmission of the virus.

European Union nations have until August 20 to suspend the sale of some 700 generic drugs made in India, the EU's executive confirmed on Monday.

The European Commission took the action after an Indian firm contracted by drug companies to test the medications was found to have manipulated data.

A dengue vaccine candidate by French drugmaker Sanofi protects more than three quarters of participants, an analysis found Monday.

The experimental drug allowed 80.8 percent of children aged nine and older to avoid hospitalization, according to three trials analyzed by the New England Journal of Medicine.

South Korea on Tuesday declared the effective end to a deadly outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that killed 36 people, triggered widespread panic and stymied growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Addressing a meeting of government officials in Seoul, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn said the danger posed by what was the biggest outbreak of the virus outside Saudi Arabia was over.