CHICAGO A study of nine pregnant women from the United States who traveled to countries where the Zika virus was circulating shows a greater-than-expected number of fetal infections and brain abnormalities, U.S. health officials said on Friday. Two of the wome... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO Even as athletes grow increasingly concerned about the outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil, the organizing committee for the August Olympics in Rio de Janeiro said it will charge national delegations to have mosquito screens on athletes’ rooms.... More »
(Reuters Health) – On the question of whether the population would benefit if people cut back on salt, researchers fall into two camps, according to a new report. While most studies have concluded that cutting salt would have benefits, about a third do not agr... More »
U.S. health officials are investigating 14 reports of the Zika virus that may been transmitted through sex, including to several pregnant women, raising new questions about the role sexual transmission is playing in the growing outbreak. In two of the suspecte... More »
BRASILIA World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan said on Tuesday Brazil is doing a good job tackling the Zika virus and ensuring that the Olympic games it will host in August will be safe for athletes and visitors. Chan said Brazil’s gov... More »
AUSTIN, Texas Two major Texas health centers have developed what they are calling the country’s first hospital-based, rapid test for the Zika virus that can produce results in a matter of hours, the hospitals said on Tuesday. Researchers at Texas Children’s Ho... More »
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) was ordered by a Missouri state jury to pay $72 million of damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. In a v... More »
The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947 – Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda’s Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948 – Virus recovered from Aedes africanus m... More »
Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has since spread to many countries in the Americas. The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbr... More »
LOS ANGELES Media mogul Sumner Redstone was under “undue influence” from people around him when he replaced his designated healthcare agent last fall, his ex-girlfriend argued on Thursday in her lawsuit challenging the elderly billionaire’s mental competence. ... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO The worst health scare in recent history is not keeping Brazilians from their annual Carnival revelry, with millions of partiers swarming streets and some making fun of the mosquito that spreads Zika and other viruses. Street processions, block ... More »
NEW YORK/BRASILIA Experts on microcephaly, the birth defect that has sparked alarm in the current Zika virus outbreak, say they are struck by the severity of a small number of cases they have reviewed from Brazil. Consultations among doctors in Brazil and the ... More »
NEW DELHI A doctor at a hospital in India’s capital, New Delhi, was recently tracking a wall of monitors displaying the vital signs of intensive care patients admitted hundreds of miles away when red-and-yellow alerts rang out. The oxygen flow to a 67-year-old... More »
NEW YORK The tumble in share prices for biotechnology stocks has created some buying opportunities, with drugmakers Celgene Corp (CELG.O) and Gilead Sciences (GILD.O) poised for a 30 percent rise over the next year, Barron’s said. Both companies currently rely... More »
PARIS Travelers coming back from any outbreak zones of the Zika virus will need to wait at least 28 days before giving blood to avoid any risk of transmission, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Sunday. Zika, which is rapidly spreading through the... More »
BOGOTA More than 3,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday, as the disease continues its rapid spread across the Americas. Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zi... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H. Two Republican U.S. presidential hopefuls said on Saturday they would implement quarantines of travelers if necessary to stop the spread of the Zika virus. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who garnered international attention in 2014 when h... More »
PERTH – Australia will intensify testing for the Zika virus in Queensland state where Aedes mosquitoes are found, authorities said on Saturday, adding that two new cases among local residents were the result of travel to affected countries. Queensland’s govern... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO One major hurdle is thwarting efforts to measure the extent of the Zika epidemic and its suspected links to thousands of birth defects in Brazil: accurate diagnosis of a virus that still confounds blood tests. Genetic tests and clinical symptoms... More »
RECIFE, Brazil For scores of women in the epicenter of the Zika outbreak in Brazil, the joy of pregnancy has given way to fear. In the sprawling coastal city of Recife, panic has struck maternity wards since Zika – a mosquito-borne virus first detected in the ... More »
Rio de Janeiro Last January, long lines formed outside health clinics in Recife, a city in Brazil’s northeast hit hard in recent years by outbreaks of dengue, a painful tropical disease. Doctors were on guard because federal health officials and the World Heal... More »
Companies and scientists are racing to create a Zika vaccine as concern grows over the mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to severe birth defects and is spreading quickly through the Americas. Zika is now present in 23 countries and territories in the A... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on Friday with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff about the spread of the Zika virus in the Western Hemisphere, the White House said. “The leaders agreed on the importance of collaborative efforts to deepen our know... More »
Health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N), which is in the process of buying smaller rival Cigna Corp (CI.N), reported a 6.3 percent rise in quarterly revenue as more people enrolled in its Medicaid plans. Anthem, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in more t... More »
