Faculty Bibliography

No cases of influenza from the strain known as A(H2N2), which caused the Asian flu pandemic in 1957, have been detected anywhere in the world, said the official, Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, who directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Meridian Bioscience Inc., in Cincinnati, shipped the samples beginning last fall under contract with the College of American Pathologists as part of the group's proficiency testing program. Dr. Jared N. Schwartz, an official of the college, has said that when Meridian checked a United States government manual, its team found that the A(H2N2) strain could be sent to laboratories as a biosafety level 2 microbe, the second-lowest in a four-class danger rating system

Dr. [Maurice Ralph Hilleman] developed eight of the 14 vaccines routinely recommended: measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria (which brings on a variety of symptoms, including inflammation of the lining of the brain and deafness). He also produced the first generation of a vaccine against rubella, or German measles

The disease is named after Carlos Chagas, a Brazilian physician who first described it, in 1909. Chagas' usually spreads when someone is bitten by an insect, engorging itself with blood and passing the parasite in its feces onto the skin. The initial symptoms of Chagas' are usually mild or nonexistent. It generally takes decades for the Chagas parasite to cause death by slowly damaging heart muscle, the esophagus and the colon. By that time, drugs are ineffective in reversing the damage. The Santa Catarina outbreak is believed to be the largest known food-borne outbreak of Chagas' and the first that has led to an international warning, said Jennifer Marcone, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. She also said that the C.D.C. was not participating in the investigation because Brazil has many experts on Chagas' disease

Dr. Hilleman developed 8 of the 14 vaccines routinely recommended: measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria (which brings on a variety of symptoms, including inflammation of the lining of the brain and deafness). He also developed the first generation of a vaccine against rubella or German measles. The vaccines have virtually vanquished many of the once common childhood diseases in developed countries. Luck played a major role in the discovery of adenoviruses. Dr. Hilleman flew a team to Missouri to collect specimens from troops suffering from influenza. But by the time his team arrived, influenza had died out. Dr. Hilleman, fearing that he would be fired for an expensive useless exercise, seized on his observation of the occurrence of a fresh outbreak of a different disease. His team discovered three new types of adenoviruses among the troops. Shifts can herald a large outbreak or pandemic of influenza, and Dr. Hilleman was the first to detect the shift that caused the 1957 Asian influenza pandemic. He read an article in The New York Times on April 17, 1957, about influenza among infants in Hong Kong -- cases that had escaped detection from the worldwide influenza surveillance systems

The death rate for bird flu is dwindling because it is easier to count people who die than those who become infected and have minor symptoms, or none at all. This phenomenon of subclinical disease essentially a mild case of bird flu seems to be occurring with more frequency than previously appreciated. On the grimmer side, other findings indicate that human bird flu infections may be more widespread than initially suspected and possibly may be transmitted by fecal contamination. The virus was found in a child with severe diarrhea and encephalitis, but no respiratory symptoms

Two friends of Samuel Waksal, the former chief executive of ImClone Systems, have been arrested and charged with insider trading for selling their shares in ImClone after receiving a tip from Waksal. Dr. Zvi Fuks, chairman of the department of radiation oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Sabina Ben-Yehuda, who worked at Scientia, an investment company set up by Waksal, were charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud in a federal criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in New York. Fuks and Ben-Yehuda pleaded not guilty. The complaint contends that they sold their shares in ImClone in December 2001 after Waksal told them that the government was about to deny approval of the drug Erbitux, news that would cause ImClone shares to plummet when it became public. After Waksal was arrested on similar charges in June 2002, he denied passing the information to Ben-Yehuda and telling her to inform Fuks. But according to the criminal complaint, Waksal gave a different version of events when testifying before a grand jury last month. If convicted, the two face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for securities fraud, and five years and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed civil charges against the two, alleging insider trading. The commission is seeking fines and the amount of the losses the defendants avoided by selling their shares

There were two attending chest surgeons, not one, ''given that it was President [Bill Clinto],'' Dr. [Joshua Sonett] said. He and his partner, Dr. Kenneth M. Steinglass, the hospital's chief thoracic surgeon, ''helped each other out on this case,'' Dr. Sonett added. ''A large thick rind'' of inflammatory tissue encased the lower lobe of the lung, making the less-invasive procedure impossible, Dr. Sonett said. They next had to release the trapped part of the lung so it could re-expand to its normal size. Dr. Sonett said his team operated in a different area of Mr. Clinton's chest than Dr. Craig R. Smith did in the bypass surgery. ''The two recoveries are really quite independent,'' Dr. Sonett said

Dr. Zvi Y. Fuks, the Manhattan cancer doctor who was arrested yesterday on securities fraud charges stemming from sales of ImClone Systems stock, was the matchmaker who helped make ImClone successful. He arranged a meeting that led to ImClone's licensing of the cancer drug Erbitux, its first and so far only product. Dr. Fuks, who was a member of ImClone's scientific advisory board, and Sabina Ben-Yehuda, 51, were arrested on charges brought in United States District Court in Manhattan stemming from their sales of ImClone stock in 2001. Both are friends of Samuel D. Waksal, an ImClone founder. It is not clear how Dr. Fuks and Samuel Waksal came to know each other. Dr. Waksal knew many people in the medical community in New York, where ImClone is based, and in Israel, where Dr. Fuks went to medical school

The possible case of the nurse in Hanoi takes on particular potential importance because of his occupation. Bloomberg News reported that he had carried the avian influenza patient on a stretcher and provided direct care at a hospital. If tests identify the A(H5N1) strain as the cause of his illness, and other sources of exposure are ruled out, he could become the first health worker to have contracted avian influenza

The incidence of influenza steadily increased in January and February and has not clearly peaked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said