Health News Roundup: Barbershop screenings may find undiagnosed diabetes; Depression common in lead-up to menopause and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Barbershop screenings may help find undiagnosed diabetes

Screening black men for diabetes in barbershops may help identify those who don't realize they have the disease, a new study suggests. In the United States, black men with diabetes are much more likely to develop complications and less likely to survive into their 70s than men in other racial and ethnic groups, researchers note in JAMA Internal Medicine. One reason may be that many black men at risk for diabetes go undiagnosed, particularly when they don't have a primary care provider.

Depression common in lead-up to menopause, but few gynecologists screen for it

Even though studies have shown that some 40% of women experience depression as they go through menopause, more than a third of gynecologists don't screen for it, a survey finds. While most of the gynecologists surveyed said they believed they could recognize depression in perimenopausal women, almost half did not feel confident in their ability to treat depressed patients, according to the report published in Menopause.

Trump offers China help as virus spreads, markets reel

U.S. President Donald Trump offered China whatever help it needed on Monday to control a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 81 people, stranded tens of millions during the biggest holiday of the year and rattled global markets. With provincial authorities taking increasing flak from the public over their initial response, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan city, epicentre of the outbreak, to encourage medical workers and promised reinforcements.

In virus-hit 'ghost town', stranded Thai student waits for help

When Thai medical student Badeephak Kaosala dares to leave his rented apartment in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, he puts on a mask, gloves, a hat and layers of clothing to try to avoid infection with the coronavirus that has the city on lockdown. "Anywhere you go, you are always self-conscious of touching someone or you always have to keep in mind that you have to keep a distance from the person you're walking next to - when he sneezes when he coughs, even when he breathes," said the 23-year-old student at Wuhan's Tongji Medical College.

Indian state to cull chickens after H5N1 bird flu found

Authorities in an eastern Indian state will start culling chickens and destroying eggs from Tuesday to contain a bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain, a government statement said on Monday. The samples collected from a poultry breeding and research farm of a veterinary college in Odisha state tested positive, the statement said.

U.S. State Department warns against visiting China, citing coronavirus

The U.S. State Department on Monday warned against visiting China and said Americans should not travel to the Hubei province, given that the province's city of Wuhan is ground zero for a new deadly coronavirus. The State Department has already ordered the departure of all non-emergency U.S. personnel and family members from the province and the "U.S. government have limited ability to provide emergency services" to its citizens there.

U.S. CDC says no new confirmed cases of coronavirus, 110 under investigation

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday had not recorded any new confirmed cases of a new coronavirus overnight since its last update of five and said as many as 110 potential cases were under investigation. Of the investigated cases across 26 states, 32 people had tested negative, the CDC said.

Children may face higher psoriasis risk if mother smoked while pregnant

Children born to women who smoked during pregnancy are at increased risk of psoriasis, a new study suggests. In an analysis of data on nearly 26,000 children born in Denmark, researchers found that maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with a 40% increased risk of childhood psoriasis. And that increase rose with the number of cigarettes smoked each day to nearly 300% among children whose mothers smoked 16 or more cigarettes a day while pregnant, according to the report in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

J&J CEO questioned overstock sale ahead of story on asbestos in Baby Powder

Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky on Monday faced questions from plaintiffs lawyers over the timing of his sale of company stock, as he testified for the first time in a jury trial over allegations that the company's Baby Powder causes cancer. Gorsky told the jury that he had sold company shares in November 2018, two days after a Reuters reporter contacted the company and summarized in an email her review of documents that showed J&J knew small amounts of asbestos had been found in its talc on occasion since 1971.

(With inputs from agencies.)