Health News Roundup: Brain fever kills 97 children in east India; What can society learn from Ebola's spread?

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Ebola's spread shows how science needs societies to succeed

The persistence of Congo's Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks, specialists in global public health say. Medical scientists, prompted by a devastating West African Ebola epidemic between 2013 and 2016, have worked fast to develop cutting edge vaccines, treatments and antibody-based therapies they hoped would prevent or halt future outbreaks of the virus. That includes an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck & Co Inc that proved more than 95 per cent effective in clinical trials.

VBI hepatitis B vaccine meets main goals in late-stage trial

VBI Vaccines Inc said on Monday a late-stage study testing its hepatitis B vaccine against GlaxoSmithKline's Engerix-B met its main goals. The trial administered VBI's Sci-B-Vac at a 10 microgram dose against a 20 microgram dose of Engerix-B, a vaccine which was first approved in the United States in 1989.

eSwatini bans imports of live pigs from countries affected by African swine fever

The Kingdom of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, banned imports of live pigs on Monday from countries that test positive for African Swine Fever (ASF) after an outbreak of the disease in neighbouring South Africa. The movement of pigs between farms will be strictly controlled, the director of veterinary and livestock services, Xolani Dlamini, said in a statement in the Swazi Observer.

Brain fever kills 97 children in east India

Nearly 100 children have died this month from encephalitis, commonly known as brain fever, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, a state health official said on Monday. Ninety-seven children had died and 146 were being treated for the disease, which occurs in seasonal outbreaks every summer, Shailesh Prasad Singh, a medical official in the Muzaffarpur district of the state, told Reuters.