Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Johnson & Johnson settles Ohio lawsuits to avoid federal trial

Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it will pay $20.4 million to settle claims by two Ohio counties, allowing the U.S. healthcare giant to avoid an upcoming federal trial seeking to hold the industry responsible for the nation's opioid epidemic. J&J became the fourth drugmaker to settle claims ahead of the Federal Court trial against multiple manufacturers and distributors in Cleveland scheduled for later this month. The case is considered a bellwether for more than 2,600 lawsuits by state and local governments that are pending nationally. Juul hires Altria executive to handle regulation amid vaping crisis

Juul Labs Inc on Tuesday hired the head of regulatory affairs at its part-owner Altria Group Inc to take on a similar role at the e-cigarette maker, amid a regulatory backlash against the growth of teen vaping in the United States. Joe Murillo is the first big hire by Juul's new chief executive officer, K.C. Crosthwaite, who himself moved over from Altria last week. Phone support tied to better outcomes for dementia patients, caregivers

Dementia patients and the family members who care for them may have a better quality of life when they have access to telephone and online support, the results of a clinical trial suggest. Researchers tested the effectiveness of a program known as the Care Ecosystem, which provided patient navigators and access to nurses, social workers and pharmacists along with regular phone check-ins to caregivers of dementia patients. After one year, dementia patients in the Care Ecosystem program had better quality of life and fewer emergency room visits and their caregivers had a lower risk of depression compared to a control group that received only usual care, the study found. Prince Harry's wife Meghan backs better access for women to higher education

Meghan, wife of Britain's Prince Harry, said on Tuesday that empowering women through education could be transformational for communities during a visit to Johannesburg University in South Africa. Meghan, who is visiting southern Africa with Harry and their four-month-old son Archie, is herself a university graduate and women's rights advocate, and she spoke of how "deeply important and meaningful" the issue of education was for her. Restrictive Georgia abortion law temporarily blocked by federal judge

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Georgia law that would have prohibited women from getting an abortion after as early as six weeks of pregnancy. The move stops the legislation from taking effect in January while a legal challenge is pending. South Korea confirms new cases of African swine fever in North Korea border town

South Korea on Wednesday confirmed two additional cases of African swine fever at pig farms in Paju, a town near its border with North Korea, the country's agriculture ministry said, bringing its total number of cases of the disease to eleven. South Korea is still looking into the source of the virus, but all of the cases have been found on hog farms near its border with North Korea, which reported an outbreak in May. Drug companies urge appeals court to remove judge from U.S. opioid litigation

Eight drug companies on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to disqualify the judge overseeing nationwide opioid litigation, in a last-ditch effort to avoid having him preside over a landmark trial in three weeks. The request came six days after U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland refused to recuse himself and said he had done nothing to favor the state and local governments suing for damages, including by encouraging settlements. Banned in Boston: Without vaping, medical marijuana patients must adapt

In the first few days of the four-month ban on all vaping products in Massachusetts, Laura Lee Medeiros, a medical marijuana patient, began to worry. The 32-year-old massage therapist has a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from childhood trauma. To temper her unpredictable panic attacks, she relied on a vape pen and cartridges filled with the marijuana derivatives THC and CBD from state dispensaries. Long drive times in rural areas may be a barrier to opioid addiction treatment

Drive times to opioid treatment programs may be as much as six times longer in rural U.S. counties compared to urban ones, researchers report. In a study that looked at drive times to opioid treatment programs in urban and rural counties in the five states with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths, researchers found that it could take nearly 50 minutes to get a clinic that could dispense methadone, according to a research letter published in JAMA. Ohio governor calls on lawmakers to ban flavored vaping products

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday called on state lawmakers to pass a ban on most flavored e-cigarettes, saying he was alarmed by a nationwide surge in a sometimes deadly lung disease linked to vaping nicotine or marijuana e-cigarettes. U.S. health officials have linked vaping to 12 deaths and 805 cases of a mysterious respiratory illness.

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