Comedian Robin Williams was found early this morning of an apparent suicide. He was 63 years old. He struggled with addiction and depression for most of his life and recently checked into rehab as part of his constant battle. But if the statistics are correct, he was one of 9.2 million people in the United States who suffer from what’s known as “dual diagnosis” of substance abuse and mental... 

​Canada has offered to donate its experimental Ebola virus vaccine to West African States after the WHO said it would be ethical to use untested vaccines to try and contain the outbreak that has already claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHA) the country sees the vaccine as a global resource and is in talks with the US and the World Health... 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the use of unproven drugs against deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus in West Africa “ethical” as long as the provision satisfied certain criteria. “The panelists said ethical criteria must always guide the provision of such intervention,” Assistant Director-General of the WHO Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny told journalists in Geneva,... 

Some have said it is wrong that with hundreds of Africans dying from the outbreak of Ebola, extremely scarce supplies of an experimental drug went to two white American aid workers. But what if the first doses of the drug, which had never been used in people and had not even finished the typical animal safety testing, had been given to African patients instead? “It would have been the front-page... 

A dozen men were seized and stripped naked before they were forced to undergo circumcisions in western Kenya as part of a ‘ceremony’, it has been reported. The 12 men, from the Luo, Turkana, Iteso and Luhyia communities, were reportedly subjected to the procedure after their wives revealed they had not had it done previously. A number of women in the town of Moi’s Bridge, in western... 

Chikingunya, meaning “writhing around in pain”, has hit the American continent for the first time, with 1,200 cases reported in El Salvador and 57 imported cases in the United States of America. This viral disease, carried by the mosquito, was found in the Americas for the first time last December. There is one new case every two minutes in some areas. The number of cases of Chikingunya... 

The Ebola virus poses “a serious threat” to Britain, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned. The statement came as the foreign secretary was to chair an emergency COBRA meeting on Wednesday to discuss the crisis. Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Hammond said that COBRA would assess the situation and “look at any measures that we need to take either in the UK, or in our diplomatic posts... 

Sheik Umar Khan, head doctor fighting the deadly tropical virus Ebola in Sierra Leone. Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor who was leading Sierra Leone’s battle against the worst Ebola outbreak on record, has died from the virus. The West African country’s chief medical officer Brima Kargbo said the 39-year-old Khan passed away on Tuesday. Khan, who treated over 100 patients, died after dozens of local... 

McDonald’s restaurants in Japan have stopped selling products that use chicken sourced in China. It comes after a scandal involving a Shanghai factory which supplied expired meat products to global fast food chains. Over 3,000 food restaurants in Japan have followed McDonald’s example and withdrawn Chinese supplies. The restaurant chain has switched suppliers from the US-owned OSI Group, the parent... 

Britain’s Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has demanded the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) conduct an urgent inquiry into two UK factories’ alleged poor hygiene practices. The factories are at the heart of a campylobacter scandal that could pose a serious risk to public health. A body of contentious evidence amassed by Guardian journalists over a five month period has prompted Hunt to request... 

The production and sales of some of McDonald’s products is likely to be banned In Russia. Legal sanctions may affect cheeseburgers and royal cheeseburgers, filet-o-fish, chicken burgers, ice cream with berry fillings and milkshakes. Such requirements were submitted to the Tverskoy Court of Moscow from the Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor) in the Novgorod region, RIA... 

​Overweight staff may be provided with larger office chairs, lifts and priority parking by their employers, following a European court judgment on Thursday. The chief legal adviser to the European Court of Justice, Niilo Jaaskinen, said it was ‘unlawful’ to discriminate against a person if their weight affects their work, as they would technically be classified as disabled. He also argued that... 

Health workers putting on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, Guinea on June 28, 2014. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 603. The UN health agency said on Tuesday that officials recorded 85 new cases, including 68 fatal, from July 8-12. Some 52 fatalities were reported in Sierra Leone, 13 in... 

A recent study has unraveled that consistent use of sunscreen in infancy and childhood could avert risk of developing skin cancer. The study conducted by the researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute showed that the incidence of malignant melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer could be reduced by the use of sunscreen in childhood. The researchers were seeking to find why despite... 

A U.S. Border Patrol union representative says understaffing and poorly equipped, unsanitary facilities are making the general public more susceptible to the myriad diseases accompanying the wave of illegal aliens currently bypassing the US-Mexico border. Following the documentation of two H1N1 virus cases among illegal minors being held in south Texas facilities, National Border Patrol Council Local...