Faculty Bibliography

[Jonathan Mann] attended both earlier meetings as an AIDS researcher in Zaire. At the first, at Bangui in the Central African Republic, in October 1985, ``it was difficult to talk about AIDS in Africa and to openly share information about it,'' he said, because of the reluctance to admit its existence there. At least 74 countries worldwide have reported to WHO on cases of AIDS, an incurable, fatal disease that, as it destroys the body's immune system, leaves its victims vulnerable to a host of opportunistic infections. It is caused by viruses that spread through sexual intercourse or exchanges of blood or blood products. Scientists have identified two viruses that can cause AIDS. They have also discovered a third virus that is closely related biologically, but it has not been reported to cause disease. Most experts believe that the spread of AIDS in Africa is principally through heterosexual intercourse. Elsewhere, AIDS has spread mainly among homosexual males, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and other recipients of blood products. Experts have not yet been able to explain the strikingly different epidemiologic patterns of the disease in Africa and other continents

Dr. [Jonathan Mann] attended both earlier meetings as an AIDS researcher in Zaire. At the first, at Bangui in the Central African Republic, in October 1985, ''it was difficult to talk about AIDS in Africa and to openly share information about it,'' he said, because of the reluctance to admit its existence there. Last week's meeting was a marked contrast with ''a minimum of defensive behavior,'' Dr. Mann said. ''AIDS was openly discussed as if it were malaria, or diarrheal diseases, or measles'' or similar major public health problems. ''We said if this is something you want to do, then we will help by first sending an expert on AIDS to assess and devise a plan,'' he said. ''There are a lot of possible scenarios, such as pilot projects in hospitals and ways of doing a better job in sterilizing needles.''

It is likely that THA ''will cease to have effects as Alzheimer's disease progresses,'' said Dr. William Koopmans Summers, who conducted the study with a team of researchers working with patients at Huntington Memorial Hospital and Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, Calif. The study is reported in the new issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. ''We are not talking about a drug at this time that everyone who has a mother or father with Alzheimer's disease should be running out to get,'' Dr. [Kenneth L. Davis] said. ''What we have got to do now is to do more studies to define the subgroups of patients whose lives will probably be benefited, but our challenge is to define that subgroup and to define it in such a way that we don't produce false hopes for the majority of people who probably won't be helped'' by the drug. According to Dr. Summers's team, some of the patients showed ''dramatic'' improvement. Patient Resumes Cooking

Rare would be the American Nobel Prize winner in medicine whose path to that coveted award was not supported by N.I.H. funds. Foreign laureates have benefited as well. But the record has not been perfect. The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, while praising the N.I.H. for making rapid advances in the battle against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, criticized the agency last month for ''inadequate Federal coordination'' of development of an AIDS vaccine. ''Initially, the politics centered on convincing the public to support biomedical research,'' Dr. Gert Brieger, a medical historian at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, said. But, Dr. Brieger went on, ''As N.I.H. got bigger, more bureaucratic, more cumbersome and more was at stake, you began to have rivalries and internal political pressures. That's the kind of politics that did not exist in the beginning and it can do a lot more damage in the next century.'' Dr. [James B. Wyngaarden] cited two other areas of ''potential harm'' he said had tarnished the image of the N.I.H. and the rest of the biomedical community: a growing number of instances of scientific fraud and lapses in concern about animal welfare. Although such abuses have been few, Dr. Wyngaarden said, ''they are more widespread than we would like to admit.'' Congressional questioning has been more probing, he said, adding, ''The reflex support of N.I.H. is not as strong as it once was.''

Dr. Berry was best known as a leader in medical education. He became dean of Harvard Medical School in 1949, when medical scientists were making major advances. Over the next 17 years, until he retired in 1966, Dr. Berry was credited with shaping the quality of medical education in a scientifically explosive era. In his tenure as dean of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Berry doubled its endowment, largely by enlisting support from private corporations. ''We are not above shaking the tree,'' Dr. Berry said. At the same time, he favored Federal aid to medical education as long as such aid did not involve Federal control. Dr. Berry married the former Elizabeth L'Estrange Duncan in 1923. She died three years later from a streptococcal infection as a complication of measles. In 1969, Dr. Berry married Mariana Wilkinson, who survives him. He is also survived by his daughter, Mrs. Cloyd Laporte Jr.; two stepchildren, Alden Ashforth of Los Angeles and Mrs. Donald Geoffroy of Santa Cruz, Calif., and three grandchildren, Elizabeth Duncan, Marguerite Caroline and Cloyd Laporte 3d

