Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Twitter bots tout cannabis as a cure-all despite few approved medical uses
Social media bots are promoting cannabis as a remedy for everything from cancer to insomnia and foot pain, according to an analysis of posts on Twitter. "Social bots regularly perpetuate unsubstantiated health claims on the platform, providing one example of how false statements may drown out solid science on social media," said lead study author Jon-Patrick Allem of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Samoa ends measles state of emergency as infection rate slows
The South Pacific island nation of Samoa has lifted a six week-state of emergency after the infection rate from a measles outbreak that has swept the country started to come under control. Samoa's island population of just 200,000 has been gripped by the highly infectious disease that has killed 81 people, most of them babies and young children, and infected more than 5,600 people.
Online triage tool may help patients decide if they need immediate care
An online tool that analyzes symptoms may help people decide whether to seek immediate care in the emergency room or to adopt a wait-and-see strategy, a new study suggests. After analyzing data from more than 150,000 encounters between patients and the Buoy Health triage tool, researchers found that nearly a third of users concluded after using the tool that their situation was less dire and their need for care less urgent than originally assumed. In 4% of cases, patients decided their situation was more serious than they initially thought, according to the results published in JAMA Network Open.
Chicken pox outbreak forces migrant shelter to shutter in northern Mexico
An outbreak of chicken pox has forced the temporary closure of a shelter housing Central American migrants sent to Mexico from the United States, Mexican authorities said on Friday, as officials sought to contain the highly contagious virus. The shelter in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, closed on Thursday after 72 people, including 69 children, were diagnosed with the virus, officials in Mexico's Chihuahua state said in a statement.
