Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
UK almost doubled health and care worker visas last year
Britain almost doubled the number of visas given to foreign health and care workers last year, government data showed, adding to pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over immigration ahead of an election expected later this year. Trailing the opposition Labour party in the polls, Sunak has vowed to bring down immigration, a major concern for voters.
UnitedHealth says ‘Blackcat’ ransomware group behind hack at tech unit
According to UnitedHealth Group, the “Blackcat” ransomware group was responsible for a cyberattack on its technology division, Change Healthcare. The statement confirms a Reuters report on Monday. UnitedHealth had initially blamed a “suspected nation-state associated cybersecurity threat actor” for the disruption.
Pfizer says its RSV shot is protective through a second year
Pfizer on Thursday said a single dose of its new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo maintained its ability to protect against the illness through a second year of respiratory disease season. The company said in a press release that the vaccine’s efficacy against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract disease with three or more symptoms was 77.8% through season two, compared with efficacy of 88.9% after the first RSV season, which led to the shot’s U.S. approval.
Republican-controlled Alabama legislature passes bills to protect IVF
Alabama’s Republican-led legislature on Thursday passed bills aimed at protecting the IVF industry after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children, prompting at least three Alabama providers to halt the fertility procedure. A bill passed the Senate 34-0, with one member abstaining, after the House measure passed 94-6.
Missouri accuses Planned Parenthood of ‘trafficking’ minors to get abortions
Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Thursday sued a Planned Parenthood affiliate, accusing it of helping minors travel to Kansas to get abortions without notifying their parents in violation of state law. Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s lawsuit makes reference to undercover video that the right-wing Project Veritas allegedly released last year showing a Planned Parenthood Great Plains employee offering to arrange an abortion for a 13-year-old in Kansas. Missouri law bans nearly all abortions, as well as helping a minor get an abortion out of state without parental consent.
India’s Suven Pharma, Cohance merge to boost contract drug manufacturing services
Indian contract drug manufacturer Suven Pharmaceuticals said on Thursday it will merge with Cohance Lifesciences in an all-share deal, as it looks to further scale up its contract and development manufacturing services (CDMO) business. The company, however, did not mention the deal value.
More than a billion people worldwide are obese, WHO study finds
More than a billion people globally are now considered obese, a condition linked to an increased risk of numerous serious health problems, according to updated estimates from the World Health Organization and an international group of researchers. Obesity is so prevalent it has become more common than being underweight in most nations, including many low and-middle income countries that have previously struggled with undernourishment.
Healthcare providers hit by frozen payments in ransomware outage
Healthcare providers across the United States are struggling to get paid following the week-long ransomware outage at a key tech unit of UnitedHealth Group, with some smaller providers saying they are already running low on cash. Large hospital chains are also locked out of processing payments with some absorbing the upfront costs of being unable to collect, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA), which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, healthcare systems, networks and other providers.
Exclusive-Musk’s Neuralink brain implant company cited by FDA over animal lab issues
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Elon Musk’s Neuralink, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans, according to an agency report reviewed by Reuters. The inspectors identified quality control lapses at the company’s California animal research facility. A similar inspection at Neuralink’s Texas facility did not find problems, according to agency records.
Most South Korea trainee doctors defying pressure to end walkout
Thousands of South Korean trainee doctors are refusing to return to work on Thursday, the day the government set as a deadline to end a mass walkout, warning that the young physicians’ medical licences could be suspended if they do not return to hospitals. Two-thirds of the country’s residents and intern doctors have walked off the job to protest a plan to raise the number of students admitted to medical school each year by 2,000 in a bid to address what the government says is a shortage of doctors.
(With inputs from agencies.)
