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

U.S. Generics Can Be Cheaper Than Canadian Drugs, FDA Says

Americans could save more money by buying certain generic medications at home than by purchasing the brand-name equivalents from Canadian sources, according to research from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported by the Associated Press.

The FDA analyzed seven popular drugs whose generic versions often outsell the brand names: the anti-depressant Prozac; blood pressure medicines Lopressor, Prinivil and Vasotec; the anti-anxiety medication Xanax; the anti-seizure drug Klonopin; and the diabetes drug Glucophage.

Among the FDA findings: Canadian Xanax was roughly nine times the price of the U.S. generic per milligram; Canadian Vasotec five times the U.S. price; and Canadian Prozac 1.3 times the U.S. price. Glucophage was the exception -- the U.S. generic costs more than Canada's brand-name version, the AP reports.

While Canadian price controls mean its brand-name drugs can cost as little as half as much as U.S. equivalents, not all drugs are available in generic form, the AP points out. New drugs normally sell for several years before generic competition is allowed.

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Poll: Health-Care Concerns Rival Terrorism Worries

Americans' concerns about rising health-care costs now rival worries about terrorism, according to an annual Associated Press poll of the most pressing issues in the United States.

While 21 percent of respondents cited terrorism as a top concern, 19 percent mentioned health-care costs. The poll was taken in early January when the nation was still under a heightened terror alert that has since been lowered.

The health-care issue rose from 11 percent as a top concern in last year's poll, and 5 percent two years ago.

In this year's survey, twice as many women (26 percent) cited health-care costs as a top issue, compared to men (13 percent). The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken Jan. 5-7 and has a margin or error of 3 percentage points.

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China Approves SARS Vaccine Tests

The Beijing government has given Chinese doctors permission to begin testing a new vaccine for SARS on people, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reports.

The vaccine, created from dead samples of the SARS virus, has been found safe and effective in experiments on animals, including the rhesus monkey, Xinhua reports. State media announced that 30 people have already volunteered as test subjects, but offered no details.

The vaccine has been under development since April, Xinhua says. The government is cautioning that this is only an initial human trial and that even if the inoculation were found safe and effective in people, there currently is no way to mass produce it.

Meanwhile, health officials are keeping a cautious eye on the nation's plane and rail systems this week, as tens of millions of people are expected to travel from cities to villages in preparation for the Chinese New Year, which is Thursday.

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Vietnamese Girl is Latest Bird Flu Death

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Monday a fifth Vietnamese fatality from avian (bird) flu -- an 8-year-old girl from Ha Tay province. She died Jan. 17 at a Hanoi hospital. The Vietnamese government says as many as 13 people may have died from the disease so far, but international health officials have only confirmed five cases.

The outbreak is ravaging chicken farms across Asia. Vietnam is asking for the world community's help -- seeking protective equipment and training for workers who are doing a mass cull of chickens, according to Agence France-Presse.

So far, 2 million chickens have been slaughtered in the outbreak, and the country has banned sales of poultry in its largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City.

There have been no person-to-person transmissions of the virus, but WHO officials say they worry it could happen if the outbreak widens, according to the Associated Press.

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Atkins: Ease Up on the Meat and Fat

Promoters of the Atkins diet appear to be backtracking on their advice that people can lose weight while eating as much meat and saturated fat as they want.

The New York Times reports that a top official at Atkins Nutritionals, the company established by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins to promote his weight-loss products, is now recommending at seminars that dieters should get only 20 percent of their calories from saturated fat.

For years, scientists have criticized the Atkins diet because they say that a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet puts dieters on the road to heart disease and other health woes.

An Atkins spokesman told the Times that the official, Colette Heimowitz, the company's director of research and education, has been giving these seminars for five years and that it was not a radical departure.

The company says that Atkins has always said that people eat other foods, but the Times reports that that message hasn't gotten through to consumers.

According to the newspaper, Atkins faces increased competition from other low-carbohydrate diets, notably the South Beach diet, that recommend less fat.

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USDA Rounding Up Cows From Infected Herd

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it has found 19 of the 81 head of cattle in a Canadian herd that included one affected with the first case of mad cow disease in the United States.

The USDA is trying to find all the cattle in that herd, which entered the U.S. in 2001.

Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has discovered prohibited animal tissue in the feed from six Canadian feed companies since the announcement of mad cow disease last month, the Associated Press reports.

Tainted feed is the likeliest way of spreading mad cow disease, which wastes the brain. It is a problem for humans because they can get a form of the disease by eating contaminated meat. Because of that concern, other countries closed their borders to American beef. Officials from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico failed to reach an agreement on reopening those borders, according to the AP.

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