Faculty Bibliography

Nearly 10 percent of gonorrhea cases in Hawaii last year were resistant to an antibiotic, ciprofloxacin, that has been a standard in treating the sexually transmitted infection, the agency said in its weekly report. Doctors in Hawaii have been advised to stop prescribing ciprofloxacin, also known as Cipro, for gonorrhea. As one measure of the problem, the centers said the incidence of fluoroquinolone-resistant gonorrhea in Hawaii soared to 9.5 percent of samples tested last year compared with 1.4 percent in 1997. Elsewhere in the United States, only 0.2 percent of gonorrhea cases were resistant to fluoroquinolones. To counter the rise and new antibiotic resistance problems, the centers advised doctors to ask patients or their sex partners with suspected gonorrhea if they could have acquired the infection in Hawaii, other Pacific Islands, or Asia, where resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics is high

The two winners of the Lasker clinical research award are Dr. Harvey Alter of the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Michael Houghton of the Chiron Corporation in Emeryville, Calif. Dr. Alter leads a project that N.I.H. created many years ago to discover the causes of hepatitis that followed transfusions. Dr. Houghton led a team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989. By injecting blood from people with non-A, non-B hepatitis, the scientists produced hepatitis in chimpanzees, proving that a transmissible agent was involved. Dr. Alter coded samples of blood from non-A, non-B hepatitis patients. Over the years, about 20 research teams thought they had discovered the virus causing non-A, non-B hepatitis. But each time, Dr. Alter broke the code, showing that the scientists did not have the culprit. In 1982, Dr. Houghton's team began hunting for the missing hepatitis virus by using genetic engineering techniques to study DNA and RNA from infected non-A, non-B hepatitis cases. After further research, on tens of millions of bacteria, the team's members used Dr. Alter's coded samples to prove they had identified the hepatitis C virus

The two are Dr. Harvey Alter of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Dr. Michael Houghton of Chiron in Emeryville, Calif. Alter leads a project the NIH created many years ago to discover the causes of hepatitis that followed transfusions. Houghton led a team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989. The two will share the $50,000 award for clinical research. The [Albert Lasker] awards were established in the 1940s by Albert Lasker, a pioneering advertising executive, and his wife, Mary Woodard Lasker, as a way to raise awareness of the value of biomedical research

The Albert and [Mary Woodard Lasker] Foundation said it also was honoring [Sydney Brenner] for his trenchant wit, his rational voice in allaying fears that research on genetic engineering would create dangerous breeds of microbes, and for his role in ending a moratorium on such research in 1974. In that effort, Brenner drank genetically weakened bacteria in a self-experiment

Calcium channel blockers listed in the Physicians' Desk Reference include: Adalat, Calan, Cardene, Cardizem, Covera, Dilacor, Isoptin, Nimotop, Norvasc, Plendil, Procardia, Sular, Tiazac, Vascor and Verelan

Patented calcium channel blockers are also much more expensive than other antihypertensive drugs, Dr. [Curt D. Furberg] said in an interview. He cited costs of $740 to $990 a year for calcium channel blockers, compared with $60 for low doses of a diuretic drug. Wider use of more effective antihypertensive drugs could reduce the cost of health care in the United States by up to $5 billion a year, Dr. Furberg said. Such drugs should not be taken off the market, Dr. Furberg said. But, he stressed, doctors should be more cautious in prescribing them as first-line drug therapy for high blood pressure and to prevent its complications. Dr. Furberg's team urged doctors to limit use of calcium channel blockers to patients who have not responded to or cannot tolerate other standard drugs. Low-dose diuretics should continue to be considered as the standard therapy for hypertension, and all new classes of drugs should be compared with diuretics, Dr. Furberg's team said. Dr. Furberg's team began challenging the drugs' safety and effectiveness in 1995. The team focused first on the short-acting form of calcium channel blockers that many American doctors had prescribed for high blood pressure despite lacking F.D.A. approval for such use. In 1995, federal health officials warned that short-acting calcium channel blockers should be prescribed ''with great caution, if at all.'' Since then, their use in this country has fallen

Patented calcium channel blockers also are much more expensive than other anti-hypertension drugs, [Curt Furberg] said. He cited costs of $740 to $990 a year for calcium channel blockers, compared with $60 for low doses of a diuretic drug. Wider use of more effective anti-hypertensive drugs could reduce health care costs in the United States by up to $5 billion a year, Furberg said. Furberg's team urged doctors to limit use of calcium channel blockers to patients who have not responded to other standard drugs or who cannot tolerate them

Patented calcium channel blockers are also much more expensive than other antihypertensive drugs, [Curt D. Furberg] said. He cited costs of $740 to $990 a year for calcium channel blockers compared with $60 for low doses of a diuretic drug. Wider use of more effective antihypertensive drugs could reduce health care costs in the United States by up to $5 billion a year, Furberg said. Such drugs should not be taken off the market, Furberg said. But, he stressed, doctors should be more cautious in prescribing them as a first-line drug therapy. Furberg's team urged doctors to limit use of calcium channel blockers to patients who have not responded to other standard drugs or who cannot tolerate them. Low-dose diuretics should continue to be considered as the standard therapy, and all new classes of drugs should be compared with diuretics, Furberg's team said

Calcium channel blockers include the trade names Adalat, Calan, Cardene, Cardizem, Covera, Dilacor, Isoptin, Nimotop, Norvasc, Plendil, Procardia, Sular, Tiazac, Vascor and Verelan. Such drugs should not be taken off the market, said lead researcher Dr. Curt Furberg of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston- Salem, N.C. He stressed, however, that doctors should be more cautious in prescribing them as a first-line drug therapy. Patented calcium channel blockers also are much more expensive than other antihypertensive drugs, Furberg said. He said calcium channel blockers cost $740 to $990 a year, compared with $60 for low doses of a diuretic drug. Wider use of more effective antihypertensive drugs could reduce health-care costs in the United States by up to $5 billion a year, Furberg said

Patented calcium channel blockers are also much more expensive than other antihypertensive drugs, [Curt D. Furberg] said. He cited costs of $740 to $990 a year for calcium channel blockers compared with $60 for low doses of a diuretic drug. Wider use of more effective antihypertensive drugs could reduce health care costs in the United States by up to $5 billion a year, Furberg said. Such drugs should not be taken off the market, Furberg said. But, he stressed, doctors should be more cautious in prescribing them as a first-line drug therapy. Furberg's team urged doctors to limit use of calcium channel blockers to patients who have not responded to other standard drugs or who cannot tolerate them. Low-dose diuretics should continue to be considered as the standard therapy, and all new classes of drugs should be compared with diuretics, Furberg's team said