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

U.S. Issues New Guidelines Limiting Fish Intake

Two U.S. government agencies are out with their long-awaiting guidelines on how much fish people should eat. While fish contains heart-healthy omega-3 compounds, it can also become easily contaminated with mercury, posing a danger to young children and pregnant women's unborn offspring, according to the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The recommendations being released Friday include a warning that pregnant women, nursing mothers, and youngsters should eat no more than six ounces of albacore tuna per week, The New York Times reports. Compared to other types of fish, tuna has been shown to carry higher levels of mercury, which has been proven to affect the neurological development of fetuses and young children.

A less strict warning applies to so-called "light" tuna, which typically has less mercury. The same groups are advised to eat no more than 12 ounces per week of the light variety, which accounts for 13 percent of the nation's seafood consumption, the newspaper says.

As in the past, the guidelines recommend that these groups also limit intake of other mercury-laden fish, including shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. Seafood less prone to mercury contamination -- including shrimp, salmon, pollock and catfish -- are safe to eat two or three times a week, the guidelines say.

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Infant Receives 8 New Organs

An Italian infant remains in recovery at a Miami hospital, six weeks after receiving what the facility calls a record-setting eight new organs.

Alessia Di Matteo, now 7 1/2 months, was born with a muscle disorder called megacystis microcolon syndrome, which prevented normal function of her stomach, intestines and kidneys. The condition is fatal if left untreated.

In a 12-hour operation Jan. 31 at Jackson Memorial Hospital, she received a new liver, stomach, pancreas, small intestine, large intestine, spleen, and two kidneys.

Alessia, from Genoa, Italy, now weighs about 13 pounds and is still fed through a tube. While she's out of intensive care, she'll have to remain hospitalized for several more weeks for observation, a hospital spokesman tells the Associated Press.

The United Network for Organ Sharing tells the wire service that it's difficult to confirm that the hospital has set a record for the most organs transplanted in a single operation, since other facilities record the stomach and intestine as one organ.

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Tammy Faye Has Inoperable Lung Cancer

Tammy Faye Messner has inoperable lung cancer, the televangelist herself announced on CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night.

"They can't take it out because it's too near the heart and there are too many blood vessels that are near the cancer," Messner told the CNN host.

The ex-wife of fellow televangelist Jim Bakker says she found out about the illness two weeks ago, and plans to begin chemotherapy treatments soon.

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Inhalant Use Rising Among Teens

Inhalant abuse among U.S. teenagers is on the rise at a time when overall use of illegal drugs is declining, a report released Thursday finds.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted in 2002, about 2.6 million people between ages 12 and 17 reported having tried inhalants in the past, CNN reports. Two years earlier, the figure was closer to 2.1 million.

Inhalants are commonly used household products such as glue, spray paint, and cleaners. Teenagers sniff the vapors to get high.

"The use of inhalants is a big concern since these products are legal and can result in irreparable brain damage or death," CNN quotes Charles Curie of the survey's sponsor, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, as saying. The agency is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to the CNN account, the report concluded that teens who abuse inhalants are also three times more likely to use other drugs. Overall, illegal drug use among teens has fallen 10 percent since 1998.

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Decline in TB Rates Wanes in United States

Rates of active tuberculosis in the United States have been declining for the last decade, but a new report finds that that drop began to level off in 2003.

Last year, 14,871 people were diagnosed with TB in the United States, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That marked a 1.9 percent decline from 2002, but it was the smallest dropoff since 1992, when TB cases peaked after a seven-year revival.

Despite the decline, the lung ailment was more concentrated in certain parts of the country and among certain populations. Twelve states and the District of Columbia had higher rates than the national average of 5.1 per 100,000 people, with California, Texas, and New York accounting for 42.4 percent of all cases.

TB was also more prevalent among those born outside the United States, the CDC reports. According to the survey, appearing in the March 19 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, foreign-born persons accounted for 53.3 percent of all cases; they were nine times as likely to contract TB as U.S.-born persons. Among those born in this country, the rate among blacks was eight times that of whites.

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Anti-Drug Groups Turn Eye to Prescription Abuse

Leading anti-drug groups, which for years have been focusing their efforts on illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, are now turning their attention to the rising problem of prescription drug abuse.

The New York Times reports that the Bush administration is leading the effort to sound the alarm. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has for the first time told federal agencies with anti-drug programs to develop new strategies to combat prescription drugs' abuse and illegal marketing, the paper reports.

"We don't want to wait until we get what we had with the crack epidemic," John P. Walters, the nation's "drug czar," told the Times. "Hopefully we're a little bit earlier in the process."

A University of Michigan survey found that, between 2002 and 2003, the non-medical use of prescription drugs rose among students in the eighth, 10th, and 12th grades while the use of illegal drugs dropped 11 percent, according to the Times.

Some experts told the paper that the effort should have begun years ago, but that OxyContin abuse and Rush Limbaugh's legal woes with his admitted problem put the issue in the spotlight.

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