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

This Season's Flu Vaccine Seems Ineffective, CDC Says

The effectiveness of this year's flu vaccine against the Fujian strain that has caused most cases ranges from zero to 14 percent, a small study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes.

The New York Times says it obtained the findings from a scientist briefed on the study who preferred that his name not be used. Privately, CDC officials say they hope additional studies will show that the initial findings were understated, the newspaper reports.

For several weeks, federal health officials have said this year's vaccine was a "mismatch" against the dominant Fujian strain, but urged Americans to get a flu shot anyway, noting that any protection against flu was better than none.

The new study was the begun in late October as the flu epidemic began to emerge -- unusually early in a typical season. The research was based on a questionnaire sent to 3,100 Denver health-care workers, asking whether they had been vaccinated and had gone on to develop flu.

Experts who analyzed the study say the results may have been skewed by the fact that many other germs cause flu-like symptoms, and that doctors did not perform lab tests to confirm actual cases of influenza infection.

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Pentagon Concerned About Soldier Suicides in Iraq

U.S. soldiers in Iraq are continuing to commit suicide at an usually high rate, despite the presence of nine psychiatric teams sent to the country months ago to help the troops deal with combat stress, the Associated Press reports.

The Pentagon's top physician -- Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs -- says the suicide rate for soldiers in Iraq has risen to 13.5 per 100,000, up from 10.9 per 100,000 for the Army as a whole in 2002, the wire service reports.

Winkenwerder says the Pentagon had 21 documented suicides in 2003 involving troops in Iraq. By contrast, only two soldiers killed themselves during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the AP reports.

Winkenwerder says the military hasn't identified a common thread between any of the suicides. "We don't see any trend there that tells us that there's more we might be doing," he says.

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Expert Panel Urges Universal Health Insurance

A panel of experts who advise the U.S. government is calling for the president and Congress to achieve universal health coverage in the United States by 2010.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM), an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, cited the increased stress on the current system and the societal costs that result from 43 million Americans having no health insurance.

"Lack of health insurance in the United States is a critical problem that can and should be eliminated," said Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan and co-chair of the IOM's Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance, which prepared the report urging health care for all.

The report found that Americans without health insurance get about half the medical care as insured people do, and thus get sicker and die sooner. Some 18,000 people die unnecessarily each year simply because they lack insurance. Moreover, only half of uninsured children saw a doctor in 2001, as opposed to three-quarters of insured kids. And, the report adds, the U.S. loses between $65 billion and $130 billion each year because of the poor health and early deaths of uninsured people.

Health care should be continuous, affordable to individuals as well as society, and help prevent illness, the committee urges.

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A Whopper With No Topper

Burger King Corp. is the latest fast-food chain to join the low-carb parade by offering its Whopper hamburgers without a bun. The bunless burger will be available at the chain's 8,000 locations nationwide starting Tuesday, served in a plastic salad bowl with a knife and fork.

New fare for dieters will also include meals that substitute salads for French fries and bottled water for sugar-laden sodas, USA Today says, citing wire service reports. Those options will roll out in February and March.

The number-two burger chain behind McDonald's says its franchisees will have the right to charge the same amount for their burgers, whether with a bun or topless. Burger King's move follows by several days McDonald's announcement that it had stocked certain restaurants with posters and brochures that advises customers on how they could lower their carbohydrate intake by modifying what they order.

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Scientists Find No Health Risk in Cell Phones

Scientists from the British government say they can find no evidence that cell phones and transmission towers pose a threat to human health.

But the experts could not say absolutely that mobiles are safe, according to a BBC report. The experts, called the Advisory Group on Non-Ionizing Radiation, said that more studies are needed before the devices are deemed safe.

Another British study, published in 2000, found no health risk among adult cell phone users. But that group said that children should use them only in emergencies, because their brains are still developing and their skulls are thinner, exposing them more to the radio waves emitted by the phones.

The group that wrote the newest study said the recommendations from the 2000 report should remain in effect because "little has been published specifically on childhood exposures" since then, according to the BBC.

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Employers Slashing Retiree Health Benefits

A survey of more than 400 companies, including some of the largest in the country, finds that fewer future retirees will have medical benefits and those who do will pay substantially more.

According to the survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 10 percent of these firms cut subsidized health benefits for retirees-to-be last year, and 20 percent plan to do so in the next three years. The cuts won't affect current retirees.

The survey also found that 71 percent of the companies increased retiree contributions to premiums in the last year, and 86 percent expect to do the same in the next three years.

"We can expect that fewer retirees will have health coverage in the future and those who do will be paying more for their health care," Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in a prepared statement.

Researchers looked at 408 private companies with at least 1,000 employees, including 30 percent of all Fortune 500 firms.

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