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

Bird Flu Could Become Deadlier to People: Study

The H5N1 strain of bird flu that swept through Asia earlier this year led to the deaths of millions of birds and at least 24 people in Vietnam and Thailand. A new study finds that the strain is progressively becoming more deadly to mammals, leading experts to worry that it may cause the next global pandemic in humans.

According to Chinese scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it is historically rare for an avian virus to make the jump to people. In addition to this year's instance, the team from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture cited a 1997 outbreak that led to six human deaths.

But as viruses do, the H5N1 strain is constantly mutating, and there's evidence that recent variants are becoming more deadly to mammals. For example, viruses isolated in 1999 and 2000 were significantly less pathogenic when injected into lab mice than H5N1 forms isolated in 2001 and 2002, the researchers said in a statement.

These scientists and other experts worry that the bird flu strain will combine with an ordinary human flu virus, creating a lethal hybrid that's as dangerous to mammals as the bird flu strain -- and as contagious as the human flu.

While there's no evidence that this type of outbreak is about to occur, the scientists caution that the possibility is very real and should not be ignored.

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More Women Having Planned C-Sections

While Caesarean section surgery has been a lifesaver for countless mothers and babies, critics are deploring a recent trend that finds more pregnant women choosing to deliver their infants this way when there's no clear medical need, the Associated Press reports.

In 2002, C-sections accounted for 26.1 percent of all births, an historical high. Denver-based HealthGrades, which studies health-care quality issues, said its recent review of insurance claims found that some 80,000 women had pre-planned, elective C-sections that year, up from just under 63,000 in 2001, according to the wire service.

Those numbers represent a small fraction of the 4 million births each year in the United States. And experts say while C-sections are safer than ever before, they still represent major abdominal surgery. Complications could include hemorrhage, infection, blood clots, and risks to future natural deliveries, according to the AP.

Proponents of elective C-sections say natural childbirth has its own drawbacks, including labor pain and a slight risk of incontinence caused by vaginal tears.

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Sex Drug May Benefit Both Sexes

A drug that acts on certain hormonal responses promises to improve the sex life of women as well as men -- even though it acts on each sex differently, HealthDay reports.

The drug, PT-141, is believed to act on receptors for a hormone called melanocortin, which are found in the brain and elsewhere in the body. By contrast, existing medications like Viagra and its competitors increase blood flow to the penis and are not known to affect female sexual activity.

According to a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, female rats given the new drug and placed in a chamber with a male showed a marked increase in behaviors intended to solicit sexual contact, such as hopping and darting.

And trials on people have found that the drug causes an increase in erections when given to men in the form of a nasal spray.

Dr. Hunter Wessells, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, said it's not surprising that the drug could affect sexual activity in both males and females.

"The interesting thing is that in men it induces erections but doesn't seem to have a significant effect on sexual desire," he said. "In female rats, we get a different response pattern that may translate into a usable drug for female sexual dysfunction."

Wessells is taking part in human tests of the drug, which he says are moving ahead for both men and women.

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Leeches Latest Addition to America's Medical Arsenal

Leeches are poised for a comeback as a medical tool. On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the commercial marketing of the bloodsucking, fresh-water animals for medicinal purposes.

Leeches can help heal skin grafts by removing blood pooled under the graft and restore blood circulation in blocked veins by removing pooled blood.

Leeches have been used as an alternative treatment to bloodletting and amputation for centuries. They reached their height of medicinal use in the mid-1800s. Today, they are used throughout the world as tools in skin grafts and reattachment surgery, the FDA said in announcing its decision.

Ricarimpex SAS, a French firm, becomes the first company to request and receive FDA clearance to market leeches as medical devices. According to a HealthDay account, these won't be your run-of-the-mill leeches from a river. Before approving leeches as a "medical device," the FDA said, it reviewed the current literature on the safety and effectiveness of leeches as therapy, and also looked over data "on how the leeches are fed, their environment, and the personnel who handle them."

Clamping on with three tiny teeth, leeches emit a natural anesthetic to minimize any pain involved as they settle in for dinner, HealthDay reports. They also secrete hirudin, a powerful blood-thinner, which breaks up pooled blood for better evacuation from the wound. "Hirudin sticks around and causes the wound to bleed for hours and hours," explained Dr. Rod J. Rohrich, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. "That's actually good, because it allows time then for normal blood vessels to form."

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Supreme Court to Rule on Medical Marijuana

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether patients can legally use medical marijuana.

A California appeals court ruled last December that that state's 1996 medical marijuana law allows people to grow, obtain, or smoke marijuana if they have a doctor's recommendation. Patients with diseases including cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma have found the drug useful as a painkiller and appetite promoter.

The Bush administration appealed the decision, saying the federal Controlled Substances Act bans the use of illegal drugs, and trumps state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana. Besides California, eight states -- Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington -- have laws that permit patients to use the drug with a doctor's approval, the Associated Press reported.

The nation's highest court will hear the California case sometime next winter, the news service said.

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High-Protein Diets and Motherhood May Not Mix

Can a high-protein diet -- the cornerstone of several of the nation's hottest weight-loss plans -- make it tougher for women to become pregnant? New research suggests this might be the case -- at least in mice.

American researchers found that a diet containing 25 percent protein led to only 26 percent of mice embryos developing into mothers, compared to 70 percent of embryos on a diet consisting of 14 percent protein.

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