French scientists on Tuesday unveiled the genetic mechanism by which they believe two men were spontaneously cured of HIV, and said the discovery may offer a new strategy in the fight against AIDS.  

In both asymptomatic men, the AIDS-causing virus was inactivated due to an altered HIV gene coding integrated into human cells, they wrote in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

People who work shifts for 10 years or more may suffer loss of memory and brain power, said a study Tuesday that also warned of safety concerns in high-risk jobs.

The effects on brain function can be reversed, the team wrote in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, but this may take at least five years.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim Tuesday urged Asia to send trained health workers to Ebola-stricken West Africa, warning the focus on stricter border control was not the solution. 

"I call on countries across Asia to offer trained health workers now to help stop Ebola at its source," Kim told reporters in Seoul.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour stated on Monday that the ratings of some private hospitals have declined according a new standard system.

The Minister announced the results of hospital ratings in a press conference.

Muhammad Ali's doctor has said he cannot be certain that the boxing great's remarkable career in the ring contributed to the former world heavyweight champion suffering from Parkinson's Disease.

It has long been asserted that the effect of taking punishing head blows in fights against the likes of George Foreman in the 'Rumble in the Jungle', whose 40th anniversary was celebrated this week, have been a key factor in Ali suffering from Parkinson's, a neurological condition which can cause its sufferers to shake and have problems with their balance.

Ebola is spreading up to nine times faster in parts of Sierra Leone than two months ago, a report by the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) said on Sunday.

"Whilst new cases appear to have slowed in Liberia, Ebola is continuing to spread frighteningly quickly in parts of Sierra Leone," said the AGI report.

Citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will need a visa to enter Singapore as part of measures against the spread of Ebola, the city-state's health ministry said Monday.

The three West African countries are the worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,900 people.

A young American woman with terminal cancer has committed suicide, following promises to do so that had triggered shock and controversy over the right to die.

Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old brain cancer sufferer, made headlines earlier this month when a video of her making her suicide threat went viral and was seen by millions of web users.

Lithuania on Saturday enacted a ban on selling energy drinks to anyone under 18, in what officials in the Baltic country claimed was a global first.

"It's a revolutionary development the world over: we didn't find a single other country to have this kind of ban," health ministry official Almantas Kranauskas told AFP.

Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF said Friday.

Rony Zachariah of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said after visiting Sierra Leone that the Ebola figures were "under-reported", in an interview with AFP on the sidelines of a medical conference in Barcelona.