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

World Health Organization to Convene Special Flu Summit

With worries growing about a possible flu pandemic, the World Health Organization has called an unprecedented summit meeting for Nov. 11 in Geneva, Switzerland, to draft response plans in the event of a global emergency, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

Sixteen vaccine manufacturers and health officials from the United States and other large countries have agreed to attend the meeting, said Klaus Stohr, influenza chief of the United Nations' health agency.

Of particular concern are increasing signs that bird flu is becoming established in Asia. It's just a matter of time until such a virus adapts itself to spread more easily from person to person and cause a severe worldwide outbreak, Stohr said. What's more, flu pandemics, which are global epidemics of new strains of the disease that kill large numbers of people, typically occur every 25 to 30 years. The last pandemic struck in 1968, according to health experts.

"We believe that we are closer to the next pandemic than we ever were," Stohr told the AP in an interview before a speech at an American Society for Microbiology meeting in Washington, D.C.

Stohr said the world's total capacity for flu vaccine now is only 300 million doses, and it would take at least six months to develop a new vaccine to fight a pandemic. The WHO wants to get "all issues on the table," monetary and scientific, that prevent getting more vaccine more quickly, he told the news service.

"If we continue as we are now, there will be no vaccine available, let alone antivirals, when the next pandemic starts," Stohr said. "We have a window of opportunity now to prepare ourselves."

Flu kills about 36,000 people in the United States and a million worldwide each year by conservative estimates, Stohr said. But tens of millions die in a pandemic.

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FDA Approves New Breast Cancer Treatment

A drug currently prescribed to combat advanced breast cancer can now be used to help prevent the disease from recurring in women who have been treated for early forms of the disease, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled Friday.

Letrozole, brand name Femara, can now be prescribed for postmenopausal women who have finished five years of treatment with tamoxifen.

Tamoxifen blocks estrogen -- a hormone responsible for the growth of many breast cancers and can prompt a dormant cancer to begin growing again -- from connecting to cells. But the body can become resistant to tamoxifen after five years or so. Doctors had no follow-up therapy -- until now. Letrozole also blocks the effects of estrogen, according to the Associated Press.

The drug offers a new treatment option for about 100,000 women each year who complete tamoxifen therapy, said Dr. Diane Young, a vice president with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the drug. The company said the daily tablet costs about $210 a month, the AP reported.

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More Safety Data Sought on Vioxx Successor

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told the maker of Vioxx, the painkiller pulled from the shelves last month because it was linked to heart trouble, that it must submit more data on the safety and effectiveness of a similar drug.

Merck & Co., Inc., announced Friday that the FDA is seeking new information on the Vioxx successor, called Arcoxia, in light of the recall of Vioxx, the Associated Press reported. Both drugs belong to a relatively new class of stomach-friendly painkillers called cox-2 inhibitors.

One analyst told the AP that the government will probably require further testing on the drug, which won't be sold in the United States for several years. It is available in 48 countries, according to the wire service.

"We continue to believe that Arcoxia has the potential to become a valuable treatment option for many Americans with arthritis and pain," Raymond V. Gilmartin, Merck's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

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Researchers Testing Cervical Cancer Vaccine

Researchers are working on a vaccine that would prevent viral infections known to cause cervical cancer. By protecting against human papilloma virus, the inoculation could save lives and possibly end the need for Pap smear tests, the BBC News reported.

Initial clinical trials have shown the vaccine is 100 percent effective against strains of HPV responsible for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancers. While some strains of the HPV virus only cause genital warts, others cause cervical cancer, the second most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide, the news service said.

Scientists at both GlaxoSmithKline and Merck Sharp & Dohme are working on such a vaccine, but it probably won't be available for several years, at the earliest, the BBC said.

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Nobel Physicist Has 'Flesh-Eating' Infection

Nobel Prize-winning physicist and University of Colorado adjoint professor Eric Cornell is suffering from a rare "flesh-eating" bacterial disease, the Denver Post reported Sunday.

Cornell was hospitalized in critical condition after becoming ill last week with necrotizing fasciitis -- an infection caused by bacteria that typically causes strep throat.

The "condition is treated with aggressive surgery to stop the spread of the bacteria," said a statement from his family.

Cornell is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In 2001, he received the Nobel Prize in physics with Colorado University Professor Carl Wieman for research that led to the creation of the world's first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995. That new form of matter, predicted by Albert Einstein, allows scientists to study the small world of quantum physics, the newspaper said.

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Study Explores Link Between Power Lines, Childhood Leukemia

Children living near high-voltage power cables may have double the risk of developing leukemia, a new British study suggests. However, the researchers cautioned that they weren't able to find a definitive link between the cables and the disease, The Times of London reported Saturday.

The seven-year study by England's Department of Health indicated that children living within 100 meters of high-voltage electricity cables were more likely to suffer from leukemia.

A total of 70,000 children under 15 years of age were studied as part of the research, done by the Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University. Half of the children had cancer, the newspaper reported.

The scientists concluded that, for a small number of the children with the disease, high-voltage electricity may have been a factor in their illness. But other factors, including chance, could account for the finding, the researchers said.

Some previous research had suggested that power lines might be to blame for 20 to 30 of the 500 cases of childhood leukemia in England each year, said lead researcher Dr. Gerald Draper. But his new study said the number might be far smaller.

"The findings have been surprising," Draper told The Times. "It has made us want to figure out whether power lines might be to blame. But I feel we have not yet found out conclusively that that is the case."

Last Updated: Nov-01-2004