Faculty Bibliography

A little boy with an ear infection developed a potentially severe reaction to a sulfa drug he had been given for the infection. The incident reminds his pediatrician of the complexities of making a proper diagnosis and determining the best medicine to use for each child

Perri Klass reviews the book 'My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS' by Abraham Verghese

In 'The Lion King,' now playing throughout the Triad, Mufasa, the king of beasts, is trampled in a wildebeest stampede as he saves his little cub, Simba. Mufasa's evil brother, Scar, who provoked the stampede to kill his brother and take over the lion kingdom, convinces Simba that he killed his father. The distraught cub leaves home, nearly dies and wanders the veldt until he grows up enough to return and challenge his usurping uncle. Yes, the cub is tortured by guilt, thinking that he started the wildebeests running and is therefore responsible for his father's death. But even small children will have no trouble identifying whose fault it really is; Jeremy Irons gives the evil uncle, Scar, a personality worthy of the long and distinguished line of Disney cartoon villains. And cartoon villains have always had a certain license to be evil, just because they are not real people, and children can see that they are not. Note it was Bambi's mother who was killed off. Most Disney cartoon features have not included mothers at all; the title character in 'The Little Mermaid' has only a father, as do Princess Jasmine in 'Aladdin' and Belle in 'Beauty and the Beast.' Snow White and Cinderella, of course, have evil stepmothers. Bambi has a mother, but she dies; Dumbo's mother spends most of the movie locked up

OBJECTIVE. To examine the incidence and epidemiologic correlates of congenital syphilis at an inner-city Boston hospital, and draw comparisons with the situation at the same hospital 40 years ago. DESIGN. Chart review and comparison with data collected in 1951. SETTING. Maternity and pediatric services at Boston City Hospital. METHODS. A study conducted in 1951 on the maternity service of Boston City Hospital in which demographic data were collected on all women admitted in labor over a 5-month period was replicated. Serologic testing for syphilis was carried out on these women, and the demographic and medical correlates of positive maternal syphilis serology were examined. This study was repeated exactly 40 years later, using the cord blood screening for syphilis done routinely at delivery and a review of prenatal records. RESULTS. From a group made up largely of married white women in 1951, the study population shifted in 1991 to a group made up mostly of minority women, with 75% unmarried. In 1951, 24 patients were diagnosed with syphilis either before or during the pregnancy, giving a prevalence rate of 2.4%. In 1991, 25 of 647 women were diagnosed with syphilis, for a prevalence rate of 3.9%. The women with positive cord blood serologies had a higher rate of other sexually transmitted diseases and substance abuse. No symptomatic cases of congenital syphilis were seen in 1951 or in 1991, although at least 11 of the 26 infants born to mothers with positive serologies in 1991 received intravenous penicillin therapy. CONCLUSIONS. The continued prevalence of diagnosed syphilis in women at delivery reflects an inner-city epidemic of congenital syphilis that is tied to substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus, and changing social patterns, as well to older problems of serologic screening, prenatal care, treatment failures, and maternal reinfection. It is essential that screening programs be maintained and improved in this high-risk population, and that infants born to mothers with positive serologies receive full and adequate treatment if there is any doubt at all about their infection status

In The Lion King, which opens today, Mufasa, the king of beasts, is trampled in a wildebeest stampede as he saves his little cub, Simba. Mufasa's evil brother, Scar, who provoked the stampede to kill his brother and take over the lion kingdom, convinces Simba that he killed his father. The distraught cub leaves home, nearly dies and wanders the veldt until he grows up enough to return and challenge his usurping uncle

In The Lion King , Mufasa, the king of beasts, is trampled in a wildebeest stampede as he saves his little cub, Simba. Mufasa's evil brother, Scar, who provoked the stampede to kill his brother and take over the lion kingdom, convinces Simba that he killed his father. The distraught cub leaves home, nearly dies and wanders the veldt until he grows up enough to return and challenge his usurping uncle. In fact, the world is full of adults who think that the death of Bambi's mother is too upsetting for small children. Too sad. Too scary. There will be parents who feel that The Lion King may be too upsetting for children, too; a movie about lions is a little, well, redder in tooth and claw than a movie about a deer. I tend to worry more about human villains, both in real life and at the movies. By my standards, Snow White is the much more upsetting movie. There is nothing in The Lion King that can compare to a wicked queen who wants to kill her stepdaughter for being too beautiful or to a huntsman ordered to kill the girl and cut her heart out. And for that matter, are two lions fighting for control as scary as Cruella De Vil, who, in 101 Dalmatians, wants to kill the puppies and make them into coats? Yes, the cub is tortured by guilt, thinking that he started the wildebeests running and is therefore responsible for his father's death. But even small children will have no trouble identifying whose fault it really is; Jeremy Irons gives the evil uncle, Scar, a personality worthy of the long and distinguished line of Disney cartoon villains. And cartoon villains have always had a certain licence to be evil, just because they are not real people, and children can see that they are not

KW - Motion pictures [Motion Picture] -- Perri Klass comments on some of the criticisms about the death of a lion in the new Disney animated film 'The Lion King.' While some say the death of the character may be too traumatic for children, Klass warns that if children's entertainment is 'purged of the powerful, we risk homogenization, predictability and boredom.'

Perri Klass reviews the children's books 'Persephone and the Pomegranate: A Myth From Greece,' written and illustrated by Kris Waldherr, and 'Persephone,' retold and illustrated by Warwick Hutton

A routine medical exam in which a doctor learned that her nine-month-old Vietnamese patient was a victim of child abuse is discussed. Even with the language barrier, it wasn't hard to understand the mother's fear of what might happen next to a baby who couldn't understand when whe was supposed to shut up

The doctor-patient relationship is discussed. Medical skill and diagnostic acumen aren't worth much if a doctor can't connect with his or her patient