Health Highlights: July 1, 2009

July 2 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

TB Vaccine May Be Fatal for Infants With HIV

Infants with HIV can die if they're given a standard tuberculosis vaccine, according to a three-year study conducted in South Africa.

The World Health Organization said the study found that babies born with HIV were more likely to contract a deadly form of TB if they were given the BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guerin, vaccine, the Associated Press reported.

Infants with HIV should not receive the vaccine, and vaccination should be delayed if a baby's HIV status is unknown, the researchers said.

The study appears in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

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Colon Cancer Study Is Stopped

A late-stage study of the cancer drug Sutent as a treatment for colon cancer has been halted because the drug is not effective enough, the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, announced Tuesday.

The study was designed to compare the use of a combination treatment of Sutent and a type of chemotherapy with use of the chemotherapy alone. Researchers found that the combination treatment was not more effective at extending survival without cancer progression.

There were no safety issues, according to Pfizer.

Sutent is approved in the United States for treatment of advanced kidney cancer and gastrointestinal cancer, the Associated Press reported.

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U.S. Government to Seek Answers to Health-Care Questions

Should birth control pills be available over the counter? What's the best way to treat back pain? Should people with irregular heartbeats have surgery or take a drug?

The U.S. government plans to spend more than $1 billion to find the answers to questions such as those, according to an Associated Press report.