Health Highlights: June 24, 2009

June 25 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

South Pole Doctor Who Treated Own Breast Cancer Dies

The American doctor who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer while on a research mission at the South Pole in 1999 has died of cancer.

Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, 57, was the only doctor at the National Science Foundation Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station when she found a lump in her breast. Weather conditions made a rescue impossible, so she performed a biopsy on herself and then treated herself with anti-cancer drugs for months until she was taken back to the United States.

Her cancer remained in remission until August 2005. She died Tuesday at her home in Southwick, Mass., her husband, Thomas FitzGerald, said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

Neilsen FitzGerald described her South Pole ordeal in a best-selling book that was made into a TV movie. During the last decade, she traveled the world to speak about how cancer had changed her life. She also worked as a roving emergency room doctor at hospitals in the northeastern United States.

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Only Four Shots Needed for Rabies Protection

People exposed to a rabid animal need only four vaccinations, not the five currently recommended, a U.S. immunization advisory group has decided.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Wednesday that four shots given within the first 14 days of exposure to rabies provides sufficient protection, the Associated Press reported.

Each year, between 20,000 and 40,000 Americans are in contact with a rabid animal. About 1,000 get just three or four shots and none have come down with rabies, which was a factor in the committee's decision, the AP said.

The committee advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which prepares official guidelines for doctors.