Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Amid U.S. measles outbreak, who needs an additional dose of the vaccine?

The United States is in the midst of its largest measles outbreak in 25 years, with the disease mainly hitting people who have failed to receive the recommended two doses of the live measles vaccine. While the vast majority of measles patients are unvaccinated children, up to 10 percent of patients in the current outbreak are adults who received at least one dose of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. U.S. doctors use medical records to fight measles outbreak

U.S. doctors are tapping into their electronic medical records to identify unvaccinated patients and potentially infected individuals to help contain the worst U.S. measles outbreak in 25 years. New York's NYU Langone Health network of hospitals and medical offices treats patients from both Rockland County and Brooklyn, two epicenters of the outbreak. It has built alerts into its electronic medical records system to notify doctors and nurses that a patient lives in an outbreak area, based on their Zip code. Trans teens face higher sexual assault risk when schools restrict bathrooms

Transgender adolescents may be less likely to be sexually assaulted when they can use school bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth, a U.S. survey suggests. The survey of 3,673 trans and nonbinary teens in American middle schools and high schools found that more than one in four reported being sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months. Pfizer gets U.S. approval for $225,000 a year heart drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Pfizer Inc's oral drug, tafamidis, to treat a rare and fatal heart disease called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, the U.S drugmaker said. Pfizer, which has touted tafamidis as a potential blockbuster product, set a list price of $225,000 a year for the medicine, which would be sold under the brand name Vyndaqel. It is the first approved medicine for the disease in the United States. GW Pharma's epilepsy drug meets main goal in late-stage trial

GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said on Monday its drug Epidiolex was successful in treating seizures in patients with a rare form of childhood epilepsy called tuberous sclerosis complex during a late-stage trial. In June, the drug became the first cannabis-based medicine to be approved in the United States after regulators permitted the treatment for two other forms of childhood epilepsy. U.S. reports 60 new measles cases in worst outbreak since 1994

The most widespread U.S. measles outbreak in a quarter-century has infected 60 new patients in the last week, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 764, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an 8.5 percent increase in the number of measles cases since April 26, also confirming that the worst outbreak of the measles in the United States since 1994 has now reached 23 states. Parents vape around kids, even kids with asthma

American adults are more likely to use e-cigarettes when they have children at home, especially when kids have asthma, a U.S. study suggests. Nationwide, 4.4 percent of adults reported current e-cigarette use in 2016 and 2017, the study found. The proportion was higher - 4.9 percent - among adults with kids, and higher still - 5.6 percent - among adults who lived with a child with asthma. Get your children vaccinated or face fine: German health minister

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has drawn up draft legislation to oblige parents to get their children vaccinated against measles or else face fines and their exclusion from daycare. Spahn's initiative comes amid a highly charged debate in Germany about whether the measles vaccine should be obligatory, and as the number of cases of the once-eradicated disease in the United States hit the highest levels since 2000. Two more swine fever outbreaks detected in South Africa

Two more outbreaks of African swine fever were detected in South Africa in April, its agriculture ministry said, following a spate of the disease in the country's North West province earlier that month. The two further outbreaks were detected in the central province of Gauteng, home to the city of Johannesburg, and Mpumalanga, a province in the north. The ministry said the same virus was responsible for all three outbreaks. High levels of sunscreen ingredients end up in the bloodstream: study

The active ingredients of commonly-used sunscreens end up in the bloodstream at much higher levels than current U.S. guidelines from health regulators and warrant further safety studies, according to a small study conducted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers and published on Monday. The over-the-counter products originally marketed to prevent sunburn with little regulation are widely used to block radiation from the sun that can cause skin cancer, the most common malignancy in the United States.