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

Large U.S. Employers to Bargain for Drug Prices

Fifty of the largest employers in the United States are creating a buyers' club to bargain directly with drug makers on behalf of five million active and retired employees and their families.

According to a report in The New York Times, the move is a major departure from the current industry practice of employers paying middlemen -- known as pharmacy benefit management companies -- to provide drug coverage at discounted rates for their insured workers.

By shrinking the role of middlemen, the employers hope to seize control of a system that they say has fueled one of their fastest-growing costs, the newspaper reported. The 50 employers in the buyers' group spent roughly $4 billion for prescription drugs last year. Over all, the nation's employers spend more than $70 billion through pharmacy benefit managers, and their drug bills rose 9.1 percent in 2003, on top of eight years of double-digit increases.

The group has started discussing drug pricing for next year's health plans with drug makers and pharmacy benefit management companies. And it plans to negotiate on the 50 drugs that its members spend the most on, including Lipitor and another cholesterol treatment, Zocor; Prevacid and Nexium for heartburn; the painkillers Celebrex and Vioxx; Zoloft, Paxil and Effexor for depression; and Allegra, an allergy drug.

The employers are working through the Human Resources Policy Association, a Washington trade group of senior executives for 220 large companies, and through Hewitt Associates, a benefits consulting firm.

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China OKs Rapid SARS Test

China has given the green light for a new and simple test for SARS to go on sale, the official Xinhua news agency reports.

A state Food and Drug Administration official has told the agency that the test can detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome in patients between one to 10 days after they become ill, according to Agence France Presse .

Until now, it has taken health authorities weeks to confirm if a person has contracted SARS, the pneumonia-like illness that claimed more than 800 lives and sickened more than 8,000 people in 32 countries last year.

Tests that detect SARS by establishing the presence of antibodies or the virus' nucleic acid are already on sale in China. The new test is relatively cheap and simple to use.

China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan, was the worst hit country last year, with 349 deaths.

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Free Formula Program Drives Up Price for Others, USDA Says

A federal program that provides free formula to poor infants drives up formula prices for shoppers who are not participants, new government research finds.

But the finding is not a reason to change the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which is known as WIC, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The program lets low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children younger than 5-years-old get specific foods each month to help with proper nutrition. In 2002, about 1.9 million infants were in it, the Associated Press reported.

The study by the USDA's Economic Research Service found that the program tended to "modestly increase" the supermarket price of infant formula for people outside the program. The average increase in the retail price when a formula manufacturer gained a WIC contract was about 2.5 cents for all types of formula, researchers said.

The report was based on retail scanner information for 2000 from a sample of 11,300 supermarkets tracked by Information Resources Inc., a market research company.

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Drug Card Won't Impact Food Stamp Allotments

In a hasty revision of policy, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced late Friday that food stamp recipients will see no reduction in their monthly allotments if they get a Medicare drug discount card and $600 credit.

The agency's clarification, issued despite the government's closure for President Reagan's funeral, was intended to settle a disagreement between Medicare and state food stamp officials about whether the drug card subsidy should be considered when calculating food stamps, the Associated Press reported.

Citing USDA policy, some state officials said that if household drug expenses decreased, more money should be available for food and less money should come from the government to pay for food. A USDA memo issued in March reinforced this view, noting that food stamp recipients "may not claim a medical deduction for the cost of any prescriptions they receive free through use of the card."

However, Mark McClellan, who runs the Medicare program, insisted this week that the Medicare law clearly said otherwise. On Friday, the USDA, which runs the food stamp program, said that the Medicare position was correct.

More than 3 million people have signed up for the discount cards since they were introduced June 1, but most were enrolled automatically by their health maintenance organizations.

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Integrated HIV Strategy Urged for Developing World

A integrated strategy of treatment and prevention is needed to combat HIV/AIDS in developing countries, experts advise in a new report.

The report warns that as treatment for the killer virus becomes more available to people in developing countries, prevention efforts may fall by the wayside and result in a surge of even more cases, the New York Times reported.

The report was published by the Global HIV Prevention Working Group in advance of next month's International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

One of the report authors noted that, for a long period, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS were considered as opposite strategies, and health officials often had to choose either one or the other.

Another expert warned that unless developing countries can greatly decrease the numbers of new infections, even the most ambitious treatment efforts won't be able to keep up with the demand.

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Oscillating Fans Recalled Due to Fire Hazard

About 2.2 million oscillating floor fans that pose a serious fire hazard are being recalled by SMC Marketing Corp. of Grand Prairie, Tex., and Home Depot U.S.A. Inc.

The electric power cord on the "SMC" brand fans can be damaged by the fan's oscillation motion and can result in a short circuit and possible ignition of the plastic case.

So far, there have been 31 reported incidents in which the cord on these fans was damaged and resulted in smoke and fires. In at least nine cases, there was substantial property damage, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The recalled fans are white 18-inch, pedestal floor types with model number SR-18 or SP-18. The model number is located on the back of the fan beside the on/off button. The "SMC" brand name is written on the face of the front grill.

The fans were sold at Home Depot (retail about $20) from January 1997 to October 2001. People with these fans should stop using them immediately. They can be returned to Home Depot for a store credit.

Consumers can contact SMC Marketing Corp. for information about how to get a refund. Call SMC toll-free at 800-527-3675 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

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