Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. E-cigarette firms probed over health concerns by U.S. House panel

Four dominant e-cigarette manufacturers face a probe into the health impacts of their products, as the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asked on Wednesday about the firms' research and marketing practices. The committee sent letters to Juul Labs Inc, 35% owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc , Fontem Ventures, Japan Tobacco Inc, and Reynolds American Inc, a unit of British American Tobacco Plc . Oklahoma judge to rule on Monday in opioid lawsuit against J&J

An Oklahoma judge will rule on Monday on whether Johnson & Johnson should be held liable in a lawsuit by the state's attorney general who argues the drugmaker should be forced to pay $17 billion for fueling the opioid epidemic. Judge Thad Balkman in Norman, Oklahoma, will deliver his decision from the bench after presiding over the first trial to result from thousands of lawsuits by state and local governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors, the court said. Salvadoran woman acquitted in abortion case calls for reform

Evelyn Hernandez has a message for El Salvador's president: End the criminalization of abortion in the conservative Central American country. Hernandez, 21, was exonerated earlier this week in a closely watched retrial after an earlier judgment found her guilty of killing her stillborn son and sentenced her to 30 years in prison. AstraZeneca Imfinzi combination fails advanced lung cancer study

A combination of AstraZeneca's lung cancer drug Imfinzi and an experimental treatment failed to extend the lives of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high levels of gene mutations, the drugmaker said on Wednesday. The late-stage clinical trial was testing Imfinzi, chemically known as durvalumab, along with another treatment tremelimumab and compared the combination to platinum-based chemotherapy to treat patients whose cancer had spread beyond the lungs. Trump administration to appeal ruling blocking price disclosure for drug ads

The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling that struck down its plan to compel pharmaceutical companies to disclose wholesale prices of their drugs in televisions advertisements. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, as it prepares to challenge the July federal court ruling. Many dermatologists need more training on African American skin and hair

(Reuters Health) - When dermatologists have training only with Caucasians, it can lead to frustration and poor care for African American patients, a new U.S. study finds. Researchers who set up focus groups of African American dermatology patients found that many had negative experiences with doctors who did not understand the differences between black and white skin, according to the results published in JAMA Dermatology. Nigeria's three-year milestone takes Africa towards polio eradication

Nigeria marked three years free of endemic wild polio on Wednesday, with health officials saying the nation's progress in fighting the crippling viral disease could result in the whole of Africa being declared polio-free early next year. The three-year milestone sets in motion a continent-wide process to ensure that all 47 countries of the World Health Organization's African region have eradicated the virus, the officials said. Marijuana may undermine fertility treatment success

Women undergoing fertility treatment who smoke marijuana may have more success if they quit, recent research suggests. Among more than 400 women undergoing treatment with assisted-reproduction technology (ART), the small fraction who reported using cannabis at the time were more than twice as likely to lose a pregnancy than those who had never smoked marijuana, or who had only used it in the past, Dr. Jorge E. Chavarro of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues found. Plastic particles in drinking water present 'low' risk: WHO

Microplastics contained in drinking water pose a "low" risk to human health at current levels, but more research is needed to reassure consumers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Studies over the past year on plastic particles detected in tap and bottled water have sparked public concerns but the limited data appears reassuring, the U.N. agency said its first report on potential health risks associated with ingestion. HHS to provide $23 million to Merck for Ebola vaccine production

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Wednesday it will fund the manufacturing of Merck & Co Inc's investigational Ebola vaccine called V920, in response to the outbreak of the deadly virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Ebola hemorrhagic fever has killed at least 1,900 people in Congo over the past year, the second biggest death toll in the disease's history, after a 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa that killed 11,300 people.

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