Faculty Bibliography

Although the findings do not prove that the infertility drugs cause ovarian cancer, they do strengthen the existing data supporting such a link, Dr. Alice S. Whittemore of Stanford University wrote in an editorial in the same issue of the journal. She said that the new findings move such a causal link 'from a possible to a probable one.' Ovarian cancer is rare, Whittemore said, with a lifetime risk for women of 1.8 percent, in contrast to a 12 percent lifetime risk for breast cancer. But she said a risk that increases 2.5 times is 'substantial,' though considerably smaller than the risk of lung cancer that rises by a factor of 10 in heavy smokers. Whittemore said that it would only be with 'further studies also showing their consistent effect' that the link between fertility drugs and ovarian cancer would be found to be 'causal, as happened over the years with smoking and lung cancer.'

In a decision that seems to spell the end for the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus on the planet, a 10-member committee of the World Health Organization recommended unanimously on Sep 9, 1994 that the virus be destroyed on Jun 30, 1995. The decision will be put to the UN agency's full membership at its annual meeting in May 1995

In a decision that seems to spell the end for the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus, a 10-member committee of the World Health Organization recommended unanimously Friday that the virus be destroyed June 30. The smallpox committee had recommended in 1990 that genetic blueprints of different strains of the smallpox virus be made before the original 1993 destruction date. But while the virus's molecular structure was being mapped, scientists began identifying surprising links between genes in the virus and natural immune substances, including some involved in cancer

Those favoring destruction of the virus say the risk that samples could escape from the laboratory or fall into terrorists' hands outweighs the potential scientific value of keeping the virus for future research. The smallpox committee recommended in 1990 that genetic blueprints of different strains of the smallpox virus be made before the original 1993 destruction date. But while the virus's molecular structure was being mapped, scientists began identifying surprising links between genes in the virus and natural immune substances, including some involved in cancer. The smallpox virus is to be killed by putting it in an autoclave, an airtight chamber that sterilizes material, at a temperature of 248 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. The autoclave will then be shut off, and the process will be repeated. The dead virus will then be incinerated. The World Health Organization will help monitor the destruction

Federal health officials have halted shipments of some blood products from Canada after an FDA inspector found substandard procedures and sloppy record keeping at a Red Cross blood center in Toronto. The blood products, which are sent to a North Carolina plant for processing, are returned to Canada for use there and are not used in the US

The Yale scientist who accidentally became infected with the Sabia virus with which he was working was discharged from Yale-New Haven Hospital on Aug 29, 1994. Health officials said no secondary cases have developed among 5 people with whom the scientist had close contact and 75 laboratory workers who examined him or handled his specimens. He is only the third human known to be infected with the virus

At the request of federal officials, Yale University has temporarily halted research into the sabia virus, the rare virus that infected a university scientist in a laboratory accident in Aug 1994. Connecticut officials said that there were no plans to close the lab where the accident occurred

Epidemiologists are assuming that Sabia virus has an incubation period of about 12 days, as do other members of what is known as the arenavirus family. The head of the Arborvirus Research Unit at Yale, Dr. Robert E. Shope, said in an interview that the researcher's incubation period was shorter, perhaps because he was exposed to a relatively large amount of virus in the laboratory accident. The laboratory accident and the surveillance drill to contain Sabia virus are eerily reminiscent of another laboratory accident that occurred in the same laboratory at Yale in 1969, when a team was in the process of discovering the Lassa fever virus. The Yale laboratory is one of three that is studying Sabia virus. Dr. Shope's team divided the samples and sent portions to the other two: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the U.S. Army laboratory at Ft. Detrick, Md

New York City and federal health officials reported on Aug 18, 1994 that an 11-month-old boy with a mysterious case of AIDS was most likely infected with HIV in a New York City hospital when he was less than two weeks old. Susan Blank of the New York City Health Department said that 'no overt breaches in standard infection control' had been found at the hospital, where health workers have been trained in standard infection-control measures

In findings that bear directly on the question of how to prevent mother-to-infant transmission of the AIDS virus, two new studies from scientists in New York show that the likelihood of infecting offspring rises with the amount of the virus in a pregnant woman's blood. The studies, from researchers in the New York State Health Department, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and New York University, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, are believed to be the first to measure the amount of HIV in infected women during pregnancy and at delivery and in the infant during the first months of life