Health News Roundup: Philippines bans pig imports from Laos; Austria passes smoking ban

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Facebook to tackle content with misleading health claims

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it was taking steps to reduce promotion of products based on misleading health-related claims. In a blog post, the social media company said it had made two updates last month to reduce posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims.

Vietnam says will have African swine fever vaccine 'soon', experts skeptical

Vietnam said on Tuesday it has had initial success in creating a vaccine to fight African swine fever, which has infected farms throughout the Southeast Asian country and prompted the culling of around 10% of its pig herd. African swine fever - which has spread to Laos and North Korea as well after being detected in China in August 2018 - was first detected in Vietnam in February and has spread to farms in 61 of the country's 63 provinces.

Doctors ending life support for quadriplegic French man

Doctors have decided to end life support for a quadriplegic French man whose case has torn apart his family and has been taken to the United Nations. A family source, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday that doctors would be ending life support for the man in question - Vincent Lambert - during the day.

Pfizer, Sanofi, to boost South African Biovac's vaccine output

South Africa's Biovac Institute will start local production of Sanofi's Hexaxim vaccine next year and Pfizer's anti-pneumonia Prevnar 13 vaccine in 2021, boosting supply of life-saving drugs in its main market, its CEO said. Local output of the two human vaccines is a step change for Biovac, a public-private partnership 47.5%-owned by the South African government with long-term ambitions of expanding sales into the continent.

Austria passes smoking ban, snuffing out fallen government's flagship policy

Parliament on Tuesday passed a ban on smoking in Austria's bars and restaurants, extinguishing a flagship policy of the recently collapsed right-wing government which had scrapped the measure after it was already on the statute books. Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, launched in December 2017, imploded in May after FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache was caught in a video sting apparently offering to fix state contracts at a meeting with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece.

Austrian parliament backs EU's first total ban of weedkiller glyphosate

Austria's lower house of parliament passed a bill on Tuesday banning all uses of the weedkiller glyphosate, the first time a European Union country has taken such strong action against the chemical over concerns that it can cause cancer. Other EU countries have passed partial bans of glyphosate, developed by Bayer-owned Monsanto, although France has lowered its ambitions on a ban, highlighting its usefulness in agriculture. Austria has embraced organic farming more than other EU member state.

Philippines bans pig imports from Laos due to swine fever: WTO

The Philippines has banned imports of pigs and pig products from Laos due to an African swine fever outbreak, it said in filings published by the World Trade Organization on Tuesday. The Philippines' move follows similar steps by China and Thailand, following an outbreak in Laos' southern province of Saravane.

Most grandparents keep pills where grandkids can get them

(Reuters Health) - Most grandparents don't move medications to a safer location when grandkids come to visit, and most of them also keep pills in their bag or purse when they visit their grandchildren, a U.S. study suggests. More than half of Americans ages 50 to 80 are grandparents, and most of them have at least one grandchild under age 10, according to the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. Nearly all grandparents have medications in their homes including over-the-counter pills like aspirin as well as prescription drugs, vitamins and supplements.

States agree to pause lawsuits against bankrupt opioid maker Insys

Five states have agreed to facilitate settlement talks by dropping objections to a bid by Insys Therapeutics Inc in bankruptcy court to put on hold their lawsuits alleging the drugmaker helped fuel the opioid epidemic. The agreement was announced on Tuesday by a lawyer for Chandler, Arizona-based Insys during a hearing before a federal bankruptcy judge in Wilmington Delaware, who was set to consider whether to block the states from moving forward with their cases.

Nonwhite patients get less pain relief in U.S. emergency rooms

Black and Hispanic patients in U.S. emergency rooms are less likely to receive medication to ease acute pain than their white counterparts, a study suggests. Researchers examined data from 14 previously published studies of pain management in American emergency rooms (ERs) that altogether included 7,070 white patients, 1,538 Hispanic patients, and 3,125 black patients.