Faculty Bibliography

Though the disease is gone, some virus remains. What are believed to be the last remaining stocks of the smallpox virus have been kept frozen in liquid nitrogen in two closely guarded laboratories in Atlanta and Moscow. Even if the virus is destroyed, some stocks of the vaccine to protect against smallpox could be kept available. The vaccine is made from a virus different from the one that causes smallpox. Wiping out smallpox was arguably public health's greatest triumph. It is the only disease ever eradicated. The health organization's committees have long held that destroying the smallpox virus is the logical final step in the eradication process, and at a meeting in 1990, they set Dec. 31, 1993, as the execution deadline

The American and Russian governments also want to eliminate the costs of the elaborate security to guard the remaining stocks of smallpox virus from accidents, terrorists and coups. And destruction of the virus would eliminate any chance of financially strapped researchers' selling samples of smallpox. Researchers say the smallpox virus could be used to study other members of the pox virus family and other viruses like HIV, which causes AIDS, a scourge that was first recognized shortly after smallpox was eradicated. Smallpox virus is hardy and can remain viable in scabs for months, even years, but not decades or centuries, studies have shown. Scientists have carried out studies to determine whether viable virus remains in mummies or smallpox victims buried long ago in perpetually cold climates. So far no viable virus has been found

'Each child must find his own dignity and worth,' said an Ethiopian teacher who has worked with children for 31 years at a rehabilitation center in the capital, Addis Ababa. 'Leprosy must be second to everything.' He too has the disease, and hid his hands from the camera. (Pamela Parlapiano); 'I am happy at the hospital because I don't have to hide my face,' said a young girl who lives at the All Africa Leprosy Training and Rehabilitation Center in Addis Ababa.; 'When you are working, there is no time to think of the pain from leprosy -- you are too happy,' said a man who farms in Addis Neru, or 'New Life.' The village of 30 families was founded by an Austrian who came as a tourist in the 1970's and decided to help lepers live independently.

The effort by the World Health Organization to eliminate leprosy by the year 2000 is discussed

It was Dr. Christina Vellejo, a pathologist in training, who put her senior colleagues on the correct path when she became suspicious about some tiny red specks she saw through a microscope in [Kelly Ahrendt]'s brain. The specks, Negri bodies, are proteins from rabies virus in nerve cells. Negri bodies are not always seen in the brains even when rabies is known to have been contracted. When they are present rabies is almost certainly the cause. It was not until July 13, a day after the autopsy, the pathologists said, that they first heard the suggestion from a doctor who treated Kelly that the cause of death might have been rabies. The pathologists do not recall the doctor's name and Kelly's pediatricians declined to discuss her case. Even then, Dr. [Debra Beneck] said, 'we didn't consider his diagnosis very seriously because there was no history of an animal bite.' While the timing of making a correct diagnosis of rabies is critical to patients, coming up with the cause of death is also critical to people who have been exposed to an infected patient. After rabies was diagnosed in Kelly's case, shots were given to 20 doctors, nurses and other health care workers who thought they might be at risk from their care of Kelly. The incubation period of rabies averages from one to two months, and sometimes up to a year, before an infected patient begins to show symptoms

Anita R. Fruedenthal and Paul R. Joseph reported in The New England Journal of Medicine on Aug 18, 1993 that seabather's eruption, an itchy rash that can appear after a swim in the ocean, has been traced to the larvae of a sea anemone, which use their stingers to inject a toxin after they become trapped in the bathing suits

Michael H. Merson, the head of the World Health Organization's global AIDS program, has called for a new look at medical education, saying that doctors 'need to consider their patients as knowledgeable allies, not as passive recipients of care.'

A new strain of cholera sweeping across India and Bangladesh at an alarming rate has spread to Thailand and threatens to cause a global epidemic of the diarrheal illness, health officials and other experts reported on Thursday. ''Since we cannot predict where or how rapidly this new organism will spread, countries must stay prepared indefinitely by maintaining surveillance, by assuring access to treatment and by providing clean water and adequate sewage disposal,'' Dr. David L. Swerdlow and Dr. Allen A. Ries, of the Centers for Disease Control, wrote in The Lancet

Health officials on Aug 12, 1993 expressed concern that a new strain of cholera that has been ravaging the people of Bangladesh, India and Thailand may soon become a worldwide threat. The new global epidemic of cholera begins while the effects of the last cholera pandemic continue to be felt

A new strain of cholera sweeping across India and Bangladesh at an alarming rate has spread to Thailand and threatens to cause a pandemic, or global epidemic, of the diarrheal illness. Cholera is caused by a bacterium, Vibrio cholerae , that produces a toxin that causes severe diarrhea. The new strain, called O139 because 138 other strains are known, differs in its microbiological characteristics from the others but causes an illness that is indistinguishable, the experts said