Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Dutch government moves to ban laughing gas

The Dutch government on Monday announced plans to include nitrous oxide -- better known as laughing gas -- on its "black list" of forbidden drugs, in response to a rapid increase in usage of the gas among the nation's youth. In a letter to parliament Deputy Health Minister Paul Blockhuis said "recreational use of laughing gas has become a drugs problem, and therefore the Opium Law is the right route to tackle this." Bristol-Myers reports positive data on cancer treatment acquired in Celgene deal

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Saturday said that an experimental cancer therapy it acquired as part of its $74 billion deal for Celgene Corp produced positive results in a clinical trial. The company said it will apply for U.S. approval for the treatment for a type of advanced blood cancer by the end of the year. Health experts warn of emerging threat of Nipah virus

A deadly virus called Nipah carried by bats has already caused human outbreaks across South and South East Asia and has "serious epidemic potential", global health and infectious disease specialists said on Monday. The virus, identified in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore, has sparked outbreaks with mortality rates of between 40% and 90% and spread thousands of kilometers to Bangladesh and India - yet there are no drugs or vaccines against it, they said. Malaysia reports first case of polio since 1992

A three-month-old Malaysian infant has been diagnosed with polio, the first case reported in the country in nearly three decades, a top health official said on Sunday. The baby boy from Tuaran in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island tested positive for polio on Friday after being admitted to hospital with a fever and muscle weakness, Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement. Half of lymphoma patients alive three years after Gilead cell therapy treatment: study

Nearly half of lymphoma patients treated with Gilead Sciences Inc's Yescarta were alive at least three years after a one-time infusion of the CAR-T cell therapy, according to data presented on Saturday. Out of 101 patients teated with Yescarta for an aggressive blood cancer known as refractory large B-cell lymphoma in the study, 47 were still alive at least three years later, the data presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Orlando showed. Decorated with butterflies, infant-sized coffins sent to measles-ravaged Samoa

Volunteers in the New Zealand city of Rotorua are preparing two dozen white-lined coffins to be transported to Samoa at the end of the week as the measles-ravaged Pacific island nation languishes under a growing death toll that has now hit 70. The smallest of the coffins, designed for the bodies of babies, are decorated with felt butterflies, daisies, stars and hearts. Volunteers have placed a teddy bear in each of the infant-sized caskets.