Faculty Bibliography

The practices of peer review vary, but commonly editors select two experts to criticize the submitted manuscript. The experts chosen are called ''reviewers'' or ''referees.'' Usually they are told who wrote the paper, but the authors do not learn the reviewers' names. Reviewers are asked to comment on the quality of the research, to recommend acceptance or rejection of the manuscript and to grade its priority. Fraud Is Nearly Immune ''A journal has no way of coping with this'' and ''is incapable of picking up the kinds of details that were at fault in this paper,'' Dr. [Jerold F. Lucey] said from his office at the University of Vermont. ''We don't have investigative teams that could be sent out to go over records. We have to rely on the people who support the grants and local peer review at the scene.'' Dr. Peter Laskarzewski, a statistician and one of the co-authors of the repudiated study, wrote Dr. George Galasso, an official of the institutes who at the time was investigating the university's report, that he had seen ''data errors much worse and more pervasive than those in question'' on the part of researchers at the University of Cincinnati and had become ''so frustrated by a general institutional lack of concern for data integrity, from collection to analysis.''

''All that has happened is that the skeptics feel that their skepticism is a bit more confirmed,'' Dr. [Laurence Finberg] said, noting that Dr. [Charles J. Glueck] ''could be right'' even though his study has been censured. ''We are back to Square One'' on the question of whether restricting fats in the diets for children ''might have ill effects on the growth of some children,'' Dr. Finberg added. The University of Cincinnati committee said it was ''disturbed'' by ''Dr. Glueck's apparent lack of recognition of the seriousness of his actions,'' particularly because he is ''an individual of considerable stature who provides leadership for a large group of investigators, including some still in training, and who occupies an influential role in an important area of national health concern.'' The University of Cincinnati committee, formed on July 16, 1986, at the request of the N.I.H., found that Dr. Glueck had ''inappropriately selected'' data in his paper and that ''raw data barely existed'' in support of main conclusions. The committee also said that ''Dr. Glueck's explanation that the data were constructed from memory was inadequate.'' Dismay Over Co-Authors

Although the number of people known to be longtime carriers of the AIDS virus is small, Dr. [Cladd E. Stevens] said, ''clearly there are AIDS virus-infected individuals who are progressing towards AIDS, and there are individuals who are not.'' Dr. John Phair, an AIDS epidemiologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, said his team knew of many people infected with the AIDS virus for about three years ''who seem to be going along pretty well.'' Many others, he said, have developed AIDS within 20 months of becoming infected, ''so clearly there is something different about those people.'' * Difference in immunity. Several research groups are trying to determine if there is ''something unusual'' in the immune systems of long-term AIDS virus carriers that ''allowed them to respond to the AIDS virus differently,'' according to Dr. Richard A. Kaslow, a leading AIDS epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health. For example, he said, researchers are exploring whether some unidentified factor in the blood ''neutralized'' the AIDS virus among infected people who have remained healthy and among people repeatedly exposed to the virus who did not become infected

Today Mr. [Reagan] also received a routine examination of the prostate, which ''was found to be entirely normal,'' Col. John Hutton, the White House physician, said in a statement. Mr. Reagan had prostate surgery last January. ''The President continues to be in excellent health,'' Dr. Hutton said Reagans Leave for Retreat Shortly after his checkup, Mr. Reagan left for a weekend at the Camp David Presidential retreat in Maryland. As he walked to his helicopter for the trip, Mr. Reagan smiled broadly and made an ''A-O.K.'' sign with his thumb and forefinger. His wife, Nancy, also gave a sign that all was well. ''As far as a CAT scan is concerned, I don't know why they would not do that because there is no risk beyond a tiny dose of radiation. Considering the regularity and the type of testing he has had until now, one would have expected that an aggressive follow-up plan would continue through this examination and perhaps one more.''

