Faculty Bibliography

[Jonathan Reiner] said Monday night that [Dick Cheney] could withstand a strenuous campaign. He declined to provide details about Cheney's medical condition until he received permission. He said he expected such permission would be forthcoming if [George W. Bush] named Cheney as his running mate. [Denton Cooley] said he had agreed to review Cheney's heart records after a call from former President Bush 'and presumed approval of Gov. George W. Bush.' Cooley did not say whether Cheney had given his permission

Ann Buve of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, studied two African cities with high HIV rates and two with low rates. In Yaounde, Cameroon, and Cotonou, Benin, where the HIV prevalence among sexually active men was 3.8% and 4.4% respectively, 99% of the men were circumcised. The practice was less common in Kisumu, Kenya, and Ndola, Zambia, where infection rates were 26.8% and 25.9%. Durban, South Africa -- Scientists at the 13th international conference on AIDS here debated last week what to do about one of the most puzzling but potentially important findings in AIDS, namely that circumcised men are much less likely to become infected with the AIDS virus than uncircumcised men. The finding was first made in Africa more than a decade ago and has been noted in more than 40 studies since then. Now many scientists have come to suspect that circumcision is an important factor in the vast differences among African countries in rates of infection from HIV, the AIDS virus

For people at high risk of contracting H.I.V., ''condoms with or without nonoxynol-9 should be used,'' said Dr. Ann Duerr, chief of the H.I.V. section in the division of reproductive health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study's implications for the small amounts of nonoxynol-9 on lubricated condoms are unclear, she said. Instead, the preliminary findings reported today dealt a severe blow to efforts to develop a weapon that women in Africa desperately need to protect themselves from H.I.V. Many women in Africa and elsewhere are forced to have unprotected sex with their husbands who are infected. In some African countries, more than 20 percent of the adult population and 30 percent of pregnant women are H.I.V. infected. Every day, conference participants have been badgered with depressing figures. They heard how South Africa, with 20 percent of its adult population infected, also has the most people living with H.I.V. -- 4.2 million -- in the world. H.I.V. rates exceed 10 percent in 16 countries in the southern region of Africa

The finding was first made in Africa more than a decade ago and has been noted in more than 40 studies since then. Now many scientists, some of whom are in Durban taking part in the 13th international conference on AIDS, have come to suspect that circumcision is an important factor in the vast differences among African countries in rates of infection from H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. In the United States, 40,000 people become infected with H.I.V. each year. Although officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider that number unacceptably high, they gave a more encouraging view of the H.I.V. epidemic in the United States, saying American teenagers were heeding warnings about the virus. Surveys found that in 1999, 50 percent of teenagers reported having had sex at least once, compared with 54 percent in 1991. And 58 percent of teenagers said they used a condom the last time they had sex, up from 46 percent. Ann Buve of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, studied two African cities with high H.I.V. rates and two with low rates. In Yaounde, Cameroon, and Cotonou, Benin, where the prevalence of H.I.V. among sexually active men was 3.8 and 4.4 percent, respectively, 99 percent of the men were circumcised. The practice was less common in Kisumu, Kenya, and Ndola, Zambia, where infection rates were 26.8 percent and 25.9 percent

The sobering realization contrasts with the optimism, if not euphoria, that enveloped the AIDS meeting in Vancouver in 1996, when leading experts talked about the prospects of curing AIDS. [Anthony Fauci] reported that he and scientists at medical centers in the United States and Europe were conducting trials on the effectiveness of various ways to give interrupted therapy. For example, participants in some studies stop taking drugs for varying periods of time until HIV rebounds to a predetermined level in their blood. One strategy came from a top U.S. government scientist who announced promising early findings from two new trials aimed at giving long breaks in treatment to people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS

Dr. [Anthony S. Fauci] reported that he and scientists at 10 or so medical centers in the United States and Europe were conducting trials on the effectiveness of various ways to give interrupted therapy. For example, participants in some studies stop taking drugs for varying periods of time until H.I.V. rebounds to a predetermined level in their blood. Dr. Fauci's team has begun two small trials to determine whether patients can stop and restart therapy for specified periods in well-defined cycles. Both trials include people who took drugs that suppressed H.I.V. to levels undetectable by blood tests. A drawback is that the tests to measure H.I.V. levels in the blood are now needed before individuals start the intermittent therapy, and the tests are not widely available in Africa. But Dr. Fauci expressed hope that if the studies document the therapy's benefits, simpler ways will be found to carry it out in Africa, where AIDS has hit with devastating force

For people at high risk of contracting HIV, 'condoms with or without nonoxynol-9 should be used,' said Dr. Ann Duerr, chief of the HIV section in the division of reproductive health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study's implications for the small amounts of nonoxynol-9 on lubricated condoms are unclear, she said

Scientists at the 13th international conference on AIDS in Durban debated yesterday what to do about one of the most puzzling but potentially important findings in AIDS, namely that circumcised men are much less likely to become infected with the AIDS virus than uncircumcised men. Ann Buve of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, studied two African cities with high HIV rates and two with low rates. In Yaounde, Cameroon, and Cotonou, Benin, where the HIV prevalence among sexually active men was 3.8 and 4.4 per cent, 99 per cent of the men were circumcised. The practice was less common in Kisumu, Kenya, and Ndola, Zambia, where infection rates were 26.8 per cent and 25.9 per cent

The sponsoring National Institutes of Health said in a statement that ''these findings further indicate that a short nevirapine regimen is an effective, simple, and extremely low cost-method for preventing transmission of H.I.V. from mother to child in developing countries.'' Nevirapine is not approved for the prevention of H.I.V. transmission from mother to child. If approved, it will offer practical advantages for use in Africa because it can be stored at room temperature and a pediatric formulation was recently introduced by its manufacturer, the German drug company, Boehringer Ingelheim, which sells it as Viramune. Resolution of the conflict is critical because health officials have looked to simple drug regimens to prevent infections from H.I.V., the AIDS virus, in Africa where such rates are the highest in the world

When former South African president Nelson Mandela issued his forceful call for action to stop the AIDS epidemic ravaging his country and much of the continent, it was a great relief to the 12,500 participants at the 13th international AIDS conference, which ended on Friday. Meeting in the most-infected province of the most-infected country on the most-infected continent, they were bitterly disappointed when the current South African president, Thabo Mbeki, did not acknowledge forthrightly that HIV causes AIDS, emphasizing instead social factors like poverty as a major force behind the epidemic. In a way, however, Mandela's call for immediate action and Mbeki's emphasis on poverty were making similar points. Mandela challenged the world to focus on what health workers know works in preventing AIDS. Though the use of drugs to prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to infants is mandatory in any HIV control plan, Mandela said, 'Promoting abstinence, safe sex and the use of condoms and ensuring the early treatment of sexually transmitted diseases are some of the steps needed and about which there can be no dispute.'