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A new scientific study challenges the validity of medical research done more than a decade ago that was crucial in condemning the Dalkon Shield and other intrauterine contraceptive devices as dangerous

Many experts have faulted the Dalkon Shield for its design, which differed from other IUDs in having a tail string that could draw bacteria from the vagina into the uterus. The National Institutes of Health sponsored the Women's Health Study beginning in 1976 to assess the relationship between IUDs and pelvic infections among patients in 16 hospitals in nine cities. The study, which ended in 1978, concluded that IUDs in general increased the risk of pelvic infections by 60 percent. In 1983, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta used data from the Women's Health Study to compare five IUDs, including the Dalkon Shield, with each other and with no method of contraception. The Dalkon Shield was found to have a substantially higher risk of pelvic infection compared with other IUDs and with no method of contraception

Many experts have faulted the Dalkon Shield for its design, which differed from other IUDs in having a tailstring that could draw bacteria from the vagina into the uterus. In 1974, the FDA asked A.H. Robins to remove the Dalkon Shield from the market because of reports of life-threatening septic abortions and other pelvic infections in some women. Further reports of pelvic infections led A.H. Robins in 1980 to advise doctors to remove the Dalkon Shield from those still using it. WOMEN'S HEALTH STUDY

Etienne-Emile Baulieu, the French scientist who pioneered the development of the RU486 abortion pill, reported that he had devised a simpler way to use the therapy

The State Department has demanded an accounting from the World Health Organization on whether U.S. money is going to promote the use of RU-486, the French abortion pill. An official for WHO, the international health agency for the United Nations, said the organization would respond soon with a letter saying that no U.S. money is being used for abortion research, that the organization does not promote the sale of any drugs on the market, and that the RU-486 studies that it is conducting do not violate U.S. terms for providing money to the health organization. Expenditures on research into RU-486 in 1989, the last year for which figures are available, represented about 1.7 percent of the organization's $20.7 million annual budget for its human-reproduction program, said the official, Mahmoud Fathalla, who heads the program. The United States provides about one-quarter of the health organization's total annual budget of $654 million, giving it substantial influence within the organization. Scientists involved in reproductive biology expressed concern that the State Department's inquiry signaled a threat to the health organization's RU-486 research program

The State Department has demanded an accounting from the World Health Organization on whether American funds are going to promote the use of RU-486, the French abortion pill

In a draft of proposed new federal guidelines, the national Centers for Disease Control says doctors and dentists infected with the AIDS virus should get permission from local panels of experts before continuing to perform certain operations and invasive procedures. The meeting in Atlanta was called after an investigation by epidemiologists at the centers found that a Florida dentist probably had transmitted the AIDS virus to three of his patients. The dentist, Dr. David Acer of Stuart, has since died of AIDS. Instead, it says health care workers who perform operations and procedures that are most likely to spread the AIDS virus have a professional responsibility to voluntarily test themselves for that virus as well as the one that causes hepatitis B, a liver disease. Studies have documented the spread of hepatitis B virus from infected doctors and dentists to patients

In a draft of proposed new federal guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control says doctors and dentists infected with the AIDS virus should get permission from local panels of experts before continuing to perform certain operations and invasive procedures. The meeting in Atlanta was called after an investigation by epidemiologists at the centers found that a Florida dentist had probably transmitted the AIDS virus to three patients. The dentist, Dr. David J. Acer of Stuart, has since died of AIDS. Those are the only known incidents of an apparent transmission from a health care worker to a patient among the more than 170,000 AIDS cases reported since the disease was discovered in 1981

In a draft of proposed new federal guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control says doctors and dentists infected with the AIDS virus should get permission from local panels of experts before continuing to perform certain operations and invasive procedures. The meeting in Atlanta was called after an investigation by epidemiologists at the centers found that a Florida dentist had probably transmitted the AIDS virus to three patients. The dentist, Dr. David J. Acer of Stuart, has since died of AIDS. Those are the only known incidents of an apparent transmission from a health care worker to a patient among the more than 170,000 AIDS cases reported since the disease was discovered in 1981

There is little doubt that some of the reported increase in fatal and nonfatal cases results from improved ability to distinguish asthma from ailments like bronchitis and recurrent croup that can also produce wheezing. And doctors have learned to identify subtypes of asthma. For instance, individuals who have polyps in their nose can die suddenly from an asthmatic attack if they take aspirin. Beta-agonist drugs are a mainstay in the treatment of asthma. But an important unresolved question is whether beta-agonists should be used to prevent asthma attacks or only when symptoms flare. Another unresolved question is whether regular use of them makes asthma worse. The need for imaginative thinking is greatest when research is stymied. One area that seems to have escaped attention are the foods and drugs that women take during pregnancy and the pollutants to which they are exposed. About 20 years ago, scientists were surprised to learn that a drug, DES, could cause vaginal cancer among daughters born to women who took it in pregnancy. Perhaps a similar factor might explain part of the paradox of asthma. The Management Of Asthma Breathlessness is caused by inflammation and constriction of the small airways in the lungs. As lungs collapse to expel air, these bronchioles are further narrowed. When an attack occurs, drugs can help open the airways, but the goal of treatment is also to head off further attacks. Self-Monitoring To avoid hospitalization, patients are advised to monitor their breathing with flow meters and to use drugs like inhaled steroids to stop the escalation of inflammation. Source: 'American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine' (Random House)