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China approves use of GSK vaccine Cervarix for cervical cancer

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Monday the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has approved its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Cervarix, for use in the country to help women fight cervical cancer. GSK's China unit said in a statement Cervarix will be the first HPV vaccine licensed for use in the country and is expected to be launched there in early 2017. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women aged between 15 to 44 years in China, with an estimated 130,000 new cases each year, it said.

House Speaker Ryan unveils Republican alternative to Obamacare

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled a Republican healthcare agenda on Wednesday that would repeal Obamacare but keep some of its more popular provisions. The proposal is part of Ryan's blueprint, titled “A Better Way,” which offers a Republican alternative to the Democratic Party on policy issues ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Earlier this month, Ryan, the country's highest-ranking elected Republican, released initiatives on national security and combating poverty.

Colombia reports first two Zika-linked microcephaly cases

Colombian health authorities on Thursday reported the country's first two cases of microcephaly associated with Zika, the day after US scientists concluded the virus can cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads. Colombia has the second largest number of Zika cases in Latin America after Brazil, putting it on the leading edge of a mosquito-borne epidemic that has spread as far north as the United States. “Colombia confirmed the two first cases of microcephaly associated with Zika,” Colombia's public health ministry said in a statement.

India steps up fight against cigarette firms over health warnings

By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's health ministry has ordered government agencies to enforce a new rule for bigger health warnings on cigarette packs, stepping up a fight against the country's $10 billion cigarette industry that has shut down its factories in protest. The health ministry's action highlights a growing conflict between the tobacco industry and the federal government which wants manufacturers to cover 85 percent of a cigarette pack's surface in health warnings, up from 20 percent. India's biggest cigarette maker ITC Ltd, part-owned by British American Tobacco, has not implemented the government order, saying it contradicts a parliamentary committee's recommendation for warnings to cover half a cigarette pack.

Drug resistance adds to India’s tuberculosis menace

After three years of battling tuberculosis, a disease that claimed the lives of his father and younger brother, Sonu Verma, a patient in northern India, hopes a cure for his illness may be within reach. “Only a few more months and my nightmare will end… it will be my rebirth, free from tuberculosis,” the 25-year-old scrap dealer, who has been left visibly lean and weak by the disease, told AFP. As India marks World TB Day on Thursday, it faces an estimated 2.2 million new cases of the disease a year, more than any other country, according to the World Health Organisation.

Indonesia’s mentally ill languish in shackles

In a small faith healing centre in rural Indonesia, Sulaiman chanted in a confused fashion, tugged at a chain attached to his ankle, and shifted restlessly on a hard, wooden bench. The emaciated man has been chained up for the past two years, and is one of thousands of Indonesians with a mental illness currently shackled, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday. Chaining up the mentally ill has been illegal in Indonesia for nearly 40 years but remains rife across the country, especially in rural areas where health services are limited and belief in evil spirits prevails, according to HRW.

Guinea govt says two people have died from Ebola

Two people from the same family have died from Ebola in Guinea, the government said Thursday, as the WHO declared a flare-up of the virus in neighbouring Sierra Leone over. The cases are the first in Guinea since the country was declared Ebola free at the end of last year, and the UN health agency warned that a recurrence of the tropical disease — which has claimed 11,300 lives since December 2013 — remained a possibility. WHO declared that flare-up officially over on Thursday after no new cases were seen for 42 days — the length of two Ebola incubation cycles.

Russia says registers first case of person infected with Zika virus

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's consumer safety watchdog said on Monday the country had registered its first case of a person infected with the Zika virus, an unnamed female who had been on holiday in the Dominican Republic. Rospotrebnadzor, the watchdog, said in a statement that the condition of the person was satisfactory and that her family members had tested negative for the virus. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)

Rio will be success despite ‘situation of crisis’: Bach

By Karolos Grohmann ATHENS (Reuters) – This year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be successful despite the country's financial and political turmoil which have made final preparations harder, International Olympic Committee President (IOC) Thomas Bach said on Wednesday. Brazil is faced with a severe economic downturn, having been awarded the Olympics with the country experiencing a financial boom back in 2009. “It is, as you know, six months before the Olympic Games and it is the most difficult time to prepare for Games,” Bach, speaking at the Greek Olympic Committee headquarters, told reporters.