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

Prozac Found in U.K. Drinking Water

The antidepressant Prozac is being consumed in such large quantities in Britain that it has now been discovered in the country's drinking water.

Britain's Environment Agency has revealed that Prozac is building up both in river systems and groundwater used for drinking supplies, according to a report in The Observer. Exactly how much is there is unknown. The government said that the amounts were "watered down," and weren't likely to pose any risk to public health, but said that it was a "potential concern."

The discovery has nonetheless left environmentalists concerned. The use of Prozac in the country has shot up dramatically, rising from 9 million prescriptions per year to 24 million in the decade ending in 2001, according to The Observer.

Activists are seeking an urgent investigation into the revelations, saying that the buildup of the antidepressant is tantamount to a "hidden mass medication," the paper said.

According to experts, Prozac seeps into rivers and water systems from treated sewage water.

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Kerry Aims for Jugular on Stem Cell Issue

Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, used the party's Saturday radio address to attack what Democrats believe to be a vulnerable issue in President Bush's re-election campaign: his restriction on the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research.

"Here in America, we don't sacrifice science for ideology," the Boston Globe quoted Kerry as saying. "We're going to lift the ban on stem cell research. We're going to listen to our scientists and stand up for science. We're going to say yes to knowledge, yes to discovery, and yes to a new era of hope for all Americans."

In August 2001, Bush barred federal funds for research using new embryonic stem cell lines. The issue took a back seat in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but Democrats plan to revive it in a major way because the president hasn't backed off from that stand, even though some Republicans have urged him to do so.

According to the Globe, Democrats are keen on making the issue "a clash of values akin to a Scopes Monkey Trial for the 21st century. In their casting, Bush is like William Jennings Bryan, clinging in religious certitude to creationist theories, while Kerry is like Clarence Darrow defending evolution, a rational defender of scientific promise."

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Virus Kills Hundreds of Cats in Michigan

A virus that health officials say is easily preventable has killed as many as 800 cats in Michigan's Saginaw County.

The "cat plague" has prompted officials to keep their felines indoors, according to a report in the Saginaw News.

The virus, panleukopenia, kills rapidly, dividing body cells and making the cat more susceptible to other complications and bacterial infections, the newspaper reported. Kittens are especially vulnerable because of their immature immune systems.

Panleukopenia often breaks out in animal shelters because unvaccinated stray cats are left there. But the weather has been mild and humid, leading officials to suspect that people are leaving their cats outdoors more often.

Mark Wachner, director of Saginaw's Animal Care Center, told the News that the virus can be prevented through normal vaccinations.

"Cats are among the most neglected domestic animals in the country," he said. "You have people saying, 'He's just an outdoors cat,' but they need regular examinations, too."

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Surgeon's Towel Left in Woman's Body

Family members of a woman who died in 2002 have filed suit against the Cleveland Clinic, alleging that surgeons left a rolled-up towel in her body during an operation in 1995.

The towel was discovered after Bonne Valle's family donated her body to Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, according to the Associated Press. A faculty member found a green surgical cloth the size of a large hand towel behind her left lung.

Valle's family said that she long complained about a strange feeling in her chest after having undergone lung reduction surgery. "She always said, 'On the left side, it feels like there's something there. It felt like something moved,'" her daughter, Jeanne Clark, told the AP.

Doctors maintained that Valle's symptoms were part of the progression of her emphysema, Clark said.

Her doctor, Jeffrey Miller, who was also sued, said the towel had no effect on the quality of her remaining life. "She lived seven years," the AP quotes him as saying in a letter to the clinic. That is "certainly as well as one would have expected her to survive given her severe emphysema and poor pulmonary function and overall condition."

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Deadly Bacterial Outbreak in Canada

Canadian health officials are struggling to contain an outbreak of a strong and stubborn bacterial infection that has killed vulnerable patients in hospitals and nursing homes.

The BBC reports that the bacterium, Clostridium difficile, has killed 189 patients in the last 18 months, including 100 at a single hospital in Calgary. The incidence of disease among people 65 and older has risen tenfold.

The bacterium grows in the large intestine, causing diarrhea and inflammation. It can stay in body for months even after intense treatment with antibiotics. Investigators say that C. difficile seems to have mutated into a highly contagious and lethal strain, but they do not know why, according to the BBC.

Experts say that better hospital hygiene can help curb the outbreak.

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New Method to Fight Aggressive Skin Cancer Found

Scientists in the United States have devised a new way to fight skin cancer that spreads to other parts of the body.

Agence France-Presse reports that the researchers arrived at what they call a "simple technology" to cure metastatic forms of the cancer.

Chemotherapy is a common method of fighting cancer, but it often destroys healthy cells along with the cancerous ones. Researchers at the Mayo Foundation, however, are trying to turn this feared secondary effect to their advantage by better stimulating the immune system so that it attacks the tumor, according to the AFP account.

"Deliberate destruction of normal tissue can be exploited to generate immunity against a malignant disease originating from that tissue," the researchers write.

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