Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. WHO experts recommend ramping up Ebola vaccine after Congo cases surge

World Health Organization experts recommended on Tuesday a dramatic expansion of vaccination against Ebola in Congo after a surge in cases showed that the strategy of vaccinating those known to be exposed to the disease was no longer sufficient. Health workers fighting against the second worst Ebola epidemic in history are now implementing a "ring" strategy, vaccinating anyone directly exposed to known cases of Ebola, and a second ring of those exposed to people in the first ring. Denver residents vote on whether to decriminalize 'magic mushrooms'

As Denver voters went to the polls on Tuesday for a mayoral election, they were also asked to decide whether to decriminalize possession of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic drug in what is widely known as "magic mushrooms." If passed, the ballot initiative would make Colorado's capital the first U.S. city to end the imposition of criminal penalties for individuals at least 21 years of age for using or possessing the psychedelic drug. Georgia governor signs heartbeat abortion ban, joining a U.S. movement

Georgia became the fourth U.S. state this year to outlaw abortion after a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, when its Republican governor on Tuesday signed a bill that an abortion-rights group vowed to challenge immediately. Opponents called the legislation a virtual ban because fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as six weeks, before a woman may be aware she is pregnant. Pregnancy-related deaths, mostly preventable, occur up to a year after birth: CDC

Some 700 women in the United States die from pregnancy-related complications each year, up to a year after giving birth, and the deaths are usually preventable, according to a study released by U.S. health officials on Tuesday. One-third of pregnancy-related deaths, often from heart disease or strokes, occur from one week up to a year after birth, while a third occurs during pregnancy, and one-third at delivery or in the week after, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. WHO issues warning as measles infects 34,000 in Europe this year

More than 34,000 people across Europe caught measles in the first two months of 2019, with the vast majority of cases in Ukraine, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday as it urged authorities to ensure vulnerable people get vaccinated. The death toll among 34,300 cases reported across 42 countries in the WHO's European region reached 13, with the virus killing people in Ukraine - which is suffering a measles epidemic - as well as in Romania and Albania. The risk is that outbreaks may continue to spread, the WHO warned. J&J agrees to pay about $1 billion to resolve hip implant lawsuits: Bloomberg

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $1 billion to resolve the bulk of lawsuits claiming the company sold defective metal-on-metal hip implants that ultimately had to be removed, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The agreement resolves over 95 percent of the 6,000 cases in which surgeons extracted the company's Pinnacle implants because they left patients unable to walk and in pain, according to the report. Heart failure deaths rising in U.S., especially among younger adults

More U.S. adults are dying from heart failure today than a decade ago, and the sharpest rise in mortality is happening among middle-aged and younger adults, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on deaths from heart failure between 1999 and 2017 among adults 35 to 84 years old. Vaping companies facing European opposition to higher nicotine level

A push by makers of electronic cigarettes to raise nicotine levels in the European Union towards their far higher American levels is running into opposition, a senior executive at U.S. market leader Juul said on Tuesday. But there is little sign in Europe of the kind of regulatory backlash seen in the United States over youth vaping, said Grant Winterton, EMEA president of Juul. Rubber playground surfaces may contain high lead levels

Rubber playground surface material may protect kids from some injuries but be harboring a different source of harm, a study in Boston suggests. Researchers tested lead levels in the soil, sand, mulch or rubber surface materials in 28 playgrounds and found the rubber surfaces often averaged two or three times the lead levels of the other materials. Many of the highest lead levels were also found in soil surfaces, making sand and mulch the healthier surface choices for playgrounds, the study team writes in PLoS ONE. Arsenic exposure linked to heart thickening

Drinking water that is contaminated with even moderate levels of arsenic may lead to harmful thickening of the heart's main chamber walls, a new U.S. study suggests. Researchers who analyzed arsenic levels from more than 1,000 adults under the age of 50 found the risk of heart thickening over the next roughly five years was significantly higher in those with the highest exposure to the toxin, according to the report published in Circulation.