Some antibiotics are effective against some Gram-positive and some Gram-negative bacteria while others, such as penicillin, are effective primarily against Gram-positive but not against Gram-negative microbes. Infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria have become an increasingly important problem in medical practice, in part because they have developed resistance to antibiotics. With the emergence of such resistant organisms, scientists have striven to discover new antibiotics that are effective against the resistant organisms. The new drugs were specifically designed to combat Gram-negative bacteria. Thus because they ''cannot previously have been encountered by the target organism,'' the factors in bacteria that determine resistance ''are unlikely to be present in the population,'' Dr. [Chris Higgins] said

The vaccine Dr. [Jonas Salk] envisions would be given to healthy virus carriers and to those who have only mild symptoms. If, in addition to protecting their health, the vaccine also reduced their ability to spread the virus, it could have ''a greater and more rapid impact'' on the AIDS epidemic than any conventional immunization against the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Dr. Salk reported in today's issue of the British journal Nature. Another researcher, Dr. Daniel Zagury of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, has already tested a different form of immunization on 10 people in Zaire who were infected with the AIDS virus without suffering any adverse effects. His aim is to block the spread of the AIDS virus within an infected person's body by removing the patient's own white blood cells, treating them in the laboratory, and then injecting them back into the patient. Dr. Salk hopes that researchers can find substances that would increase production of protective factors by stimulating the immune system of people infected with the AIDS virus, thus ''exaggerating'' the protective effect produced when the AIDS virus first infects a person

The two vaccines are believed to be effective in a brief period after exposure to the viruses, before they have multiplied or stimulated natural immune defenses. With the AIDS virus, in contrast, [Jonas Salk]'s proposed approach would usually be applied after natural antibodies had formed but before the major spread of the virus in the body. The vaccine Salk envisions would be given to healthy carriers of the virus and to those who have only mild symptoms. If, in addition to protecting their health, the vaccine also reduced their ability to spread the virus, it could have 'a greater and more rapid impact' on the AIDS epidemic than any conventional immunization against the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Salk reports in today's issue of the British journal Nature

* Where will prisoners infected with the AIDS virus be cared for? Will such inmates be segregated despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that the AIDS virus cannot be spread by casual person-to-person contact but rather through sexual intercourse and transfusions of blood and blood products? If infected prisoners are segregated, will the facilities be in one Federal prison or in each prison? * Who will pay for the costs of caring for individuals who become infected with the AIDS virus while in prison and who do not develop the disease until after they have served their terms? Unless periodic testing is done, some people who were infected before they entered prison might not be detected under the [Reagan] plan, because it can take up to four months for the formation of the antibodies which signal the presence of the AIDS virus. * What will be the fate of illegal aliens who apply for legal status under the new immigration law and who are found to have AIDS? #87,000 Have Applied This question arises because more than 87,000 illegal aliens have already applied for legal status under the new law and all have had medical examinations. The AIDS blood test was not required of them. The law clearly says that information that is submitted in connection with amnesty is to be kept confidential. For those who have not had the AIDS blood test, it is not known whether they will have to be re-examined

''The view that doctors may refuse care to patients appears to undermine the tacit social contract that has long existed between physicians and their communities,'' Dr. R. Nathan Link, who headed the team doing the study, told the AIDS conference. ''Whether these views reflect trends that will compromise the level of medical care that will be available to AIDS patients remains undetermined.'' The differences in attitudes made a difference in extra time spent with AIDS patients: More male than female physicians tended to avoid entering an AIDS patient's room when such visits were not medically essential. In the New York study, the 258 doctors surveyed were being training in internal medicine and pediatrics. Those in internal medicine cared for an average of 39 AIDS patients, or 15 percent of all their patients. The pediatricians averaged 10 AIDS patients, or 5 percent of their total cases. Only two physicians in the study had never cared for any AIDS patient

''Kissing has not been documented to pose a risk'' of spreading the AIDS virus, a group of experts from AIDS centers throughout the world said in a statement the organization issued today. The experts met over the weekend to review the scientific data presented at the Third International Conference on AIDS here last week. 'Wet' Kissing May Pose Threat The experts also said in the W.H.O. statement that ''while unproven, some theoretical risk from vigorous 'wet' kissing (deep kissing or tongue kissing) may exist.'' The statement on kissing by W.H.O., a specialized United Nations agency, its first on the subject. It was made ''because we are constantly besieged with questions about kissing,'' Dr. Jonathan Mann, who heads the organization's AIDS program, said in an interview