Faculty Bibliography

In a major surprise about the treatment of the AIDS virus in children, the drug AZT, which is now the standard treatment, proved so ineffective in preventing disease progression that federal health officials have halted part of a large study involving it ahead of schedule. The long-term study, begun in August 1991, involved 839 children initially aged 3 months to 18 years, who were treated in 62 hospitals. The children were divided at random into three groups: one that received AZT alone, one that received didanosine, or ddI, and a third that received a combination of AZT and ddI. Neither the children and their parents nor the doctors knew which therapy each child received

Repeated injections of plasma from otherwise healthy HIV-infected people into patients with advanced AIDS slowed progression of the disease for one year in a new French study. Passive immunotherapy, as the procedure is called, resulted in a three-fold decrease in the appearance of toxoplasmosis of the brain, cytomegalovirus and other opportunistic infections that commonly occur as a complication of AIDS, as well as wasting, cancers and encephalopathy

In a major surprise about the treatment of the AIDS virus in children, the drug AZT, which is now the standard treatment, proved so ineffective in preventing disease progression that federal health officials have halted part of a large study involving it ahead of schedule. In disclosing the findings on Feb 13, 1995, federal health officials said AZT also had unexpectedly high rates of adverse side effects in children, like bleeding and biochemical abnormalities

A Surgeon General's power is now determined almost entirely by the force of his or her personality and how he or she chooses causes and uses the bully pulpit to advance them. There has always been an element of politics in any public health officer's job, but the position seems to have been more politicized in recent years, in part because of the Government's growing role in health care. Indeed, in part to ease such tensions, the position was vacant for four years, from 1973 to 1977, when the Surgeon General's office itself said that the Acting Surgeon General, Dr. S. Paul Ehrlich Jr., principally 'carried out ceremonial functions.' From 1977 to 1981, the Surgeon General's position was consolidated with that of the Assistant Secretary for Health, but since 1981 it has been a separate position. Underscoring the Surgeon General's lack of power, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, declared in an angry denunciation of the White House's handling of Dr. [Henry W. Foster Jr.]'s nomination, 'You could eliminate the entire job and you'd have no impact on the people of America.'

The protein might help explain why the spread of HIV through saliva is apparently so rare, said the scientists from the National Institute of Dental Research in Bethesda, Md. The protein does not directly attack the human immunodeficiency virus. It instead seems to act indirectly by attaching to the surface of white blood cells known as monocytes, thus preventing infection with HIV, said Drs. Tessie B. McNeely and Sharon M. Wahl, the team leaders. The protein is known as SLPI for secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor. It had been known by different names for many years until 1986, Wahl said, when its biochemical characteristics were identified through the efforts of Dr. Kjell Ohlsson, a Swedish researcher

A protein in human saliva blocks the AIDS virus from infecting human cells in the test tube, federal scientists reported at a meeting last week. The protein might help explain why the spread of the virus through saliva apparently is rare, said the scientists, who were from the National Institute of Dental Research in Bethesda, Md. The protein does not directly attack HIV, the AIDS virus. Instead, it seems to act indirectly, by attaching to the surface of white blood cells known as monocytes, thus preventing infection with HIV, said Dr. Tessie McNeely and Dr. Sharon Wahl, the scientific team leaders. They reported the findings at a meeting sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology

The incidence of cerebral palsy in babies with very low birthweight was substantially lower among those whose mothers received injections of magnesium sulfate in the hours before giving birth, two new studies show. The findings came from observational studies of children born in four counties in Northern California and at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Findings from the Northern California study are being reported in the Feb 9, 1995 issue of Pediatrics

Studies evaluating the beta-blocker carvedilol, an experimental drug for heart failure in the US, were stopped ahead of schedule on Feb 8, 1995 on the recommendation of a monitoring committee because the preliminary results showed the drug was unexpectedly effective in reducing mortality. SmithKline Beecham, the drug's manufacturer, said that additional data must still be gathered and analyzed

Studies evaluating an experimental drug for heart failure in this country were stopped ahead of schedule Wednesday on the recommendation of a monitoring committee because the preliminary results showed the drug was unexpectedly effective in reducing mortality, the drug's manufacturer, SmithKline Beecham, said

The protein does not directly attack HIV, the AIDS virus. Instead, it seems to act indirectly, by attaching to the surface of white blood cells known as monocytes, thus preventing infection with HIV, said Tessie B. McNeely and Sharon M. Wahl, the scientific team leaders. They reported the findings at a meeting sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology. The protein is known as SLPI (pronounced slippy) for secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor. It had been known by different names for many years until 1986, Wahl said, when its biochemical characteristics were identified through the efforts of Kjell Ohlsson, a Swedish researcher who identified a small amount from the 1,000 liters of saliva his son, a dentist, had collected in Sweden. But there have been only rare documented cases of HIV transmission through saliva, and virtually all have involved oral sex, said Harold W. Jaffe, a top AIDS official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A few rare cases of HIV infection may have been transmitted through saliva mixed with blood, he said