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

Christina Applegate Has Double
Mastectomy

Television star Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy three weeks
ago after being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this month, and she
will undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months, she
revealed Tuesday.

Even though the cancer was contained in one breast, the 36-year-old
actress decided to have both breasts removed, the Associated Press
reported.

The Emmy-nominated star of “Samantha Who?” said Tuesday on ABC News'
“Good Morning America” said it was a logical decision, since her mother
battled breast cancer and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation
linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

Applegate, now cancer-free, plans to launch a program to help women at
high risk for breast cancer pay for an MRI, which isn't always covered by
insurance, the AP reported. She's scheduled to appear on a one-hour
TV special, “Stand Up to Cancer,” on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer
research.

—–

Vioxx Study Was 'Stealth' Marketing:
Report

Stealth marketing was the main goal of a 1999 Vioxx study touted by
Merck & Co. as proof that the painkiller caused fewer stomach problems
than a less expensive painkiller called naproxen, according to a report
published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The actual purpose of the ADVANTAGE study wasn't scientific, but rather
to get doctors and patients in the habit of using Vioxx just in time for
its launch, according to the report authors, who uncovered internal Merck
documents, the Associated Press said.

The documents revealed that Merck's marketing division designed
ADVANTAGE and handled the study's data collection and analysis, the news
service said.

It's long been suspected that drug companies regularly do such
marketing-oriented studies, but there's never been a “smoking gun” proving
it, the report authors noted.

The Annals of Internal Medicine published the ADVANTAGE study in
2003 but was not told the true purpose of the study, according to an
accompanying editorial co-authored by journal editior Dr. Harold C. Sox,
the AP reported.

Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004 after it was linked to
cardiovascular problems.

—–

Most West Nile Patients Recover Within a
Year

For most people infected with West Nile virus, symptoms such as fatigue
and trouble moving fade after about a year, according to Canadian
researchers who followed 156 patients for four years, CBC News
reported.

About 20 percent of people infected with the mosquito-borne virus
develop symptoms ranging from a mild flu-like illness to inflammation of
the brain (encephalitis) or of the membranes covering the brain or spinal
cord (meningitis). There is no vaccine or treatment for West Nile
infection.

The patients in this study were scored on physical and mental
functions, anxiety and depression. Most of them had normal scores within
one year after being infected, even patients who developed encephalitis
and meningitis, CBC News reported.

Dr. Mark Loeb, of McMaster University in Hamilton, and his colleagues
expected patients with the worst symptoms would have poorer long-term
results, but that wasn't the case.

The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal
Medicine.

—–

Bad Peppers a Problem Before Salmonella
Outbreak

In the months before a salmonella outbreak caused by Mexican chilies
sickened 1,400 people in the United States this year, inspectors at U.S.
border crossings repeatedly turned back shipments of unhealthy peppers,
according to an Associated Press analysis of Food and Drug
Administration documents.

Despite the repeated problems with Mexican peppers, no larger action
was taken to protect American consumers, the news services said.

Since January, 88 shipments of fresh and dried chilies from Mexico were
turned away by U.S. border inspectors. Ten percent of those shipments were
contaminated with salmonella. Within the last year, eight percent of the
158 intercepted shipments of fresh and dried chilies from Mexico were
contaminated with salmonella, the AP reported.

Food safety advocates want to know why the FDA didn't pay closer
attention to the peppers being turned away at the border, and why the
agency's screening of companies known for shipping dirty chilies only
increased after the salmonella outbreak.

As recently as last week, FDA officials insisted they were surprised by
the salmonella outbreak because Mexican peppers had not been spotted as a
problem before the outbreak, the AP reported.

—–

More 40-Something U.S. Women Are
Childless

Fewer American women in their 40s have children, according to a Census
Bureau study that examined data from a 2006 survey of 76 million women,
ages 15 to 50. About 4.2 million of the women had had a child in the
previous year.

The study found that in the last 30 years, the number of women ages 40
to 44 with no children has increased from 10 percent to 20 percent. Those
who were mothers in 2006 had an average of 1.9 children each, more than
one child fewer than women ages 40 to 44 had in 1976, the Associated
Press reported.

In 2006, women with graduate or professional degrees had the most
births of women in all educational levels. The study, Fertility of
American Women: 2006, also found that about 36 percent of women who
gave birth in the previous year were separated, divorced, widowed or
unmarried.

While unemployed women had about twice as many babies as working women,
those who had jobs accounted for 57 percent of recent births. Among women
who had a child during the previous year, about one-quarter were living
below the poverty line, the AP reported.

—–

Lower Drinking Age to 18: College
Presidents

More than 100 American college presidents want the drinking age lowered
from 21 to 18 in an effort to reduce binge drinking by students.

“Twenty-one is not working,” the presidents declared in a signed
statement. “A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' — often
conducted off-campus — has developed,” the Long Island, N.Y., newspaper
Newsday reported.

In a separate statement, Duke University President Richard Brodhead
said the current legal drinking age of 21 “pushes drinking into hiding,
heightening its risks, including risks from drunken driving, and it
prevents us from addressing drinking with students as an issue of
responsible choice.”

But the college presidents' campaign, which may include newspaper ads
in the coming weeks, faces sharp criticism from Mothers Against Drunk
Driving. The group accused the presidents of misrepresenting research and
urged parents to carefully consider the safety of their children at
colleges whose presidents are seeking to lower the drinking age.

Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD, suggested that the
current drinking age will not be enforced at those colleges,
Newsday reported.