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

More Flu Shots on the Way, Top U.S. Health Official Reports

A batch of 100,000 flu shots for adults was expected to be ready for distribution in the United States starting Saturday, to ease the national shortage.

But with the flu epidemic spreading to all 50 states, an additional 150,000 shots for children are not due to arrive until January because of delays in packaging and other administrative problems, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told the Associated Press.

Thompson said flu shots are in short supply in the United States, because producers last year had an surplus and had to dump 12 million extra doses. This year, they were not prepared to meet demand.

"We are doing everything we can," Thompson said after a meeting with Mexican health officials in Saltillo Friday. "But (the government) cannot manufacture vaccines."

Meanwhile, the manufacturers of tests used to determine if a patient has the flu say the current outbreak has strained their ability to meet demand from hospitals, medical laboratories and doctors' offices.

Jack Kraeutler, president of test kit distributor based Meridian Bioscience Inc., said the company is running about a week behind in filling orders. And Baltimore-based BD Diagnostics Systems, which also manufactures the kits, said it already has received as many orders as the company got last year for the entire flu season.

The number of states hit hardest by the flu doubled to 24 over the past week and now includes most of the western half of the country. Nationwide, at least 20 children have died in what could become the worst flu season in years.

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Study Finds Women With Breast Cancer Don't Get Enough Chemo

New research on 20,000 women with early breast cancer has found that more than half did not receive the recommended schedule of chemotherapy, which may have put them at risk for worsening of the disease or recurrences that could have been avoided.

Writing in the Dec. 15 Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Gary H. Lyman, an oncologist at the University of Rochester, and his co-authors describe their findings as alarming, particularly in light of growing evidence that the odds of curing breast cancer are highest when patients complete a full course of chemotherapy within a certain period of time. "Women who get less have a significantly higher risk," Lyman said.

The study analyzed the medical records of about 20,000 women who were treated by 1,243 doctors in private practices around the United States, according to The New York Times. When the researchers compared the treatment that the women actually received with the standard regimens, they found that more than half received less than 85 percent of the recommended dose intensity. Previous studies had found that such reductions could increase the risk of recurrence and death.

It is not known whether the women in the study suffered as a result of reduced treatments; that kind of follow-up was not part of the plan, the Times says.

A researcher who was not part of the study, Dr. Larry Norton, head of medical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said he was surprised and disturbed by the widespread failure to stick to a treatment schedule.

"This should remotivate both doctors and patients to be sure both dose rate and level are adequate," Norton told the newspaper.

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FDA Approves European Wrinkle Smoother

A new wrinkle smoother has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The treatment, an injectable gel called Restylane, has long been used in Europe and is the third injectable wrinkle treatment to win FDA approval, the Associated Press reports.

The other two are Botox and Collegen. Botox temporarily paralyzes muscles beneath the skin to smooth frown lines between the eyes. Collagen is used to fill other wrinkles, including those Restylane can treat. Both wrinkle fillers last about six months.

Restylane is made with hyaluronic acid, a substance normally found in the skin that helps keep it plump.

In studies, 138 patients had wrinkles on one side of the nose injected with Restylane and the other side with collagen. Both sides appeared comparable. Most of the patients studied were Caucasian.

Restylane manufacturer Q-Med AB of Sweden has agreed to do more research on whether the treatment will cause any pigment alternations if used by non-Caucasians, although FDA said widespread use in other countries hasn't raised concern.

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Tests Show Promise for Ebola Treatment

A treatment for Ebola developed by U.S. scientists is the first to show any promise against the dreaded virus.

A study in the Dec. 13 issue of The Lancet says that this new treatment cured a third of Ebola-infected monkeys during testing. This is an important advance and raises hopes for development of a lifesaving therapy for humans, the Associated Press reports.

The drug was developed by scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The World Health Organization says it plans to use the new drug during the next human Ebola outbreak, the AP reports.

Currently, there is no treatment for Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Milder strains of the disease have a death rate of 50 percent while the death rate for more severe forms is 90 percent.

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Health-Care Costs Mean Tough Choices for Disabled

The costs of health care are often too much of a burden for many disabled Americans, forcing them to forgo needed equipment, medication, or the basics of life, says a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released Friday.

The survey found that a large number of non-elderly adults with permanent disabilities are forced to make difficult decisions, even though many have health insurance. For example, some have only enough money to buy either food or medicine, but not both.

The survey of 1,505 adults ages 18 to 64 with permanent disabilities found that half go without equipment that could help them better cope with their disabilities. More than a third said they split pills, postpone care, or skip medication doses because of cost.

A third of the people in the survey said they cut back on essentials such as food and heat in order to pay for their health care, the Associated Press reports.

There are an estimated 15.5 million disabled adults in the United States.

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