Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Purdue Pharma agrees to $270 million settlement in Oklahoma opioid case

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and members of the wealthy Sackler family that own the company reached a $270 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma accusing the drugmaker of fueling an opioid abuse epidemic. The settlement unveiled by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter on Tuesday was the first to result from a wave of lawsuits accusing Purdue of deceptively marketing painkillers, helping create a deadly crisis sweeping the United States. Night shift work linked to a higher risk of miscarriage

(Reuters Health) - Pregnant women who work at least two night shifts in one week may have a heightened risk of miscarriage the following week, a new study suggests. "Women working night shifts are exposed to light at night which disrupts their circadian rhythm and decreases the release of melatonin," lead author Dr. Luise Molenberg Begtrup explained in an email. "Melatonin has been shown to be important in maintaining a successful pregnancy, possibly by preserving the function of the placenta." Democrats pounce as Trump administration ratchets up attack on Obamacare

Top congressional Democrats on Tuesday attacked a legal move by the Trump administration to step up its assault on the Obamacare healthcare law, saying last November's elections showed Americans want them to protect the Affordable Care Act. The Justice Department, in a two-sentence letter to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals filed on Monday, said it backed a federal judge's ruling in December that the Affordable Care Act violated the U.S. Constitution because it required people to buy health insurance. Novartis gets U.S. approval for new drug to treat multiple sclerosis

Novartis AG won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its new multiple sclerosis drug Mayzent, as the Swiss drugmaker seeks to tap a new group of patients in whom the neurological disease has shifted from intermittent attacks to a gradually worsening progression. Novartis will price the drug at $88,000 per year, its head of pharmaceuticals Paul Hudson told Reuters. Unvaccinated children face public space ban in New York measles outbreak

A New York suburb has banned children not vaccinated against measles from public spaces, such as schools and shopping malls, as it fights the state's worst outbreak in decades of the potentially deadly disease. Rockland County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and said the ban would remain in place for 30 days or until unvaccinated children get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot. Swiss drugmaker Roche says to shutter Rio de Janeiro plant

Swiss drugmaker Roche will close its manufacturing plant in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, shuttering operations over the next five years before selling the plot, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Located in the neighborhood of Jacarepagua, the plant makes products for Latin America and Europe, and currently employees 440 Roche workers and around 200 contractors, the company said. U.S. expands abortion 'gag rule,' cuts funding to regional bloc: Pompeo

The Trump administration on Tuesday expanded its anti-abortion policies, cutting funding to the Organization of American States (OAS) and prohibiting the use of U.S. tax dollars to lobby for or against abortion rights. Trump in 2017 reinstated a policy known as the "Mexico City Policy," requiring foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. family planning funds to certify they do not provide abortions or give abortion advice. Mozambique confirms cholera cases among cyclone victims

Dozens of fragile patients poured into a clinic in the wrecked Mozambican port city of Beira on Wednesday, as the government said it had confirmed the first five cases of cholera in the wake of deadly Cyclone Idai. Thousands of people were trapped for more than a week in submerged villages without access to clean water after the cyclone smashed into Mozambique on March 14, causing catastropic flooding. Relief efforts have increasingly focused on containing outbreaks of waterborne and infectious diseases. U.S. jury to determine liability, damages in Roundup cancer trial

A lawyer for a man who said his cancer was caused by Bayer AG's glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup on Tuesday urged U.S. jurors to "send a message" to the company by holding it liable and awarding millions in damages. The case is only the second of more than 11,200 Roundup lawsuits to go to trial in the United States as litigation setbacks and a prior jury verdict against the company have sent Bayer shares plunging. China lifts 2015 ban on French poultry imports: customs

China has lifted a ban on French poultry imports that has been in place since December 2015 following an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu in the European country. The lifting of the ban is effective immediately, said China's General Administration of Customs on its website on Wednesday.