Faculty Bibliography

Until 1997, scientists had not believed it was even possible for an avian influenza virus to pass directly from birds to people without first combining with a mammalian influenza virus. Pigs can harbor avian and mammalian influenza viruses while showing no ill effects, and have been blamed for periodically allowing new avian influenza viruses into human populations that have little if any immunity to them. Many mammalian influenza viruses have already mastered the tricky secret of passing easily from person to person. These viruses kill 36,000 people a year in the United States. The ideal strategy for the A(H5N1) virus would be to infect a person already carrying a human influenza virus and then swap genetic material with it. Because pigs can readily carry human and avian influenza viruses, they could also be the mixing vessels for a new virus. Thai and Vietnamese officials have said they are testing pigs extensively. The virus has been detected in at least two pigs in southeastern China. Dr. Klaus Stohr, the W.H.O.'s top influenza expert, said that while recombination of the avian influenza virus would probably be a slow process, a reassortment of genes by human and avian influenza viruses could happen ''very rapidly, practically within days.''

To show his full recovery from the orthopedic surgery that he underwent last spring to repair tears in a biceps tendon and a muscle in his right shoulder, [John Kerry] thrust both arms straight up as if to signal a touchdown and smiled. Before the operation, pain and weakness hindered him from raising his right arm overhead or lifting an object. CT scan X-rays taken at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, however, show two pieces of metal shrapnel embedded in Kerry's left thigh, next to the femur, said Dr. Gerald Doyle, Kerry's personal physician in Boston. Doctors treating the wound in 1969 decided to leave the shrapnel in place

While no specific examples of gouging were cited at the news conference, Dr. David Lang, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Orange County in California, said in a telephone interview that a vendor had called a pharmacist at his hospital offering to sell the flu vaccine made by Aventis for 10 times the usual amount. On Tuesday, the British government halted vaccine shipments to the United States because of concerns about contamination at a factory owned by the Chiron Corporation of Emeryville, Calif. Now health officials are trying to ration the flu shots, asking healthy people to let the vaccine go to those who need it more

The molecules start a process by which olfactory cells send messages to the olfactory bulb, a structure in the front of the brain that is a clearinghouse for the sense of smell. Information from the olfactory bulb is then relayed to other parts of the brain where it is combined to form a pattern in a system of smell that allows humans and animals to distinguish good from bad. The scientists discovered a large gene family, comprising 1,000 different genes representing about 3 percent of all genes in the body. The olfactory genes give rise to an equivalent number of olfactory receptors located on 5 million cells in a small area in the upper part of the nostrils. The cells are highly specialized to detect molecules of a few inhaled odors. Someday, [Richard Axel] said, scientists might identify the odor receptors in the nose of malaria-carrying mosquitoes and other disease- causing insects that attracts them to humans. If scientists could block an insect's ability to smell a food source, they might be able to create effective repellents that, unlike pesticides, would not harm other living things and the environment

The shoulder operation last March was Mr. Kerry's second on that joint. He has also had surgery three other times for sports-related knee injuries, said Dr. Bertram Zarins, an orthopedist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Zarins said that Mr. Kerry injured one knee twice (skiing and soccer), and the other playing softball. Mr. Kerry takes no medications on a regular basis. But last summer Dr. [Gerald J. Doyle] said that he might recommend that Mr. Kerry start taking a statin drug, which lowers cholesterol, after the election. The reason was that tests of his total cholesterol and ''bad'' cholesterol, or L.D.L., showed that the counts had risen over the last two years. Nevertheless, the new test results were better. Mr. Kerry's total cholesterol was 194 and his L.D.L. 122. Dr. Doyle said that he would like to lower Mr. Kerry's L.D.L. to below 100, even to 70, but that he was reluctant to prescribe a statin drug during the campaign, in part because of the risk of side effects like muscle weakness and liver damage. He said he would re-evaluate the situation later this year

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio President [George Bush] on Saturday criticized Sen. [John Kerry] for suggesting that pre-emptive military action by the United States would have to pass a 'global test,' saying that the 'Kerry doctrine' would cede national security decisions to other countries

[John Kerry]'s participation in activities such as windsurfing, bicycle races and weight lifting has kept him exceptionally fit, he said. 'For somebody who is running for president,' Kerry said, 'I'm in about as good a shape as I think anybody could be.' CT scan X-rays document that two pieces of metal shrapnel are embedded deep in Kerry's left thigh, next to the femur, said Dr. Gerald Doyle, Kerry's personal physician, who reviewed the X-rays at the request of this reporter, a physician as well. 'One piece of shrapnel is about the size of a bullet, the other a bit smaller,' Doyle said. Kerry takes no medications on a regular basis. But Doyle said last summer that he might recommend that Kerry start taking a statin drug, which lowers cholesterol, after the election

Kerry's participation in strenuous activities like windsurfing, bicycle races of up to 112 miles and weight lifting has kept him exceptionally fit, he said. He would be in even better shape if he were not campaigning, Kerry said, 'but for somebody who is running for president, I'm in about as good a shape as I think anybody could be.' CT scan X-rays taken at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston document that two pieces of metal shrapnel are embedded deep in Kerry's left thigh, next to the femur, said Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, Kerry's personal physician in Boston, who reviewed the X- rays at the request of this reporter, a physician as well. Doctors treating the wound in 1969 decided to leave the shrapnel in place. 'One piece of shrapnel is about the size of a bullet, the other a bit smaller,' Doyle said. The pathology report was the best that Kerry could receive: The cancer was confined to the left side of the prostate gland. And on the Gleason scale, a standard measure of the severity of prostate cancer, Kerry's score was six out of 10, considered a very favorable finding

Three days after tests prompted by chest pains and shortness of breath revealed Mr. Clinton's life-threatening heart disease, surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan rerouted his blood supply to circumvent four severely clogged arteries. They found several arteries more than 90 percent blocked, the edge of the cliff in coronary terms. In a four-hour open-heart procedure, a team of surgeons led by Dr. Craig R. Smith, the hospital's chief of cardio-thoracic surgery, took blood vessels from Mr. Clinton's chest and left leg and attached them to arteries feeding his heart, creating detours for the bloodstream around segments that were dangerously choked with plaque. Columbia-Presbyterian, a major teaching center for the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, was listed in a report by the New York State Health Department last week as having the highest death rate for coronary bypass surgery of any hospital in the state during 2001, the latest year for which data are available. The death rate, 3.93 percent, was nearly double the average for the 34 other hospitals that perform coronary bypass surgery in the state

Mrs. [Teresa Heinz Kerry] disclosed, she has instructed her husband in how to cook healthy foods. ''I taught him, although he doesn't do it when I'm not there, to make really easy, very good vegetable soups and puree them, just put vegetable broth or chicken broth, and how to season them.''