Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. London HIV patient becomes world's second AIDS cure hope

An HIV-positive man in Britain has become the second known adult worldwide to be cleared of the AIDS virus after he received a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor, his doctors said. Almost three years after he received bone marrow stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection - and more than 18 months after he came off antiretroviral drugs - highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man's previous HIV infection. French court dismisses damages claims against Merck over thyroid drug

A court in the French city of Lyon threw out on Tuesday claims made by 4,113 plaintiffs for damages against Merck over changes to its thyroid drug Levothyrox. The plaintiffs had accused Merck of not providing sufficient information regarding changes to the product. FDA finds asbestos in three Claire's cosmetics products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration called on Congress to modernize rules for cosmetics safety on Tuesday after it issued an alert warning consumers not to use three cosmetics products sold by Claire's Stores Inc because they tested positive for asbestos, a known carcinogen. The FDA said it would work with Congress to update the regulatory framework that the agency has been operating under for more than 80 years for cosmetics. It said there are currently no legal requirements for any cosmetic manufacturer selling goods to American consumers to test their products for safety. U.S. AIDS activists welcome London 'cure' but warn against complacency

U.S. AIDS activists said on Tuesday they were encouraged by news that a patient in London became the second known person to be cleared of the deadly HIV infection but warned that the development is only one more step in a decades-long battle. Doctors in Britain said on Monday that the HIV-positive man had been cleared after he received a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor. Alnylam's gene-silencing drug meets main goal in late-stage study

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Wednesday its gene-silencing drug for treating a rare, painful disease met the main goal in a late-stage trial. The drug, givosiran, met the main goal of reducing the annualized rate of composite porphyria attacks compared to placebo in patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), the company said in a statement. U.S. FDA chief tough on e-cigarettes steps down abruptly

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Tuesday that he plans to step down next month, a sudden resignation that calls into question how the agency will handle issues such as surging e-cigarette use among teens and efforts to increase competition in prescription drugs. Gottlieb was well regarded by public health advocates and won bipartisan support for his efforts to curb use of flavored e-cigarettes by youths, speed approval times for cheap generic medicines to increase competition and bring down drug prices, and boost the use of cheaper versions of expensive biotech medicines called biosimilars. MSF-run hospital develops 3D printed prosthetics for war victims

A hospital in Jordan has given a victim of Yemen's war new hope for the future, thanks to the cutting edge technology of 3D printed prosthetics. 21-year-old Abdullah Ayed lost one arm and badly damaged the other when his home in Aden was hit by an explosive in 2017. Hands-off parenting tied to higher risk of teen gun use

When parents of boys don't enjoy parenthood or don't spend a lot of time playing or talking with them, their sons may be more likely to use guns in adolescence, a U.S. study suggests. Among 503 teen boys in Pittsburgh public schools, one in five reported carrying a gun at some point during adolescence, researchers found. Bayer launches combination insecticide to fight resistance malaria

German drugmaker Bayer AG launched on Wednesday the world's first combination indoor insecticide in Africa to help fight insecticide-resisant strains of malaria that have frustrated global attempts to stamp out the disease. After several years of steady declines, annual cases of the mosquito-borne disease are leveling off, the World Health Organization's 2018 malaria report showed in November. J&J nasal spray gets U.S. approval as first new type of anti-depressant in decades

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it approved a Johnson & Johnson nasal spray antidepressant for people resistant to other treatments but placed restrictions on use of the drug, which it warned could be misused and abused. The approval of nasal spray esketamine marks the first new type of treatment for depression in more than 30 years and has raised hopes for its relatively fast action and ability to treat some otherwise unreachable patients.

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