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the rapid development of tests, vaccines and treatments to fight the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects and could spread to the United States in warmer months.... More »
United Airlines will allow customers who hold tickets to regions impacted by the Zika virus to postpone their trips or receive full refunds, a spokesman said on Tuesday. United, the second-largest U.S. airline by capacity, said the offer corresponds to virus-h... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the rapid development of tests, vaccines and treatments to fight the Zika virus, following a briefing on the spread of the mosquito-transmitted disease, the White House said. The World Health Organiz... More »
WASHINGTON A Virginia resident who traveled outside the United States has tested positive for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, state health officials said on Tuesday. The adult resident had recently traveled to a country where Zika virus transmission was o... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO As Rio de Janeiro prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for upcoming Carnival festivities and the Olympic Games in August, the city is scrambling to expel one unwelcome new arrival: the Zika virus. It will be an uphill battle. Zi... More »
(Reuters Health) – When mothers eat three sizeable servings of fish each week during pregnancy it may benefit children’s brains for years to come, according to a large study in Spain. Researchers followed nearly 2,000 mother-child pairs from the first trimeste... More »
CHARLESTON, S.C. Democratic White House candidate Bernie Sanders went on the offensive against front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday in the most contentious of their four presidential debates, accusing her of cozying up to Wall Street and misrepresenting his ... More »
CHARLESTON, S.C. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released details on Sunday evening about his “Medicare-for-all” universal healthcare funding plan and how he would pay for it. The plan was released hours before Sanders was to square off i... More »
RENNES, France A man left brain dead after a drug trial in northwest France died on Sunday, said the hospital where he was being treated. The Rennes hospital said in a statement that five other volunteers were in stable condition after they were admitted last ... More »
Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur facing U.S. charges of securities fraud, has said he had been the target of legal authorities for his much-criticized drug-price hikes and his over-the-top public persona, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shkrel... More »
Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive facing U.S. charges of securities fraud, lost control of his Twitter account to hackers on Sunday, hours after he took to Twitter to plead his innocence, his spokesman said. “It was hacked,” Craig Stevens, a spokesm... More »
PARIS France has detected the first cases of low pathogenic H5N3 bird flu and found more cases of highly infectious strains in an outbreak of the disease in the southwest of the country. Three cases of H5N3 bird flu were found at three different farms in the s... More »
(Reuters Health) – Almost 10 percent of 11th and 12th graders are using e-cigarettes, and other alternative tobacco products are increasingly popular, according to a new study. Young people often use multiple tobacco products at once, the researchers found. “F... More »
(Reuters Health) – Many preschoolers in daycare may need more outdoor time to help increase their odds of getting enough physical activity, a small U.S. study suggests. Pediatricians recommend that young children get at least an hour a day of physical activity... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK/FRANKFURT Investment bank Lazard is working with Sanofi’s management to prepare a sale or listing of its Merial animal health unit, aiming to land the leading advisory job for the deal, which could value the business at up 12 billion euros ($12... More »
CLINTON, Iowa U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday proposed a tax credit offsetting up to $6,000 in costs associated with caring for elderly and disabled family members, and allowing caregivers to accrue Social Security retirement b... More »
LONDON, The World Health Organization’s failure to sound the alarm until months into West Africa’s Ebola outbreak was an “egregious failure” which added to the enormous suffering and death toll, global health experts said on Monday. A specialist panel convened... More »
MONROVIA Liberia has placed 153 people under surveillance as it seeks to control a new Ebola outbreak in the capital more than two months after the country was declared free of the virus, health officials said. Three Ebola cases emerged in Liberia on Friday. T... More »
(Corrects headline and first paragraph. Study said the law may lead more women to self-induce abortion, not that this has already occurred. Corrects fourth paragraph to drop erroneous time frame) By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas A Texas law aimed at restricting... More »
NEW YORK A volunteer firefighter from Mississippi whose face was burned off during a home fire rescue received the world’s most extensive face transplant, New York University Langone Medical Center said on Monday. After a 26-hour surgery performed at the New Y... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to hear a challenge to tough abortion restrictions in Texas raises questions about the legal fate of similar laws in more than a dozen other states. The court’s ruling, due by June, could spell out the ext... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it approved Baxalta Inc’s drug for use in patients with a type of rare bleeding disorder. The drug, Adynovate, was approved to control and reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in patients with Hemophili... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court took up a major new abortion case on Friday, agreeing to hear a challenge by abortion providers to parts of a restrictive, Republican-backed Texas law that they contend are aimed at shutting clinics that offer the procedure. T... More »
