Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Chicago sugary drink tax to take effect next week after ruling

A sweetened beverage tax will take effect in Chicago on Wednesday after an Illinois judge threw out a lawsuit by retailers that argued the measure was vague and unlawful. Cook County, which includes Chicago and surrounding suburbs, joins a growing number of localities across the United States that have adopted measures to cut consumption of sugary drinks for health reasons, including Seattle and San Francisco.

AbbVie's drug for all types of hepatitis C wins EU approval

AbbVie Inc said on Friday it had received European approval to market its drug for treatment of all six major forms of hepatitis C. The company said the approval of Maviret was supported by eight studies evaluating more than 2,300 patients in 27 countries.

U.S. proposes cigarette nicotine cut, shift toward e-cigarettes

The U.S. government proposed cutting nicotine in cigarettes to "non-addictive" levels on Friday in a major regulatory shift designed to move smokers toward potentially less harmful e-cigarettes. Shares of major tobacco companies in the United States and UK slumped in heavy trading volume after the proposal was unveiled by the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with the world's biggest producers losing about $26 billion of market value.

Doctors frustrated that electronic records steal time from patients

(Reuters Health) - Dr. Rebekah Gardner has to make a choice each time she sees a patient in her Rhode Island office: she can scroll computer screens and click boxes, or she can focus on the patient and take home the computer work. "We´re either left fumbling through data entry with our patient in the exam room, missing out on an opportunity to truly connect, or we´re left with hours of documentation and computer work after a long day of seeing patients," she said in a phone interview.

Trump threatens to end insurance payments if no healthcare bill

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a new healthcare bill and goaded them to not abandon their seven-year quest to replace the Obamacare law. In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said "if a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"

Suspected diphtheria cases up in crisis-stricken Venezuela, data suggests

Diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection that is fatal in 5 to 10 percent of cases, appears to still be spreading in Venezuela amid unsanitary living conditions and shortages of basic medicines, rarely available data suggested this week. Venezuela notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of around 123 cases of suspected diphtheria between January and mid-June, bringing the total number of suspected cases in the past year to 447, according to a Cuban health ministry web page which reported the figures.

Occupational pesticide and herbicide exposure tied to lung disease

(Reuters Health) - Workers exposed to pesticides and herbicides on the job may be more likely than other people to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchitis and other breathing problems, an Australian study suggests. With any herbicide exposure at work, people were more than twice as likely to develop COPD by middle age, and workplace pesticide exposure was associated with 74 percent higher odds of the common lung disease, researchers report in Thorax.

Exclusive: Majority of Americans want Congress to move on from healthcare reform - Reuters/Ipsos poll

A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate's effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Saturday. Nearly two-thirds of the country wants to either keep or modify the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and a majority of Americans want Congress to turn its attention to other priorities, the survey found.

Data supports safety of Dynavax hepatitis B vaccine: U.S. FDA panel

Available data supports the safety of Dynavax Technologies Corp's experimental hepatitis B vaccine when administered to adults, a panel of expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. Much of the panel discussion focused on the need for Dynavax to carefully track patient outcomes due to concerns about safety of the vaccine, which has been rejected twice before by the regulatory agency.

Arkansas limits on abortion pill can proceed: appeals court

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that an Arkansas law restricting the use of the so-called abortion pill could proceed, overturning a lower court's decision in 2015 that blocked the law a day before it was to go into effect. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis sent the case back to the federal district court in Little Rock, telling the court it must estimate approximately how many women would likely be harmed by the law before the case could proceed further.