Health News Roundup: Glenmark to conduct trials in India for potential COVID-19 drug; WHO says very concerned at community spread of coronavirus in West Africa and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Glenmark to conduct trials in India for potential COVID-19 drug

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Thursday it will start clinical trials in India of antiviral drug favipiravir, seen as a potential treatment for COVID-19, sending its shares up as much as 9%. The trials come after a Chinese official told reporters last month that an active ingredient of the drug had been effective, with no obvious side effects, in helping coronavirus patients recover.

On coronavirus ICU front line: A Thai nurse's story

At the end of every 12-hour shift working with critically ill coronavirus patients, Thai nurse Suparvadee Tantrarattanapong has to disinfect herself before going home, where she sleeps in a separate room from her husband to avoid infecting him. The 36-year-old nurse in the intensive care ward at Bangkok's King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital says it's a gruelling time, but saving lives is the most important thing - along with protecting her own loved ones.

Fauci says leak concerns fueled his White House revelation of Gilead drug results

Concerns over leaks compelled the top U.S. infectious disease official to reveal data on Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental drug remdesivir, the first in a scientifically rigorous clinical trial to show benefit in treating COVID-19. The dramatic announcement by Dr Anthony Fauci in the Oval Office on Wednesday prompted concerns among scientists that the Trump administration was raising hopes about a coronavirus treatment before sharing the full data with researchers.

WHO says very concerned at community spread of coronavirus in West Africa

The World Health Organization is worried by the community spread of the new coronavirus in a significant number of West African countries, the regional head of the organization said on Thursday. Sub-Saharan Africa has confirmed around 23,800 cases with over 900 deaths. A number of countries have issued targeted lockdowns in some major cities, as well as dusk-to-dawn curfews and restrictions on interurban travel, but have stopped short of nationwide lockdowns as in most European countries and South Africa.

Factbox: Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

More than 3.19 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 226,880 have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 0200 GMT on Thursday.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS When medical resources are limited, who should get care first?

Long before COVID-19 became a global pandemic that overwhelmed hospitals around the world, ethicists have contemplated the moral dilemma of who should be first in line when medical resources are strained. They created frameworks for apportioning treatment in a variety of situations, from large-scale disasters to organ transplants, so that doctors and hospitals did not have to make fraught decisions on the fly.

U.S. cracks down on ethanol-based hand sanitizer, hitting supply as demand soars

The Trump administration has tightened restrictions on the use of ethanol in hand sanitizer, forcing suppliers of the corn-based alcohol to halt their sales at a time of soaring demand, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters. The crackdown is meant to protect consumers from potentially dangerous impurities in hand sanitizer but will likely worsen shortages of the product at a time households, hospitals and nursing homes need it to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Virus-hunting: The Vietnamese way Swiss researchers see sewage as early warning sign for COVID flares

Researchers in Switzerland have been able to detect the new coronavirus at even low concentrations in wastewater, offering a potential early warning system for flareups in infections as countries emerge from emergency lockdowns. Should the system work, sewage samples could let public health officials see a resurgence of COVID-19 infections earlier than with diagnostic tests, perhaps by around a week, the scientists said https://www.eawag.ch/en/news-agenda/news-portal/news-detail/tracking-the-course-of-the-pandemic-in-wastewater on Thursday.

AstraZeneca teams up with Oxford University to develop COVID-19 vaccine

Britain's AstraZeneca joined forces with the University of Oxford on Thursday to help develop, produce and distribute a potential COVID-19 vaccine, as drugmakers around the world race to find a solution to the deadly disease. UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma welcomed the tie-up as a vital step to making the Oxford vaccine available as soon as possible if it succeeds in clinical trials.