Health News Roundup: India approves Roche/Regeneron drug for COVID-19; India posts record daily COVID-19 deaths and more

In a weekly report, the WHO said India accounted for 46% of global cases and a quarter of global deaths reported in the past week. Exclusive: Lilly hit by staff accusations, FDA scrutiny at COVID drug factories Eli Lilly & Co employees have accused a factory executive of altering documents required by government regulators in an effort to downplay serious quality control problems at the U.S. plant producing the drugmaker’s COVID-19 treatment, according to an internal Lilly complaint and a source familiar with the matter.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

India approves Roche/Regeneron drug for COVID-19

Indian regulators have given emergency use authorization for an antibody drug cocktail developed by Roche and Regeneron to treat COVID-19, Roche's local partner said on Wednesday.

India posts record daily COVID-19 deaths, delegates test positive at G7 meet

India accounted for nearly half the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, as COVID-19 deaths in the south Asian nation rose by a record 3,780 during the past 24 hours. In a weekly report, the WHO said India accounted for 46% of global cases and a quarter of global deaths reported in the past week.

Exclusive: Lilly hit by staff accusations, FDA scrutiny at COVID drug factories

Eli Lilly & Co employees have accused a factory executive of altering documents required by government regulators in an effort to downplay serious quality control problems at the U.S. plant producing the drugmaker’s COVID-19 treatment, according to an internal Lilly complaint and a source familiar with the matter. The unsigned report, filed April 8 in Lilly’s confidential employee complaint system and reviewed by Reuters, is the latest sign of manufacturing problems at the drug giant. The complaint asserts that the executive, a top quality official at the company’s factory in Branchburg, New Jersey, rewrote findings by Lilly technical experts at the plant, which has been under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to make the conclusions appear more favorable to the company.

US birth rate falls to its lowest since 1979 as pandemic-led stress rises

Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses. Birth rate in the United States fell 4% in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies, its sixth consecutive annual decline and the lowest since 1979, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.

U.S. FDA expected to authorize Pfizer vaccine for 12-15-year-olds soon

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds very soon, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

The approval is highly anticipated after the drugmaker said in March the vaccine was found to be safe, effective and produced a robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year-olds in a clinical trial.

WHO experts voice "very low confidence" in some Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine data

WHO experts have voiced "very low confidence" in data provided by Chinese state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm on its COVID-19 vaccine regarding the risk of serious side-effects in some patients, but overall confidence in its ability to prevent the disease, a document seen by Reuters shows. A World Health Organization spokesman said that the document on Sinopharm vaccine BBIBP-CorV was "one of many resources" on which recommendations are made, tentatively scheduled to be issued later this week.

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: India posts record daily COVID-19 deaths

Germany, WHO announce creation of new data hub to fight pandemics

German Health Minister Jens Spahn called on Wednesday for a "global reset" in the fight against pandemics as Germany and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the creation of a new global hub in Berlin for gathering data on pandemics. Speaking at a virtual news conference attended also by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the WHO, Spahn said the world was still insufficiently prepared for pandemics.

Don't pass the salt - WHO issues benchmarks for sodium content in food

Excessive salt in food and beverages is putting people at greater risk of potentially fatal heart disease and strokes, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, issuing fresh guidelines for limiting sodium content. An estimated 11 million deaths globally are associated with poor diet each year, including 3 million attributable to high sodium intake, it said in a report.

In COVID-hit India, a 26-year-old doctor decides who lives and who dies

Rohan Aggarwal is 26 years old. He doesn't even complete his medical training until next year. And yet, at one of the best hospitals in India, he is the doctor who must decide who will live and who will die when patients come to him gasping for breath, their family members begging for mercy. As India's healthcare system teeters on the verge of collapse during a brutal second wave of the novel coronavirus, Aggarwal makes those decisions during a 27-hour workday that includes a grim overnight shift in charge of the emergency room at his New Delhi hospital.