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

Minorities More Likely to Suffer Corporal
Punishment in Schools

Minority children received a disproportionate share of the corporal
punishment given to 223,190 American school children last year, says a
study released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberty Union.

Black and Native American children were more than twice as likely as
other students to be paddled, the Associated Press reported.

Most states have outlawed corporal punishment, but it remains
widespread across the South. Texas and Mississippi accounted for 40
percent of the children who received corporal punishment at least once in
the 2006-07 school year, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.

The study also found that boys were three times more likely to be
paddled than girls, and special education children were also more likely
to be paddled, the AP reported.

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Better Method Found to Make Red Blood Cells
From Stem Cells

A more efficient way of making red blood cells from human embryonic
cells has been developed by U.S. researchers, who said it may be a step
toward large-scale production of transfusion supplies.

In lab tests, the manufactured blood cells behaved like natural red
blood cells. The scientists said their results suggest that embryonic stem
cells could someday supply type O-negative “universal donor” red cells for
transfusion, the Associated Press reported.

The study was published online Tuesday in the journal Blood.

While the work is promising, one expert cautioned that major questions
need to be answered, the AP reported. For example, can this process
really create red blood cells on a large scale, and will the cells survive
long enough in the human body to be useful, said Mohandas Narla, director
of the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute at the New York Blood
Center.

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Genetic Testing Companies Cleared to Operate
in California

Two companies that offer people information about their genes will be
allowed to continue to do business in California.

The licenses received by Navigenics and 23andMe are expected to help
defuse a controversy that began in June when the state's Department of
Public Health sent “cease and desist” orders to the two companies and 11
others that offer genetic testing directly to consumers, The New York
Times reported.

The health department said the companies can't solicit customers from
California without receiving a license to operate as a laboratory. It also
said doctors had to be involved in ordering genetic tests.

The companies argued that actual testing of customers' DNA samples was
being done by outside laboratories with licenses. After reviewing the
procedures used by Navigenics and 23andMe, state officials are satisfied
the companies' interpretation is based on the scientific literature.

In addition, both companies have met the requirement for physician
involvement in the testing, The Times reported.

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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.

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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 editor Dr. Harold C. Sox,
the AP reported.

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

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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.