Health News Roundup: N.Korea reports 45,540 more people with fever symptoms amid COVID outbreak -KCNA; Diabetes may increase long COVID risk; COVID while pregnant is linked to baby brain development issues and more

The administration expects vaccinations of young children to start as early as June 21 if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve the vaccines next week, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said on Thursday. Factbox-What the WHO says on how to find COVID-19's origins, prepare for next pandemic A panel of experts drafted by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare a framework to investigate future outbreaks has published its first report.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

N.Korea reports 45,540 more people with fever symptoms amid COVID outbreak -KCNA

North Korea on Friday reported 45,540 new people showing fever symptoms amid the isolated nation's first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, state media KCNA said. The media did not report whether there were any new deaths, however.

Diabetes may increase long COVID risk; COVID while pregnant is linked to baby brain development issues

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Diabetes may increase long COVID risk

Man in Sao Paulo hospital with Brazil's first monkeypox case -officials

Health officials in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo confirmed the country's first case of monkeypox on Thursday. The patient was a 41-year-old man who recently traveled to Spain and Portugal, the city's health secretariat said in a statement. He is hospitalized, the secretariat said, without mentioning his health condition.

African swine fever detected in pig livestock near Rome for the first time

Two cases of swine fever have been found in pigs at a farm near Rome, local media quoted health authorities as saying on Thursday, the first time in Italy that the African disease has spread from wild boar to livestock. Alessio D'Amato, a health official of the Lazio region of which Rome is the capital, was quoted as telling La Repubblica newspaper that pigs on the farm will be culled.

White House expects COVID vaccine orders for children under 5 to pick up

Pre-orders of vaccines for children under age five have been slow, but Biden administration senior officials say they are not alarmed and expect the pace to pick up after federal approvals later this month. The administration expects vaccinations of young children to start as early as June 21 if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the vaccines next week, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said on Thursday.

Factbox-What the WHO says on how to find COVID-19's origins, prepare for the next pandemic

A panel of experts drafted by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare a framework to investigate future outbreaks has published its first report. The panel, set up in October, comprises 26 experts from around the world and is called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).

Bluebird Bio's gene therapy for neurological disorder gets FDA panel backing

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted to recommend approval of bluebird bio's treatment for a rare neurological disorder, bringing it closer to becoming the third gene therapy to be available in the United States. All 15 committee members voted unanimously that the benefits of eli-cel for the treatment of cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD) in patients below 18 years who do not have a matched sibling for stem cell transplant, outweigh its risks.

Shanghai faces an unexpected round of COVID testing for most residents

China's commercial hub of Shanghai faces an unexpected round of mass COVID-19 testing for most residents this weekend - just 10 days after a city-wide lockdown was lifted - unsettling residents and raising concerns about the impact on business. Racing to stop a wider outbreak after discovering a few cases in the community, authorities have ordered PCR testing for all residents in 14 of Shanghai's 16 districts over the weekend.

Spain to begin monkeypox vaccination of close contacts

Spain will begin vaccinating close contacts of confirmed monkeypox cases after more than 242 people tested positive for the virus since May 19, the health ministry said on Thursday. Due to the short supply of vaccines, only those who have been in close contact or have a great risk of serious illness can get vaccinated, the ministry added in a statement.

Pandemic's origins obscured by lack of Chinese data - WHO panel

The World Health Organization said on Thursday its latest investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was inconclusive, largely because data from China is missing, another blow to its years-long effort to determine how the pandemic began. The report from the WHO expert panel said all available data showed the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 probably came from animals, likely bats, a similar conclusion to the U.N. agency's previous work on the topic in 2021 that followed a trip to China.