Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Cocktail of flu, HIV drugs appears to help fight coronavirus: Thai doctors

Thai doctors have seen success in treating severe cases of the new coronavirus with combination of medications for flu and HIV, with initial results showing vast improvement 48 hours after applying the treatment, they said on Sunday. The doctors from Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok said a new approach in coronavirus treatment had improved the condition of several patients under their care, including one 70-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan who tested positive for the coronavirus for 10 days. U.S. flight rules on China visits will pose new airline challenges

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued rules on Sunday to implement new restrictions on Americans who have recently visited China to address the threat of the coronavirus. Airline officials said Sunday the new rules will mean they must now ask all U.S.-bound passengers if they have visited mainland China. Airlines are expected to scrutinize passports of travelers, and warned the new rules could require passengers to arrive even earlier for U.S.-bound flights. U.S. universities set up front-line defenses to keep coronavirus at bay

On its sprawling campus in America's heartland, thousands of miles from China, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has taken aggressive steps to keep the fast-spreading coronavirus away from its classrooms and students. The school, with one of the highest percentages of Chinese students among U.S. universities, has suspended academic programs in China for the spring semester and banned students from traveling to the country for academic-related matters. It has advised faculty and staff to follow federal travel advisories that, as of Friday, warned against going to China. Trump says U.S. has 'shut down' coronavirus threat; China shuns U.S. help

The United States has taken decisive action to protect Americans from the threat of a fast-moving coronavirus while offering help to China, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, but a key adviser said Beijing had not accepted the offers of assistance. Trump appeared to downplay concerns about the impact in the United States of the flu-like virus that has killed 350 people in China and spread to more than two dozen countries, telling Fox television in an interview, "We're gonna see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes." Philippines detects first African swine fever outbreak in southern province

Blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province in the Philippines, the world's 10th-largest pork consumer, tested positive for the African swine fever virus, the Department of Agriculture said on Sunday. It was the first reported case of African swine fever infections in Davao Occidental province and elsewhere in Mindanao, the southern island of the Southeast Asian nation. Advocacy group takes plant-based meat fight to Super Bowl in ad

An advocacy group backed by the food and restaurant industries took the heated plant-based meat fight to the Super Bowl on Sunday in an advertisement, as consumer hunger for red meat alternatives rages on. The advertisement, which ran only in the Washington DC market, was aimed at plant-based meat producers such as Impossible Foods Inc, maker of the plant-based Impossible Burger, and Beyond Meat Inc, by the Center for Consumer Freedom. China virus toll rises as Chinese markets set to reopen after holiday

The death toll from the new coronavirus in China's Hubei province rose by 56 to 350 on Monday, Chinese state television reported citing official figures, as investors braced for volatility when Chinese markets reopen after the Lunar New Year break. There were another 2,103 cases detected in Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 11,177 as of Feb. 2, state television reported. U.S. confirms 11th case of new coronavirus

California health officials said on Sunday they had confirmed 11 cases of the new, fast-spreading coronavirus in the United States, with one in Santa Clara County and two more in San Benito County. In Santa Clara County, a woman and the family she is staying with are being quarantined and she is now in isolation at their home, Santa Clara County health officials told a news conference. The woman was not sick enough to require hospitalization, it added.