Reuters Health News Summary


Reuters | Updated: 04-10-2019 18:28 IST | Created: 04-10-2019 18:28 IST
Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 18, illnesses surpass 1,000: CDC

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 18 deaths due to a mysterious lung illness linked to e-cigarettes and other vaping products and said the number of confirmed and probable cases of the condition now exceeds 1,000. Public health officials are still at a loss to explain the cause of the severe lung illnesses, which have now reached 1,080 cases across 48 states and one U.S. territory so far, up from 805 cases last week. U.S. seeks advertising, sales data on e-cigarette companies

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ordered a half-dozen e-cigarette companies to turn over sales and advertising data, the federal regulator said on Thursday, in the first sign of a likely probe of their marketing practices. The announcement comes the same day the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of confirmed and probable cases of lung illnesses associated with vaping had reached 1,080 in the United States. The CDC also said on Thursday that 18 people have died due to the lung illnesses. FDA green lights AstraZeneca's asthma drug Fasenra for self-administration

British drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved self-administration of its asthma treatment Fasenra which uses a pre-filled, single-use auto-injector pen. The move is a boost for the drugmaker's respiratory portfolio after the regulator earlier this week declined to approve AstraZeneca's combination therapy to treat smoker's lung, as it tries to catch up with domestic rival GlaxoSmithKline. Trump woos seniors with order to boost Medicare health program

U.S. President Donald Trump sought to woo seniors on Thursday with an executive order aimed at strengthening the Medicare health program by reducing regulations, curbing fraud, and providing faster access to new medical devices and therapies. The order, which Trump discussed during a visit to a retirement community in Florida known as the Villages, is the Republican president's answer to some Democrats who are pushing for a broad and expensive expansion of Medicare to cover all Americans. CVS drug coverage plan based on outside pricing review is off to a slow start

A CVS Health Corp health plan that uses an outside drug pricing group to help it decide whether to cover certain new medicines has gained little traction with customers, according to its top medical executive, and has drawn fierce criticism from patient advocacy groups. The company has held back on marketing the pharmacy benefit plan while it talks to these groups, CVS said. Tanzania denies hiding information on suspected Ebola cases

Tanzania denied on Thursday it was withholding information from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on suspected cases of Ebola, saying it was not hiding any outbreak of the deadly disease in the country. "Ebola is known as a fast-spreading disease, whose impact can be felt globally. This is not a disease that the Tanzanian government can hide," Tanzania health minister Ummy Mwalimu told journalists in commercial capital Dar es Salaam. U.S. FDA approves Gilead's Descovy for HIV prevention

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Gilead Sciences Inc's Descovy to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV infection in men and transgender women who have sex with men. The approval does not include use of the drug by women to prevent HIV infection. Paralyzed man walks again with brain-controlled exoskeleton

A man paralyzed from the shoulders down has been able to walk using a pioneering four-limb robotic system, or exoskeleton, that is commanded and controlled by signals from his brain. With a ceiling-mounted harness for balance, the 28-year-old tetraplegic patient used a system of sensors implanted near his brain to send messages to move all four of his paralyzed limbs after a two-year-long trial of the whole-body exoskeleton. Massachusetts set to defend vaping ban, toughest in nation, in court

Massachusetts officials on Friday are expected to defend their crackdown on sales of vaping products in a courtroom battle testing the toughest prohibitions yet in a rapidly developing response to e-cigarettes and their potential link to a lung disease. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston has set a quick schedule to consider whether to block Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's administration from enforcing a four-month ban on the sale of vaping products. New York court blocks state ban on flavored e-cigarettes

A New York court on Thursday temporarily halted a state ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, giving the embattled vaping industry a breather just a day before the state's prohibition was due to take effect. The appellate court ruling puts a hold on the ban that was announced by New York state's Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo last month in response to widespread growing concern about the rising use of e-cigarettes among teens and a nationwide spate of lung illnesses.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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