Health News Roundup: U.S. residential drug rehabs give anti-addiction medicine; More sleep at night might reduce injury risk and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Few U.S. residential drug rehabs give anti-addiction medicine

Most people who check in to residential treatment facilities to recover from opioid use disorder won't be given medicines proven to help combat addiction, a U.S. study suggests. Doctors widely agree that the most effective treatment for opioid abuse includes anti-addiction medicines like naltrexone, buprenorphine or methadone. But only 15% of patients in residential drug treatment centers got these medicines in 2015, the study found.

More sleep at night might reduce daytime injury risk

Healthy adults who get at least eight hours of sleep a night may be less likely to experience common exercise-related injuries like fractures, sprains and muscle strains, a study of U.S. soldiers suggests. Based on survey data for 7,576 men and women in the Army's Special Operations Forces, soldiers who got no more than four or five hours of sleep a night were more than twice as likely to report a musculoskeletal injury in the past 12 months as those who slept eight hours or longer.

'Like a zombie apocalypse': Residents on edge as coronavirus cases surge in South Korea

Residents of a South Korean city at the center of a new coronavirus outbreak described empty streets, deserted shops, and a climate of fear as a surge in confirmed cases linked to a church raised the prospect of wider transmission. Malls, restaurants, and streets in Daegu, the country's fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million, were largely empty in scenes that residents and social media users likened to a disaster movie.

South Korea city deserted after coronavirus 'super-spreads' through church

The streets of South Korea's fourth-largest city were abandoned on Thursday, with residents holed up indoors after dozens of people caught the new coronavirus in what authorities described as a "super-spreading event" at a church. The deserted shopping malls and cinemas of Daegu, a city of 2.5 million people, became one of the most striking images outside China of an outbreak that international authorities are trying stop from becoming a global pandemic.

In brains of dead athletes, researchers seek clues to head trauma

Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University studies the brains of deceased football players at the world's largest brain bank, hoping to learn about the long-term impact of repeated head traumas for people ranging from professional athletes to victims of domestic abuse. "For the last 12 years, we've really focused on the long-term effects of head trauma, including what we call repetitive head trauma," where the impact doesn't cause a concussion, said McKee, chief of neuropathology at VA Boston University and director of the CTE Center of Boston University.

Super-spreaders: What are they and what do they do?

South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described an outbreak of coronavirus infections linked to a church in the city of Daegu as a "super-spreading event". But experts, including the WHO, say the term is poorly defined. WHAT IS "SUPER-SPREADING"?

Japanese data on cruise ship coronavirus infections back quarantine strategy

Newly released data from a Japanese research institute appears to back the government's case that its quarantine strategy for the Diamond Princess cruise ship was successful in stemming contagion of the coronavirus among passengers. Japan has been criticized for its handling of the quarantine, as more than 620 people on board have been infected with the virus and two elderly passengers have died.

China lab says conspiracy theories hurting efforts to curb virus

An outbreak of disinformation in China and elsewhere has hurt global efforts to combat the new coronavirus, said a specialist infectious disease lab located at the epicenter of the epidemic -- and at the heart of a number of conspiracy theories. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology said "internet rumors" had "received close attention from all walks of life" and "caused great harm to our research staff on the front line of scientific research".

SAP India says two employees tested positive for H1N1 virus

The Indian arm of German software group SAP said on Thursday it had shut down all offices in the country for sanitization after two of its employees in the southern city of Bengaluru tested positive for the H1N1 virus. SAP India offices in Bengaluru - considered the tech hub of India - Gurgaon, and Mumbai have been temporarily closed and all employees have been asked to work from home till further notice, SAP said in an emailed statement.

WHO says no time for complacency as China coronavirus cases fall

A continued decline in the number of new cases of coronavirus infections in China is encouraging, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday while warning that infections outside the country could still spread. "We are encouraged by this trend but this is no time for complacency," the WHO's director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a briefing in Geneva.

(With inputs from agencies.)