Health News Roundup: Phone apps can help boost physical activity; U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 34, cases of illness to 1,604

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Deaths, bad outcomes elude scrutiny at Canada's indigenous clinics

Ina Matawapit was barely conscious - intoxicated and suffering from a blow to the head - when police drove her to the North Caribou Lake clinic in Ontario, Canada, one summer evening in 2012. The nurse at the federal government-run clinic, the only source of emergency care in this remote indigenous community, told the officers the 37-year-old could sober up in jail, according to testimony at a 2018 inquest. Minutes after leaving the clinic, the police sped back. Matawapit had no pulse and could not be revived.

U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 34, cases of illness to 1,604

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 1,604 confirmed and probable cases and one new death from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total toll to 34. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,479 cases and 33 deaths from the illness and announced plans to start testing aerosols from vaping products as part of its investigation.

Several states wary of $48 billion opioid settlement proposal

Several U.S. states that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic are pushing back on a proposed $48 billion settlement framework that would resolve thousands of lawsuits against five drug companies accused of fueling the addiction crisis. The proposal would bring an end to all opioid litigation against AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp, drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc, and Johnson & Johnson.

Widely-used healthcare algorithm racially biased

(Reuters Health) - A widely used healthcare algorithm that flags patients at high risk of severe illness and targets them for extra attention has an unintentional built-in bias against black patients, a new study finds. After examining the records of 6,079 black and 43,539 white patients through the lens of the software tasked with identifying those at highest risk of serious illness, researchers determined that the algorithm was more likely to flag white patients for extra medical attention than blacks who were just as sick.

CVS pulls all 22 ounce J&J baby powder from stores

Pharmacy retailer CVS Health Corp said on Thursday it is pulling all 22 ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder from its stores and online to comply with the U.S. healthcare conglomerate's recall last week of a lot of 22 oz bottles due to possible asbestos contamination. CVS said it is recalling the bottles out of caution and to prevent customer confusion, and added all other sizes of the talc will remain on its shelves.

Two of three polio viruses eradicated in 'historic' step: WHO

The World Health Organization welcomed an "historic step" toward a polio-free world on Thursday as an expert panel certified that the second of three types of the crippling virus has been eradicated globally. The announcement by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication means that only wild polio virus type 1 is still circulating, after type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, and type 3 this week.

Phone apps can help boost physical activity

(Reuters Health) - Apps that prompt users to stand up and move every hour or to aim for a certain number of daily steps do help people add movement and exercise to their daily routines, a recent trial suggests. For the study, users of an app called MyHeart Counts were assigned to four coaching interventions, and each intervention helped increase step counts by a few hundred steps per day, according to the report in The Lancet Digital Health.

Tiniest preemies born at special hospitals have better survival odds

Extremely premature infants born at hospitals lacking the specialized care they need are more likely to die or suffer severe brain damage, a UK study suggests. Researchers examined data on 17,577 infants born before 28 weeks gestation in England from 2008 to 2015. Overall, about 62% of these babies were born in so-called tertiary hospitals with specialized neonatal units and remained there; another 12% were transferred to tertiary hospitals within 48 hours of birth; and 15% were born at local hospitals with neonatal units and remained there.

Amgen sets one lower list price for its cholesterol drug

Drugmaker Amgen Inc said on Thursday that starting next year, its official list price for cholesterol drug Repatha will be the lower price it began offering last year to patients on Medicare and those paying for the drug out-of-pocket. The company launched the lower price option last October, selling the drug to some patients under the list price of $5,850 per year because the drug's original $14,000-year-list price was too much for many patients in Medicare or with high-deductible plans.

'White death' in Argentina: The hunger of poverty feeds tuberculosis

In a poor Buenos Aires suburb, Cristian Molina's jeans and denim jacket hide his unhealthily slight frame, his legacy from years of a poor diet that left him susceptible to the tuberculosis infection he contracted earlier this year, a disease of poverty that is making a comeback in Argentina. Molina, 26, lives in the shantytown of Lujan near the wealthy capital with his parents, six siblings and four nephews. Doctors think one brother contracted the disease in prison and then spread it around the family when he returned home.

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