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

California Reports First West Nile Death

A 57-year-old man who died last month is California's first fatality from the West Nile virus, which has taken its deadly march from coast to coast since it was first detected in New York City five years ago.

The man, who lived in Orange County, checked into a hospital on June 17 with signs of encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, and died a week later. Health officials said the man had other, undisclosed health problems that weakened his immune system, according to the Orange County Register. A state laboratory confirmed Wednesday that he was infected with West Nile.

"This is a sad reminder of the seriousness of this virus," the Register quotes Dr. Richard J. Jackson, public health officer at the California Department of Health Services, as saying.

About 200 people have tested positive for the virus so far this year, the newspaper reports. Four others -- two in Arizona and one each in Texas and Iowa -- have died. Since it first appeared in 1999, the virus has claimed more than 560 lives and infected many thousands more.

Most people who contract West Nile feel either mild, flu-like symptoms or no effects at all. The virus preys on the elderly and those whose immune systems are already susceptible.

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Contraceptive Maker Launches Plan B for Approval

The maker of the so-called "morning-after" pill has reintroduced a plan to make the product available without a prescription, this time limiting over-the-counter sales to females 16 and older, Newsday reported.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected Barr Pharmaceuticals' initial bid in May, saying it didn't have enough evidence of the drug's safety among younger teenagers to allow unregulated use in that age group. Barr's new plan, submitted Thursday, would restrict over-the-counter use to women 16 and older, and would still require a prescription for younger girls.

To the dismay of many women's organizations two months ago, the FDA rejected the initial plan to grant the product over-the-counter status, despite a recommendation to the contrary from the agency's own advisory panel.

The Plan B pill, which contains a higher dose of contraceptive hormones than the normal birth control pill, must be taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy.

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Metabolife Founder Charged With Lying About Ephedra

Metabolife International and founder Michael Ellis have been indicted for allegedly lying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the dangers of ephedra, a recently banned diet aid.

The herbal stimulant has been linked to dozens of heart-related deaths, including that of Steve Bechler, a Baltimore Orioles pitcher who collapsed and died of heatstroke during spring training last year. A coroner's report linked Bechler's death to a product containing ephedra.

Federal prosecutors allege that Ellis lied when he repeatedly told the FDA that his company hadn't received a single complaint of adverse health effects from anyone who had used the firm's flagship product, Metabolife 356, CBS News reported.

The government reportedly is alleging that Metabolife, in fact, received hundreds of complaints, the network added.

Until the FDA banned sales of ephedra earlier this year, Metabolife had been one of the United States' biggest sellers of diet supplements. Annual sales, triggered by Metabolife 356, approached nearly $1 billion in the 1990s, CBS said.

Ellis, scheduled to be arraigned next week, issued a statement calling the FDA "a disgruntled agency" that had tried to put his company out of business for more than a decade, the network reported.

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Despite Setback, Hope Yet for Alzheimer's Vaccine

Doctors are still holding out hope for an experimental Alzheimer's disease vaccine whose trial was halted two years ago because of dangerous side effects.

Despite that setback, experts found that the vaccine slightly stopped the decline in memory of Alzheimer's patients while the study lasted, the Associated Press reports. Researchers don't know whether that helped the patients in day-to-day function.

The experiment with the vaccine, produced by the Irish drugmaker Elan Pharmaceuticals, was halted in 2002 because 18 of the 300 participants developed severe swelling of the brain.

Still, experts are intrigued by the idea of having the immune system fight the disease. The vaccine is not meant to prevent Alzheimer's, but to treat it.

"I think there's a positive signal here," Sid Gilman, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, told the AP. He presented the findings Wednesday at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Philadelphia.

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Crestor Maker Fights Back at Consumer Group

The maker of a cholesterol drug that has been under attack by a consumer watchdog group is fighting back and defending the medication.

AstraZeneca sent a 30-page memorandum to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strongly backing the statin, sold as Crestor, and urged the agency to ignore calls by Public Citizen to take the drug off the market.

The petition by Public Citizen's Health Research Group, filed in March, is inaccurate at best, according to the company. The group "has used unscientific information and unsound analysis to support its petition," AstraZeneca said in a statement.

For instance, the group alleged that a 39-year-old woman taking Crestor died of kidney problems and a muscle-wasting disorder called rhabdomyolysis. However, the company contends, the woman actually died of a heart attack, and had no sign of either rhabdomyolysis or kidney problems.

Public Citizen's petition is "based upon a number of unverified, unidentified, spontaneous post-approval adverse event reports, all of which have been previously reported to, and evaluated by, the FDA," AstraZeneca alleged.

For his part, Public Citizen chief Dr. Sydney Wolfe responded that he would still push for the Crestor ban, the AP reported.

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Asbestos Legacy Lives in Lung Illnesses

Asbestos hasn't been used regularly in the United States for years, but a new report finds that the material has a deadly legacy: Asbestos-related deaths continue to rise, and now surpass any other kind of workplace-related disabling disease.

The rise has been seen for the last 30 years, and officials don't know when the end will be in sight. In 1968, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 77 deaths from asbestosis were recorded. By 2000, the figure jumped to 1,493 deaths.

In the meantime, work-related lung disease from exposure to other materials has declined sharply, according to a report in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The drop in deaths from coal dust, talc, and other hazards fell in the same time period, in part because of stricter laws and a decline in heavy industry.

Asbestosis mortality peaks between 40 and 45 years after exposure to the fibers. Use of the insulating material jumped during and after World War II, and declined substantially in the 1980s once its dangers became apparent.

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