An experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus has provoked only mild side effects in volunteers in Switzerland, a Geneva hospital said Tuesday.

"To date, no major side effects have been observed after the injections," the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) said in a statement.

The questions teenagers ask about HIV are brutally honest, anonymous -- and sent in 160 characters or less over mobile phone text messages.

At U-Report, a Zambian HIV advice organisation, thousands of bite-sized questions come through every day.

Faced with an outbreak which has killed almost 1,500 people, Sierra Leone is relying heavily on investigators to hunt down Ebola wherever it breaks out, stopping it in its tracks before it can spread.

Victims have barely been carried off before the questions begin: "How many people live here? Have you traveled recently or attended funerals?"

Too many U.S. infants sleep with blankets, pillows or other unsafe bedding that may lead to suffocation or sudden infant death syndrome, despite guidelines recommending against the practice. That's according to researchers who say 17 years of national data show parents need to be better informed.

THE STUDY

Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, aiming to isolate 70 percent of the sick and safely bury 70 percent of the victims in the three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — by December 1.

Only Guinea is on track to meet the December 1 goal, according to an update from WHO.

The World Health Organization issued a call to action to China Monday over HIV/AIDS as government figures said nearly half a million people are living with the disease or its precursor, with hundreds of thousands more thought to be undiagnosed.

Bernhard Schwartlaender, the World Health Organization's representative in China, wrote in an op-ed in the state-run China Daily newspaper that "there is much more China needs to do" to prevent infection and better help those living with HIV.

When Islamic State group fighters swept into northern Iraq's second city Mosul in a lightning June offensive, their propaganda trumpeted a better life for the people under jihadist rule.

Now, nearly six months later, residents there are suffering from a lack of clean water and also a shortage of medicine to treat illnesses caused by it.

Nearly 7,000 people have now died from Ebola in west Africa, with the latest report from the World Health Organization counting over 1,200 more deaths than in a toll given on Wednesday.

Data published by the U.N.'s health body late Friday showed that 16,169 people had been infected with Ebola and that 6,928 of them had died in the three countries at the center of the outbreak -- Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Beijing has adopted a smoking ban in all indoor public spaces including workplaces and public transport.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the ban will go into effect in the capital city of 21 million people on June 1 and carry a fine of up to 200 yuan ($32.50). The Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress passed the draft regulation Friday.

The Ebola scare has subsided in the United States, at least temporarily, but an Alabama manufacturer is still trying to catch up with a glut of orders for gear to protect against the disease.

Located in north Alabama, the family-owned Kappler Inc. typically gets only a few orders annually for the type of suit needed by health workers who are in contact with Ebola patients.