Health Highlights: July 13, 2009

• Congress Won't Finish Health-Care Reform by Summer Recess
• Family Obesity Follows Gender Lines: Study
• Another Recall Linked to Milk Products Cooperative
• Ebola Virus Found in Pigs

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

Congress Won't Finish Health-Care Reform by Summer Recess

The massive overhaul of the U.S. health-care system will be put on hold when members of Congress leave for their August recess, lawmakers say.

While that's likely to disappoint President Barack Obama, who made health-care reform a key part of his presidential campaign, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said the White House should be pleased with the progress so far. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said "there really is plenty of time," the Associated Press reported.

"Well, we don't expect (a bill) to be signed into law by the August recess. But we expect the House and Senate to have passed bills, yes," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the AP reported.

But it's unlikely it would be the same bill because the House of Representatives and the Senate have been working on sometimes contradictory versions. House Democrats have proposed raising taxes on wealthy Americans to pay for the plan. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have tried to calm moderate and conservative lawmakers about a proposal that could guarantee tough re-election bids, AP reported.

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Family Obesity Follows Gender Lines: Study

Obesity appears to follow gender lines in families, say British researchers who found that obese mothers were 10 times more likely to have obese daughters and obese fathers were six times more likely to have obese sons.

But the study of 226 families found that obese mothers and fathers didn't have an effect on children of the opposite sex, BBC News reported.

The findings suggest that the link is behavioral rather than genetic, which means that policies on fighting obesity may need to be reconsidered, the researchers said.

"It is the reverse of what we have thought and this has fundamental implications for policy," said study leader Professor Terry Wilkin of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, BBC News reported. "We should be targeting the parents and that is not something we have really done to date."

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity.

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Another Recall Linked to Milk Products Cooperative

Instant oatmeal is the latest in a string of nationwide product recalls linked to salmonella-tainted ingredients distributed by Milk Products Cooperative of Plainview, Minn., USA Today reported.

The recall of the maple-and-brown-sugar oatmeal packets, sold under a variety of brands, was announced by Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal. Other recalls include Meijer hot chocolate mix and some Kroger popcorn toppings.

In June, federal officials detected salmonella in milkshake powder and traced the contamination back to the Milk Products Cooperative plant. Inspectors found salmonella in the plant, which led the cooperative to voluntarily recall whey protein, fruit stabilizers, non-fat dried milk and thickening agents made over the past two years, USA Today reported.

The cooperative only sells its products to food manufacturers and distributors.

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Ebola Virus Found in Pigs

The discovery of a form of ebola virus in pigs has experts worried that it may mutate and threaten humans, the Associated Press reported.

Reston ebolavirus (REBOV), which is not known to cause illness in humans, has previously only been found in people and monkeys. But in an article published Friday in the journal Science, researchers said they found the virus in pigs in the Philippines.

It's theoretically possible for REBOV to mutate in pigs into a form that could cause sickness in humans, the scientists said. But they added that some farm workers who tend the pigs were also infected with the virus but showed no signs of illness, the AP reported.