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

Illinois Helps New York City Get More Flu Shots

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has helped New York City secure 200,000 additional flu shots from overseas, a move that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said would "allow virtually every high-risk New York City resident who wants a flu shot to be vaccinated."

In the month since British authorities shut down a plant in Liverpool that was to make nearly half of the U.S. supply this season, Blagojevich has spearheaded a state effort to find other sources of flu vaccine.

The vaccine was made by GlaxoSmithKline in Germany and Aventis Pasteur in France, and was ordered from a licensed British wholesaler through a partnership with the state of Illinois, according to a statement from the mayor. They are approved by European authorities, but are treated as investigational drugs in the United States. According to the governor, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the deal

Illinois has located nearly 650,000 doses of flu vaccine from Europe so far. Last week, it helped the state of New Mexico get 150,000 doses.

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Increased Leukemia Risk for Overweight Women

Overweight and obese older women have an increased risk of leukemia, says a University of Minnesota study.

It found that older women who are overweight or obese could be more than twice as likely as normal-weight women to get acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). This is one of the most deadly kinds of leukemia, and accounts for about a third of the 33,000 leukemia cases diagnosed each year in the United States, the Associated Press reported.

This finding adds to growing evidence that carrying extra pounds may increase a person's chances of getting cancer.

The study found that the risk of AML was 90 percent greater in women 55 and older who had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29 -- considered overweight. The risk of AML was as much as 140 percent greater in older women with a BMI of 30 or more -- considered obese.

The findings appear in the November issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

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Supreme Court Asked to Quash Assisted-Suicide Law

The White House has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Oregon's assisted suicide law.

The Bush administration's appeal was launched Tuesday, but has been expected since May. That's when a lower court ruled that the federal government couldn't punish doctors in Oregon who prescribed lethal doses of federally controlled drugs to people who are terminally ill, the Associated Press reported.

The Oregon law, which was approved by voters and is the only one of its kind in the United States, allows doctors to help terminally patients die more quickly. Since 1998, more than 170 terminally ill patients, most with cancer, have used the law to end their lives.

In trying to fight the Oregon law, the Bush administration has argued that assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose," the AP reported.

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Tenn. Governor to Dissolve State Health Plan

Tennessee State Governor Phil Bredesen announced Wednesday that he's started to dismantle TennCare, which provides state-paid health coverage for about 430,000 poor, disabled, and elderly people.

But Bredesen also said he'll give patient advocates seven more days to work out a deal to save the program. If there's no agreement, TennCare will be phased out over the next six months, the Tennessean of Nashville reported.

The governor has tried to control TennCare costs by limiting doctor visits, prescriptions, and other coverage for certain clients, and by charging enrollees some premiums and co-payments.

Patient advocates have used lawsuits to oppose those cost-cutting measures. Last week, Bredesen warned that such opposition could force the state to dissolve TennCare.

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Another Vioxx-Like Painkiller Tied to Heart Attacks

Patients taking Pfizer Inc.'s painkiller Bextra had more than twice the incidence of heart attack and stroke than nonusers in recent clinical trials, University of Pennsylvania researchers told the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans on Tuesday.

The results followed September's withdrawal of Merck & Co.'s Vioxx for similar reasons. Both Vioxx and Bextra are among a class of stomach-friendly painkillers called cox-2 inhibitors, which also includes an even more popular Pfizer drug, Celebrex.

"This is a time bomb waiting to go off," University of Pennsylvania pharmacologist Dr. Garret FitzGerald told The New York Times of the Bextra findings. "The magnitude of [cardiac problems] with Bextra is even higher than what we saw in Vioxx," the study leader added.

A Pfizer spokeswoman told the newspaper that the heart problems linked to Bextra were found in studies involving patients at a very high risk for heart disease who were having cardiac surgery. Other studies of arthritis patients unearthed no heart problems, she said.

Experts said the new study of Bextra isn't as convincing as the studies that led to the withdrawal of Vioxx, since the Bextra analysis simply "reorganizes data presented in other settings," the newspaper reported.

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Flu Vaccine Maker Plans Year-Round Production

The lone remaining flu shot maker for the United States says it has won a new U.S. government contract to begin producing the vaccine year-round, according to the Associated Press.

Aventis Pasteur's announcement of its $10 million contract on Tuesday came two days before flu experts were to gather in Geneva to plan for how to respond to a hypothetical flu pandemic.

The new agreement won't affect the current flu shot shortage, spurred by the October shutdown of a supplier in Britain due to contamination problems. But the pact will allow Aventis to maintain a year-round supply of chicken eggs, which are used to produce the vaccine, the AP reported.

Once a year, Aventis will also produce a so-called "pandemic" vaccine to be held in reserve by U.S. health authorities in the event that a dangerous flu strain emerges for which prior vaccines have offered no immunity, the wire service said.

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U.S. Lags in Antismoking Goals

Unless individual states redouble their tobacco control and antismoking efforts, the United States will miss its 2010 target of reducing smoking prevalence nationwide below 12 percent, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted in a report published Wednesday.

While the 12 percent goal already has been achieved in the state of Utah and the U.S. Virgin Islands, smoking ranks as high as 34 percent in other states, the CDC revealed in its publication Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report. In short, the agency said while the rate of adult smoking has declined in every state, it isn't falling fast enough.

Growing state budget deficits are a major reason why state spending on antitobacco programs has fallen an average of 28 percent over the past two years, the CDC conceded. In fact, in fiscal year 2004, only four states -- Maine, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Delaware -- were spending the minimum amount on tobacco control programs recommended by the agency.

Last Updated: Nov-10-2004