Health News Roundup: COVID variants BQ.1/BQ.1.1 make up nearly half of U.S. cases - CDC; Canadian hospitals, strapped for staff, strain with sick children and more

Antibody levels against the subvariant rose nearly nine-fold in older adults, aged 55 and above, who received the Omicron shot compared to a roughly two-fold increase in participants with the original shot, according to data posted on online archive bioRxiv. Analysis-U.S. midterms dampen Big Pharma hopes for drug price policy change The divided U.S. Congress after the November midterm elections undermines pharmaceutical companies who want to weaken a new law that allows the government to negotiate drug prices, Republican strategists, policy experts and pharmaceutical executives say.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

COVID variants BQ.1/BQ.1.1 make up nearly half of U.S. cases - CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated on Friday that Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 account for nearly half of the COVID-19 cases in the country for the week ending Nov. 19, compared with 39.5% in the previous week. The proportion of the two variants, which are descendants of Omicron's BA.5 sub-variant, have risen to 49.7% of circulating coronavirus variants, around two months after they were initially detected.

Canadian hospitals, strapped for staff, strain with sick children

Canadian hospitals are straining to care for an influx of sick children, many with respiratory illnesses, in the midst of staffing constraints and as a shortage of children's over-the-counter medication sends more kids to hospital. Hospitals across the country are reassigning staff to pediatric care and putting children in other parts of hospitals, from post-partum to adult wards, to grapple with the increased volume of young patients.

Beijing's biggest district urges residents to stay home as COVID cases rise

Beijing's most populous district urged residents to stay at home on Monday, extending a request from the weekend as the city's COVID-19 case numbers rose, with many businesses shut and schools in the area shifting classes online. Nationally, new case numbers held steady on Sunday near April peaks as China battles outbreaks in cities across the country, from Zhengzhou in central Henan province to Guangzhou in the south and Chongqing in the southwest.

Anti-abortion groups ask U.S. court to pull approval for abortion drugs

Anti-abortion groups on Friday filed a lawsuit asking a court to overturn U.S. regulators' approval of the drug mifepristone for medication abortion, which could hobble access to medication abortion nationwide. The lawsuit, filed in Amarillo, Texas, federal court by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and others, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lacked authority to approve the drug for abortion when it did so in 2000 and that it failed to study its risks for minors adequately.

Pfizer/BioNTech's updated COVID shot shows strong response against BQ.1.1

Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said on Friday their Omicron-tailored shot produced higher virus-neutralizing antibodies in older adults against the emerging subvariant BQ.1.1 than its original vaccine. Antibody levels against the subvariant rose nearly nine-fold in older adults, aged 55 and above, who received the Omicron shot compared to a roughly two-fold increase in participants with the original shot, according to data posted on online archive bioRxiv.

Analysis-U.S. midterms dampen Big Pharma hopes for drug price policy change

The divided U.S. Congress after the November midterm elections undermines pharmaceutical companies who want to weaken a new law that allows the government to negotiate drug prices, Republican strategists, policy experts and pharmaceutical executives say. Democratic President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed in August against the pharmaceutical industry and Republicans' opposition, allows the government's Medicare health program for people aged 65 and older and people with disabilities to directly negotiate prices for some drugs starting in 2026.

Factbox-Vaccines and drugs in the pipeline for RSV

There are no approved vaccines and only one drug in the United States for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can also lead to serious illness and hospitalization. Sanofi SA and AstraZeneca Plc's drug nirsevimab recently became the second to get Europe's approval to prevent RSV infections in infants, after Swedish drugmaker Orphan Biovitrum's Synagis. Nirsevimab does not have U.S. approval yet.

Berlin zoo unexpectedly closes after bird flu case

Berlin's zoo closed its doors without warning on Friday out of precaution after a case of avian flu was discovered in a wading bird that died earlier this week, it said in a statement.

The zoo, which welcomed over 3.7 million guests in 2019, its latest figure, did not mention when it would reopen to visitors.

(With inputs from agencies.)