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

Azerbaijan Reports 5 Deaths from Bird Flu

Five human deaths from the H5N1 bird flu virus have been reported in Azerbaijan, bringing the worldwide death toll to 103, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

The five victims were among seven people who tested positive for the virus. Some of them may have caught the virus through contact with feathers from infected swans, the Associated Press reported.

“The majority of cases have occurred in females between the ages of 15 and 20 years. In this community, the defeathering of birds is a task usually undertaken by adolescent girls and young women,” the WHO said.

In some of the Azerbaijan cases, there is no indication that the infected people had direct exposure to dead or diseased poultry, which has been the usual source of exposure for people who’ve become infected with the H5N1 virus, the AP reported.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government predicted that bird flu will likely be detected this year in the United States.

Between 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds will be tested for bird flu this year, nearly six times the number tested in 1998, says a government plan that was finalized Monday. The plan also calls for the quarantine and slaughter of any poultry flocks that become infected with the virus, the Associated Press reported.

According to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the wild bird testing could detect 20 to 100 suspected bird flu cases, but dozens of those are likely to be false alarms. Testing will be focused in Alaska and other locations along the Pacific flyway, a common route followed by migratory birds entering the U.S.

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Scientists Identify Gene Linked to Eczema

A gene linked to eczema has been identified by an international team of scientists and the finding may help in the development of new treatments for the common skin condition.

The gene produces a protein called filaggrain, which helps the skin form a protective outer barrier. Reduction or absence of the protein, normally abundant in the outermost layers of skin, results in dry and flaky skin. This study found that about 10 percent of Europeans carry a mutation that switches off this gene.

“It was a really tough project, but because we had experience in this type of gene, we managed to crack it where others had failed,” Professor Irwin McLean of the University of Dundee in Scotland, told BBC News. “We see this as the dawn of a new era in the understanding and treatment of eczema and the type of asthma that goes with eczema as well.”

The findings appear in the journal Nature Genetics.

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FDA Can Do More to Hasten Drug Approvals: Official

An official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the agency can do more to streamline and modernize its drug approval process.

Dr. seo tips Scott Gottlieb, FDA deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, said that the agency had made improvements in how it manages drug reviews and approvals but that there are a number of ways to improve the process, the Seattle Times reported.

For example, it may be possible to improve the design of clinical trials so that drug developers can learn more about their drugs in a shorter time.

“Right now, clinical trials are highly empiric, and by that I mean we basically look for statistical results” that show what percentage of patients benefited from the treatment, Gottlieb told the Times.

He seo services suggested that clinical trials could be structured in a way that enables researchers to learn not just what portion of patients might respond to a drug, but which specific t