More active duty soldiers committed suicide as of the end of August, with confirmed cases hitting 62 and another 31 deaths under investigation.

Because of this alarming trend, Army officials called on military leaders at all levels to increase prevention efforts to stop more suicides as the strain of serving in two wars negatively affect American soldiers

Scientists say they may be able to develop treatments for children with Down's syndrome after the discovery of earliest developmental changes that lead to the illness.

A team of researchers from Barts and the Royal London have found the earliest developmental changes in embryonic stem cells caused by an extra copy of human chromosome 21 that sets off a chain of genetic changes in the developing embryo which results in the condition

African health ministers signed here Thursday a declaration to use a new meningitis vaccine to immunize 250 million people in Africa.

The Yaounde Declaration was signed by the ministers on the fourth day of the five-day 58th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa. Under the document, health authorities in 25 countries composing the "meningitis belt" in Africa will introduce the new meningococcal A conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac) from 2009 to 2015 to control the brain disease epidemic in the region

Women who smoke are more likely to develop heart attacks at a much earlier age than non-smoking women, a Norwegian study has found. An average smoker can expect to have a heart attack around the age of 66 - although it can occur at a much younger age for some women, the study said.

The latest study looked at almost 1,800 patients admitted to Lillehammer Hospital, Norway, for a first heart attack from which they recovered and were discharged, or died in hospital between 1998 and 2005. About one in three patients were women, ranging in age from 27 years to 103 year

Children with older fathers are more likely to develop bipolar disorder, a mental illness that fluctuates between intense depression and mania, Swedish and British researchers said in a study.

Previous studies have linked increasing paternal age with schizophrenia and autism, but not bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression. Children born to fathers ages 30 to 34 were 11 percent more likely to be diagnosed as adults with the condition than those born to men 20 to 24. The diagnosis was 37 percent more likely in offspring of fathers 55 and older, the examination of Swedish health records found