Global Health Alerts: From Afghan Opium Crisis to US Gun Violence Declaration

This summary covers various health news briefs including the impact of Afghanistan's opium production decline on overdose deaths, China approving a new cancer treatment, harmful drug concoctions in Africa, Peru's stance on transgender individuals, and other vital topics such as RSV vaccines, famine in Gaza, and increasing dengue cases.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

UN warns of overdose deaths after Afghan opium production plummets

The Taliban-ordered crash in opium production in Afghanistan, long the world's dominant supplier, could drive up overdose deaths as heroin users switch to synthetic opioids already proving deadly in Europe, a U.N. report said on Wednesday. The cultivation of opium, from which heroin is made, fell by 95% in Afghanistan last year after the Taliban banned the production of narcotics in 2022. Although opium production in Myanmar increased by 36% last year, it still fell globally by 75%, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual World Drug Report published on Wednesday.

China approves AstraZeneca's Tagrisso-chemo combo as first-line treatment

China has approved the use of AstraZeneca's blockbuster cancer drug Tagrisso in combination with chemotherapy as a first line of treatment for adults with a type of advanced lung cancer, the company said on Wednesday. AstraZeneca said the approval by China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) was based on trials which showed that patients given the combination treatment lived without the disease getting worse longer than those given just Tagrisso.

'Kush', 'Khadafi' and 'Monkey Tail' drugs pose health risks in Africa, UN agency says

The United Nations on Wednesday flagged harmful new drug concoctions, named kush, Khadafi, and Monkey Tail, as posing particular health risks across Africa because of their varying and often unknown ingredients. The drugs are believed to contain dangerous mixtures of pharmaceuticals, alcohol and solvents, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual World Drug Report.

Peru to stop labeling transgender people as mentally ill

Peru will stop listing individuals who identify as transgender, among others, as suffering from mental disorders, the country's health ministry announced on Tuesday, following a backlash to the move that critics derided as unnecessary and discriminatory. The decision comes after hundreds of protesters took the streets of the capital Lima last month to demand the scrapping of a new law that described those who identify as transgender, along with "cross dressers" and those with "gender identity disorders" as mentally ill and eligible for health services via both public and private providers.

Haleon to sell nicotine replacement therapy business outside US for $633 million

Haleon will sell its nicotine replacement therapy business outside the U.S. to a unit of India's Dr. Reddy's for 500 million pounds ($632.55 million), the British consumer healthcare company said on Wednesday. The divestment is expected to dilute Haleon's 2024 net revenue and adjusted operating profit by about 0.5% and about 1%, respectively. The company kept the rest of the forecast unchanged.

South Africa records third mpox death after 16 confirmed cases

South Africa has recorded its third death from the viral infection mpox in an outbreak that started in May and has seen 16 laboratory-confirmed cases so far, its health ministry said on Tuesday. The third person who died was a 40-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal province who had mpox-like symptoms including a rash all over his body, the ministry said.

US advisers to consider RSV shots as GSK looks to keep market lead

A committee of outside experts to the U.S. CDC are set to vote on whether to expand the age group of adults who should receive respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines this year, as GSK battles rival Pfizer and new entrant Moderna to keep its top position in the market. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet on Wednesday through Friday to consider and recommend who should get RSV, influenza and COVID-19 vaccines and how strong to make those recommendations.

Gun violence is a public health crisis, US surgeon general declares

The U.S. surgeon general declared gun violence in the country a public health crisis on Tuesday, calling on Americans to act to prevent rising firearm-related deaths and their cascading effects, particularly on Black Americans, young Americans and other populations. In the first-ever public health advisory on gun violence, the nation's top public health official, Vivek Murthy, outlined what he called devastating and far-reaching consequences to the public's well-being and called for more research funding, better mental health access and other steps such as secure storage to reduce harm.

High risk of famine persists across Gaza, global hunger monitor says

Gaza remains at high risk of famine as war between Israel and Hamas continues and access to aid is restricted, though delivery of supplies had limited the projected spread of extreme hunger in northern areas, a global monitor said on Tuesday. More than 495,000 people across the Gaza Strip are facing the most severe, or "catastrophic", level of food insecurity, according to an update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

US CDC alerts healthcare providers of increase in dengue cases

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory on Tuesday alerting healthcare providers about an increased risk of dengue virus infections in the United States. Cases of the mosquito-borne viral illness have touched a record high in the Americas this year, the agency said, echoing a similar statement from the World Health Organization last month.