Health

US health officials said on Thursday two more deaths occurred since last week from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total toll to 54. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported 97 more hospitalized cases from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two …

Measles infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000, mostly children, as devastating outbreaks of the viral disease hit every region of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. In figures described by its director-general as “an outrage”, the WHO said most of last year’s measles …

Minister of Health in Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Saman Hussein Muhammad Barzinji has said that 41 people were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and admitted to hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan Region so far in 2019. During a press conference on Sunday to mark World AIDS Day, Barzinji said that the ministry …

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a form of blood cancer that primarily affects children and young people. It involves large quantities of malignant progenitor cells building up in a person’s blood instead of healthy white blood cells. This is often caused by a change in genetic material, with two chromosomes …

In almost any other year it would be hailed as a public health victory: The smoking rate among U.S. high schoolers took its biggest hit ever this year, federal figures show, falling to a new low. Instead, the milestone was relegated to a lone figure at the bottom of a …

New Zealand lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday that would legalize euthanasia, paving the way for the public to vote on the issue in a referendum next year. The bill, which enables terminally ill people to request a medically assisted death, was passed 69-51 in parliament, after several amendments and …

Authorities in New Delhi declared a public health emergency on Friday and closed schools and all construction activity until next week as air pollution in the city hit its worst level this year. A thick haze has hung over the Indian capital this week caused by plumes of toxic smoke …

Google announced plans on Friday to acquire Fitbit, the world’s leading maker of wearable fitness activity trackers. The deal, worth about $2.1 billion, is one of Google’s largest acquisitions. The wearable market is growing quickly. Although Google makes some hardware, including Pixel phones and Nest devices, it hasn’t made much …

A US drug company says it has created the first therapy that could slow Alzheimer’s disease, and it is now ready to bring it to market. Currently, there are no drugs that can do this – existing ones only help with symptoms. Biogen says it will soon seek regulatory approval …

Drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc (TEVA.TA) and the three biggest U.S. drug distributors reached a settlement on Monday to avoid a trial over their role in the opioid addiction crisis, a source said on Monday. Distributors Mckesson Corp (MCK.N), Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) and AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) were set …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and international health authorities are investigating the safety of Zantac heartburn medicine, also sold generically as ranitidine, after finding a probable cancer-causing impurity in the drug. Ranitidine is the newest drug in which presence of cancer causing impurities have been found. Regulators have been …

E-cigarette or vaping-linked lung injuries that have killed 29 and sickened more than 1,000 people in the United States are likely to be rare in Britain and other countries where the suspect products are not widely used, specialists said on Monday. Experts in toxicology and addiction said they are sure …

A vaping-related illness has claimed two more lives in the US, bringing the total number of fatalities to 11. More than 500 people are known to have fallen ill with mysterious lung disease after smoking e-cigarettes in the US, but officials said hundreds of additional cases had been reported in …

A man from California is the seventh person to die from a suspected vaping-related illness in the US, reports say. The man, in his 40s, had been ill for a number of weeks before he succumbed to a “severe pulmonary injury associated with vaping”, according to Tulare Country public health …

More than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains have been found at the Illinois home of a former Indiana abortion clinic doctor who died last week, authorities said. The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release late Saturday that an attorney for Dr. Ulrich Klopfer’s family contacted the coroner’s …

After a field experiment between 2013 and 2015, genetically modified mosquitoes are breeding in Brazil, while according to the researchers’ original plan, all released mosquitoes and their offspring should have died. An attempt to contain the populations of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti in Brazil may have failed. It …

US President Donald Trump has announced that his administration will ban flavoured e-cigarettes, after a spate of vaping-related deaths. Mr Trump told reporters vaping was a “new problem”, especially for children. US Health Secretary Alex Azar said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would finalise a plan to take all …

Across the world, one person takes their own life every 40 seconds, and more people die by suicide every year than in war, the World Health Organization says. Hanging, poisoning and shooting are the most common suicide methods, the WHO said as it urged governments to adopt suicide prevention plans …

John McAfee has suggested that the recent contamination of CBD vape products could be tied to a research chemical that supposedly causes “zombie-like symptoms.” The cybersecurity expert and US presidential candidate tweeted about a claim that people are testing “infection vectors for the release of a powerful Research Chemical that …

Great Ormond Street trial clears previously incurable disease in 12 of 14 patients, with five remaining in remission. A new treatment for an incurable form of leukemia has been hailed by experts after it left patients without a trace of the disease. The patients were treated with a faster acting …