An "isolated" lapse in the manufacture of intravenous nutrient bags likely caused the deaths of up to five babies at a French hospital, the health minister said Friday.

"The most probable hypothesis is an isolated accident in the production stage on November 28 at the laboratoire Marette," Marisol Touraine told reporters.

Lingonberries, a fruit common in Scandinavian cuisine, may be able to help prevent weight gain and high sugar and cholesterol levels, Swedish scientists said Thursday of a new study.

In the study, which was conducted by researchers at Lund University using mice with a tendency to store fat as a model for overweight humans, the animals were fed a high-fat diet and different types of berries during three months.

Vitamin D supplements have no significant effect on preventing heart attack, stroke, cancer or bone fractures, according to a review of scientific evidence published Friday.

Researchers led by Mark Bolland of the University of Auckland in New Zealand looked at 40 high-quality trials to see if supplements met a benchmark of reducing risk of these problems by 15 percent or more.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there's no reason to believe that the coloring added to sodas is unsafe. But the agency is taking another look just to make sure.

The agency's announcement comes in response to a study by Consumer Reports that shows 12 brands of soda have varying levels of 4-methylimidazole — an impurity found in some caramel coloring.

Schizophrenia is caused by a large number of rare genetic mutations rather than a few, easily-identifiable faulty genes, said scientists who compiled the world's largest database on the debilitating disorder.

Two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature said the genetic triggers for the mental illness that affects about one in 100 people were far more complex than previously thought.

Taking over-the-counter medication to reduce a fever might help a person to feel better, but may also be increasing the spread of the virus, according to a new Canadian study.

Higher body temperatures help to kill viral and bacterial infections and prevent bacteria and viruses from replicating.

After the failure of two novel drugs using antibodies to fight the buildup of brain plaque in Alzheimer's patients, scientists said Wednesday they have learned lessons for the future.

The biologic drugs solanezumab, by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and bapineuzumab, by Johnson and Johnson, made it to phase III trials and were taken by thousands of patients, according to a full report on the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

They quibble, joke and share knowing looks, finishing each other's thoughts and making snide comments — like many sisters. But a recent heated argument was unlike any other they've had, and it ended in a most surprising way.

For months, 71-year-old Irma Myers-Santana and her younger sister, Anna Williamson, 69, had been debating who more urgently needed a lung transplant, each wanting the other to go first. Earlier this month, though, the sisters ended up in the same operating room, each getting one lung from the same donor in what doctors at Houston Methodist Hospital say is a first for their facility.

Billionaire software baron turned philanthropist Bill Gates has warned that violence in Nigeria and Pakistan could set back his goal of eradicating polio by 2018.

Last year, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- a charity that funds medical research and vaccination drives -- made wiping out the crippling disease in the next six years its top priority.

Consumers may expect that medical treatments approved for the U.S. market are safe and thoroughly tested, but a study out Tuesday said that is not always the case.

Some drugs undergo more rigorous testing than others, while most are never compared to existing treatments to see if they are better or worse, said the study by researchers at Yale University.