The Health News USA January 27 2018

• According to US health officials, the mosquito-borne Zika virus may be responsible for an increase in birth defects in U.S. states and territories even in women who had no lab evidence of Zika exposure during pregnancy. For the report, the CDC examined existing birth defect reporting systems in 14 U.S. states and Puerto Rico to look for birth defects possibly associated with Zika. Its been found that 3 cases of birth defects potentially related to Zika per 1,000 live births out of 1 million births in 2016.
• Government advisers dealt a blow Thursday to Philip Morris International’s hopes to sell its heat-not-burn device in the United States as a less-harmful alternative to cigarettes.The pen like device heats Marlboro-branded sticks of tobacco but stops short of burning them. It is already sold in more than 30 countries and Philip Morris aims to make it the first “reduced risk” tobacco product ever sanctioned by the U.S. Philip Morris believes its product is closer to the experience of smoking than e-cigarettes, which will make it more attractive to smokers.
• A consumer and public health group is pressing McDonald’s Corp to set a timeline for phasing out the routine use of medically important antibiotics in the beef and pork it serves, amid warnings that the practice fuels dangerous drug-resistant superbug infections in people. Scientists warn that the use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farms animals contributes to the rise of dangerous antibiotic-resistant superbug infections, which kill at least 23,000 Americans each year and pose a significant threat to global health.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 27th of January 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2018-01-25/more-birth-defects-seen-in-us-areas-where-zika-was-present

According to US health officials, the mosquito-borne Zika virus may be responsible for an increase in birth defects in U.S. states and territories even in women who had no lab evidence of Zika exposure during pregnancy.

Areas in which the mosquito-borne virus has been circulating, including Puerto Rico, southern Florida and part of south Texas, saw a twenty one percent percent rise in birth defects strongly linked with Zika in the last half of two thousand sixteen compared with the first half of that year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its weekly report on death and disease. Researchers said it was not clear if the increase was due to local transmission of Zika alone or if there were other contributing factors.
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For the report, the CDC examined existing birth defect reporting systems in fourteen U.S. states and Puerto Rico to look for birth defects possibly associated with Zika. They divided these areas into three groups: places with local Zika transmission, places with higher levels of travel-associated Zika, and places with lower rates of travel-related Zika.

Overall, they found three cases of birth defects potentially related to Zika per one thousand live births out of one million births in two thousand sixteen, about the same as the prior reporting period in two thousand thirteen and two thousand fourteen.
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CDC researchers anticipate another increase in possible Zika-related birth defects when two thousand seventeen data are analyzed because many pregnant women exposed to Zika in late two thousand sixteen gave birth in two thousand seventeen.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/us-panel-rejects-benefit-claim-heated-tobacco-device-52613496

Government advisers dealt a blow Thursday to Philip Morris International’s hopes to sell its heat-not-burn device in the United States as a less-harmful alternative to cigarettes.The pen like device heats Marlboro-branded sticks of tobacco but stops short of burning them. It is already sold in more than thirty countries and Philip Morris aims to make it the first “reduced risk” tobacco product ever sanctioned by the U.S.

The votes Thursday by the panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers on the marketing of the iQOS device are non binding. The FDA will make a separate decision on whether to allow the product on the market, and — if so — how it could be marketed to consumers. FDA clearance would mark a major milestone in efforts by both the industry and government officials to provide alternative tobacco products to U.S. smokers. The adult smoking rate has fallen to an all-time low of fifteen percent, though smoking remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of illness and death.

The nine-member panel voted on several statements that Philip Morris wants to use to market iQOS. According to the company, the heat-not-burn approach reduces exposure to tar and other deadly byproducts of cigarettes.
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Philip Morris believes its product is closer to the experience of smoking than e-cigarettes, which will make it more attractive to smokers. iQOS produces a tobacco vapor that includes nicotine. The FDA is in the process of beginning to regulate e-cigarettes, which did not come under the agency’s authority until two thousand sixteen. E-cigarettes don’t use tobacco but vaporize liquid usually containing nicotine. The United Kingdom is one of the more than thirty countries where iQOS is sold. Unlike the U.K. and most other countries, the U.S. government has broad authority to regulate a number of aspects of the tobacco industry, including new products.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcdonalds-antibiotics/advocacy-group-calls-on-mcdonalds-to-remove-antibiotics-from-beef-pork-idUSKBN1FE1HL

A consumer and public health group is pressing McDonald’s Corporation to set a timeline for phasing out the routine use of medically important antibiotics in the beef and pork it serves, amid warnings that the practice fuels dangerous drug-resistant superbug infections in people.

The petition drive by U.S. PIRG Education Fund is the latest in a broad campaign from the World Health Organization, investors, advocacy groups, and even nuns, to pressure farmers to curb or eliminate the use of those life-saving drugs on food animals. In the United States, an estimated seventy percent of antibiotics that are important to fighting human infections and ensuring the safety of invasive procedures such as surgeries are sold for use on farms.

Scientists warn that the use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farms animals contributes to the rise of dangerous antibiotic-resistant superbug infections, which kill at least twenty three thousand Americans each year and pose a significant threat to global health.
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McDonald’s in two thousand sixteen was the first major fast-food chain to shift its U.S. chicken supply to birds raised without medically important antibiotics, its effort spurred most of its rivals and major chicken suppliers to follow.  McDonald’s in August said would begin curbing the use of high-value human antibiotics in its global chicken supply in two thousand eighteen and begin working on antibiotic plans for other meats, dairy cows and laying hens.

FDA said chicken accounted for six percent of medically important antibiotic sales, while swine and cattle came in at thirty seven percent and forty three percent, respectively