Kuwait has reported its second case of the deadly MERS coronavirus for a man who just returned from abroad, the health ministry said.

In a statement cited by the official KUNA agency late Wednesday, the ministry said the new case was for a 52-year-old Kuwaiti national who was in a stable condition.

A healthy baby boy was born in eastern Hungary after his brain dead mother was kept alive for about three months to bring him to term, a hospital said Wednesday.

"The baby is already growing up at home, with his family. He was delivered by caesarean during the summer," Bela Furedi, president of the Debrecen University's medical science center, told journalists.

Only 106,000 people enrolled in the new U.S. health plan in its first month and only a quarter did so on a faulty government website, in early failures for President Barack Obama's top domestic achievement.

Government figures published Wednesday were the first official snapshot of the progress of "Obamacare" which has been plagued by glitches since it debuted on October 1.

Researchers in Taiwan on Thursday called on watchdogs to keep up their guard after a flu virus that commonly circulates among chickens was found for the first time in a human being.

The strain found in a 20-year-old patient from central Taiwan was of relatively low virulence, but the risk is that it could mix with other viruses to become more dangerous, they said.

Kuwait has discovered its first case of the MERS coronavirus for a citizen who is in "critical condition," the health ministry said on Wednesday.

"The first case of coronavirus has been discovered in the country for a citizen who was moved to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in critical condition," the ministry said, quoted by the official KUNA news agency.

An outbreak of polio that has paralyzed 13 children in war-torn Syria is linked to a strain of the virus from Pakistan, the World Health Organisation said Monday.

The vaccination of children in Syria has been disrupted by the 31-month conflict between President Bashar Assad's forces and rebels fighting to topple his regime.

More Americans should take cholesterol-lowering medication, according to new guidelines released Tuesday by the American Heart Association.

"This is a dramatic change from the 2002 federal cholesterol guideline," said the AHA in a statement, noting that drugs called statins should now be prescribed to some 33 million Americans.

Switching to e-cigarettes could save millions of smokers' lives, a conference on the increasingly popular devices heard Tuesday, though some experts warned more research on the health effects is needed.

The merits of e-cigarettes were thrashed out at a one-day gathering of some 250 scientists, policymakers, industry figures and enthusiasts at the Royal Society in London.

Dozens of psychologists were starting work in the typhoon-raked Philippines Wednesday to help dazed survivors deal with the psychological fallout of one of the country's worst ever disasters.

The operation is an early attempt by health professionals to head off what they fear could be serious problems down the road, even as the physical scars from the tragedy begin to heal.

When cancer survivor Jarrod Lyle returns to golf after a 20-month layoff at the Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne on Thursday, he expects a number of teary eyes on the tee. His own among them.

The 32-year Lyle will play his first tournament since his second fight with myeloid leukemia — his first came at the age of 17. This time, he'll have his wife and young daughter with him when he starts a tournament that he's not sure he's physically ready to finish should he make the 36-hole cut.