Author: Reuters

Rwanda is battling its first ever outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus, with 36 cases and 11 deaths reported so far. Marburg causes haemorrhagic fever with an average 50% fatality rate, and spreads through contact with bats or infected human fluids.

Pregnant women getting less than seven hours of sleep may risk their baby’s brain development, study suggests. Merck’s drug, tulisokibart, shows promise for ulcerative colitis, achieving remission in 26% of patients.

Pfizer is discontinuing its sickle cell disease treatment Oxbryta and withdrawing from markets approved due to risks of painful vaso-occlusive crisis and deaths seen in clinical trials, which found 8 deaths in those taking the drug vs 2 in placebo.

Three large Chinese vape companies are researching nicotine-like chemicals as potential nicotine substitutes in vapes. Regulators have warned that some chemicals may be more potent and addictive than nicotine itself, and more studies are needed to understand health impacts.

Eli Lilly gains approval for their Alzheimer’s drug donanemab (Kisunla) in Japan, offering another treatment targeting amyloid plaques like Eisai’s Leqembi as the ageing population drives a rise in dementia cases.

Health Rounds: A study in mice suggested transplanting eggs from older ovaries into younger tissue could rejuvenate them and improve IVF outcomes. Researchers found a gene variant that protects some babies from jaundice by better processing bilirubin. A trial demonstrated Exelixis’ Cabometyx extended progression-free survival for patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours resistant to other treatments.

Two ESMO 2024 studies provided reassuring findings on breastfeeding for breast cancer survivors. A study of nearly 5,000 young BRCA mutation carriers and another of 518 women who interrupted treatment to have a baby both found no increased recurrence risk among those who breastfed their babies compared to those who did not breastfeed.