Faculty Bibliography

In the new study, scientists from New Mexico, Alabama and Georgia used new technology and strategy to immunize monkeys against the AIDS-like simian immunodeficiency virus. They found that a vaccine consisting of chemically killed virus, followed by a booster, prevented transmission of the simian virus when it was introduced into the animals' vaginas

'His eyes lit up,' Dr. [Alfredo Sadun] went on, 'he slapped his hand and said, 'I knew it. That explains why the characteristics of the disease have shifted so much.' ' Dr. Sadun said he believed that many Cubans suffered from folic-acid deficiency. 'The bottom line,' he said, is that the folic-acid deficiency 'has brought them up to the threshold, and at least two toxins -- cyanide and methanol -- are knocking them over the threshold.' At one point Mr. [Fidel Castro] asked the group what he should do about rum. Dr. Sadun said he suggested dropping the law and giving away rum at no cost to avoid home brewing. 'That could be done,' Mr. Castro replied. Dr. Sadun said he was joking. But Mr. Castro said, 'It's not such a bad idea.'

[Jorge Antelo] said the 30-year-old trade embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States has been aggravated by an abrupt decline in trade with the former Soviet Union and its allies. Cuba also suffered heavy agricultural and industrial devastation from a tropical storm. The Pan American Health Organization in Washington has sent nine experts to Cuba to investigate the epidemic, which affected at least 25,959 Cubans as of April 30, Antelo said. Nearly 20,000 of those affected have suffered from a gradual loss of vision, Antelo said. About 5,500 have suffered burning sensations and other symptoms of peripheral nerve damage

Cuban health officials say that a disease that impairs vision and affects the nerves has struck nearly 26,000 Cubans, mostly adult men. The government has invited foreign neurologists to investigate the ailment

[Jorge Antelo] said the 30-year-old trade embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States has been aggravated by an abrupt decline in trade with the former Soviet Union and its allies. Cuba also suffered heavy agricultural and industrial devastation from a tropical storm. U.S. experts said the evidence seemed to point to a vitamin B1 deficiency known as Strachan syndrome, described by a British health officer, Dr. H. Strachan, in Jamaica in 1888. Nearly 20,000 of those affected have suffered from a gradual loss of vision, Antelo said. About 5,500 have suffered burning sensations and other symptoms of peripheral nerve damage. Some have suffered an imbalance of gait known as ataxia

Success in overhauling the health care system will depend in large part on cooperation of doctors. The resurgent popularity of a career in medicine augurs well for the major overhaul that the [Clinton] administration is expected to propose, because many applicants said they were optimistic that the good of the reforms to society would outweigh any hardships for them. Yet, the applicants also expressed reservations that if there are serious erosions of the patient-doctor relationship and professional autonomy, future applicants would begin to look elsewhere, and the popularity of medicine could sink in a very short time. The average medical school applicant applies to 11 medical schools. There are 2.6 applicants for every one place, which approaches the record high ratio of 2.8 to 1 set in the mid-1970s. The ratio jumps to 70 to 1 for a place at a small, selective school like the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn. At the three schools with the highest number of applications _ Georgetown and George Washington universities in Washington or Chicago Medical School - where applications this year exceed 10,000 each, the ratio is almost as high

Dr. Robert Petersdorf, head of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said, 'Students aren't taking the advice, they keep on coming and at colleges the lines outside pre-med advisers' offices are long.' 'There is going to be an enormous demand for doctors in the future,' said Cynthia Shoemaker, a sophomore at Wellesley College who plans to apply to medical school after returning from a year at Oxford University in England. 'Whether there's money or not, people are still going to be sick and dying.' 'The student who breaks step, even for a year, is a different student, especially if they did it by choice,' said Dr. Daniel Hunt, a dean at the University of Washington in Seattle. 'You just can't get away with saying sit down and take notes, and they keep the teachers more honest than someone right out of college who tends to accept what is said.'

Despite concerns about changes in the health care system to be proposed by the Clinton administration, medical schools are receiving record numbers of applications for the 1993-94 school year. The resurgent popularity of medical careers bodes well for President Clinton's plans, showing optimism on the part of doctors-to-be, but applicants also have expressed reservations that if the professional autonomy is eroded future applicants would look elsewhere

A new medical technique that uses the glow of a firefly to detect drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis is discussed. The World Health Organization says that eight million people in the world develop TB each year and three million die of the disease

The spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis in New York and elsewhere in the country has alarmed health officials because the death rate in some outbreaks has been as high as 50 percent. The firefly test reduces by several weeks the time it can take to detect a drug-resistant strain of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. A basic element in the test is a phage, or virus, that infects bacteria. The Einstein team genetically engineered a phage for the TB bacterium so that it carried the gene for luciferase, the enzyme that makes fireflies glow. The virus was used to infect the bacterium in the laboratory. To test bacteria cultured from patients, standard anti-tuberculosis drugs such as rifampicin, streptomycin and isoniazid were applied. If a glow appears, it signals an impotent antibiotic because the bacterium is able to produce luciferase and light. But if no light appears, it signals that the antibiotic is effective because it has killed or weakened the bacteria