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

1st Suspected Mad Cow Case is Negative

The first of two cows singled out this week as potentially having mad cow disease has turned out to be uninfected, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Following an inconclusive preliminary screening test that is designed to be super-sensitive, more sophisticated testing on the animal's carcass revealed the cow wasn't infected with the brain-wasting disease, the USDA said Wednesday.

Follow-up tests on a second animal that has been identified as potentially infected are still pending, the Washington Post reported. Results are due in four to seven days.

The USDA began an expanded rapid-testing program in June following December's first-ever diagnosis of a U.S. cow with mad cow disease. The Washington state bovine remains the only confirmed case in the United States to date.

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Groups Call for Consumer Fireworks Ban

Ten leading consumer, physicians, and safety groups are renewing an annual call to ban consumer fireworks, which they say cause more fires on Independence Day in the United States than all other causes of fire combined.

In 2002, eight of nine firework-related trips to hospital emergency rooms involved fireworks that were legal for consumers to use, according to a statement from the groups, which include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the International Association of Fire Fighters.

They offer these additional statistics:

• Some 8,800 people ended up in the emergency room for firework injuries in 2002, mostly for burns to the hands, feet, head and eyes. Four victims died.
• About 71 percent of victims are male, mostly between the ages of 10 and 19. Children 10 to 14 have a fireworks injury rate that's three times the general population.
• In 1999, the latest year for which there are statistics, 24,200 fires were reportedly started by fireworks. This led to $17.2 million in property damage.

According to the groups, only seven states now ban consumer fireworks: Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

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Drug Price Hikes Tied to New Medicare Law

The new Medicare drug benefit may have spurred the most recent hike in prescription medication costs for older Americans, according to a new AARP report cited by HealthDay.

Manufacturer prices for brand-name prescription drugs rose 3.4 percent, or nearly three times the general inflation rate, during the three-month period from Dec. 31, 2003, through March 31, 2004.

According to the report, those increases came after President Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit into law on Dec. 8, 2003.

"We can't say for sure why it's happening, but there certainly seems to be an association," said David Gross, first author of the report and a senior policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), representing the prescription drug industry, disputed the findings and decried the "politics" of the new report.

According to AARP, the typical older American taking three prescription drugs is likely to have experienced an annual average increase of $191.10 in the most recent 12 months, if the drugs weren't generic and if the full price increases were passed to the consumer.

Overall, more than half of the drugs surveyed, 106 out of 197, had price increases during the first three months of 2004. All of these increases were at least twice the rate of general inflation for that period.

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Abortion Foe Reappointed to Key FDA Panel

Amid loud objections from abortion rights activists, a staunch abortion foe has been reappointed to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel that advises the agency on reproductive health matters.

The Washington Post reports that W. David Hager, an obstetrician from Kentucky, will serve at least one more year on the FDA's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs. Hager, who promotes religious healing and asked the FDA to rescind its approval of the abortion pill RU486, has been on the committee since 2002. He was in a small minority of committee members who voted against allowing nonprescription sales of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive.

A bipartisan group of abortion rights supporters in Congress wrote a letter opposing the reappointment, saying that Hager "allowed his personal views to overshadow his duty" to both the FDA and to Americans, the Post reported.

"Dr. Hager's blatant opposition to so many safe and legal options makes him unfit to serve on this key advisory committee," said the letter, signed by Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), and James Greenwood (R-Penn.).

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Medical Debt a Burden for 20 Million U.S. Families

Medical debt is a problem for nearly 20 million American families -- 43 million people -- and many of them have to choose between paying health bills and paying for food and shelter, says a new study.

The report, released Wednesday by the Center for Studying Health System Change, found that families without health insurance were most likely to face problems keeping up with medical bills. But it also found that about two-thirds (13.5 million) of the families burdened with medical debt do have health insurance.

Of the nearly 20 million families experiencing difficulty, about two-thirds said they had trouble paying for other basic necessities, such as food, rent, mortgage, and transportation.

These families also reported that they had a much more difficult time finding medical care because of cost concerns. One in eight of the people in these families went without needed medical care, one in four delayed care, and one in three did not get a prescription drug.

In a related study released Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more children than ever before were covered by health insurance in 2003.

But the study also found that more working-age adults lacked health insurance and that minority populations were especially affected. Overall, the percentage of Americans who had no health insurance -- 15.2 percent, or 43.6 million people -- remained unchanged in 2003 from 1997.

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More Troops to Get Smallpox, Anthrax Shots

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the Pacific and the Middle East will receive vaccines to protect them against smallpox and anthrax.

This expanded vaccination program is not being done in response to a perceived threat to those troops. It's simply a matter of an increased supply of the vaccines, the Associated Press reported.

Some U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East have already received the vaccines. The expanded program covers troops in South Korea and those who would go to Korea early in a crisis. It also covers troops in an area stretching from Pakistan to North Africa.

All troops covered by the expanded vaccine program will be required to take the vaccines unless it's determined that they're at risk from the jabs.

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