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

11 Quarantined in Texas Over Suspected SARS

Fears of a possible SARS outbreak in Texas have led to 11 people being quarantined in their homes there, the Associated Press reports. Two have tested positive for streptococcus pneumonia, according to the news service, and initial SARS tests were negative.

All the the people are either active duty Air Force personnel or their family members, all living at Dyess Air Force Base, near Abilene. One of the group had recently been in Toronto, which has been the area outside of Asia most affected by SARS. Last week, however, the World Health Organization removed the Canadian city from its list of SARS-infected areas on the belief that the disease was no longer being transmitted from person-to-person there.

Since surfacing in China last fall, SARS has infected at least 8,400 people worldwide, with more than 800 people dying from the disease. To date, no one has died from SARS in the United States, but federal health officials have recorded 74 probable cases, according to CNN.

Final test results on the Texas people Texas are expected in the next few days.

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Monsanto Sues Dairy Over Milk Label

Chemical giant Monsanto has launched a lawsuit against a small Maine dairy because it carries lables on its products that seem to disparage an artificial growth hormone Monsanto makes for cattle.

The New York Times reports that Monsanto has accused Oakhurst Dairy Inc. of engaging in misleading and deceptive marketing practices. Monsanto makes Posilac, which is used on about a third of the nation's dairy cows, the Times reports. It has been on the market since 1994. The company says the labels on the products from Oakhurst Dairies from Portland, Me. indicate that in some way milk from cows who use Posilac is somehow unsafe. Posilac has been approved by the FDA, and Monsanto says the hormone increases milk production.

The Times reports that Oakhurst's milk cartons say, "Our farmers' pledge: no artificial growth hormones."

"We don't feel we need to remove that label. We ought to have the right to let people know what is and is not in our milk," Oakhurst Dairy president Stanley T. Bennett II told the newspaper in a telephone interview.

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AIDS: Poised for a Comeback?

After dropping for five straight years, the number of intravenous drug users diagnosed with HIV has gone up, according to a new U.S. government report.

This could foreshadow a resurgence of AIDS among IV drug users -- already among those at highest risk for the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issued the report.

Or, the CDC says, the statistics could indicate that AIDS-prevention messages have "lost their fervor" or that people have been lulled into a false sense of security by advances in AIDS treatment, reports CNN.

An estimated 900,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with AIDS. About one-third of them, the network says, are intravenous drug users and their partners.

The CDC report revealed that 2,514 people who inject drugs were diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in 2000 -- a 5 percent increase from the 1999 numbers.

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U.S. Government to Offer Hospitals a Tip, of Sorts

Just like workers who get a bonus for doing a good job, hospitals now can hope for a little extra money for giving top-of-the-line medical care.

The federal government has launched a three-year experiment that offers so-called pay-for-performance bonuses to hospitals that rank highly for quality of care for five specific conditions: heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, hip and knee replacement surgery, and coronary artery bypass surgery, reports The New York Times.

Hospitals that score in the top 10 percent will get a 2 percent bonus above the standard Medicare payment, and those in the next 10 percent will get a 1 percent bonus. Hospitals that provide poor care could see their Medicare payments reduced by 2 percent, the Times reports.

Medicare now pays the same, whether the care a patient gets is the best or worst available. The government has allocated $7 million a year for bonuses, with 550 hospitals participating in the test program.

Most critics of the plan don't object to the idea of offering financial incentives, but rather to the company -- Premier Inc. -- selected to administer the program. In the past year, Premier has been investigated by federal and state authorities for possible antitrust, conflict of interest and ethics violations, according to the Times. Others maintain that the contract should have been open to competitive bidding.

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FDA Eases Food Labeling Rules: Newspaper

U.S. food manufacturers will have far more discretion in labeling their products as "healthful" under proposed new rules issued by the Food and Drug Administration, reports the Washington Post.

Under the new regulations, the food makers will be able to make health claims based on a wide range of evidence, not just on proven scientific research guidelines that are currently used. Vitamin supplements will also fall into this category, the newspaper reports.

Critics -- including some in Congress and among consumer groups -- say the proposal could be illegal and would allow confusing and suspect claims based on weak or unproven evidence, the Post says.

FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan describes a flip side, saying the policy would provide consumers with much more information than they're currently getting about the healthfulness of foods and supplements. It will also encourage more competition among manufacturers to provide healthier choices, he says.

Thursday's announcement of the new rules follows years of pressure from the food and supplement industries to ease restrictions on claims that their products can promote good health and thwart disease, the Post reports.

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