Health News Roundup: How China's new No.2 hastened the end of Xi's zero-COVID policy; Finland to allow gender reassignment without sterilisation and more

The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pills, including by mail, provided they are certified under special safety rules for the drug. WHO still working to identify the origins of COVID-19 The World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a U.S. agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Estonia reported bird flu outbreak on poultry farm, WOAH says

Estonia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a farm in the northern part of the country, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Friday. The poultry farm, located in the village of Urge in the Rapla County, had 161 birds, including laying hens, ducks, geese, pigeons and peacocks, WOAH said, citing Estonian authorities.

Finland to allow gender reassignment without sterilisation

Finland will allow transgender people to change their legal gender at their own request and without undergoing sterilization, new legislation signed by the Finnish President confirmed on Friday. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that requiring sterilization in order for individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate is a violation of human rights.

How China's new No.2 hastened the end of Xi's zero-COVID policy

As unprecedented protests against China's zero-COVID policies escalated in November, Li Qiang, the man recently elevated to No.2 on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, seized the moment. Top Chinese officials and medical experts had been quietly formulating plans over the preceding weeks to dismantle President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID strategy and gradually reopen the country towards the end of 2022, with the aim of declaring a return to normality in March, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Walgreens won't dispense abortion pills in some Republican states

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc on Thursday said it will not dispense abortion pills in the states of 20 Republican attorneys general who have told the pharmacy chain it risked breaking the law should it dispense them to the states by mail. The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pills, including by mail, provided they are certified under special safety rules for the drug.

WHO still working to identify the origins of COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a U.S. agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak. "I have written to and spoken with high-level Chinese leaders on multiple occasions as recently as just a few weeks ago... all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

White House: Unacceptable for states to target access to federally approved abortion pills

The White House said on Friday that it was "dangerous and unacceptable" for elected officials to target women's access to federally approved medication abortion pills. Walgreens announced on Thursday it would not dispense abortion pills in the 20 states where attorneys general have told the pharmacy chain it risked breaking the law should it provide them through the mail.

Incyte to discontinue late-stage trial for bone marrow cancer drug combination

Drugmaker Incyte Corp said on Friday it was stopping its late-stage trial of an experimental cancer drug after an interim analysis indicated the drug was unlikely to meet the main goal of the study, dragging its shares 2% lower in after-market trade. The study was aimed at determining the safety and effectiveness of adding parsaclisib to the use of its drug Jakafi, which is approved for the treatment of some types of myelofibrosis - a form of bone marrow cancer.

Exclusive-India may issue alert on Marion cough syrup exports after toxins found

India may issue an alert on cough syrup exported by Marion Biotech, whose products have been linked to deaths in Uzbekistan, after tests showed many of the company's drug samples contained toxins, a drug inspector said on Saturday. Indian police on Friday arrested three Marion employees and are looking for two directors after tests in a government laboratory found 22 of 36 syrup samples "adulterated and spurious".

FDA says no indication contaminated cough syrups have entered U.S. supply chain

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday there was no indication that contaminated cough and paracetamol syrups that caused deaths of children in Gambia last year have entered the U.S. drug supply chain. This comes after an investigation led by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Gambian scientists reported on Thursday that these medicines contaminated with toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol led to acute kidney injury among 78 children in Gambia.

U.S. CDC issues advisory after confirmed measles case in Kentucky

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday it was issuing a health alert advisory to notify clinics and public health officials to be watchful after a case of measles was confirmed at a large gathering in Kentucky. On Feb. 24, the Kentucky Department for Public Health identified a confirmed case of measles in an unvaccinated individual with a history of recent international travel, the CDC said.

(With inputs from agencies.)