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

Device Provides Bird-Flu Test Results Within 30 Minutes

A hand-held device that can provide bird-flu virus test results for people within 30 minutes has been developed by scientists in Singapore. Other tests currently available take a minimum of several hours to provide results.

The scientists say their new device is able to isolate, purify, amplify, and identify bird flu virus DNA in throat swab samples taken from patients, BBC News reported. When tested on samples of the deadly H5N1 virus, the device delivered accurate results within 28 minutes.

Quick testing of people could help make it easier to contain bird-flu outbreaks. The device could prove especially useful in areas where there's a lack of basic health resources, said the scientists from Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

The so-called mini lab is described in the journal Nature Medicine.

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Number of Elderly Cancer Patients Could Double by 2030

By 2030, there will be twice the number of elderly cancer patients (65 and older) worldwide than there were in 2000, an increase that will pose "huge challenges" to health-care systems, cancer experts warned Monday at a European Cancer Conference meeting.

The global increase in elderly cancer patients will be the result of aging societies, especially in developed nations, and improved diagnosis and treatment, Agence France-Presse reported.

"There are not enough health-care professionals who have skills and knowledge in both cancer and the best care and treatment for the elderly," Kathy Redmond, editor of Cancer World, said at the meeting.

She described the impending upsurge in elderly cancer patient numbers as a "time bomb," and said that not enough is being done to prepare to deal with the increase, AFP reported.

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Horses More Dangerous Than Motorcycles

Horseback riding is more dangerous than motorcycling, football or skiing, according to a study by researchers at the University of Calgary-Calgary Health Region in Canada.

They reviewed data on 7,941 trauma patients treated at an area medical center over 10 years and found that 151 were severely injured while horseback riding. Many of them were veteran riders, the Canadian Press reported.

The study found that the injury rate for horseback riding was more than three times higher than that for motorcycling. The findings are published in the American Journal of Surgery.

Most of the horseback riders in the study said they felt their accidents were preventable. Only nine percent were wearing helmets, the CP reported.

Riders should wear helmets and safety vests to reduce their risk of injury, the researchers recommended.

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Outbreaks of Bluetongue, Foot-and-Mouth Threaten U.K. Livestock

British authorities on Saturday said they have identified the first case of the viral disease bluetongue in livestock, even as they extend the "protection zone" for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in another locale, Bloomberg news reported.

Bluetongue, which does not affect humans, was found in a cow near Ipswich, Suffolk, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on its Web site. The disease has also popped up recently in livestock in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

U.K. authorities have also expanded by an additional 3 kilometers the protection zone around a farm near Petersfield in Hampshire, the site of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, Bloomberg said. A sixth outbreak of the cattle illness has been confirmed in Surrey, southern England. Cattle in that outbreak, first spotted Sept. 21, have been slaughtered, officials said.

Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth in British cattle were first identified in August, and the European Commission has halted imports of British animals or animal products vulnerable to foot-and-mouth disease till at least Oct. 15, labeling the U.K. a "high-risk" area.

A 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease cost the U.K. economy over $20 billion and resulted in the slaughter of thousands of animals.

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Private Takeover Can Mean Poorer Care at Nursing Homes

A survey of complaints against more than 16,000 U.S. nursing homes finds that care often deteriorates significantly after homes are acquired by large private investment firms, The New York Times reports.

The Times compared the number of complaints received against 1,200 nursing homes acquired by these for-profit firms against those of 14,000 other nursing homes.

They report that, on average, residents of these homes are now much worse off in terms of depression, loss of mobility, and loss of ability to dress and bathe themselves than before the takeover, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Much of that shortfall in care is linked to drastic cuts in nursing and other staff in the months after an investment firm takes over the home, the Times reported. At Tampa, Fla.'s Habana Health Care Center, for example, the 150-bed home lost half its nursing staff within months of being acquired by Formation Properties I, a private investment fund.

Over the next 3 years, 15 Habana residents died from what suing family members claim was negligent care -- even as profits from the nursing home rose. "They've created a hellhole," plaintiff Vivian Hewitt told the Times. She sued Habana after her mother died from the feces-linked infection of a large bedsore.

"The first thing owners do is lay off nurses and other staff that are essential to keeping patients safe," noted Charlene Harrington, a University of California, San Francisco professor whose work focuses on nursing homes. "Chains have made a lot of money by cutting nurses, but it's at the cost of human lives," she told the newspaper.

But Arnold Whitman, a principal with Formation, said companies like his have rescued many failing nursing homes from the brink of bankruptcy, brought on by what he sees as out-of-control litigation.

"Lawyers were convincing nursing home residents to sue over almost anything," he told the Times. "We should be recognized for supporting this industry when almost everyone else was running away."

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Experimental AIDS Vaccine Fails Key Test

A trial of a vaccine designed to control AIDS has been halted after numerous participants became infected with HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

Drug maker Merck & Co. said Friday that it was stopping enrollment and vaccination of volunteers taking part in the international study, which was partly funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Merck told the Associated Press that 24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one part of the trial eventually became infected with HIV. In a comparison group of volunteers who got dummy shots, 21 of 762 participants also became infected with HIV.

The volunteers were HIV-free at the start of the trial. But they were at high risk for getting HIV. Most were homosexual men or female sex workers. They were all repeatedly counseled about how to reduce their risk of HIV infections, including use of condoms, according to Merck, the AP said.

The Merck vaccine was the first major test of a new strategy to prevent HIV infection. Initial trials to develop a vaccine tried to stimulate antibodies against the virus, but that didn't work.

The new approach -- which is also being tried by other researchers -- seeks to prod the body to produce more of key immune system cells called killer T-cells, the news service said.

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