Health News Roundup: Up to 100,000 nurses across England, Wales, N. Ireland to strike -union; China reports slight drop in new COVID cases for Nov 29; Beijing cases rise and more

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said most ocular reactions seen with the drug are mild and can be managed. AstraZeneca boosts cancer portfolio with $320 million Neogene deal AstraZeneca will acquire biotechnology company Neogene Therapeutics for up to $320 million, the London-listed drugmaker said on Tuesday, seeking to build its pipeline of cell-based cancer treatments.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 30-11-2022 10:38 IST | Created: 30-11-2022 10:30 IST
Health News Roundup: Up to 100,000 nurses across England, Wales, N. Ireland to strike -union; China reports slight drop in new COVID cases for Nov 29; Beijing cases rise and more
Representative Image Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Up to 100,000 nurses across England, Wales, N. Ireland to strike -union

Nurses at half of all National Health Service locations in England, including London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, will take part in unprecedented strikes next month over pay, their trade union said on Tuesday. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had already said that nurses would walk out on Dec. 15 and 20, the first such action in its 100-year history, after the government refused to meet demands for pay hikes of 5% above inflation.

China reports slight drop in new COVID cases for Nov 29; Beijing cases rise

China reported 37,828 new COVID-19 infections on Nov. 29, of which 4,288 were symptomatic and 33,540 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday. That is compared with 38,645 new cases a day earlier – 3,624 symptomatic and 35,021 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

Amid homeless crisis, New York to step up forced hospitalization of mentally ill

New York City Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a plan on Tuesday to allow more mentally ill homeless people to be hospitalized against their will in order to tackle "a crisis we see all around us." Adams, speaking from City Hall, said the city had a "moral obligation" to help New Yorkers struggling to meet their own basic needs because of mental illness, even if those people resisted intervention.

Alzheimer's drug from Eisai and Biogen slows cognitive decline, side-effects in focus

An experimental Alzheimer's disease drug from Eisai and Biogen slowed cognitive decline in a closely watched trial but may carry a risk of dangerous side effects for certain patients, according to new data presented on Tuesday. The drug, lecanemab, was associated with a type of brain swelling in 12.6% of trial patients, a side effect previously seen with similar drugs. Fourteen percent of patients had microhemorrhages in the brain - a symptom linked to two recent deaths of people receiving lecanemab in a follow-on study - and five patients suffered microhemorrhages.

Half of Britain's free-range Christmas turkeys lost to bird flu crisis

Britons may struggle to get hold of a free-range turkey or goose for the Christmas table this year after an industry head said about half of them have either died or been culled due to the country's largest-ever outbreak of avian flu. Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, told lawmakers that British farmers usually produce 1.2 to 1.3 million free-range birds for the festive period.

CDC awards over $3 billion to strengthen U.S. public health infrastructure

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday it is awarding more than $3 billion to help strengthen public health workforce and infrastructure across the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic put severe stress on them. The public health agency's funding includes $3 billion from the American Rescue Plan announced by President Joe Biden's administration last year, and would cover all state, local and territorial health departments across the country.

UK regulator calls for review of reactions in eyes to Sanofi asthma drug

Britain's medicines regulator said on Tuesday that any new or worsening reactions in patients' eyes arising from use of Sanofi's best-selling asthma and eczema drug Dupixent should be promptly reviewed by healthcare professionals. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said most ocular reactions seen with the drug are mild and can be managed.

AstraZeneca boosts cancer portfolio with $320 million Neogene deal

AstraZeneca will acquire biotechnology company Neogene Therapeutics for up to $320 million, the London-listed drugmaker said on Tuesday, seeking to build its pipeline of cell-based cancer treatments. Though AstraZeneca's oncology portfolio accounted for more than a third of the company's revenue last year, it does not have an approved cell-based cancer therapy and is behind rivals such as Novartis and Gilead.

Mistakes at UK COVID testing lab may have led to deaths of 20 people

England's government agency responsible for responding to public health emergencies said mistakes at a testing laboratory led to misreporting of tens of thousands of positive COVID-19 cases as negative and may have resulted in the deaths of about 20 people. Britain has one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in the world, with more than 177,000 deaths since the pandemic started in 2020.

Rare success for Alzheimer's research unlocks hope for future therapies

The first big breakthrough in 30 years of Alzheimer’s research is providing momentum for clinical trials of “cocktail” treatments targeting the two hallmark proteins associated with the mind-robbing disease, according to interviews with researchers and pharmaceutical executives. Drugmakers Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen

(With inputs from agencies.)

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