Faculty Bibliography

Dr. [Joseph McDade]'s discovery quickly led scientists to document a number of earlier outbreaks in Pontiac, Mich.; Washington; and elsewhere. Legionnaires' disease now accounts for an estimated 18,000 hospital admissions in this country each year, and C.D.C. scientists have said that doctors miss the diagnosis in many more patients. Most outbreaks and cases have been traced to contaminated water in places like shower heads, air-conditioning systems and medical respiratory devices. The largest outbreak, in Spain in 2001, affected nearly 700 people. The Legionnaire bacterium can produce two forms of illness that begin with flulike symptoms. One, Legionnaires' disease, goes on to produce pneumonia and systemic illness. The other, Pontiac fever, produces only a mild illness. Why the same bacterium causes two distinct illness patterns is not known. Still another problem was that Philadelphia health officials learned belatedly about an earlier outbreak of 19 cases of an illness similar to Legionnaires' disease, including three deaths. It affected members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1974 after they had visited the Bellevue-Stratford. The cluster was not reported until after news of the Legionnaires' outbreak in 1976

Tests at George Washington University Hospital found that Mr. Cheney's cardiac pacemaker was working properly and had not been activated due to arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, said Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride. Mr. Cheney, 65, has had four heart attacks, the first when he was 37 and the fourth on Nov. 22, 2000, in the thick of the dispute between former Vice President Al Gore and President Bush over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. Mr. Cheney has also had quadruple heart bypass surgery and two angioplasties, procedures to clear blockages in the arteries

In the study, which independent experts said was the most conclusive to examine the role of condoms in preventing infection with the virus, women whose male partners used condoms every time they had sexual intercourse had less than half the rate of infection than women whose partners used condoms less than 5 percent of the time. The study was conducted among students at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 2000, four government agencies convened a panel of condom experts to determine the medical accuracy of condom labels. The panel concluded that there was inadequate information about condom use in reducing the risk of all sexually transmitted infections except for the AIDS virus and, among men, gonorrhea, an editorial accompanying the journal article said

In the study, which independent experts said was the most conclusive to examine the role of condoms in preventing infection with the virus, women whose male partners used condoms every time they had sexual intercourse had less than half the rate of infection as did women whose partners used condoms less than 5 percent of the time. The study 'provided a very clear answer' to the question of the protective benefits of condoms and papillomavirus infection, said Dr. James R. Allen, president of the American Social Health Association, an organization in Research Triangle Park, N.C., dedicated to the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Allen said he was not involved in the study

Outside of those countries which include Haiti, Cambodia, Kenya and Zimbabwe the number of new AIDS infections continues to rise or hover at its current pace. Meanwhile, public health efforts are reaching only a small proportion of people at risk, Dr. Peter Piot, the executive director of Unaids, said Tuesday. 'It's a very complex epidemic,' he said. 'We can no longer talk about AIDS' as a single epidemic but as many diverse ones. The progress against AIDS in some regions represents dividends from a surge in financing since 2001, when the United Nations pledged its commitment to stem the epidemic by 2010. That declaration called for countries to report regularly on their responses to AIDS. The report, the most comprehensive survey ever compiled from country data, pointed to the 2001 UN meeting as a turning point for AIDS financing. In 2005, the United States and the rest of the world spent $8.3 billion on AIDS, compared with $1.6 billion in 2001

Mr. [Kofi Annan] and Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the AIDS program, spoke as the General Assembly began a three-day meeting aimed at renewing the political commitment urged in 2001 and setting new goals for expenditures and for measuring progress in the battle against AIDS. The General Assembly also heard from Khensani Mavasa of South Africa, who became the first person known to be infected with H.I.V. to address a plenary session about AIDS. Such sessions are normally reserved for United Nations officials and delegates from member countries. Khensani Mavasa of South Africa, addressing the United Nations yesterday, called for making condoms available to all to fight AIDS. (Photo by Stuart Ramson/Associated Press)

New surveys suggest that the global AIDS epidemic has begun to slow, with a decline in new HIV infections in about 10 countries, the head of the U.N. AIDS program said here Tuesday in the most comprehensive international report ever issued on the disease. Elsewhere, the number of new AIDS infections continues to rise or continues at its current pace. Meanwhile, public health efforts are reaching only a small proportion of people at risk, said Dr. Peter Piot, the U.N. AIDS executive director. In Haiti, the percentage of pregnant women infected with HIV has declined to 3.7 percent in 2003-04 from 9.4 percent in 1993, Piot said in releasing the agency's report at a news conference. The report, issued every other year, comes on the eve of a U.N. General Assembly session. Despite the positive trends, Piot reported grim findings from China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia and Vietnam, with signs of outbreaks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Piot said

[Beatrice H. Hahn] reported, the findings show 'for the first time a clear picture of the origin of HIV-1 and the seeds of the AIDS pandemic.' Studies estimate that the human AIDS virus jumped species between 50 and 75 years ago. But no one knows who the first infected person was or how that person acquired HIV. Hahn said her team theorizes that HIV was first transmitted locally somewhere in west central Africa. Because the subspecies of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes troglodytes, in which the simian virus had been found in captivity, lives in the wild in Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo, the first infection could have been in any of those areas

[Beatrice Hahn] reported, her team's findings show 'for the first time a clear picture of the origin of HIV-1 and the seeds of the AIDS pandemic.' HIV-1 is the virus that causes the vast majority of AIDS cases in the world. The first cases of AIDS were detected in the United States in 1981. Hahn said her team theorizes that HIV was first transmitted locally somewhere in west central Africa. The subspecies of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes troglo-dytes, in which the simian virus had been found in captivity, lives in the wild in Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo; therefore, the first infection could have been in any of those areas. It is not known whether chimpanzees infected with SIVcpz become ill, Hahn said. Two naturally infected chimpanzees in captivity did not become ill. Some infected chimpanzees that were rescued as orphans because their parents were killed for bush meat died in captivity, but others that were not infected also died, she said, and the deaths were attributed to human infection, poor care and inappropriate diet

The World Health Organization said it had developed 20 standards for improving reporting on the testing of drugs and devices on people and urged researchers and companies to use them in all human..