Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Three dead in attacks against Ebola response centers in Congo

Three health workers were killed and several injured in attacks against two Ebola response centers in eastern Congo early on Thursday, authorities and health services said. Violence and unrest have severely hampered efforts to contain the second worst Ebola epidemic on record, which has killed 2,199 people since it was announced in August 2018. Massachusetts adopts tough ban on flavored vaping, tobacco products

Massachusetts on Wednesday adopted the country's toughest ban on the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products, including menthol cigarettes, in response to a rise in youth vaping and an outbreak of vaping-related serious lung injuries. Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed into law legislation passed by the state's Democrat-controlled legislature earlier this month that also places a 75% excise tax on e-cigarettes. China reports fourth case of plague this month

Chinese health authorities on Thursday reported a fresh case of bubonic plague in the country's northern Inner Mongolia region, bringing the total number of plague cases to four since the beginning of the month. A rural herder in Siziwang county was diagnosed with the disease in a local hospital, according to a statement released by the Inner Mongolian health commission. MRI spots tumors in women with dense breasts, but false positives a problem

(Reuters Health) - Breast cancer can be difficult to detect in women with extremely dense breast tissue, but a new Dutch study indicates that getting an MRI scan can spot tumors that would otherwise be missed. "This is the first really-thorough investigation into the effect of MRI on interval cancer," said senior author Dr. Carla van Gils, referring to the tumors uncovered between screening mammograms. "There are still questions to be answered, but this is a really important step we've taken." Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's might disrupt swimming ability

(Reuters Health) - A small study finds that some people lose their ability to swim when their Parkinson's disease is treated with deep brain stimulation. Researchers identified nine cases of Parkinson's patients who effectively forgot how to swim after having a deep brain stimulation device implanted to control disease symptoms such as tremor, rigidity and slowed movement, according to the report published in Neurology. Pfizer, Novartis lead $2 billion spending spree on gene therapy production

Eleven drugmakers led by Pfizer and Novartis have set aside a combined $2 billion to invest in gene therapy manufacturing since 2018, according to a Reuters analysis, in a drive to better control production of the world's priciest medicines. The full scope of Novartis' $500 million plan, revealed to Reuters in an interview with the company's gene therapy chief, has not been previously disclosed. It is second only to Pfizer, which has allocated $600 million to build its own gene therapy manufacturing plants, according to filings and interviews with industry executives. Treating HIV-infected infants very early substantially improves health: study

A small study of African infants infected with HIV found that treating them with powerful drugs within the first hours and days of birth helped preserve their immune systems, improving their chances of better long-term health, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. HIV infections in newborns pose a huge health burden in developing countries. One study estimated that 300 to 500 infants are infected every day in sub-Saharan Africa. ImmuPharma licenses lupus drug Lupuzor to Avion in the United States

British pharmaceutical firm ImmuPharma said on Thursday it had signed a licensing and development agreement for Lupuzor, a first-in-class treatment for auto-immune disease Lupus, with U.S. company Avion Pharmaceuticals. Avion and ImmuPharma will co-develop Lupuzor, including a new Phase III trail, and Avion will commercialize the drug exclusively in the United States, ImmuPharma said. Supplements touting brain benefits may contain unauthorized ingredient

(Reuters Health) - Many supplements marketed for brain health may contain piracetam, an ingredient not proven effective for preventing or easing dementia or cognitive impairment and not approved for sale in the U.S., researchers say. In an analysis of five products purchased online, researchers found that four contained piracetam, sometimes in dangerously high amounts. The fifth, which was labeled and sold as piracetam, contained no detectable amount of the drug. Novartis's $90 million Swiss factory to help solve cell therapy bottleneck

Swiss drugmaker Novartis's new $90 million cell and gene therapy factory in northern Switzerland is on track to begin commercial production of treatments, including Kymriah for cancer and Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy, in 2020. The new gene and cell therapy factory, expected to employ 450 people, will allow the drugmaker to make its Kymriah treatment for European patients without first having to fly their immune cells across the Atlantic Ocean.