A United Nations envoy warned Wednesday that cholera deaths in Haiti will surge and spread to other countries unless more funds are found to battle the epidemic.

More than 8,330 people have already died from cholera, that started in 2010 and many blame on U.N. peacekeepers based in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Sunlight may help to reduce high blood pressure, a danger factor for heart attacks and stroke, a study published in a specialist journal said on Monday.

British researchers found exposure to sunlight alters the level of nitric oxide in the skin, dilating blood vessels and thus easing hypertension.

More than 100 Nepalese doctors resigned on Tuesday as part of an ongoing strike to push for reform of medical education, while hospitals and clinics remained closed for a third day, the doctors' association said.

Doctors were still providing emergency and intensive care but all other services have been halted indefinitely since Sunday, despite a court order for their immediate return to work.

Vietnam has recorded its first death from bird flu in nine months, according to the country's Health Ministry, amid growing regional concerns over a potential resurgence of the deadly virus.

A 52-year-old man from southern Binh Phuoc province died Saturday after receiving treatment in Ho Chi Minh City, the ministry said in a statement issued late Monday.

It won't cure dementia or Alzheimer's disease, but music can nevertheless help sufferers "wake up" their memories, reveals a moving documentary presented at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory," the debut feature film by Michael Rossato-Bennett, follows the efforts of one man to convince Americans of the benefits of music on people with dementia or Alzheimer's.

Heart disease and stroke have replaced infectious disease as the top causes of early death in the Arab world, tracking the West in a trend towards lifestyle disorders, The Lancet reported Monday.

An international consortium of scientists compared the state of health in the 22 countries of the Arab League in 1990 and in 2010, using data from a vast study -- the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases report.

Thousands of people protested abortion in France in a Paris rally Sunday on the eve of a parliamentary debate on a bill that would make terminations of pregnancy easier.

Organizers, among them rightwing religious groups, anti-gay activists and associations for handicapped children, claimed 40,000 people took part. Police put their number at 16,000.

Scientists said Sunday they had unraveled the genome of the hookworm, paving the way for better remedies against the disease-causing parasite that infects about 700 million people.

An international team of researchers identified genes that help the hookworm invade its host, evade the body's immune defenses, and feed undisturbed on human blood for up to a decade.

Germany is relying more on foreign doctors to fix a crunch in its healthcare system but a notoriously daunting language barrier is complicating patient care, with potentially disastrous results.

State authorities and industry groups are pushing for stricter language tests for new arrivals to ensure that along with their medical credentials, doctors can adequately communicate with Germans in their care.

Thousands of doctors across Nepal have stayed away from work to support a colleague who has been on a hunger strike for days demanding reforms in medical education.

Tens of thousands of patients have been deprived of medical services because of the doctors' strike. Only emergency services are being provided.