Faculty Bibliography

Yesterday afternoon, with three of her husband's doctors standing by her side, Marilyn Quayle said that she and the doctors were 'very optimistic' about Quayle's prognosis and that the condition will not affect his political plans. Quayle is expected to announce a run for the Republican nomination for president in the next few weeks. The previous day, Quayle had not felt well and had gone to the hospital emergency room for a chest x-ray. The doctors diagnosed walking pneumonia, said Ann Hathaway, executive director of Quayle's political action committee. She said Quayle was sent home with a prescription for a medication that she did not name. He returned to the hospital Monday because of the breathing difficulty. Earlier in the day, [Pam Perry] told the Associated Press that she did not know which lung the clot was in, what caused the clot, or whether Quayle has a history of heart or circulation problems. Doctors not connected with his case said it was very difficult to assess his problem without more information

In a sharp turnaround driven by the need to stop the AIDS epidemic, the World Health Organization is moving ahead with plans for the first large trials of the two most widely tested experimental AIDS vaccines. The United States rejected plans for testing the vaccines in this country in June. The trials now being planned could involve several thousand volunteers. The experiments are aimed at determining whether the vaccines can prevent infection with HIV, not whether they can prevent AIDS in people already infected with HIV. Developing an AIDS vaccine has been a top priority for public health officials around the world since shortly after AIDS was first recognized in 1981. But the goal has become more urgent as the number of people infected with HIV has surged. The World Health Organization now estimates that 17 million people have been infected and that 4 million have AIDS. Even a vaccine with a low degree of protection would be valuable

Both vaccines have gone through the first two stages of a three-stage testing system, evaluating safety and immunologic responses. The third phase tests the vaccines' ability to protect against the disease, and the trials now being planned could involve several thousand volunteers. The experiments are aimed at determining whether the vaccines can prevent infection with H.I.V., not whether they can prevent AIDS in people already infected with H.I.V. If enough volunteers relaxed their guard against H.I.V., the incidence of H.I.V. could rise in the community. Although the concern is theoretical, Dr. [Peter Piot] said, 'we are taking it seriously,' The World Health Organization will take steps to augment community efforts for H.I.V. prevention through education and counseling and to measure the impact of a vaccine trial on a community. 'We want to make sure that we are not exposing more people to H.I.V. than before the vaccine trial,' Dr. Piot said

Developing an AIDS vaccine has been a top priority for public-health officials around the world since shortly after acquired immune deficiency syndrome was first recognized in 1981. But the goal has become more urgent as the number of people infected with HIV has surged. The WHO now estimates that 17 million people have been infected and that four million have AIDS. Even a vaccine with a low degree of protection would be valuable

In a sharp turnaround driven by a desperate need to stop the AIDS epidemic, the World Health Organization is moving ahead with plans for the first large trials of the two most widely tested experimental AIDS vaccines. The United States rejected plans for testing the vaccines in this country in June. Both vaccines have gone through the first two stages of a three-stage testing system, evaluating safety and immunologic responses. The third phase tests the vaccines' ability to protect against the disease, and the trials now being planned could involve several thousand volunteers. The experiments are aimed at determining whether the vaccines can prevent infection with HIV, not whether they can prevent AIDS in people already infected with HIV. Developing an AIDS vaccine has been a top priority for public health officials around the world since shortly after AIDS was first recognized, in 1981. But the goal has become more urgent as the number of people infected with HIV has surged. WHO now estimates that 17 million people have been infected and that 4 million have AIDS. Even a vaccine with a low degree of protection would be valuable

Both vaccines have gone through the first two stages of a three-stage testing system, evaluating safety and immunologic responses. The third phase tests the vaccines' ability to protect against the disease, and the trials being planned could involve several thousand volunteers. The experiments are aimed at determining whether the vaccines can prevent infection with HIV, not whether they can prevent AIDS in people already infected with HIV. Developing an AIDS vaccine has been a top priority for public health officials around the world since 1981, shortly after AIDS was first recognized. But the goal has become more urgent as the number of people infected with HIV has surged. WHO estimates that 17 million people have been infected and 4 million have AIDS. Even a vaccine with a low degree of protection would be valuable

Now, despite reports that a World Health Organization team has found that plague did strike in two cities, Indian experts in infectious diseases maintain that the epidemic was not plague, but was due to some other as yet unidentified agent. Their contention is based largely on two points: that the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, was never isolated from any case and that the types of laboratory tests used in India are not definitive. Failure to isolate Y. pestis from any case has been one of the major puzzles of the Indian epidemic. But the lack of evidence does not exclude plague because the ability to culture the organism depends on doing the requisite bacteriological tests. But lack of an isolate does eliminate the ability to determine whether the Indian plague epidemic was due to a new strain of Y. pestis as some experts have suggested. India had not reported plague for about 30 years, leading to the mistaken belief that Y. pestis had disappeared from the country. But apparently the only thing that had disappeared was the expertise to diagnose and deal with plague. In the early days of this year's epidemic, doctors and health officials in India were scurrying to get information on plague, but officials at first refused to ask for outside help or even to accept it when offered

At the same time, however, anyone from the area with any fever resembling plague was labelled as a suspected plague case. Most of the more than 6,000 suspected plague cases reported were due to other diseases, Dr. [David Dennis] said. The measures overwhelmed the laboratories and the health system's ability to investigate the epidemic

Letters of support from well-wishers poured into Mr. [Ronald Reagan]'s home in California. But there was little comfort in reports that the 83-year-old Mr. Reagan, whose talent as a storyteller was legendary, now forgets the punch lines to some of his favorite jokes

Now, nearly six years after he left the White House, after serving two terms as president, [Ronald Reagan] has said he has Alzheimer's disease. A statement from his doctors said he was 'entering the early stages of this disease.' It is characterized by progressive mental and physical deterioration, which can occur swiftly or over a period of years. The 83-year-old Reagan recently disclosed the diagnosis through his office in Los Angeles with the same openness he displayed in discussing a variety of other ailments he suffered as governor of California and as president, including prostate enlargement and colon cancer. Many of the estimated four million Americans who have Alzheimer's disease have trouble acknowledging that they have a problem, said Dr. Calvin Hirsch, an expert in Alzheimer's disease at the University of California at Davis. 'It takes guts to do that,' he said of Reagan's disclosure. Indeed, in Reagan's case it raises speculation about how long he may have been suffering from the disease. His 1990 lapses of memory when questioned about the Iran-Contra affair were widely discussed. During the questioning he was also unable to remember the name of his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff