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'We don't have a new epidemic on our hands,' Dr. [Michael H. Merson] said in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Geneva. 'It does not look like it is a major problem, and we have no definitive evidence that there is a new virus causing immunosuppression.' Evidence from the latest meeting 'does not suggest that these cases are due to a new H.I.V.-like virus or any other infectious agent that could be transmitted, including transmission through blood or blood products,' the World Health Organization said. The meeting was not open to reporters. The health organization also said: 'Although preliminary reports suggest the presence of several different microorganisms from a very small number of cases, these findings have not yet been duplicated in other laboratories, and their role, if any, is unclear. No definitive evidence for any new virus causing immunosuppression was presented.'

The mean normal temperature of subjects in a recent study by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Maryland in Baltimore was 98.2 degrees, not 98.6 degrees as has long been accepted

The study by Dr. Jukka T. Salonen's team at the University of Kuopio was reported last week in the September issue of Circulation, a scientific journal published by the American Heart Association. It does not prove that iron can cause heart attacks. But it provides the first empirical evidence for a theory advanced 11 years ago that high amounts of iron promote heart attacks and low levels protect against them

Two researchers studying SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus, were accidentally exposed to the virus in different laboratories, but it is unknown whether they have become infected. The pair would be the first people reported to be infected with the AIDS-like simian virus

University of Pittsburgh surgeons on Sep 8, 1992 indicated that they plan to proceed with a second liver transplant from a baboon to a human, despite the Sep 6, 1992 death of the first transplant recipient due to a stroke

It is unusual for surgeons, particularly a team that has pioneered and dominated an entire field, to discuss so candidly and in public their anxieties about performing pioneering human experiments such as a baboon liver transplant. The liver is an unusual organ because it has the capacity to regenerate. 'No one knows why the liver grew and why it stopped when it did,' [Anthony J. Demetris] said. The man was near death when he underwent the experimental baboon liver procedure on June 28. Doctors said he was ineligible for a human liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh because his own liver was damaged by the hepatitis B virus, a type of infection that recurs in a very high percentage of such patients who are given a new human liver

Proof that iron causes heart attacks and that drugs or other measures to reduce the amount of iron in the body prevents them will still require much more research. Iron lost from bloodletting would be replaced by iron drawn from stores in the bone marrow, liver and spleen, thus reducing the total amount of iron in the body. The researchers measured the amount of ferritin, a protein that binds iron in the blood. Tests for ferritin are commonly used in medical practice. Because iron is stored in the bone marrow, liver and spleen, the ferritin levels in the blood were used to indicate the total amount of iron in the body

A new medical study suggests that high levels of iron in the body help form the plaque that hardens artery walls and block the flow of blood leading to a heart attack. Although the findings support a theory first advanced 11 years ago, experts caution that it is too early to make any recommendations about lowering body iron

The 35-year-old unidentified man who was the world's first recipient of a baboon liver died after a stroke on Sep 6, 1992, 70 days after the transplant

The researchers measured the amount of ferritin, a protein that binds iron in the blood. Tests for ferritin are commonly used in medical practice. Because iron is stored in the bone marrow, liver and spleen, the ferritin levels in the blood were used to indicate the total amount of iron in the body. Laboratory experiments have shown that iron is a strong promoter of oxidation of lipids such as LDL. The hearts of rats with large amounts of iron are more susceptible to such damage. Other animal experiments suggest that the removal of iron limits or protects damage from heart attacks. Sullivan said iron was not included among 246 proposed risk factors for heart attacks when he published his theory in The Lancet in 1981 after The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association rejected the manuscript. In other writings, he has said that it might turn out that people with high iron levels who donate blood might be benefiting themselves as well as performing a community service