Health Highlights: Dec. 13, 2008

• Dueling U.S. Agencies at Odds Over Fish Consumption
• Test Predicts Onset of Preterm Labor
• FDA Panel Endorses New Female Condom
• Certain Dementia Patients Can't Detect Sarcasm
• Obama Announces Daschle Is HHS Secretary Nominee
• Hong Kong Reports First Farm Outbreak of Bird Flu in 6 Years

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

Dueling U.S. Agencies at Odds Over Fish Consumption

A proposal to encourage eating of fish to promote a healthier lifestyle is becoming a political issue in the final months of the Bush administration, reports the Associated Press.

A long-standing government recommendation that pregnant women and children limit their intake of fish because of the possibility that they may also consume harmful amounts of mercury is being reconsidered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the wire service reports.

This has evoked intra-agency controversy, with the Environmental Protection Agency challenging the scientific accuracy of the FDA's 270 page draft of a study concluding that the health benefits of fish consumption outweigh the possibility that a dangerous amount of mercury would be ingested.

Environmental groups are upset as well, the A.P. reports. Richard Wiles, executive director of the Environmental Working Group, issued a statement: "The FDA was once a fearsome protector of the public health. Now it's nothing more than a patsy for polluters."

Not surprisingly, the food industry is supportive of the FDA's study. One lobbying group, the Center for Consumer Freedom, told the wire service that it "just might be the best Christmas present health-conscious Americans could hope for."

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Test Predicts Onset of PretermLabor

A test that predicts whether premature birth is imminent if a woman's water breaks early in pregnancy has been identified by Swedish researchers.

In such cases, there's a strong link between high levels of lactate in vaginal fluid and onset of labor within 48 hours, said the researchers, who assessed the test in 86 women with single pregnancies of 20 to 36 weeks gestation, BBC News reported.

The study found that 87 percent of the 23 women with high lactate concentrations had spontaneous labor within 48 hours, compared with 5 percent of the 58 women with low lactate concentrations.

Among women with high lactate concentrations, the average time between examination of labor onset was 13.6 hours, compared with 48 days for those with low lactate levels, BBC News reported.

The study about the "Lac-test" appears in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.

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FDA Panel Endorses New FemaleCondom

A second-generation female condom called the FC2 Female Condom should beapproved for use in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel decided Thursday.

In its 15-0 vote recommending approval by the full agency, the panel said there should be a condition that instructions for use remain the same as those for the FC1 Female Condom. The panel also said the manufacturer should identify the study performed to establish the comparable safety and effectiveness of FC2 with FC1.

The first generation FC1 condom was approved for U.S. sale in 1993, and 165 million of the condoms have been distributed in 142 countries. So far, 22 million of the FC2 condoms have been distributed in 77 countries. The World Health Organization has said the condoms can be purchased by United Nations agencies.

The FC2 condom looks similar to the FC1, but is produced and sold at a lower cost. The product is made by the Female Health Company, based in Chicago.

While not required to do so, the FDA usually follows the advice of its advisory panels.

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Certain Dementia Patients Can't DetectSarcasm

People under the age of 65 with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can't detect when someone is being sarcastic, a finding that may help improve diagnosis of the condition, say Australian researchers.

FTD, also called Pick's disease, is the second most common form of dementia and can be difficult to diagnose in its early stages.