Health Highlights: July 11, 2008

July 12

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

Is Your Grocer Involved in Meat Recall? USDA Will Name Names

The next time there's a serious recall of meat or poultry in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will tell you if your local grocer had once sold any of the affected product.

USDA Secretary Edward Schafer announced the policy change Friday, following the nation's largest-ever recall of 143 million pounds of beef produced at a California slaughterhouse, MSNBC reported.

The policy is to take effect next month, Schafer said. Up till now, there's been no federal edict requiring the government to reveal where potentially tainted meat was sold.

While consumer groups applauded the move, they noted that it only applied to the most serious Class I recalls, thought to pose the greatest health risk.

"We're pleased that USDA will no longer keep consumers in the dark about recalled meat," said a news release from Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "Up until now, when USDA announced a recall of contaminated meat, it would only tell the public the states where the product was distributed. The specific names and locations of stores that got the product -- the information that can actually help the consumer -- were kept confidential."

The California recall would not have been affected by the new rule, since it was designated a less-significant Class II recall, Consumers Union noted.

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U.S. Olympic Swimmer Has Testicular Cancer

U.S. Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau has testicular cancer, but has been medically cleared for next month's games in Beijing, China, he told the Associated Press.

Shanteau, 24, said that although his doctors approved his participation in the games, they advised him to have surgery now. While he plans to postpone an operation until after the Olympics, he pledged to drop out of the games if there were any sign that the cancer was spreading.

The Georgia native told the wire service that the illness was diagnosed June 19 -- a week before Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb. Shanteau wound up making the U.S. team in the 200-meter breaststroke.

"[The diagnosis] almost numbed me," he told the AP. "I'll remember that day for the rest of my life."

Shanteau said his doctors pronounced his cancer treatable and said it hadn't spread. He said he had heard from the agent who represents cyclist Lance Armstrong, who despite the same diagnosis went on to win seven straight Tour de France races.

"If I can have a fraction of the impact that [Armstrong has] had, just a tiny little bit, then I think what I'm going through will be good," Shanteau told the AP.

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Twins' Deaths Not Caused by Overdose: Hospital

Two newborn twins who died at a Texas hospital after receiving an overdose of the blood thinner heparin did not appear to die as a direct result of the mishap, according to a spokesperson for Christus Spohn Hospital South in Corpus Christi cited by the Associated Press.

The hospital said it found no direct link between the deaths of twins Keith and Kaylynn Garcia and the overdose of heparin, which was used to flush intravenous lines used by the newborns. As many as 17 infants in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, including the Garcias, may have received the overdose. The mishap has been blamed on a mixing error by hospital pharmacists.