Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Tanzania's Zanzibar begins to register traditional healers
Zanzibar's traditional healers with their toolkits of herbs, holy scriptures and massages are being registered by authorities keen to regulate the practitioners who treat everything from depression to hernias. About 340 healers have been registered since Zanzibar, a region of the east African country of Tanzania, passed the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act in 2009.
Three dead, hundreds ill in Spain listeria outbreak: WHO
Three people have died and at least 222 have been infected in Spain's largest ever outbreak of listeria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. The outbreak, linked to a packaged pork producer in the south of the country, is mainly affecting women and people over 65, the WHO said. Most cases are in Andalusia, where the pork plant linked to the outbreak - owned by Seville-based Magrudis - is located.
Japan culls 753 hogs to contain swine fever outbreak
Japanese officials have culled 753 pigs in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo after detecting an outbreak of swine fever, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday. The cull, which took place on Saturday, was necessary after it was determined that pigs raised in the prefecture for shipment to central Japan were infected, the Yomiuri said.
New York to ban flavored e-cigarettes after illnesses, deaths
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes besides tobacco and menthol in response to a recent nationwide spate of sometimes deadly lung illnesses that U.S. health officials have linked to vaping. Cuomo said vaping was dangerous and that he was concerned fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes were leading young people to get hooked on nicotine.
AstraZeneca diabetes drug granted fast track status for heart failure treatment
AstraZeneca's diabetes drug, Farxiga, has been granted fast track designation by U.S. regulators for the treatment of heart failure, boosting prospects of wider use of the drug and putting it ahead of rivals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the status for development of the drug to reduce the risk of deadly heart attacks and disease progression in adults with the HFrEF and HFpEF subtypes of heart failure, the British drugmaker said on Monday.
