www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-pandemic-declarations-job-satisfaction-covid-19-era-and-nuclear-powered? Three years after it started, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this week. But a special emergency committee for the disease hinted that the designation—which gives WHO recommendations more heft and can influence travel and quarantine policies—might end later this […]
Renewed fears of a bird flu pandemic; The latest health stories from around the world
When mink at a big farm in Galicia, a region in north-western Spain, started to die in October 2022, veterinarians initially thought the culprit might be SARS-CoV-2, which has struck mink farms in several other countries. But lab tests soon revealed something scarier: A deadly avian influenza virus named H5N1. Authorities immediately placed workers on […]
Marion Biotech to be investigated by Indian drug regulator
India’s health minister Mansukh Mandaviya has announced that manufacturing activities of Marion Biotech’s unit near the national capital Delhi have been stopped following an inspection by India’s apex drugs regulating body. https://thewire.in/government/uzbekistan-cough-syrup-noida-marion-biotech-mandaviya. Uzbek authorities had announced that consumption of a cough syrup produced by the company had led to the deaths of 18 children in […]
Sesame to be added to list of major food allergens
Starting January 1, sesame will join the list of major food allergens defined by law, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The change comes as a result of the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education and Research Act, or FASTER Act, which was signed into law in April 2021. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/29/health/sesame-joins-major-food-allergens-list-fda-wellness/index.html? The FDA has been […]
Approval of Alzheimer’s drug “rife with irregularities”
US drug regulators failed to follow their own guidance and practices when they approved the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, a congressional report said on Thursday. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/29/biogen-fda-alzheimers-aduhelm-congressional-report? The US food and drug administration’s (FDA) process of approval, it said, had been “rife with irregularities”, and the FDA’s interactions with maker Biogen had been “atypical”. The report […]
Countries across the globe track COVID-19 cases emerging from China
The United States (US) is considering sampling wastewater taken from international aircraft to track any emerging new Covid-19 variants as infections surge in China. UK-based health experts estimate about 9,000 people a days are now dying of the disease in China. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/china-covid-experts-estimate-9000-deaths-a-day-as-us-says-it-may-sample-wastewater-from-planes? The proposed testing of wastewater by the US Centers for Disease Control and […]
Considerable increase in COVID-19 deaths in China; The latest health stories from around the world
More than 5,000 people are probably dying each day from COVID-19 in China, health data firm Airfinity estimated, offering a dramatic contrast to official data from Beijing on the country’s current outbreak.www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986013?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=398271FG&impID=5026929&faf=1 The UK-based firm said it had used modelling based on regional Chinese data to produce figures that also put current daily infections in […]
Bio Farma to produce Merck & Co’s HPV vaccine
In a bid to combat HPV-linked cervical cancer in the country Indonesia will produce drugmaker Merck & Co’s vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV), the chief of its state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma said last Tuesday,. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/985471?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=398271FG&impID=4990446&faf=1 Cervical cancer is the fourth-most common cancer among women globally, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths […]
Court dismisses Zantac claims
Thousands of consumers who sued makers of the popular heartburn drug Zantac, alleging it caused them to develop cancer, failed to present a reliable scientific basis for their claims, a U.S. District Court judge in Florida said when she dismissed their lawsuits last week. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration requested recalls of the […]
Jeremy Farrar, to take on chief scientist role at WHO
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the largest nongovernmental science funders, will step down early next year to become the chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). He will replace Soumya Swaminathan, the first person to hold the post. Swaminathan, a paediatrician, announced last month that she would be leaving to focus on […]