Health Highlights: Jan. 2, 2010

Jan. 3 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

CDC Says Swine Flu Now Widespread in Only 4 States

The H1N1 swine flu outbreak continues to subside in the United States, with just four states now reporting widespread cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

That's a decline from seven states reporting widespread cases last week, and a continuance of a decline in prevalence since H1N1 infections peaked in late October, with 48 states reporting widespread illness at the time.

The four states still reporting high H1N1 activity are Delaware, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia, the CDC said.

The agency notes that visits to physicians for flu-like illness did rise slightly over the past week, the first such rise after eight consecutive weeks of decline. Rates of hospitalization for influenza remained unchanged, although the CDC says the number of deaths linked to pneumonia and influenza did rise.

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Ammoniated Beef Treatment Questioned

Despite being linked to repeated incidents involving potentially deadly E. coli and salmonella, a major U.S. meat treatment method continues to be used with government approval, The New York Times reveals.

Beef Products, Inc., which supplies processed meat to McDonald's, Burger King and the U.S. school lunch program, developed a process eight years ago that involves injecting beef with ammonia to banish the gastrointestinal bug E. coli bacteria from burgers. A study by the South Dakota-based company showed the process also killed salmonella, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture endorsed the idea, enabling the company to use fatty trimmings previously limited to pet food and cooking oil for humans.

The ammoniated trimmings are processed into "a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips" and used in a majority of hamburgers nationwide, the story says.