Health Highlights: Sept. 30, 2008

Oct. 1 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

New Genetic Test Helps Detect Flu Faster

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test that can help laboratories identify a strain of influenza in as little as four hours, versus four days, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The test could help identify a new flu strain that could pose the threat of a deadly pandemic, or it could identify a conventional strain in a single person and aid doctors in that person's treatment, experts told the wire service.

Shortly, state laboratories are expected to begin using the test, which was created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Applied Biosystems Inc., a Foster, Calif.-based firm.

"We'll now be able to detect influenza in the community faster, which allows us to take steps more quickly to protect and save lives," CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said in a news release cited by the AP.

Up to now, different states used different testing methods, the wire service reported. Some 20 to 30 state labs should be equipped to use the test before year's end, the CDC said.

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No Link Between Statins and Lou Gehrig's Disease: FDA

The widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, which include Lipitor and Crestor, don't increase the risk of the neurodegenerative disease often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease," U.S. regulators said Monday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it based its conclusion on analysis of 41 long-term studies of statins as treatment for high cholesterol.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the formal name for Lou Gehrig's disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. Patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed, according to the ALS Association.

The FDA said it began the review after receiving a higher-than-expected number of reports of ALS in patients on statins. The results showed no increased incidence of the disease in patients treated with a statin compared with a placebo, the agency said.