Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Factbox-China’s approved COVID treatments
As China begins dismantling its tough zero-COVID controls, there is strong anecdotal evidence that cases in cities such as Beijing and Chengdu are spiking, boosting demand not only for flu and fever medication but also COVID-specific treatments. Here are some of the treatments available in China:
China Meheco to distribute Pfizer’s COVID treatment in China
China Meheco Group Co Ltd said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc to import and distribute the U.S. drugmaker’s oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in mainland China, as the country braces for a surge in COVID patients after scaling back its “zero COVID” policy. The agreement is valid between Dec. 14 and Nov. 30, 2023, China Meheco said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.
Xi and top Chinese leadership to hold key economic meeting as COVID spikes
Chinese President Xi Jinping, his ruling Politburo and senior government officials will meet over the next two days to plot a recovery for China’s battered economy just as the nation faces a surge in COVID-19 infections. The key annual economic policy conference takes place as virus infections spike in the capital Beijing a week after the leadership abandoned its tough “zero-COVID” controls.
Roche teams up with Pfizer on COVID-19 awareness campaign
Roche Holding has teamed up with Pfizer on a U.S. campaign to boost awareness of COVID-19 testing and treatment, the Swiss drugmaker said on Wednesday. The Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Test, distributed in the United States by Roche and made by SD Biosensor Inc, will now include a QR code that directs people to a website where they can learn more about COVID-19, including health authorities’ guidance on testing and treatment options, it said in a statement.
Medical staff in China’s hospitals say COVID-19 ripping through their ranks
A growing number of China’s doctors and nurses are catching COVID-19 and some have been asked to keep working, as people showing mostly moderate symptoms throng hospitals and clinics, according to medical staff and dozens of posts on social media. China’s health authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on infections among medical staff.
Africa’s food crisis is the biggest yet – five reasons why
In October, Nadifa Abdi Isak brought her malnourished daughters to hospital in Mogadishu. That day, a nurse said, 42 other children had already been checked into the emergency unit, ravaged by hunger. There were 57 the day before that. Staff at the Benadir maternity and paediatric hospital said admissions of malnourished children have more than doubled their patient numbers over the past year. They are now treating over 1,000 emergency cases each month.
WHO chief hopes COVID will no longer be emergency next year
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday he is “hopeful” that the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer be considered a global emergency some time next year. His comments at a briefing with media come as China dismantles its rigid “zero-COVID” policy and allows people to live with the virus, stirring concerns the world’s No.2 economy faces a surge in infections.
China’s COVID spike not due to lifting of restrictions – WHO director
COVID-19 infections were exploding in China well before the government’s decision to abandon its strict “zero-COVID” policy, a World Health Organization director said on Wednesday, quashing suggestions that the sudden reversal caused a spike in cases. The comments by the WHO’s emergencies director Mike Ryan came as he warned of the need to ramp up vaccinations in the world’s No. 2 economy.
Cytokinetics’ heart drug fails to secure FDA panel’s support
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s panel of outside experts did not lend its support to Cytokinetics Inc’s heart drug, citing insufficient data on safety and efficacy. The panel voted 8-3 against recommending use of the drug, omecamtiv mecarbil, for treating patients with a type of heart failure caused by abnormal contractions in the main pumping chamber of the heart.
China opens 14,000 fever clinics in big hospitals, 33,000 in community hospitals – NHC
China has opened 14,000 fever clinics in big hospitals and 33,000 in community hospitals as of Dec. 14, Jiao Yahui, a senior official with the National Health Commission told a media briefing on Wednesday. As of Dec. 13, 92.73% of people have received COVID-19 vaccine shots, and 90.37% of peole have received a full course of vaccination in China, Xia Gang, an NHC official in charge of immunisation services, told the same briefing.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
