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

U.S. Probes Deaths of Washington State Dairy Cows

At least four U.S. government agencies are investigating the mysterious deaths of three Washington state dairy cows from what appears to be poisoning by an unidentified toxic substance, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday.

At least seven more cows from the single farm involved have become gravely ill, and the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture and the FBI are assisting state investigations into who and what caused the illnesses.

No milk from the cows entered the milk supply from the farm in Enumclaw, about 50 miles southeast of Seattle, according to an FDA statement issued late Monday. It said the incident appeared to be isolated, involving fewer than 20 cows, and that tissue samples from the dead animals are being analyzed at an FDA lab in Cincinnati. The agency, in a somewhat terse statement, promised to release more information as it became available.

The sick cows were first discovered June 6 by the farm's owner, who noticed that "all had a strange, reddish-black substance on their backs and their skin bubbled with blisters," according to the newspaper. The sick cows were segregated from the rest of the 330 animals in the farm's herd, and about 27,000 pounds of milk were disposed of, according to the farm's owner, John Koopman.

Koopman sits on the board of WestFarm Foods, which had recently resolved "a long and bitter dispute with the Teamsters union," the Post-Intelligencer reported. But the dispute was over before Koopman's cows became sick, the newspaper added.

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Florida Woman Dies From Human Form of Mad Cow Disease

A 25-year-old Broward County, Fla., woman is the first person in the United States to die from the human form of mad cow disease, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday.

Charlene Singh is believed to have contracted the disease in England more than a decade ago, but was not diagnosed until two years ago, the Associated Press reported. The brain-wasting illness known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has killed about 140 people worldwide, most in England during the 1980s and '90s.

Singh died Sunday at her father's Fort Lauderdale home. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to send a team of investigators to the home for "an inquiry," the newspaper reported, without providing details.

Last December, a Washington state cow born in Canada tested positive for mad cow, becoming the first animal so diagnosed in the United States. The U.S. government does not require that all cattle destined for the food supply be tested, the newspaper noted.

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Virus Created to Curb Cocaine Cravings

A newly engineered virus may help cocaine addicts kick their habit, according to scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

The virus includes proteins that bind to cocaine, rendering the drug less psychoactive, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The virus also appears to interact directly with the central nervous system -- a feat that previously had been difficult to achieve, they said.

The virus was injected into rats' noses twice daily for three days. On the fourth day, the rats received an injection of cocaine. Compared with rats that didn't receive the bioengineered virus -- known as a phage -- the rats displayed fewer symptoms of cocaine use, such as sniffing and raising themselves on their hind legs. They were also less active, the scientists said.

Phages appear to have no side effects and can be used repeatedly, offering a promising new method for treating cocaine addiction, the researchers said.

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U.S. Supreme Court Bars Big Malpractice Suits Against HMOs

People cannot sue their HMOs for big malpractice or negligence awards if the insurers fail to pay for needed medical care, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The unanimous decision came in the case of two Texas residents who claimed that a state patient protection law entitled them to sue their insurers for large sums, according to the Associated Press.

The HMOs had claimed that patients could only file such lawsuits in federal courts, as opposed to having cases heard by state court juries, which tend to be more sympathetic to those they view as victims.

Congress has tried and failed to pass national patients'-rights laws, leading 10 states -- including Texas -- to pass such legislation. But the scope of these laws varies widely from state to state, the AP reported.

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Scientists Grow Kidneys for Rats

Researchers say they've been able to grow new kidneys inside rats that kept the animals alive for up to eight days. The finding might one day ease the chronic transplant shortage facing people with kidney disease, according to the scientists.

"We want to figure out how to grow new kidneys in humans, and this is a very important first step," said Dr. Marc R. Hammerman, the Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and leader of the study.

Hammerman is a leader in the new field of organogenesis, which focuses on growing organs from stem cells and other embryonic cell clusters known as "organ primordia." Unlike stem cells, organ primordia can't develop into any type of cell -- they're locked into becoming a particular cell type or one of a set of cell types that make up an organ.

Hammerman and a colleague gave renal primordia transplants to 5- and 6-week-old rats. The animals with new kidneys connected to their bladders lived seven to eight days.

"Seven to eight days may not seem like a long time, Hammerman said in a prepared statement. "However, what we have done is akin to building the first airplane and showing that it can fly, if only for a few minutes."

The study will appear in the July/August issue of Organogenesis, a new scientific journal.

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Most U.S. Women Fail to Follow Mammogram Guidelines

Most American women fail to get regular mammograms, and as a result miss out on the lifesaving benefits of the screening exam, a new study concludes.

The study also found that, among women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, those who had prompt annual mammograms had a lower risk of death, about 12 percent, compared to those who received mammograms every two years (about 16 percent) or every five years (25 percent), HealthDay reported.

Only one in 20 women consistently follows the recommendation for annual mammograms for women age 40 and older, said James Michaelson, assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and the lead author of the study, which was published Tuesday in the online issue of Cancer.

"There have been other studies over the past few years that have told us screening is not used to its fullest advantage," Michaelson said. "But this is probably the most detailed, largest study."

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