Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Facebook to tackle content with misleading health claims

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it was taking steps to reduce promotion of products based on misleading health-related claims. In a blog post https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/07/addressing-sensational-health-claims, the social media company said it had made two updates last month to reduce posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims.

Vietnam says will have African swine fever vaccine 'soon', experts skeptical

Vietnam said on Tuesday it has had initial success in creating a vaccine to fight African swine fever, which has infected farms throughout the Southeast Asian country and prompted the culling of around 10% of its pig herd. African swine fever - which has spread to Laos and North Korea as well after being detected in China in August 2018 - was first detected in Vietnam in February and has spread to farms in 61 of the country's 63 provinces.

Pfizer, Sanofi, to boost South African Biovac's vaccine output

South Africa's Biovac Institute will start local production of Sanofi's Hexaxim vaccine next year and Pfizer's anti-pneumonia Prevnar 13 vaccine in 2021, boosting supply of life-saving drugs in its main market, its CEO said. Local output of the two human vaccines is a step change for Biovac, a public-private partnership 47.5%-owned by the South African government with long-term ambitions of expanding sales into the continent.

Varied bedtimes tied to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure

People who don't consistently get the same amount of sleep or go to bed at the same time each night may be more likely to develop health problems like obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, a recent study suggests. Lack of sleep has long been linked to a wide range of so-called metabolic abnormalities, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. But much of this research focused on the effect of the average amount of sleep people get, and not on how much sleep routines varied from one day to the next, said study coauthor Tianyi Huang, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Austria passes smoking ban, snuffing out fallen government's flagship policy

Parliament on Tuesday passed a ban on smoking in Austria's bars and restaurants, extinguishing a flagship policy of the recently collapsed right-wing government which had scrapped the measure after it was already on the statute books. Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, launched in December 2017, imploded in May after FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache was caught in a video sting apparently offering to fix state contracts at a meeting with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece.

Austrian parliament backs EU's first total ban of weedkiller glyphosate

Austria's lower house of parliament passed a bill on Tuesday banning all uses of the weedkiller glyphosate, the first time a European Union country has taken such strong action against the chemical over concerns that it can cause cancer. Other EU countries have passed partial bans of glyphosate, developed by Bayer-owned Monsanto, although France has lowered its ambitions on a ban, highlighting its usefulness in agriculture. Austria has embraced organic farming more than other EU member state.

Most grandparents keep pills where grandkids can get them

(Reuters Health) - Most grandparents don't move medications to a safer location when grandkids come to visit, and most of them also keep pills in their bag or purse when they visit their grandchildren, a U.S. study suggests. More than half of Americans ages 50 to 80 are grandparents, and most of them have at least one grandchild under age 10, according to the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. Nearly all grandparents have medications in their homes including over-the-counter pills like aspirin as well as prescription drugs, vitamins and supplements.

States agree to pause lawsuits against bankrupt opioid maker Insys

Five states have agreed to facilitate settlement talks by dropping objections to a bid by Insys Therapeutics Inc in bankruptcy court to put on hold their lawsuits alleging the drugmaker helped fuel the opioid epidemic. The agreement was announced on Tuesday by a lawyer for Chandler, Arizona-based Insys during a hearing before a federal bankruptcy judge in Wilmington Delaware, who was set to consider whether to block the states from moving forward with their cases.

Nonwhite patients get less pain relief in U.S. emergency rooms

Black and Hispanic patients in U.S. emergency rooms are less likely to receive medication to ease acute pain than their white counterparts, a study suggests. Researchers examined data from 14 previously published studies of pain management in American emergency rooms (ERs) that altogether included 7,070 white patients, 1,538 Hispanic patients, and 3,125 black patients.

Electronic consults with allergists save time for doctors and patients

When allergy specialists advise other doctors via "e-consults," everyone - patients included - saves time, a new study suggests. In an e-consult, specialists review a patient's electronic medical record through a secure portal and answer questions from primary care doctors who seek their advice and opinion.