Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Medical students teach high schoolers to do CPR

Medical students in Boston are teaching local high school students about CPR, and the younger students say they feel better prepared to help in cases of cardiac arrest, should the need arise. The PumpStart program was started by students from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) as a volunteer effort for doctors in training to visit nearby high schools and spread awareness about CPR. Poland to employ more inspectors to prevent suspect meat exports

Polish authorities will install cameras in slaughterhouses and employ more health inspectors to prevent exports of contaminated beef to other EU countries, chief veterinarian Pawel Niemczuk said on Thursday, after a TV report showed sick cows being taken for slaughter. "Video surveillance will be available 24 hours a day, but there should be someone with medical and veterinary knowledge that would (be able to) come and assess if the animals are unloaded in line with regulations," Niemczuk said. U.S. court blocks San Francisco health warning on soda ads

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday blocked a San Francisco law requiring health warnings on advertisements for soda and other sugary drinks in a win to the American beverage industry which fought the requirements in court. The 11 judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision said the city's ordinance violated commercial speech protected under the U.S. Constitution. Cancer patients in poor countries needlessly denied pain relief: WHO

Cancer patients in developing nations are being denied basic pain relief, often because of excessive fears about opioid abuse, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. Two-thirds of industrialized countries have oral morphine, an opioid widely used to lessen severe pain, available in more than half of their pharmacies, against only 6 percent of poor countries, WHO expert Dr Cherian Varghese said. Exclusive: Teva's generic EpiPen launch stalls months after approval

Many of the largest U.S. pharmacies and drug distributors do not have Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's generic version of the life-saving EpiPen allergy treatment five months after it was approved for sale in the United States, pharmacy chains and a group that tracks drug shortages told Reuters. The short supply represents a missed opportunity for Teva to compete with Mylan NV in a roughly $750 million a year U.S. market. Mylan's EpiPen dominates that market, but has been in short supply since May, leaving many patients and their families keen for alternatives. Suicide-risk screening might cut deaths among incarcerated youth

Teens and young men in correctional facilities are at increased risk of dying by suicide, but they are otherwise fairly similar to unincarcerated youth who take their own lives, a U.S. study suggests. Looking at a nationally-representative sample of all suicides by boys and men aged 10-24 years over a decade, one of the few differences researchers noted was that jailed youth were most likely to die within the first seven days of incarceration. Exclusive: Sri Lanka halts imports of Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder pending asbestos tests

Sri Lanka has halted imports of Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder until the company proves its product is free from cancer-causing asbestos, two government officials and the product's local distributor told Reuters. Stocks of the product already in Sri Lanka can still be sold, but there will be no new imports of the talc, a popular healthcare product across Sri Lanka and much of Asia, until J&J India, from where Sri Lanka imports the product, provides fresh test results. Celgene profit beats as psoriasis drug sales surge

Celgene Corp, which is being bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, driven mainly by higher sales of psoriasis drug Otezla. Bristol-Myers agreed to buy Celgene for about $74 billion earlier this month, a deal that will expand its pipeline of cancer drugs as the company goes head-to-head against rival Merck & Co. Exclusive: Canada budget to include limited coverage for prescription drugs - sources

Canada's Liberal government will propose a limited expansion to the country's universal healthcare system in the spring budget, to cover part of the cost of prescription drugs, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The modest broadening of the healthcare program is set to become one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's key campaign promises ahead of the October election, which is shaping up to be a close fight. U.S. lawmakers request info from insulin makers on rising prices

Two powerful U.S. lawmakers sent letters to the three leading insulin manufacturers on Wednesday requesting information on why its cost has skyrocketed in recent years and how much the companies profit from the life-sustaining diabetes treatment. Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Diana DeGette, the chairman and a top-ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, respectively, wrote to the heads of Eli Lilly and Co, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, the long-time leading manufacturers of insulin. The drugmakers have all raised the price of insulin at similar rates over the last several years.