A declining sense of smell in older people is a strong predictor of death within just five years, according to research published Wednesday.

Thirty-nine percent of study subjects who failed a simple smelling test died during that period, compared to 19 percent of those with moderate smell loss and just 10 percent of those with a healthy sense of smell, the journal PLOS ONE reported.

The U.S. military will send more than a thousand troops to Liberia in coming weeks as part of Washington's effort to counter the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

About 700 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division and another 700 military engineers are due to deploy to Monrovia around late October, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

A UN target for slashing infant deaths will be missed, mainly through failures to roll back infectious disease and complications during pregnancy, experts said on Wednesday.

Under the fourth so-called Millennium Development Goal (MDG), all UN members were meant to reduce deaths among children under five by two-thirds by the end of 2015 from 1990 levels.

President Barack Obama's initiative to study the brain and improve treatment of conditions like Alzheimer's and autism was given a boost Tuesday with the announcement of more than $300 million in funds.

When Obama first established the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) program last year, it had $100 million in initial money for research.

If you purchased caffeine-infused underwear because of promises it will make you thinner, federal regulators say you were hoodwinked — but at least you can get your money back.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday that two companies — Norm Thompson Outfitters of Oregon and Wacoal America Inc. of New Jersey — have agreed to refund $1.5 million to consumers who purchased "shapewear" that supposedly can reduce cellulite and fat because it is infused with caffeine, vitamin E and other things.

The U.N. mission to combat Ebola opened its headquarters on Monday in Ghana, where it will coordinate international aid to assist West Africa to combat the accelerating crisis.

This outbreak has spiraled into the worst ever for Ebola, and the World Health Organization says it is has linked more than 3,000 deaths to the disease. Even that frightening figure is likely an underestimate of the true toll, said WHO. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hit hardest. Senegal and Nigeria have also been touched, but have not reported a new case in weeks.

Kids who get treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics before age two face a higher risk of childhood obesity, said a US study on Monday.

The research in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics is the latest to find a link between weight problems and antibiotics, which can eliminate bacterial infections but also the beneficial intestinal microflora that colonizes the gut.

With its collapsed health service, sick and poorly equipped security forces and broken economy, Ebola-hit Liberia finds itself on the brink of complete societal breakdown, experts warn.

The already impoverished west African state was on the slow road to recovery after 14 years of ruinous civil war ended in 2003, following the deaths of 250,000 people.

Teen girls who have sex should use IUDs or hormonal implants — long-acting birth control methods that are effective, safe and easy to use, the nation's most influential pediatricians' group recommends.

In an updated policy, the American Academy of Pediatrics says condoms also should be used every time teens have sex, to provide protection against sexually transmitted diseases that other forms of birth control don't provide, and to boost chances of preventing pregnancy.

A drug developed by Swiss giant Roche to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer has been shown to extend patients' lives by almost 16 months, researchers said Sunday.

Patients who took the new Perjeta drug in combination with chemotherapy and Roche's older anti-cancer drug Herceptin lived a median of 56.5 months, compared to 40.8 months for people in the trial who weren't on Perjeta, Roche said in a statement.