Faculty Bibliography

After several stays of execution, the smallpox virus, one of the biggest killers in history, is back on death row. The governing board of the World Health Organization recommended yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland, that the last two remaining stocks of the smallpox virus, in Russia and the United States, be destroyed by June 30, 1999. Final action requires a vote of the full membership of the health organization, and approval is expected. Yesterday's action was the most important step to date in the longstanding plans of WHO, an agency of the United Nations, to destroy the virus

Federal health officials say they have documented the transmission of the hepatitis A virus through the blood-clotting substances given to hemophiliacs to stop their bleeding. Health officials warned hemophiliacs to avoid using certain batches of the clotting factors manufactured by the Alpha Therapeutic Corp. of Los Angeles. The company has voluntarily recalled or stopped distributing the affected batches. One was Lot AP5014A of Factor 8, which is used to treat hemophilia A, a bleeding disorder that affects about 17,000 Americans. The same strain of hepatitis A virus was found in the product and in two people who take it. A third case is being investigated

The CDC reported on Jan 18, 1996 in its weekly report that they had documented the transmission of the hepatitis A virus through the blood-cotting substances given to hemophiliacs to stop their bleeding. It is the first time such transmission has been documented in the US

Federal health officials and many experts in infectious diseases and transplant surgery believe such risks are very low, but not quantifiable, and are offset by the potential benefits of cross-species transplants that some experts estimate might reach 100,000 each year to combat a variety of diseases. With the prospect that a number of xenotransplants will be done in coming months, Jonathan S. Allan, who works at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, which supplied the baboon for Getty's transplant, has sounded an alarm about the theoretical risk that known or unknown animal viruses could infect human recipients and then be transmitted to other people. Government health officials insisted that several experts and independent committees review the baboon bone-marrow experiment before researchers from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Pittsburgh could perform it. Getty, 38, who has AIDS, underwent the procedure Dec. 14 at San Francisco General Hospital

According to a Dutch study to be published on Jan 12, 1996, a laser is no more effective than a balloon in opening blocked coronary arteries

The man who received a highly risky experimental bone marrow transplant from a baboon three weeks ago is expected to be discharged from a hospital in San Francisco today, his doctors said. But they said it was too soon to know whether the baboon cells have begun to grow and function immunologically. The hope is that the baboon cells, which are resistant to HIV-1, the main AIDS virus, will help restore function to his immune system, which had been severely weakened by AIDS. The man, Jeff Getty, passed what his doctors considered the riskiest period of the experimental transplant without experiencing any significant complications of the procedure. It was performed Dec. 14 at San Francisco General Hospital, a unit of the University of California at San Francisco. The past three weeks were particularly risky for Getty, 38, because the chemotherapy and radiation he received as conditioning therapy before the transplant further suppressed his immune system

The man, Jeff Getty, passed what his doctors considered the riskiest period of the experimental transplant without experiencing any significant complications of the procedure. It was performed on Dec. 14 at San Francisco General Hospital, a unit of the University of California at San Francisco. The last three weeks were particularly risky for Mr. Getty, 38, because the chemotherapy and radiation he received as conditioning therapy before the transplant further suppressed his immune system. Mr. Getty still faces the risk of chronic graft versus host disease, which often occurs several months after a transplant, if it develops. Bone marrow transplant specialists will examine Mr. Getty twice a week for this and other complications. Dr. Deeks will examine him once a week. One concern, Dr. Deeks said, is that the amount of conditioning may have been too low to allow the baboon marrow to grow and function in Mr. Getty. In designing the experiment, the researchers purposely gave him the lowest amount of conditioning that experts thought would be safe and effective for someone with advanced AIDS. However, Mr. Getty and the researchers knew it might be too low.

zdThe man who received a highly risky experimental bone marrow transplant from a baboon three weeks ago is expected to be discharged Thursday from a hospital in San Francisco, his doctors said. But they said it was too soon to know whether the baboon cells have begun to grow and function immunologically. The hope is that the baboon cells, which are resistant to HIV-1, the main AIDS virus, will help restore function to his immune system, which had been severely weakened by AIDS. The man, Jeff Getty, passed what his doctors considered the riskiest period of the experimental transplant without experiencing any significant complications. It was performed Dec. 14 at San Francisco General Hospital, a unit of the University of California at San Francisco. The past three weeks were particularly risky for Getty, 38, because the chemotherapy and radiation he received as conditioning therapy before the transplant further suppressed his immune system

Scientists at Stanford University say they have developed a novel way to generate a powerful immune response targeted specifically against non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system. The Stanford researchers start the multistep process by removing two kinds of tissue from a lymphoma patient. One tissue is a dendritic cell, which is important in stimulating immune reactions in humans. The cells are obtained from the blood. The second tissue is the lymphoma, which is removed by a biopsy and from which researchers isolate a protein from the surface of the cancerous cells. The protein is specific for each patient's cancer. Because the therapy must be tailored to each patient, widespread testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the new therapy is impractical, said Dr. Ronald Levy, the head of the Stanford team