Health News Roundup: Japan pledges more containment effort; Fake flyers and face-mask fear and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Gilead drug prevents the type of coronavirus in monkeys; raises hope for China trials

An experimental Gilead Sciences antiviral drug prevented disease and reduced the severity of symptoms in monkeys infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an infection closely related to the fast-spreading coronavirus that originated in China, a study published on Thursday found. The results, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raise hope that the drug, remdesivir, currently in clinical trials in China, might be effective against the new virus that has infected some 60,000 people globally and killed more than 1,300, mostly in China.

Why your Valentine might want hot chocolate for that walk on the beach

Drinking cocoa rich in flavonols - plant compounds also found in fruits, vegetables, and tea - might make walking easier for some older adults with poor circulation, a study suggests. Flavonol-rich dark chocolate and unprocessed cocoa, similar to unsweetened cocoa powder used for baking, have been linked to improved blood flow and increased walking ability in a small number of preliminary studies in animals and humans.

Fake flyers and face-mask fear: California fights coronavirus discrimination

A flyer in Los Angeles' Carson area, with a fake seal of the World Health Organization, tells residents to avoid Asian-American businesses like Panda Express because of a coronavirus outbreak. A Los Angeles middle schooler is beaten and hospitalized after students say he is as an Asian-American with coronavirus. And over 14,000 people sign a petition urging schools in the Alhambra area to close over coronavirus risks, even though there is only one case of the virus in Los Angeles County, with its population of 10.1 million.

Lenders cheered as Kenya binged on medical equipment. Did patients get help?

Kenya's health minister celebrated the delivery of a CT scanner at a large county hospital, telling journalists that sick patients could now be diagnosed locally. Nine months later, the scanner has never been used: the hospital has no radiologists. Patients must still travel 160 kilometers from central Nyandarua to Nairobi's overwhelmed Kenyatta National Hospital, where getting scans can take months.

In China's coronavirus epicenter, volunteers keep stricken city moving

A day after the city government of Wuhan locked down all of its public transportation to keep the coronavirus outbreak that began in the city from spreading further, three nurses found themselves stranded outside Hankou train station. They had returned early from the Lunar New Year holiday to go back to work at Tongji hospital, just five kilometers away, but laden with luggage and food from concerned relatives, they had no way to reach there.

Coronavirus inflicts growing toll on China's health workers

A new coronavirus has taken a growing toll of Chinese health workers on the front line of the fight to stop it, a top official said on Friday, as authorities reported more than 5,000 new cases, including more than 120 deaths. Policymakers pledged to do more to stimulate economies hit by the virus, helping Asian stock markets edged higher, with Chinese shares headed for their first weekly gain in four.

Dying a desperate death: A Wuhan family's coronavirus ordeal

There were no doctors, nurses or medical equipment at the Wuhan hotel converted into a temporary quarantine facility for suspected coronavirus patients when brothers Wang Xiangkai and Wang Xiangyou arrived two weeks ago. The next day, Xiangkai, 61, woke to find that Xiangyou, 62, had died.

After the first death, Japan pledges more containment effort; cases increase

Japan on Friday vowed to step up testing and efforts to contain the spread of a new coronavirus after suffering its first death and finding new cases, including a doctor and at least one taxi driver, in different parts of the country. The biggest cluster of coronavirus infections outside China is linked to a cruise liner quarantined in a Japanese port, with 218 people from the ship confirmed as infected and taken off to the hospital.

Spike in China virus cases doesn't show a big shift in the epidemic: WHO

The spike in cases reported from China reflects reclassifying a backlog of suspect cases using patients' chest images and not necessarily the "tip of an iceberg" of a wider epidemic, a top World Health Organization official said on Thursday. Mike Ryan, head of WHO's health emergency program, said that more than 13,300 cases reported in Hubei province overnight came after a change to include results from quicker computerized tomography (CT) scans that reveal lung infections, rather than relying on laboratory tests.

Turkey says to export fast-results coronavirus detection kit

Turkey will in the coming days export to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan locally-produced coronavirus detection kits that can get results in about two hours, its health minister said on Friday. China's coronavirus outbreak has shown no sign of peaking with health authorities reporting more than 5,000 new cases earlier on Friday.

(With inputs from agencies.)