Health News Roundup: Kidney dialysis-related infection rates higher in U.S. minorities -report; Doctor's opioid prescription conviction tossed after U.S. Supreme Court ruling and more

Nurses and ambulance workers have been striking separately since late last year but Monday's walkout involving both, largely in England, is the biggest in the 75-year history of the NHS. Drug companies face COVID cliff in 2023 as sales set to plummet Pharmaceutical companies that made billions from the pandemic over the past two years selling vaccines and treatments are now up against a steep COVID cliff and investor pressure to spend their windfalls wisely.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Kidney dialysis-related infection rates higher in U.S. minorities -report

Preventable bloodstream infections related to kidney failure treatment are more common in U.S. Blacks and Hispanics than in whites, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Monday. Use of neck veins for administration of hemodialysis was the most important risk factor, but not the only one, researchers said in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Doctor's opioid prescription conviction tossed after U.S. Supreme Court ruling

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction of a doctor accused of unlawfully prescribing addictive opioids in Arizona and Wyoming after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in his favor that made it harder to prosecute such cases. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that under last year's Supreme Court's decision, jurors were wrongly instructed on how to determine whether Shakeel Kahn knowingly prescribed powerful drugs in an illegal manner.

New York mayor ending COVID vaccine mandate for city workers

New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that he was lifting a controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers and the city's Department of Education employees. The United States' largest city by population will also end the vaccination requirements, which began in late 2021, for nonpublic school, early child care, and daycare staff.

Workers stage largest strike in history of Britain's health service

Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance service staff walked off the job on Monday in a pay dispute, putting further strain on Britain's state-run National Health Service with their largest ever strike. Nurses and ambulance workers have been striking separately since late last year but Monday's walkout involving both, largely in England, is the biggest in the 75-year history of the NHS.

Drug companies face COVID cliff in 2023 as sales set to plummet

Pharmaceutical companies that made billions from the pandemic over the past two years selling vaccines and treatments are now up against a steep COVID cliff and investor pressure to spend their windfalls wisely. Western drugmakers including Pfizer Inc, BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc, Gilead Sciences Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Merck & Co are estimated to have brought in about $100 billion in revenue from COVID vaccines and treatments in 2022.

Nearly 60 hair relaxer lawsuits against L'Oreal, others consolidated in Illinois federal court

Nearly 60 lawsuits claiming hair relaxer products sold by L'Oreal USA Inc and other companies cause cancer and other health problems will be consolidated in Chicago federal court, according to a Monday order from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. At least 57 lawsuits have been filed in federal courts across the country over the products, which use chemicals to permanently straighten textured hair, court records show. The lawsuits allege the companies knew their products contained dangerous chemicals but marketed and sold them anyway.

Slovakia reports outbreak of H5N1 bird flu on farm - WOAH

Slovakia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a farm in the western part of the country, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health said on Monday. The outbreak near the town of Galanta killed 1,530 poultry birds out of a flock of 5,665, the Paris-based body said, quoting information from Slovakian health authorities.

Death toll from mysterious meningitis outbreak in Mexico at 35

State officials in northern Mexico on Monday reported another death caused by a mysterious meningitis outbreak, bringing the total number of victims linked to the disease to 35. To date, health authorities in Mexico's largely rural Durango state have documented 79 meningitis cases over the past few months.

(With inputs from agencies.)