Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Electrical brain stimulation can boost memory function in older people

Electrical brain stimulation using a non-invasive cap can help boost older people's mental scores to those of people 20 to 30 years younger, according to a study published on Monday. The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, found that age-related decline in working memory can be reversed by stimulating two key brain areas at a specific rhythm. U.S. FDA refuses to review Zogenix's seizure treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday refused to fully review the marketing application for Zogenix Inc's treatment for seizures associated with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of childhood epilepsy, the company said. As part of a preliminary review, FDA determined that the application was not sufficient enough for a substantive review. Exclusive: Pain-care specialist agrees to testify against Purdue, other drug makers - court documents

A physician ally of Purdue Pharma LP whose views helped drive the explosive growth in the use of addictive pain relievers for common aches and pains in the United States has agreed to testify against the OxyContin maker and other drug companies, newly disclosed court records show. Dr. Russell Portenoy, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was an early advocate for the use of opioids for chronic pain, a position he shared in medical journal articles, with regulators, at physician conferences and in other forums. He also was named as a defendant in some of the lawsuits filed by cities, counties and states seeking to hold opioid makers - including Endo and Mallinckrodt Plc - and their distributors liable for the cost of the U.S. opioid epidemic. China reports new African swine fever outbreak in Xinjiang region

China said on Monday it had confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever in Xinjiang region, as the highly contagious disease spreads through the world's largest hog herd. The outbreak in Yecheng county in the northwestern province killed 39 animals on a farm of 341 pigs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its website. Factbox: Cyclone Idai's death toll stands at 847, cholera cases rise

Hundreds of thousands of people are in need of food, water and shelter after Cyclone Idai battered Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. As of Monday, at least 847 people had been reported killed by the storm, the flooding it caused and heavy rains before it hit. Following is an outline of the disaster, according to government and United Nations officials. Regeneron forays into gene-silencing therapies with Alnylam tie-up

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would invest $800 million in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc to develop treatments for eye and central nervous system diseases using gene-silencing RNA interference (RNAi) technology. Alnylam, which last year won U.S. approval for the first treatment using the Nobel prize-winning technology, has a host of other such therapies in its pipeline for various genetic, cardio-metabolic, liver and eye and central nervous system (CNS) diseases. California allows aid-in-dying drugs for terminally ill, but hospitals set barriers

(Reuters Health) - Since 2016, a California law has allowed terminally ill patients to obtain and use aid-in-dying medications from their doctors. But nearly two-thirds of California hospitals have policies against prescribing the drugs and forbid affiliated doctors from helping patients get them, a survey shows. California's End of Life Option Act (EOLOA), which became effective on June 9, 2016, allows terminally ill adults living in California to obtain and self-administer aid-in-dying drugs. The survey, which included 270 California hospitals, found that 235, or 87 percent, had a formal policy in place to address EOLOA. Overall, 106 hospitals, or 39 percent, permitted doctors to write EOLOA prescriptions, while 164, or 61 percent, forbade physicians from writing such prescriptions, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine. GSK wins U.S. nod for two-drug HIV combination

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's two-drug treatment for HIV infections won U.S. market approval on Monday, boosting the British drugmaker's growth prospects against competitor Gilead Sciences Inc. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the combination of dolutegravir and lamivudine, to be branded as Dovato, for use in newly diagnosed adults. U.S. liver cancer deaths more common with less education

Liver cancer is the most rapidly rising cause of U.S. cancer deaths, and most of those dying from this disease are people with less education, a new study suggests. During the study - from 2000 to 2015 - liver cancer death rates nationwide rose from 7.5 to 11.2 fatalities for every 100,000 men ages 25 to 74 and from 2.8 to 3.8 fatalities for every 100,000 women in this age range, researchers note in the journal Cancer. Students may feel safer with stricter gun laws

U.S. adolescents living in states with stricter gun laws may feel safer at school, a survey of high school students suggests. Stronger gun laws were linked with lower odds that kids had been threatened or injured with any kind of weapon at school, had themselves carried a weapon, or had missed school because they felt unsafe, researchers found.