Health News Roundup: US FDA approves Boston Scientific's heart device; Healthcare providers hit by frozen payments in ransomware outage and more

In 2015, Thailand introduced tough regulations to control surrogacy and banned the process for foreign couples after several high profile scandals that led to a crackdown on the country's unregulated "wombs for hire" industry. Missouri accuses Planned Parenthood of 'trafficking' minors to get abortions Missouri's Republican attorney general on Thursday sued a Planned Parenthood affiliate, accusing it of helping minors travel to Kansas to get abortions without notifying their parents in violation of state law.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

UK almost doubled health and care worker visas last year

Britain almost doubled the number of visas given to foreign health and care workers last year, government data showed, adding to pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over immigration ahead of an election expected later this year. Trailing the opposition Labour party in the polls, Sunak has vowed to bring down immigration, a major concern for voters.

Pfizer says its RSV shot is protective through a second year

Pfizer on Thursday said a single dose of its new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo maintained its ability to protect against the illness through a second year of respiratory disease season. The company said in a press release that the vaccine's efficacy against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract disease with three or more symptoms was 77.8% through season two, compared with efficacy of 88.9% after the first RSV season, which led to the shot's U.S. approval.

Thailand plans to legalise surrogacy for foreign couples

Thailand is amending a law to allow foreign couples to seek surrogacy services in the country, a senior health official said on Friday. In 2015, Thailand introduced tough regulations to control surrogacy and banned the process for foreign couples after several high profile scandals that led to a crackdown on the country's unregulated "wombs for hire" industry.

Missouri accuses Planned Parenthood of 'trafficking' minors to get abortions

Missouri's Republican attorney general on Thursday sued a Planned Parenthood affiliate, accusing it of helping minors travel to Kansas to get abortions without notifying their parents in violation of state law. The lawsuit by Attorney General Andrew Bailey cites undercover footage released by the conservative Project Veritas last year purporting to show a Planned Parenthood Great Plains employee offer to arrange an abortion for a 13-year-old in Kansas. Missouri law bans nearly all abortions, as well as helping a minor get an abortion out of state without parental consent.

South Korea police launch raid on doctors' association over walkout

South Korean police launched a raid on Friday targeting officials of the Korean Medical Association, as authorities step up pressure to end a walkout by trainee doctors protesting against plans to reform the health system. The raid comes ahead of a mass demonstration in Seoul planned for Sunday by doctors, after the walkout, which began on Feb. 20, disrupted major hospitals, forcing some to turn away patients and cancel surgeries and other medical procedures.

More than a billion people worldwide are obese, WHO study finds

More than a billion people globally are now considered obese, a condition linked to an increased risk of numerous serious health problems, according to updated estimates from the World Health Organization and an international group of researchers. Obesity is so prevalent it has become more common than being underweight in most nations, including many low and-middle income countries that have previously struggled with undernourishment.

US FDA approves Boston Scientific's heart device

Boston Scientific said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its device to treat a complication of heart disease. The approval makes the catheter device the first drug-coated balloon in the U.S. to treat coronary in-stent restenosis (ISR), the obstruction caused by scar tissues and plaque in a heart vessels that have a stent.

Healthcare providers hit by frozen payments in ransomware outage

Healthcare providers across the United States are struggling to get paid following the week-long ransomware outage at a key tech unit of UnitedHealth Group, with some smaller providers saying they are already running low on cash. Large hospital chains are also locked out of processing payments with some absorbing the upfront costs of being unable to collect, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA), which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, healthcare systems, networks and other providers.

Exclusive-Musk's Neuralink brain implant company cited by FDA over animal lab issues

U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Elon Musk's Neuralink, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans, according to an agency report reviewed by Reuters. The inspectors identified quality control lapses at the company's California animal research facility. A similar inspection at Neuralink's Texas facility did not find problems, according to agency records.

Most South Korea trainee doctors defying pressure to end walkout

Thousands of South Korean trainee doctors are refusing to return to work on Thursday, the day the government set as a deadline to end a mass walkout, warning that the young physicians' medical licences could be suspended if they do not return to hospitals. Two-thirds of the country's residents and intern doctors have walked off the job to protest a plan to raise the number of students admitted to medical school each year by 2,000 in a bid to address what the government says is a shortage of doctors.

(With inputs from agencies.)