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

Generic Oxycontin Wins U.S. Approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first two generic versions of Oxycontin (oxycodone hydrochloride), a powerful painkiller that's also been illegally used by drug abusers.

The drug swallowed whole can provide up to 12 hours of relief. But if chewed, snorted or injected, the opioid narcotic produces a quick and potentially deadly high, the Associated Press reports. It has been linked to more than 100 deaths and bears an FDA warning that it can be as addictive as morphine.

In a media statement, the agency calls the drug an important option for management of chronic pain associated with diseases like cancer. It says generic approval means the medication will be available at a lower cost to the estimated 10 million Americans who suffer from moderate to severe chronic pain.

But in recognizing the potential for abuse, the FDA says it has taken a number of preventive steps, including:

• Increasing the number of state Prescription Monitoring Programs, which aim to detect suspicious prescriptions, including those from multiple physicians to the same patient.
• Increasing resources to identify Internet-based "pill mills" that illegally provide controlled substances to visitors.
• Providing resources to better educate and train doctors on pain management and opioid treatment procedures.

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Global TB on the Rise, Despite Preventive Drugs

Tuberculosis continues its dominance as one of the world's leading killers, despite the wide availability of inexpensive drugs that could cure the highly contagious infection, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in a new report.

TB kills some 2 million people every year, and is a common cause of death among people whose immune systems have been compromised by the AIDS virus. About one-third of the world's population harbors the germ, although most people's healthy immune systems keep it in check, the Washington Post reports.

The total number of active cases rose 2.4 percent in 2002, the newspaper reports. WHO's goal is to detect 70 percent of all TB cases by 2005, and to cure 85 percent of them.

The TB bacterium targets the lungs and is transmitted via tiny droplets when infected people cough. Even when it spreads throughout the body and becomes "active," it can usually be cured with a six-month antibiotic regimen that can cost as little as $10, the Post says. But TB control efforts are often hampered by mismanagement and lack of patient compliance in taking every dose.

The worsening global AIDS epidemic also makes efforts to conquer TB increasingly difficult. Many experts believe that without the AIDS crisis, the global TB rate would be falling, the Post reports.

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Illegal Use of Colorful Curry Alleged in Europe

Europeans who eat one of the continent's most popular Indian dishes may be prone to allergies, migraines and neurological problems stemming from illegal overuse of food colorings found in curry, BBC News Online reports.

British authorities examining 142 samples of chicken tikka masala found "illegal and potentially dangerous" levels of food colorings in 58 of the samples. The chemicals, including tartrazine, sunset yellow, and ponceau 4R, have also been linked to hyperactivity in children, the network reports.

Food experts say that while the colorings may make the meal more visually appealing, they're not necessary and should be avoided. Diners are being warned to watch out for dishes that are particularly vivid, since paler colors usually indicate the use of natural ingredients, the BBC says.

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Tens of Millions of Americans Lack Access to Basic Health Care

A new report says 36 million Americans do not have access to basic health care.

The state-by-state National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) report focuses on an area that's often overlooked in ongoing discussions about health care that typically spotlight the 43 million Americans without health insurance.

"One in eight Americans -- that's 12 percent of the population -- are who we call 'medically unserved' -- with no access to health care," Dan Hawkins, NACHC vice president for policy, says in a prepared statement.

"They live in inner-cities and in isolated rural communities. But no matter where they live, the story is the same: They can't get health care because there aren't enough doctors in their communities who are willing or able to care for them," Hawkins says.

The report says low-income families account for nearly half of the people with no access to basic health care. Hispanics have the highest concentration -- 28 percent -- of "medically unserved" people.

Nearly half of the 36 million medically unserved Americans do have health insurance. The report found that Texas has the largest medically unserved population in the country, followed by Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

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Medicare Will Go Broke by 2019, Report Says

Rising health costs mean that Medicare will have to take money from its trust fund this year to cover expenditures, government trustees said in an annual report released Tuesday.

They also said that Medicare will go broke by 2019 if no changes are made to the program. That bleak forecast is partly the result of the new Medicare prescription drug law that will increase costs by more than $500 billion over 10 years, the report says.

It states that provisions of the prescription drug law, which was signed by President Bush in December, "raises serious doubt about the sustainability of Medicare under current financing arrangements."

The trustees' prediction of 2019 as the insolvency date for Medicare is seven years earlier than what they had projected last year, the Associated Press reports.

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Microbicide Gels and Creams Could Help Reduce HIV Infections

Simple microbicide gels or creams could someday help people protect themselves against HIV and transform the fight against HIV/AIDS, experts say.

Currently, about 60 microbicides to protect against HIV are in development and about 14 clinical trials are under way, BBC News Online reports.

The goal is to develop gels or creams that are applied internally to prevent HIV infection. The microbicides work in one of three ways: By killing the virus; by creating a barrier to prevent the virus from entering the body; or by preventing the virus from taking hold once inside the body.

Experts, speaking ahead of a major conference on microbicides next week, say such gels or creams could help people who are otherwise unable to protect themselves from HIV, the BBC reports.

For example, women in many developing countries are often unable to convince their male sex partners to wear a condom. Even if microbicides prove only partially effective, they could help prevent millions of new HIV infections, experts estimate.

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