Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Leaving the hospital early can double the odds of going back

Patients who discharge themselves from the hospital against medical advice are twice as likely to be back within 30 days as those who leave when doctors say they're ready, a large U.S. study finds. "Discharges against medical advice are a common occurrence among inpatients in the U.S., affecting 1 to 2 percent of discharges," said the study's author Dr. Nilay Kumar of the University of the Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. Explainer: Low vaccination rates, global outbreaks fuel U.S. measles spread

A measles outbreak that has stricken at least 225 people in New York state since October began with a traveler who visited Israel during the Jewish high holidays and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. A similar pattern unfolded three months later and nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away when a person who visited Eastern Europe returned to a community with strong ties to a local church group in Vancouver, Washington. More than 50 people fell ill there. U.S. Medicare plans to track CAR-T cancer therapy outcomes

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday proposed coverage of expensive CAR-T cell therapies at cancer centers that meet criteria including a registry or clinical study to monitor how well patients fare for at least two years after treatment. New hospital payment terms from Medicare, the federal government healthcare program for the elderly and disabled, are expected later in the year. France suggests glyphosate exit could be even slower than planned

Only half of France's farmland could do without glyphosate-based weed-killers by 2021, the country's farm minister suggested, further lowering an initial ambition to get rid of the controversial chemical by then. In November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to ban glyphosate in France within three years, rejecting a European Union decision to extend its use for five years after a heated debate over whether the weed-killer, developed by Bayer-owned Monsanto, can cause cancer. Asthma classes in school may help reduce attacks

School-age children with asthma who receive education on managing the condition may have fewer attacks, emergency room visits and hospitalizations than those who don't get such classes, a recent study suggests. Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. Severe asthma attacks and breathing problems are associated with an increased risk of health problems like obesity as well as academic challenges like chronic absences from school and cognitive impairments that can lead to lower grades and test scores. Push-up capacity may predict men's heart disease risk

The number of push-ups a man can do in the doctor's office may be a good predictor of his risk of developing heart disease in the coming years, new research suggests. In a study of more than 1,100 male firefighters followed for 10 years, researchers found that the risk of atherosclerosis and of cardiovascular events, such as stroke and heart attack, was 96 percent lower among men who could do 40 or more push-ups during timed tests compared to the men who could do fewer than 10. Nektar, Bristol combo drug shows signs of tumor reduction in bladder cancer patients

Nektar Therapeutics said on Friday some patients with advanced bladder cancer treated with a combination of its experimental treatment and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's immunotherapy, Opdivo, showed signs of tumor reduction in an early-stage study. Of the 27 patients with urothelial cancer, 19 percent showed complete response after being treated with the combo therapy using Nektar's NKTR-214, according to data, which was presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco. Indonesia to postpone halal label deadline amid industry concerns

Indonesia will push back by as much as seven years an October deadline for halal labels on food, drugs and cosmetics, after industry voiced fears the move could bring chaos and threaten supplies of life-saving vaccines and other products. In 2014, the world's biggest Muslim-majority country adopted a measure for labels certifying whether products are halal, or suitable for consumption in line with Islamic laws. If not labeled, they would face sale bans. Money troubles tied to higher risk of heart disease for African-Americans

African-American adults who often struggle to pay bills may be more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than their counterparts who don't have much financial stress, a U.S. study suggests. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and African-Americans are more likely to develop the condition than people from other racial and ethnic groups. Some previous research has linked financial stress to an increased risk of chronic health problems, but whether money troubles are a factor contributing to heart disease in the African-American population isn't as well understood, the study team writes in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Merck, Pfizer drug combo extends kidney cancer survival: study

A combination of Merck & Co's immunotherapy Keytruda and Pfizer Inc's Inlyta helped patients with advanced kidney cancer live longer than those receiving and older Pfizer standalone therapy, according to data from a late-stage study presented on Saturday. Nearly 90 percent of patients who received the combination therapy were still alive after 12 months compared with about 78 percent of patients who were alive after a year when treated with the older drug Sutent, data showed.