Merck & Co’s drug to reverse the effects of muscle relaxants used in surgery is safe and effective enough to warrant approval, an independent panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. The drug, which goes by the chemical name of sugammadex, has repe... More »
WASHINGTON House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Sunday ruled out working with President Barack Obama on overhauling U.S. immigration policy, saying it would be “a ridiculous notion” to pursue legislation because Obama cannot be trusted on the issue. R... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who is making inroads against front-runner Donald Trump, on Sunday denied he would end the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly, saying he would provide the option of using a government-backed sav... More »
(Reuters Health) – Some doctors and midwives may underestimate the risk for postpartum diabetes among women who develop a version of the disease during pregnancy, a small British study suggests. Researchers focused on the risk of what’s known as type 2 diabete... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved Johnson & Johnson’s chemotherapy to treat specific soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) that have spread to other parts of the body or cannot be removed by surgery. The drug, Yondelis, is designed to delay the progr... More »
An independent panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted 10-4 in favor of approving AstraZeneca Plc’s gout drug. All 10 who backed the drug, lesinurad, qualified their vote by urging the FDA to ask AstraZeneca for studies after... More »
POLK CITY, Fla. At a Florida retirement home for former circus elephants, residents enjoy a steady diet of high-quality hay and local fruits and vegetables, as well as baths and occasional walks. For these majestic beasts, this life of relative leisure at the ... More »
LOS ANGELES California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a bill that sets the strictest government standards in the United States for the use of antibiotics in livestock production. The move from California, known for its leadership on public health and ... More »
ZURICH Nestle’s health science division is investing $70 million in a product technology center that will become the unit’s new U.S. headquarters and research hub, the division said on Friday. The Bridgewater, New Jersey center will further Nestle’s healthcare... More »
KABUL Police and residents said Afghan government forces had regained control of most of the besieged city of Kunduz on Monday, and some shops in the center of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell to Taliban fighters a week ago.Reside... More »
ATLANTA A dozen Pacific nations closed in on a sweeping free-trade pact on Sunday in Atlanta but failed to finalize terms on the fifth day of round-the-clock talks, dashing hopes raised by an earlier breakthrough on protections for new biotech drugs. U.S. offi... More »
(Reuters Health) – U.S. states need better policies for transporting high-risk pregnant women and newborns to the specialized care they need – and then back to their local hospitals for continuing care, researchers say. Focusing on transportation policies as a... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said on Friday it had suspended the production, sale and use of products made by Brazilian breast-implant maker Silimed after an inspection found the company failed production standards. Anvisa acted a week after... More »
(Reuters Health) – A therapeutic program of weight-bearing exercise reduces pain and improves joint function, at least for two to six months, for people with osteoarthritis, according to a review of previous trials. “We had a systematic review for Cochrane fro... More »
(Reuters Health) – Although women make up roughly half of the world’s HIV cases, they remain largely excluded from clinical trials testing drugs, vaccines and potential cures for the virus, a research review confirms. In an analysis spanning several decades th... More »
(Reuters Health) – Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease isn’t easy under the best of circumstances, but it may be much more stressful for spouses and people who suffer from depression, a Finnish study suggests. Researchers followed 236 family caregi... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Merck & Co Inc’s immunotherapy, Keytruda, for patients with the most common form of lung cancer whose tumors produce a specific biological marker. The FDA approval for Keytruda in advanced non-small cell... More »
(Reuters Health) – People with long-term exposure to loud noise at work or in leisure activities may be at increased risk of heart disease, a U.S. study finds. Researchers found the strongest link in working-age people with high-frequency hearing loss, which i... More »
PARIS French drugmaker Sanofi said the European Commission had cleared its key cholesterol drug Praluent for the treatment of so-called “bad cholesterol,” or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, in certain adult patients with hypercholesterolemia. The dr... More »
UNITED NATIONS Liberia needs two years to regain its economic footing after it was battered by the Ebola epidemic, as it moves to boost access to electricity and infrastructure and diversify the economy, Liberia’s president said in an interview on Saturday. Li... More »
WASHINGTON The Obama administration said on Saturday it was allotting an additional $300 million to the effort to reduce HIV infection among girls and young women in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. The sum would help the main U.S. program for fighting AIDS i... More »
The first electronic automatic injector to deliver a drug for the most common form of multiple sclerosis received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The injection delivers Betaseron, a disease-modifying drug approved 22 years ago by... More »
LOS ANGELES A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralyzed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics, doctors in Southern Californ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Even though most caregivers agree on the importance of safe infant sleep practices, many of them may not know what to do – or not do – to prevent sleep-related deaths from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a U.S. study suggests. Researche... More »
