Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday five new deaths from MERS, raising the death toll in the country worst-hit by the mysterious coronavirus to 157 since it appeared in 2012.

The health ministry also reported 16 new infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome raising the total so far to 511.

The U.N. health agency Wednesday warned countries to bolster their guard against the MERS virus, which has killed 152 people in Saudi Arabia and is causing alarm as it spreads elsewhere.

The World Health Organization said its emergency committee, which includes global medical and policy experts, had flagged mounting concerns about the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS).

Will locusts feed the world?

The voracious flying insect, capable of swarming in millions and stripping fields of crops, has long been associated with hunger.

Depression is the top global cause of illness and disability for adolescents, with suicide the third-biggest cause of death, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

The finding is in a new report by the U.N. agency, which has pulled together a wealth of published evidence with direct consultations with 10 to 19-year-olds around the world to assess the health issues that affect them.

A third potential case of the dangerous Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), has been found in the United States, health authorities said Tuesday.

"Two of the 20 team members exposed to the confirmed MERS patient are showing symptoms," said Geo Morales, spokesman for the Orlando hospital where one infected patient was treated.

Saudi health officials say another five people have died after contracting a potentially fatal Middle Eastern respiratory virus that has sickened hundreds.

The Saudi Health Ministry provided the death toll in its latest update on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome late on Monday.

U.S. researchers may have found a flaw with the "French Paradox," or the notion that people who drink red wine can somehow avoid the pitfalls of a high-fat diet. 

A study out Monday found that resveratrol -- one of the highly touted antioxidants in red wine -- did not help people live longer. 

A new study out Monday suggests a new hazard to consider while pregnant: driving.

The statistical analysis of more than 500,000 pregnant Canadian women found they were significantly more like to get into a serious crash during their second trimester of pregnancy than in the three years before they got pregnant.

Mark Matulaitis holds out his arms so the Parkinson's specialist can check his tremors. But this is no doctor's office: Matulaitis sits in his rural home as a neurologist a few hundred miles (kilometers) away examines him via the camera in his laptop.

Welcome to the virtual house call, the latest twist on telemedicine. It's increasingly getting attention as a way to conveniently diagnose simple maladies, such as whether that runny nose and cough is a cold or the flu. One company even offers a smartphone app that lets tech-savvy consumers connect to a doctor for $49 a visit.

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica warned U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday of the mass "murder" of smokers across the world, highlighting his nation's legal battle to preserve tough anti-tobacco laws.

Mujica met Obama in the Oval Office for talks focusing on wider U.S.-Uruguayan relations and issues including education, trade and economic issues.