Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Parents think teens spend too much time playing video games

Most American parents think their teens spend too much time playing video games, but many of them also believe this is typical adolescent behavior, a U.S. study suggests. A whopping 86% of parents "agreed" or "strongly agreed" their teens spend too much time gaming, according to a new report from the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll.

ICU death rate higher in hospitals primarily serving minorities

Death rates have been declining for critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICUs), but a new U.S. study suggests gains have been limited at hospitals with large numbers of minority patients. Data on almost 1.1 million ICU patients at more than 200 hospitals from 2006 to 2016 show a steady annual 2% decline in ICU death rates at hospitals with few minority patients, but not at hospitals where at least one-fourth of patients were Hispanic or African-American.

Women rarely regret decision to get abortion

Five years after an abortion, most women still say it was the right decision even if they struggled with their choice at the time, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers surveyed 667 women who had abortions in 21 states a week after they had the procedures and then once every six months for five years. By the end of that period, 84% of women had either positive or neutral feelings about their choice.

Australia to screen some flights from China, warns coronavirus difficult to stop

Australia will begin screening passengers arriving from a Chinese city in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus, the country's chief medical officer said on Tuesday, although authorities warned that an outbreak would be hard to prevent. Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 200 people have caught the new virus, which causes a type of pneumonia that has killed four people in the central city of Wuhan.

Slovakia detects second case of H5N8 bird flu

Slovakia detected its second case of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus at a farm in the west of the country, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. Bird flu cases have appeared in the four central European countries of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic since the end of last year.

China reports new H5N6 bird flu case in Xinjiang region

China's agriculture ministry said on Monday it had detected the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of avian flu in swans in its western Xinjiang region. The case is the third this month of the strain in swans in Xinjiang.

Ukraine reports first H5 bird flu case in three years: OIE

Ukraine has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu on a farm in the west-central part of the country, the first of such outbreak in nearly three years, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday. Citing a report from Ukraine's veterinary services, the Paris-based OIE said the virus was of serotype H5 but gave no further detail.

China virus outbreak spooks global markets as fourth death reported

China reported a fourth death from a new coronavirus on Tuesday as the number of cases continued to rise, sending jitters through Asian markets as hundreds of millions of Chinese prepared to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday. Health authorities around the world stepped up screening and the World Health Organization called an meeting on Wednesday to consider declaring an international health emergency, as China confirmed the virus spread through human contact.