Reuters - Health Report

Click to View in Browser

Monday, July 31, 2017

Trump tells Republicans to get back on healthcare bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration on Sunday goaded Republican senators to stick with trying to pass a healthcare bill, after the lawmakers failed spectacularly last week to muster the votes to end Obamacare.

AstraZeneca drug gets breakthrough status in early lung cancer

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca said on Monday its immunotherapy drug Imfinzi had been granted "breakthrough" designation by U.S. regulators for treating non-metastatic lung cancer, following the success of the so-called Pacific trial.

Trump threatens to end insurance payments if no healthcare bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a new healthcare bill and goaded them to not abandon their seven-year quest to replace the Obamacare law.

Exclusive: Majority of Americans want Congress to move on from healthcare reform - Reuters/Ipsos poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate's effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Saturday.

Myanmar H1N1 swine flu death toll rises to 10

YANGON (Reuters) - Four more people have died in an outbreak of H1N1 influenza in Myanmar, a health official said on Monday, taking the death toll in the latest outbreak to 10 as the government stepped up public awareness campaigns about the swine flu virus.

Zimbabwe poultry farm hit again by avian flu outbreak

HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean poultry farm has reported a second outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu, two months after it first occurred, the state-owned Herald newspaper said on Monday.

Second New Zealand farm tests positive to cattle disease

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's Primary Industries ministry said on Monday that a second dairy farm in the country's South Island has tested positive for the cattle disease mycoplasma bovis.

U.S. proposes cigarette nicotine cut, shift toward e-cigarettes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government proposed cutting nicotine in cigarettes to "non-addictive" levels on Friday in a major regulatory shift designed to move smokers toward potentially less harmful e-cigarettes.

Arkansas limits on abortion pill can proceed: appeals court

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that an Arkansas law restricting the use of the so-called abortion pill could proceed, overturning a lower court's decision in 2015 that blocked the law a day before it was to go into effect.

Suspected diphtheria cases up in crisis-stricken Venezuela, data suggests

CARACAS (Reuters) - Diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection that is fatal in 5 to 10 percent of cases, appears to still be spreading in Venezuela amid unsanitary living conditions and shortages of basic medicines, rarely available data suggested this week.