Faculty Bibliography

Dr. [David E. Rogers] also said that the recent gains might be offset by economic problems ''unless ways are found to slow the present rate of increase in health-care costs.'' He added that ''at today's rate of increase, personal health expenditures for a family of four, in current dollars, would almost double from $3,800 today to $6,550 by 1985.'' As a result, he said, the foundation's goal for the 1980's would be to place major support behind programs ''that can slow the rate of increase in the costs of personal health services.'' Such improvements could have ''a direct and powerful impact on the individual, the family and even the nation at large,'' according to Dr. Rogers. For example, he said, ''just a 10 percent decrease in work lost to disability and illness would markedly improve the nation's economy and productivity.''

In separate reports issued recently, the experts advised health officials to continue to use BCG vaccine because ''it was sensible and wise to do so.'' Additional reasons cited were its safety, low cost and the results of other scientifically validated studies carried out elsewhere. ''In countries with high tuberculosis prevalence, BCG vaccination should be administered as early in life as possible, as there is evidence to support the view that it can play a valuable role in the prevention of the severe forms of childhood tuberculosis,'' the experts said. They cited as examples meningitis caused by tuberculosis and miliary tuberculosis, a form in which the causative bacteria spread throughout the entire body

The Bellevue medical team is baffled about the exact cause of their patients' illnesses. They are certain only that both victims shared the same batch of heroin. The two patients at other hospitals also are believed to have used the same heroin. The illness affecting the Bellevue patients has damaged not only their eyes, but also their ears, kidneys and livers. The condition of the kidneys and livers, but not of the eyes and ears, has improved during the first week of their stay in the hospital. The visual loss in one patient is so severe that he can discriminate only very large letters, Dr. [David A. Silverman] said. Nevertheless, the Bellevue doctors are treating the two patients with a drug called amphotericin B as if their illness were due to an infection with an unidentified fungus. Although the visual loss from a condition called endophthalmitis might be due to a fungal infection, such an infection would not explain the cluster of other symptoms experienced by the French and New York cases, Dr. Silverman said

''Two of these four demonstrated that potential savings would be accompanied by a slightly poorer clinical outcome; two showed ambulatory care to be as effective as inpatient care and less costly,'' the Mount Sinai researchers wrote in their report. Nevertheless, they added, even when reliable data were collected, society might be faced with ethical dilemmas. ''Problems will occur if data show that savings can be achieved in the ambulatory setting but with an inferior clinical outcome,'' the researchers said. ''or that a better clinical outcome will cost more in the ambulatory setting.''

On the day before the former hostages held their first news conference at West Point, James Brady, the White House press secretary, disclosed that ''a dozen or so'' of the freed hostages still had ''severe'' mental problems. His remarks left the impression that those who did not attend the news briefing were among that dozen. But the following day White House officials said that conclusion was invalid. State Department doctors said they did not know where the White House got its statistics. Dr. Jerome M. Korcak, the Department's medical director and head of the medical team treating the group, partially clarified the situation when he said that the number with ''severe'' mental health problems was about three or four and that the remainder of the 12 had less serious psychiatric conditions. The informational vacuum encouraged news organizations to pay patients and hospital employees to secretly tape interviews and to take pictures of the former hostages in what should have been the privacy of the hospital. News accounts included words such as ''basket case'' and ''very bad condition,'' gathered from hospital employees and relatives who had no training in medicine but had access to the hostages. It was not clear if the descriptions were accurate or if they were issued with the patients' approval

''The epidemic of viral upper respiratory infections raced through them,'' Dr. [Jerome M. Korcak] said, because ''they are sort of like Eskimos who have been isolated from civilization and who have lost some of their natural immunity.'' Assessment of Mental Condition As to the status of the former hostages' mental health, Dr. Korcak said that ''perhaps 12 had diagnosable psychiatric conditions as a result of this experience, but not all were seriously affected.'' About three of the group's illnesses ''were in the major category,'' Dr. Korcak said. Dr. Korcak, who also heads the medical team that examined the former hostages, said that he did not want to specify either the exact number of the group who were affected by psychiatric disorders or the specific nature of their conditions. He said that he ''did not think that's helpful to anybody,'' adding ''it satisfies the curiosity of the public at the expense of our patients.''

By 10 A.M. today Franz Honsowitz and Chrisostomos Kontaxis began giving haircuts to the first freed Americans. By midday business was so brisk that they put up a sign saying, ''Hostages only.'' By the end of the day, Mr. Honsowitz said tonight, he and Mr. Kontaxis had given about 18 haircuts. ''The men didn't look bad and they were not complaining about anything,'' Mr. Honsowitz said. ''But they were quiet - I presume because they were so tired from their ordeal and long trip.'' As Mr. Honsowitz and Mr. Kontaxis cut and shampooed there were brief conversations between them and their customers. ''They weren't very talkative but they were not uncommunicative,'' Mr. Honsowitz said

''Our job is being available to assist the hostages, not to tell them what they should be thinking,'' one doctor on the team said. State Department officials began assembling the team shortly after the hostages were seized at the American Embassy in Teheran Nov. 4, 1979. Since then, several changes have been made in personnel and plans. The officials were guided by what experts had learned from terrorist activities and from what the State Department team learned from the experiences of the 14 hostages released earlier by the Iranians. Medical Records Are Studied The State Department official said that ''none of the hostages will be held against his or her will.'' If any express a desire to return to the United States sooner, the official said, ''we hope to be able to convince them that it's in their best interests to stay in Wiesbaden a few days.'' ''We will tell them,'' the State Department said of the returning captives, ''that among other hostages and prisoners of war we found that many were not ready to deal with the expectations that such a reunion places on them. Their effect may have been inhibited over the months. They probably will need haircuts and some cleaning up physically. But basically it's emotional things. A reunion with a spouse implies an expectation that sexual relations will be resumed. And that may not be something the hostage is capable of.''

Policy decisions about whether or not to force-feed hunger striking prisoners are made by Government officials, not doctors, and they vary among, and even within, countries. When members of the BaaderMeinhof group refused to take food in a West German jail in 1975, the Government ordered forced feeding under a doctor's supervision. However, British officials decided to call the bluff of the Irish prisoners and let hunger strikers starve. When the strike ended, the British Government insisted it had yielded none of the concessions they were striking for. ''It is as simple as that,'' he told a conference in 1972. ''It is a very distasteful business, but the sanctity of human life comes first.'' Other physicians have dodged the issue. One, Dr. Harold M. Boslow, who directed the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Md., said at the same conference that he ''generally preferred to regard the prisoners as temporarily insane and ship them off to mental hospitals to be taken care of.''

Results of the statistical study, which are being published in tomorrow's issue of The British Medical Journal, ''appear to explain the long-standing riddle of why many women develop lung cancer although they themselves are nonsmokers,'' Dr. Takeshi Hirayama, the author of the study, said in an interview. Dr. Hirayama is chief epidemiologist of the National Cancer Center Research Institute in Tokyo. Effects Previously Suspected Sir Richard Doll, a British physician at Oxford University who did pioneering studies linking cigarette smoking and lung cancer, said in an interview that Dr. Hirayama's study ''was scientifically sound.'' The effect of passive smoking on nonsmoking wives was ''surprising'' because it was larger than he would have expected, he said. ''The implication'' is that cigarette smoking poses ''a hazard to anybody in public rooms if they are not well ventilated,'' Dr. Doll said