Health News Roundup: H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in Chhattisgarh; Strides in lung cancer lead steep decline in cancer deaths and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

India reports H5N1 bird flu outbreak in Chhattisgarh state: OIE

India has reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm in the central state of Chhattisgarh, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday, citing a report from India's fisheries and animal husbandry ministry. The virus killed 5,634 out of 21,060 birds on the farm in Baikunthpur and all of the remaining birds were slaughtered, the Paris-based OIE said in a website alert.

Strides in lung cancer lead steep decline in U.S. cancer deaths

(Reuters Health) - Cancer deaths in the United States fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017 - the largest single-year drop ever recorded - fueled in large part by progress against lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death, the American Cancer Society (ACS) reported Wednesday. Overall, cancer death rates in the United States fell 29 percent from 1991 to 2017, driven by steady drops in deaths from lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers, according to the Society's annual report on cancer rates and trends published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Bird flu hits swans in China's Xinjiang region: ministry

China's agriculture ministry said an H5N6 avian flu virus outbreak has been detected in swans in the western region of Xinjiang. Fifteen out of a group of 150 swans had died from the virus and another 15 were ill in the waterfront of a park and pond in Yining county in Xinjiang, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eight Chinese sufferers of unidentified virus released from hospital: CCTV

Eight Chinese patients diagnosed with unidentified viral pneumonia were released from hospital on Wednesday after showing no signs of fever for several days, state-owned CCTV reported. The pneumonia outbreak started in the central city of Wuhan late last month and 59 cases had been reported by Sunday, health authorities said, prompting fears of a possible SARS epidemic.

Largest study yet offers no clear talc link to ovarian cancer

U.S. researchers who conducted the largest study yet into whether applying powder to the genitals increases a woman's risk of ovarian cancer was unable to definitively put to rest the issue that has prompted thousands of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and other companies. Overall, the study did not find a significantly increased risk of ovarian cancer, but there appeared to be a heightened risk among certain women who used the products.

Bulgaria to cull another 40,000 pigs in new African swine fever outbreak

Bulgarian veterinary authorities said on Wednesday they would cull 39,656 pigs after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a farm in the northeast, the second industrial farm in the country to be hit by the virus in the last five days. Last year the virus hit six breeding farms in the Balkan country, forcing the authorities to cull more than 130,000 pigs.

Merck's Keytruda wins U.S. FDA approval for bladder cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it approved Merck & Co Inc's Keytruda for a hard-to-treat form of bladder cancer. The therapy was approved for patients with a high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer who have undergone prior treatment and are ineligible for or have opted out of surgical removal of part of the bladder.

China court jails founder of traditional medicine firm over pyramid scheme

A Chinese court jailed on Wednesday the founder of a local traditional Chinese medicine firm for running a pyramid scheme, after the death of a young girl with cancer was linked to the company in an online article that sparked anger on social media. Shu Yuhui, founder and chairman of Quanjian Nature Medicine Technology Development, was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 50 million yuan ($7.2 million), according to the court. The company was fined 100 million yuan.

Genetic markers not very good for predicting disease risk

Many people worry about inheriting health problems from their parents, but a new approach to analyzing genetic contributions to disease risk suggests that for most diseases, commercial DNA tests are not the best way to assess the odds. For the study, researchers analyzed data from almost 600 earlier studies that found associations between common variations in the DNA sequence, known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and more than 200 medical conditions. Usually, genetics explained no more than 5%-10% of the risk for several common ailments including certain cancers, diabetes and Alzheimer's.