Health Highlights: Oct. 16, 2018

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Heart Researcher’s Papers Contain Fraudulent Data: Harvard

Dozens of scientific papers from the laboratory of well-known heart researcher Piero Anversa contain fraudulent data, according to a Harvard Medical School internal investigation.

Anversa and other members of his laboratory left Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2015 as investigators assessed the work performed in his lab, the Washington Post reported.

“Following a review of research conducted in the former lab of Piero Anversa, we determined that 31 publications included falsified and/or fabricated data, and we have notified all relevant journals,” a joint Harvard and Brigham statement.

It did not specify the papers with the suspect data.

Anversa has published more than 100 scientific papers, has collaborated with leaders in the field of heart research, and was honored as a distinguished scientist by the American Heart Association, the Post reported.

The paper was unable to reach Anversa through his lawyer.

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WHO Calls Meeting on Congo Ebola Outbreak

A meeting Wednesday will assess whether the current Ebola outbreak in Congo is a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization says.

The rate of new cases has more than doubled this month and containment efforts have been hampered by community resistance, the Associated Press reported.

To date, there have been 179 confirmed cases, including 104 deaths, according to Congo’s health ministry.

This is the tenth Ebola outbreak in Congo, but the first to occur in the far northeast of the country, a region that health workers have compared to a war zone due to rebel attacks, the AP reported.

The risk of regional spread of the deadly disease is “very high” because there have been confirmed cases of Ebola close to the busy border with Uganda, the WHO recently warned.

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Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Dead at Age 65

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died Monday in Seattle at age 65.

A statement released by his family said Allen died from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, The New York Times reported.

Allen left Microsoft in the early 1980s after first being diagnosed with the cancer, which recently recurred after having been in remission for years.

Allen came up with the name Micro-Soft for the company that he co-founded with Bill Gates in 1975, The Times reported.

Along with buying the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association and the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League, Allen used the billions he earned from Microsoft to support science, technology, education, the environment and the arts.

For example, he funded the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2014, The Times reported.

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