NEW YORK Shari Cayle, 75, called “Miracle Mama” by her family ever since she beat back advanced colon cancer seven years ago, is still undergoing treatment and living alone. “I don’t want my grandchildren to remember me as the sick one, I want to be the fun on... More »
(Reuters Health) – A pill meant to prevent HIV infections in high-risk individuals appears to be working, according to two new studies. In one study, conducted in the San Francisco area, there were no new HIV infections among 657 people who took the daily pill... More »
LONDON Pfizer’s stop-smoking drug Chantix does not raise risks of heart attack or depression, contrary to previous reports, and should be recommended to more smokers wanting to quit, scientists said on Monday. In a study tracking 150,000 smokers in England for... More »
KABUL Plastic surgeon Abdul Ghafar Ghayur is practicing his own brand of welfare in Afghanistan, where access to healthcare is limited and many cannot afford private treatment. The money he makes from the hundreds of nose jobs and Botox injections he performs ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Intimate partner violence or abuse can take the form of birth control sabotage, pregnancy pressure or coercion, which can have devastating consequences including unintended pregnancy, abortion and psychological trauma, according to a new rev... More »
(Reuters Health) – Weight-loss surgery beats medication for controlling type 2 diabetes in obese people, according to the longest-term trial ever to compare the two approaches. Half of the patients treated with weight-loss surgery in the study were diabetes-fr... More »
(This 28 August 2015 story was refiled to add the dropped word “court” in the first paragraph) Planned Parenthood filed a complaint in Alabama federal court on Friday seeking to stop the state from defunding its health clinics after the release of covertly rec... More »
(Reuters Health) – Taking one or two baby aspirins a day for at least five years was tied to a lower risk of colorectal cancer in a study from Denmark. Earlier studies had suggested that aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibupro... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Too few women and minorities are entering certain medical specialties in the U.S., researchers say. Diversifying the physician workforce may be key to addressing health disparities and inequities, Dr. Curtiland Deville of Johns Hopk... More »
FREETOWN Sierra Leone released its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital on Monday and began a 42-day countdown to being declared free of the virus, medical sources said. The world’s worst known Ebola epidemic has raged in West Africa for more than 18 mon... More »
NEW YORK A group of mainly U.S.-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as $100 million in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release... More »
Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline temporarily closed a North Carolina factory on Tuesday after testing at a cooling tower found bacteria that causes deadly Legionnaire’s disease. The Legionella bacteria were discovered during routine inspections at the site in Zebulon... More »
NEW YORK A group of mainly U.S.-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as $100 million in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release... More »
Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline closed its North Carolina factory on Tuesday after testing at a cooling tower found bacteria that causes deadly Legionnaire’s disease, a company spokeswoman said. The Legionella bacteria was discovered during routine inspections at th... More »
WASHINGTON, August 3 Women’s health group Planned Parenthood, under attack by anti-abortionists posting hidden-camera videos online, will be the focus of a partisan showdown on Monday in the U.S. Senate, with any wider influence on voters from the charge still... More »
CHICAGO A political battle over the use of fetal tissue in medical research has been reinvigorated by the release of undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood officials. But the controversy comes just as interest in the use of fetal tissue is dwindling, s... More »
UNITED NATIONS Some $3.4 billion in pledges were made at the United Nations on Friday to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea stamp out Ebola and begin rebuilding health systems and economies devastated by the worst outbreak on record of the deadly hemorrhagi... More »
LONDON Governments around the world should increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products to save lives and generate funds for stronger health services, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. In a report entitled “The Global Tobacco Epid... More »
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Religious groups are an under-used health resource that could help achieve universal healthcare and accelerate the medical response to disease outbreaks, health experts said on Tuesday. Faith-based organizations such as th... More »
DAKAR Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone need a further $696 million in donor funding to rebuild their battered health services over the next two years in the wake of the deadly Ebola epidemic, senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Monday. WHO... More »
SACRAMENTO, Calif. California lawmakers on Monday sent Governor Jerry Brown a bill to substantially limit vaccine exemptions for school children in the most populous U.S. state, following last year’s measles outbreak at Disneyland that sickened more than 100 p... More »
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Larry Kramer’s confrontational style has mellowed. Now 80, the playwright, novelist and AIDS activist, speaks softly and looks almost frail in a big leather armchair in his New York apartment overlooking Washington Squar... More »
A clothing designer area is pictured at TechShop in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 24, 2014. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith In the shadow of Internet monoliths such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, it’s easy to forget that Silico... More »
