Health News Roundup: US Senate confirms Monica Bertagnolli as NIH director; Abortion rights advocates, Tuberculosis fight recovering from COVID-19 knock but still off target- WHO and more

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached 1.013 billion euros ($1.08 billion) in the three months through September on revenue of 6.056 billion, the medical device maker said. Syphilis cases in US newborns rise 10-fold over a decade The number of newborns with syphilis in the United States surged more than 10-fold in the last decade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

US Senate confirms Monica Bertagnolli as NIH director

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm President Joe Biden's pick to run the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, filling the director spot at the country's top medical research agency after a vacancy of almost two years. Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon, was approved by a bipartisan 62 to 26 vote. The NIH had been without a director since December 2021, when former director Francis Collins retired, ending a 12-year reign.

Abortion rights advocates, Democrats score wins in US elections

Democrats and abortion rights advocates notched a string of electoral victories on Tuesday, including in conservative Ohio and Kentucky, an early signal that reproductive rights remain a potent issue for Democrats ahead of the 2024 presidential race. In Ohio, a state that voted for Republican Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election, voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights, Edison Research projected.

Gaza health crisis deepens for the chronically ill as war intensifies

Tahreer Azzam, a nurse at Makassed Hospital in east Jerusalem, has been caring for young, desperately-ill Palestinian patients for 16 years. Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last month, she now struggles to find them.

South Korea ramps up pest control after reports of bedbugs

South Korea is ramping up pest control measures and inspections to prevent a spread of bedbugs after reports of suspected infestations at some saunas and residential facilities, officials said on Wednesday. The small, flat oval insects have caused a panic in France, where reports of outbreaks on trains and in cinemas have raised worries about the impact on tourism and the Paris Olympics, which start in less than a year. Britain too has seen a jump in enquiries about the pests.

Tuberculosis fight recovering from COVID-19 knock but still off target- WHO

The global fight against tuberculosis (TB), badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is beginning to recover but remains a long way off target, according to a World Health Organization report. During the first two years of the pandemic, there were around 4 million “missing” TB patients per year, meaning people who developed TB but who were not diagnosed or treated. That gap narrowed to around 3.1 million in 2022, the U.N. agency’s annual report estimated, back to the pre-pandemic level of 2019.

Appeals court blocks California warning requirement for glyphosate

A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an injunction barring California from requiring businesses to warn consumers that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller, causes cancer. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was unconstitutional for California to require Bayer AG's Monsanto unit, which makes Roundup, and some agricultural producers to provide the warning under a state law known as Proposition 65.

Biogen-Sage Therapeutics postpartum depression pill priced at $15,900

Sage Therapeutics has priced the oral postpartum depression (PPD) pill it developed with partner Biogen at $15,900 for a full 14-day course of treatment, the company said on Tuesday, months after the drug was approved by the U.S. health regulator. The companies had sought U.S. approval for Zurzuvae to treat clinical depression, a much larger market, and postpartum depression, but the Food and Drug Administration in August approved it only for PPD.

US FDA approves Otsuka's blood pressure treatment device for use

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of a device made by an Otsuka Holdings unit in a type of surgery to treat high blood pressure, the company said on Wednesday. The approval for Paradise Ultrasound Renal Denervation comes after an FDA panel backed its use.

Siemens Healthineers posts forecast beating Q4 results

Siemens Healthineers on Wednesday posted better than expected fourth-quarter results helped by its cancer care unit and proposed an unchanged dividend for its fiscal year 2023. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached 1.013 billion euros ($1.08 billion) in the three months through September on revenue of 6.056 billion, the medical device maker said.

Syphilis cases in US newborns rise 10-fold over a decade

The number of newborns with syphilis in the United States surged more than 10-fold in the last decade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Tuesday. The agency said 3,761 cases were recorded in 2022, the highest in over 30 years, up from 334 cases in 2012. The 2022 cases included 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths.