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

Fla. Gov Wants Trial in Right-to-Die Case

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says a jury ought to decide the case of a brain-damaged woman whose husband wants to discontinue feeding and life-support but whose parents insist she can be rehabilitated and want her kept alive.

Terri Schiavo, 39, suffered a heart attack in 1990 that left her in a persistent vegetative state. Last month, she went for six days without food and water after her husband, Michael, won a six-year court battle to remove her feeding tube. The tube was reinserted, however, after the state legislature passed emergency legislation giving Bush the right to reverse the judge's order.

Michael Schiavo has since filed a lawsuit saying Bush's order was unconstitutional, in that it violated his wife's privacy rights. He says although his wife never filed a living will, she was adamant in her desire not to be kept alive by artificial means.

In a slew of legal briefs filed Wednesday, Bush sought to remove the judge presiding over Michael Schiavo's new lawsuit, the Associated Press reports. The governor also wants Schiavo removed as his wife's guardian. Attorney Ken Connor, representing Bush, says the governor should be able to step in when a disabled person's family cannot agree on a course of treatment.

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Home Fires From Candles Hit 20-Year High

With the holidays fast approaching, a fire safety group warns that home fires sparked by candles are at a 20-year high.

In 1999, 15,040 home fires were started by candles and caused 102 deaths, 1,473 injures and $278 million in damage, the National Fire Protection Association says. By contrast, there were only 5,460 candle-related fires in 1990, the NFPA says in a statement.

Candle fires peak on Christmas day, and are more common in December than in any other month, the group says. Four of 10 candle fires start in the bedroom, and two of 10 ignite in the living room, family room or den.

The NFPA offers these safety tips:

• Use candles only in rooms where an awake, responsible adult can monitor them.
• Keep candles away from materials that can ignite, including clothing, books, papers, Christmas trees, decorations, window blinds, and curtains.
• Keep candles away from where they can easily be knocked over by people or pets. Make sure they are only used on stable surfaces in sturdy holders.
• Use extreme caution if you carry a lit candle, holding it well away from clothing and anything else that may burn.

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U.S. Health Officials Devising Autism Strategy

Concerned about recent spikes in children diagnosed with the mysterious brain disorder autism, the U.S. government is mapping out a long-term strategy to address the problem, The New York Times reports.

The inter-agency effort includes objectives like identifying potential causes and treatments, providing adequate services for the young victims and their families, and devising a teaching program that would allow 90 percent of autistic children to learn to speak.

Experts concede the program is likely to have little immediate effect on the 150,000 autistic Americans, the newspaper says.

Symptoms of the poorly understood disorder range from those so mild that a person can function almost normally to those that require institutionalization and render the person mute.

In 1992, fewer than 20,000 of the nearly 5 million American special education students were considered autistic. A decade later, nearly 120,000 of the 6 million special ed students had autism. While experts suggest the disorder has become easier to identify and diagnose, no one is able to pinpoint the cause of the surge, the Times reports.

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Bill Would Force Drug Testing on Kids

Congress is aiming to revive the "pediatric rule," a Clinton-era mandate that would force drug companies to test their products on children before they are allowed to go on the market.

The Associated Press reports that a bill that would force the testing was passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives on a voice vote. The U.S. Senate already passed it.

In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration passed the "pediatric rule," saying it had the authority to require drug companies to test adult drugs on children if children are likely to receive them. But a court struck down that rule, finding that Congress needed to give the FDA such authority.

"Doctors were cutting adult pills in half, hoping they would work with children, often with life-threatening results," the AP quotes Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) as saying.

The carrot going along with the stick would let the companies keep patents on these drugs longer, according to the AP.

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Nurses Blame Hit TV Show for Shortage

Is ER partly responsible for America's nursing shortage? Many nurses think so.

The Center for Nursing Advocacy, a nonprofit group with many powerful executives from the nursing industry, has begun a big letter and e-mail campaign against the producers of the blockbuster NBC drama, according to the Washington Post. They charge that the program is perpetuating "long-standing misrepresentations that . . . are contributing to the nursing shortage," the paper reports.

The show routinely has doctors taking over responsibilities usually done by nurses, such as using defibrillators and dashing out of the hospital to tend to a patient. The group cited an episode in which a doctor fired all the nurses and replaced them with low-wage workers, which doesn't happen. And it says that a major character decided to give up her nursing career to go to medical school.

One unnamed executive involved with ER dismissed the allegations. "Wasn't there a nursing shortage before ER?" the Post quotes the executive as saying. "I mean, this is a television show, not a documentary."

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Prostate Cancer Deadlier for Blacks

White men have better survival rates than do blacks after being treated for localized prostate cancer, according to a new study.

The study, by researchers at the University of North Carolina, found the biggest differences between races among those who had surgery. It tracked 5,747 black men and 38,242 white men with clinically localized prostate cancer.

The team found that among those who had surgery, the median survival time for black patients was 10.8 years, 1.8 years less than the rate for white patients.

The difference in survival narrowed under other treatments. It was only 0.7 years lower among blacks than white among those who had radiation treatment, and one year lower among those who had non-aggressive, "watchful waiting" therapy.

The study appears in the Nov. 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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