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

FDA Plans Mercury Warning on Tuna

In apparent contradiction to earlier reports, the U.S. government is planning to warn pregnant women that they should avoid eating tuna and other seafood that could contain harmful levels of mercury, the Washington Post reports.

The newspaper cites a draft advisory from the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection agency, warning that women of childbearing age should limit intake of tuna, other fish, and shellfish to 12 ounces a week. The agencies say people should also avoid eating the same type of fish or shellfish more than once weekly.

Previously, the FDA has warned pregnant women to avoid other types of mercury-laden fish -- including shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. But these types of fish are much less popular than tuna, which is second only to shrimp among widely eaten seafoods in the United States.

Mercury can damage the brains and nervous systems of fetuses and young children, leading to learning disabilities and mental retardation, the Post reports.

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Massachusetts College Student Dies From Flu

Massachusetts, which up to now had escaped the flu epidemic that's sweeping much of the western United States, reports the season's first death from the disease -- an 18-year-old college athlete, according to the Boston Herald.

Jeff Donohue, a freshman at Worcester State College, died Sunday. Pending toxicology results should confirm whether he died from the same Fujian flu strain that's been blamed for the deaths of 10 Colorado children in little more than a month, the Herald reports.

According to Thursday's Rocky Mountain News, Colorado saw about half as many new flu cases in the most recent week as it did the week before, raising hopes that the epidemic may be ebbing.

The state health department confirmed 1,294 new cases Dec. 1-8, a 45 percent decline from the prior week's total of 2,345.

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British Warn Against Anti-Depressant Use Among Children

Children under 18 should avoid most anti-depressants known as SSRI's because they may cause more harm than good, British drug regulators say.

Officials representing the British equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration say the drugs' effectiveness in treating childhood depression hasn't been sufficiently demonstrated. In addition, some of the medications have been linked with suicidal thoughts and self-harm among children and adolescents, according to an account of the British report by The New York Times.

The British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency examined seven drugs: Prozac, from Eli Lilly; Paxil, from GlaxoSmithKline; Zoloft, from Pfizer; Effexor, from Wyeth; Celexa and Lexapro, from Forest Laboratories, and Luvox, from Solvay. Only Prozac was exempted from the agency's warning, the Times reports.

The FDA is investigating a purported link between SSRI's (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and suicidal tendencies among children and adolescents, the newspaper says.

There aren't reliable estimates of how many American children use anti-depressants, but the British agency estimates about 40,000 Britons under 18 use them, with about half taking Prozac, the Times reports.

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Knee Replacement Surgery Deemed Safe

A panel of experts told the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday that knee replacement surgery is a safe and effective way of relieving persistent pain and disability.

It is also a fast-growing field, the Associated Press reports. More than 300,000 such operations are performed each year. Most of the recipients are elderly, but the panel said that people as young as 50 are getting mechanical knees.

The AP account of the report says that the failure rate is 1 percent over 20 years, with the most common failure being the failure of the implant to align well.

One of the experts, Dr. E. Anthony Rankin of Providence Hospital in Washington, told the AP that the operation isn't for everyone. "It's major elective surgery that carries a variety of important risks," he said, "but it often offers dramatic relief after other therapies fail."

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Senate Passes Anti-Obesity Bill

The U.S. Senate has passed legislation aimed at slimming Americans' ever-increasing waistlines.

Agence France-Presse reports that the bill would set aside $60 million in fiscal year 2004 for community-based programs to combat obesity, including at schools and clinics. It also charges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with collecting information on fitness levels and energy expenditure of children and adolescents, prime targets of the bill.

"The number of obese children and adults has skyrocketed in recent decades despite the fact that we have learned so much about the importance of physical activity and nutrition," AFP quotes Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), one of the bill's sponsors, as saying. "This legislation is a step to provide parents and others with the tools they need to protect and foster both their own health and the health of their children."

Another sponsor, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and the Senate's only doctor, said the bill was needed because obesity rates have risen to alarming levels despite better knowledge about health and nutrition.

Some 60 percent of American adults and 13 percent of children are overweight, according to the AFP account.

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Drug Discount Cards Coming in Spring

In the first action resulting from the signing of the Medicare overhaul bill this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that prescription drug discount cards will be available in the spring.

"The speed of this regulatory action is unprecedented, and points to the importance of eliminating the practice of Medicare beneficiaries having to pay full price for prescription drugs," Thompson said in a statement.

The elderly and the disabled will be able to use the cards to save between 10 and 15 percent on their prescription purchases. For some individual purchases, the savings could be 25 percent.

The savings start in June, according to an HHS statement. They will carry through 2006, when the Medicare drug program is fully established.

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