* A chronic nursing shortage leaves nurses overworked and some patients overlooked. ''Nurses are operating in a minefield,'' said Katherine Abelson, executive vice president of District 1199 of the Hospital Workers Union, which represents 4,000 nurses. ''There is dangerous understaffing.'' * Antiquated facilities handicap the efforts of doctors and staff, particularly in the municipal hospitals. ''Everyone may not be entitled to the Ritz,'' said Dr. Donald Wilson, chief of medicine at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, ''but everyone is entitled to a Howard Johnson's, and we are not doing that.'' A state inspector subsequently said the doctor had not informed the patient of the risk, as he should have. Beth Israel officials said they would issue a memo advising doctors to document ''the reasonable and foreseeable risks of all invasive procedures'' and to avoid doing bone marrow tests in the breast bone ''except in extraordinary circumstances.''

AFTER EXAMINING A PATIENT, THE DOC-tor makes a diagnosis, a common one: ''You've got a virus - the bug that's going around.'' The advice is just as familiar: ''Rest and drink plenty of liquids. You'll feel like yourself in no time.'' Calling a virus ''the bug that's going around,'' however, is an oversimplification. Most common viral illnesses can be caused by any one of hundreds of viruses that may be circulating through a community. These viruses spread in various ways: some respiratory bugs are dispersed as droplets in sneezes; other viruses are spread through contaminated food or water, a common cause of diarrhea and stomach upsets. What is known about viral illnesses is that they are caused by a microbe that is both infectious (capable of invading and multiplying in the body) and communicable (capable of causing illness by itself or through one of its toxic products). But this does not necessarily mean that the microbe is contagious (spread by person-to-person contact). There are at least 300 known viruses, members of the 17 ''families'' that infect humans. As many as 200 human viruses cause the common cold alone. Many others can cause the flu. An additional 40 virus families affect plants and animals

The White House Counsel, Peter Wallison, said he could not estimate how many workers would be affected by the order. He added that the President's plan calls for agency heads to establish testing programs according to the ''agency's mission and its employees' duties and the danger to the public health and safety, or to national security.'' Dr. Richard L. Hawks, chief of the research technology branch at the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Rockville, Md., said that the technology for detecting drugs in urine ''will work, if used properly, but we don't know how often it is used right.'' Guide to Essentials of Testing A trusted worker ''must watch each person urinate into a bottle,'' Dr. Robert Newman, president of Beth Israel Hospital in New York, said. ''If that is not done, it's a sham.''

For reasons doctors do not understand, almost all attacks follow sore throats caused by streptococcal bacteria; but only a few strep throats lead to rheumatic fever. The prevention of rheumatic fever is the chief reason why doctors perform throat cultures looking for the group A streptococci that precede it. Rheumatic fever causes inflammation and swelling of the joints that is intensely painful for about a day, then abates over the next week or so as the swelling subsides. The usual targets are the joints in the legs, particularly the knees, but the swelling and other symptoms often migrate from joint to joint. More than one joint may be involved at a time and the condition can be quite painful. Moreover, attacks of rheumatic fever tend to recur after additional bouts of strep throat. However, it usually does not permanently damage the affected joints. There are five major and three minor manifestations, according to this system. The major ones, most useful in making a diagnosis, are: inflammation of the heart; arthritis; continuous involuntary jerky movements of the body, halting and slurred speech and facial grimaces known as chorea that disappear in a few weeks with no permanent damage; a rash that does not itch and bumps under the skin. The minor ones are fever, joint pains and a history of previous attacks of rheumatic fever. The presence of two major or one major and two minor manifestations signals a high likelihood of rheumatic fever

The three authors of the report first duscussed electric shock therapy for snakebites two years ago in the London laboratory of Dr. Aharles D. MacKenzie of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine . [Jeffrey F. Williams] recalled how surprised he and MacKenzie were when, during a chat the subject turned to venoms and Dr. Ronald H. Guderian, the missionary physician in Ecuador, described his experiments with the electric shock therapy for snakebites. Williams said Guderian described the notion, widespread in Ecuador, that electricity was a therapy for snakebites. He said snakebite victims try to get to an engine in order to run a wire carrying electricity from its coil into the area of the bite. Guderian did just that. Then Williams and MacKenzie paid him a visit in Ecuador at the Hospital Vozandes in Quito and at a clinic in Zapallo Grande in northwestern Ecuador. When Williams saw the treatment firsthand, he said he realized 'it was a first-aid measure that worked better than anything else.'