Watching sport can make you fitter, according to research Sunday that said viewing other people exercise increases heart rate and other physiological measures as if you were working out yourself.

The study, published in the international journal Frontiers in Autonomic Neuroscience, showed that when watching a first person video of someone else running, heart rate, respiration, skin blood flow and sweat release all increased.

The Saudi health ministry on Sunday announced a new MERS death, raising to 55 the number of people killed by the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.

A 37-year-old Saudi man died in Riyadh, the ministry said on its website.

An expatriate living in Qatar has died of MERS, bringing to four the number of deaths in the Gulf state from the coronavirus, health authorities said on Friday.

The 48-year-old had other pre-existing health problems, Qatar's Supreme Council of Health in a statement.

The city of Vancouver has banned doorknobs in new construction, a city official said Thursday.

Wrist-twisting doorknobs will be replaced with levers to make it easier on seniors and those with disabilities, city spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco told AFP.

President Barack Obama has lifted a ban on research into the possibility of transplanting organs from one HIV-positive person to another.

Obama signed a bill into law Thursday that directs the federal health department to develop and institute standards for conducting such research. It also permits the health secretary to allow such transplants if the research results warrant a change. The safety of the organ transplant process also must be protected.

Mossamat Jhumu is tickled pink, as she has just won the lottery in Virginia. However, the prize is not money or merchandise but free health care.

On a cold November morning, this 39-year-old woman of Bangladeshi origin was among 100 people waiting patiently outside the sleek, modern Arlington Free Clinic in the Washington suburbs.

People who go through an economic recession at the peak of their working life suffer a risk of cognitive decline in later years, a study suggested on Wednesday.

The findings imply that mental skills may be affected by periods of redundancy or forced moves to part-time, lower-paid or lower-status work.

At least 573 people have died from dengue in Brazil so far this year, nearly twice the figure reported in 2012, according to official figures released Wednesday.

Last year, 292 deaths were recorded and 473 in 2011, according to the health ministry.

A third of the world's rich countries cut health spending between 2009 and 2011, according to a probe of 33 advanced economies published on Thursday.

Per-capita spending on health fell in 11 of these countries, notably by 11.1 percent in Greece and 6.6 percent in Ireland, while growth in spending slowed in others, including Canada (0.8 percent) and the United States (1.3 percent).

Saudi health authorities on Wednesday announced a new MERS death, raising to 54 the number of people killed by the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.

A 73-year-old Saudi woman, infected by the virus and who had suffered chronic illnesses, died in Riyadh, the health ministry said in a statement on its website.