Health News Roundup: Hong Kong, vigilant over coronavirus; Later school start times, help teens and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Hong Kong's Lam says city vigilant over coronavirus

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Wednesday that the government had been very vigilant over the coronavirus, adding that the rapid flow of people across the border made the city highly vulnerable to the outbreak. Lam also confirmed the first "highly suspected" case of the coronavirus during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Later school start times may help teens get needed sleep

Teens who start school at 9 a.m. may get about an hour more sleep at night than peers who have to be in class at 8 a.m., a small German study suggests. Researchers followed 65 students at a high school in Germany for three weeks before the school switched to a flexible schedule allowing teens to choose an 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. start. Overall, the students got the same amount of sleep before and after the schedule changes took effect.

Roche wins approval for cancer drug Kadcyla in fast-growing China market

Roche said on Wednesday China had approved the import of its Kadcyla drug for breast cancer, another win for the Swiss drugmaker in its second-biggest market where rising demand has helped drive its increased sales and profit. Kadcyla, which also recently won expanded approval in the United States, Canada, and Europe for more breast-cancer patients, is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), a class of therapies that combine monoclonal antibodies with cytotoxic chemical that in 2019 picked up momentum with a record number of U.S. approvals.

The shadow of SARS: China learned the hard way how to handle an epidemic

The emergence of a new virus in central China has brought back painful memories of another virulent respiratory disease that wreaked worldwide havoc and left the country's health authorities struggling to rebuild public trust. But global health experts said China has come a long way since 2003 when it was accused of trying to cover up a major outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a previously unknown virus believed to have emerged from the wet markets of Guangdong province before spreading into major cities. As many as 774 people died in an epidemic that reached nearly 30 countries.

Paraguay's President Abdo contracts dengue fever amid outbreak

A dengue fever outbreak that has affected thousands of Paraguayans in recent weeks has reached as far as the presidential palace, with the country's leader Mario Abdo confirmed as having been struck by the disease. The country's Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni said on Wednesday that the 48-year-old president fell unwell during a trip to the east of the country and returned to the capital Asunción where the diagnosis was confirmed. He has been ordered to rest.

WHO says will decide on Thursday if China virus is a global health emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it will decide on Thursday whether to declare a global emergency over the outbreak of a new flu-like virus spreading in and beyond China. If it does so it will be only the sixth international public health emergency to be declared in the last decade.

Texas judges increasingly block minors seeking an abortion without parental consent

Texas statistics show that judges are increasingly blocking minors who wish to terminate a pregnancy without their parents' consent, a new study finds. In 37 states, including Texas, that require minors to notify or obtain permission from parents before an abortion, girls who can't ask, are afraid to ask, or have been denied can go before a judge to obtain permission to terminate their pregnancy.

Hairy situation: Scientists explain how stress-related graying occurs

Marie Antoinette's hair turned white overnight, according to folklore, before she was executed by guillotine in 1793 during the French Revolution. The ill-fated queen embodied an extreme example of the phenomenon of stress-induced graying of the hair. The biological mechanism behind such graying had long remained a mystery. But researchers said on Wednesday they have figured out how it happens: it is driven by the body's "fight-or-flight" response to danger.

Trump says U.S. in 'great shape' with plan for coronavirus

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States has a plan in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Trump says. 

China's Wuhan shuts down transport as global alarm mounts over virus spread

Deaths from China's new flu-like virus rose to 17 on Wednesday, with more than 540 cases confirmed, leading the city at the center of the outbreak to close transport networks and urge citizens not to leave as fears rose of the contagion spreading. The previously unknown coronavirus strain is believed to have emerged from an animal market in the central city of Wuhan and is suspected by Chinese officials to originate from illegally traded wildlife. Cases have been detected as far away as the United States.

(With inputs from agencies.)