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

Bacterium Kills 4 Premature Babies in Neonatal Center

A hardy bacterium not usually associated with infant death has killed four of seven premature infants in a suburban New York City medical center

The New York Times is reporting that officials at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., are trying to find the source of the germ, acinetobacter, a resilient bacterium found in soil, water, the home and in hospitals among older patients. The outbreak occurred over the past few days at the medical center's neonatal intensive care unit, the newspaper reports. All seven babies infected were premature, so their resistance to infection was lower than an infant with normal birth weight.

The three surviving infants were being treated with antibiotics, hospital officials told the Times. Dr. Michael Gewitz, the center's director of pediatrics, told the newspaper that because the infants were already in such fragile condition, it was not possible to say definitely that acinetobacter was the cause of death. "It's impossible to say that this was a cause or the cause" of the deaths, the Times quotes him as saying.

Hospital officials said that they believed the infection had not spread beyond the seven babies, and no other patient, visitor or staff member was in jeopardy.

Dr. Gewitz told the Times officials suspect that one of the infants who was transported to the Medical center from another facility had the bacteria, and that it was transmitted within the medical center. Just how that happened was still under investigation, the newspaper said.

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FDA Warns About Counterfeit Mexican Drugs

Counterfeit versions of the drug Zocor (simvastatin) and carisoprodol were recently imported into the United States by individual Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers Friday.

Tests revealed that the counterfeit Zocor did not contain any active ingredients and that the counterfeit carisoprodol differed in potency from the authentic drug. People who use these drugs could face serious health risks, the FDA said.

Zocor is a cholesterol lowering drug and carisoprodol is used to treat painful musculoskeletal conditions.

The FDA said that the counterfeit drugs were bought at Mexican border town pharmacies. They were sold under the names Zocor, 40/mg (lot number K9784, expiration date November 2004) and carisoprodol, 350/mg, (lot number 68348A).

Anyone who's purchased these counterfeit drugs should consult their doctor and contact their nearest FDA office.

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Drug Firm Agrees to Large Fine

The drug firm Schering-Plough Corp. announced Friday that it has agreed to pay $346 million in fines and damages in order to settle allegations that it overcharged for medicines sold through Medicaid.

The Kenilworth, N.J.-based company also said it would plead guilty to a federal criminal charge over a kickback scheme with a health maintenance organization, the Associated Press reported.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia began investigating the company in 1999 after being alerted by whistleblowers who said that Schering-Plough was giving kickbacks to some private health care providers.

The company will pay a criminal fine of $52.5 million and civil damages of $293 million.

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Wider Use of Bird Vaccine Urged to Control Avian Flu

New guidelines that recommend increased use of a vaccine for birds in order to control the spread of avian flu will be issued by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

The guidelines, to be issued by the end of August, are necessary because a strain of the avian flu has become a permanent presence in many Asian countries, the New York Times reported.

Recent findings show that the A(H5N1) strain of the avian influenza virus has taken root in domesticated ducks and wildlife. That means its spread can't be stopped using only quarantines, culling, and other standard control measures, a U.N. official said.

The A(H5N1) strain of the virus, and culling to control it, have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 200 million birds since the strain appeared in eight Asian countries earlier this year.

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New Drug Helps Alcoholics Stay Sober

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first new drug to treat alcohol abuse in a decade.

Campral (acamprosate) is meant to prevent relapses among alcoholics who have stopped drinking. The agency warned that the drug may not work in people who are actively drinking at the start of treatment, or who are abusing other substances in addition to alcohol.

Exactly how the drug works isn't fully understood, the agency said. The medication is thought to act on the brain pathways that help foster alcohol abuse. In clinical trials, Campral proved "superior" to a nonmedicinal placebo in keeping recovering alcoholics from taking a drink, the agency said in a statement.

Common side effects noted during clinical studies included headache, diarrhea, flatulence, and nausea. The drug is produced by Lipha Pharmaceuticals of France.

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Anti-Cholesterol Drug Goes Over-the-Counter in Britain

Britain is the world's first country to sell an anti-cholesterol drug without a prescription.

Johnson & Johnson's statin medication Zocor Heart-Pro (simvastatin) went over-the-counter on Thursday, to the delight of some health-care experts who said the move allowed Britons to better protect their health. But the action wasn't without its critics, reported the Herald of Scotland, which cited experts who feared not enough was known about the powerful drug to allow anyone to use it freely without a doctor's advice.

Earlier this year, the British medical journal The Lancet accused the government of using the public as human guinea pigs in an implied effort to save money, the Herald reported.

Johnson & Johnson has tried to calm such fears, noting that pharmacists would carefully advise patients on whether the drug was appropriate before allowing it to be sold, according to the newspaper.

A four-week OTC supply of Zocor -- intended for people at moderate risk of heart disease -- sells for 12.99, roughly $23 U.S.

Studies have shown that a 10-milligram daily dose of simvastatin lowers the average user's "bad" LDL cholesterol level by 27 percent after four weeks, the Herald reported.

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Scientists Create Mad Cow-Like Protein

University of California researchers have created a synthetic protein that produces a deadly infectious disease in mice that's similar to mad cow disease. The findings are reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

The artificially created prion, or misfolded protein, provides strong evidence that such proteins by themselves can lead to infectious diseases without the help of genetic components like DNA and RNA, the New York Times reported.

That notion has been controversial since being introduced more than 20 years ago by University of California neurology professor Dr. Stanley Prusiner. Critics of Prusiner's hypothesis contend that only bacteria and viruses containing genetic matter can spread infectious disease, the newspaper said.

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