Faculty Bibliography

The donor was not suspected of having rabies at his death, which doctors attributed to a stroke, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. It was not until this week, after a pathologist in Dallas who was puzzled about the deaths asked the federal agency for help, that the connection was made, Dr. Artun Srinivasan, a C.D.C. physician said in a telephone interview. Dr. Mitchell L. Cohen, an expert on infectious diseases at the center, said in a telephone news conference that tests performed on Wednesday in Atlanta identified a strain of the rabies virus commonly found among bats in all four patients. It is not known when or where the donor was exposed to rabies. A year can pass from when a person is bitten by a rabid animal or exposed to a bat before rabies develops. There is no effective therapy for rabies, which is usually fatal. But injections of two types of immunizations can prevent rabies if they are given soon after exposure. So health officials at the disease control centers and in four states, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, are seeking to identify quickly anyone who had contact with the four patients to determine who needs immunizations. People exposed to patients' saliva are those most likely to need treatment

Nigeria, with 259 polio cases, now accounts for 77 percent of all polio cases in the world, and health officials are awaiting findings from tests on an additional 85 paralyzed children. The polio virus has also spread from Nigeria, particularly from Kano, in the northern part of the country, to 10 polio-free countries elsewhere on the continent. Kano officials stopped polio immunizations last August when political and religious leaders there claimed that the polio vaccine could make girls infertile. W.H.O. officials say that repeated independent testing of the vaccine have refuted such claims. Dr. [David L. Heymann] said that Kano's governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, told him that he was satisfied the vaccine was safe. Since May, Mr. Shekarau has repeatedly pledged to resume vaccinations. W.H.O. and the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, have sent additional workers and have taken other ''extraordinary measures'' to help Nigeria, Dr. Heymann said. Last Saturday, Kano officials began training immunization workers. But in a number of telephone conversations with W.H.O. officials before and since then, Mr. Shekarau has refused to set a date for resumption of polio immunizations

In the same issue, European scientists reported using a different strategy that involved injections of a human monoclonal antibody, a type of genetically engineered protein. The antibody prevented the development of lung damage caused by SARS, reduced the amount of virus growth in the lungs and prevented spread of the virus in secretions from the nose and mouth. Dr. Jan ter Meulen of Leiden, the Netherlands, led the team that included scientists from Rotterdam and Germany. The vaccine was made by inserting the S, or spike, protein that protrudes from the SARS virus into a modified parainfluenza virus. The S protein helps the virus attach and enter human cells

The American nasal vaccine was sprayed once each into four African green monkeys that, four weeks later, were deliberately exposed to the coronavirus that causes SARS. The monkeys showed no sign of the disease in their respiratory tracts, and blood tests showed that the animals had developed a type of protein known as neutralizing antibodies that best correlate with protection from disease. The vaccine was made by inserting the S, or spike, protein that protrudes from the SARS virus into a modified parainfluenza virus. The S protein helps the virus attach and enter human cells. Peter Collins, one of the American scientists, said that immunization with the protein alone stimulated a very strong immune response among the monkeys

U.S. and European scientists have independently reported that they had protected animals from the SARS virus with two different types of experimental immunizations, raising hopes that they could ultimately be used among humans. The U.S. nasal vaccine was sprayed once each into four African green monkeys that, four weeks later, were deliberately exposed to the coronavirus that causes SARS. The monkeys showed no sign of the disease in their respiratory tracts, and blood tests showed that the animals had developed a type of protein known as neutralizing antibodies that best correlate with protection from disease. The vaccine was made by inserting the S, or spike, protein that protrudes from the SARS virus into a modified parainfluenza virus. The S protein helps the virus attach and enter human cells

As polio cases surge in Nigeria and the virus spreads to other countries, West and Central Africa are on the brink of the largest polio epidemic in recent years, alarmed officials of the World Health Organization and Unicef said. That signals the potential for a large epidemic as polio enters the season when transmission is highest, the officials say. The polio virus spreads through feces, and contamination occurs more often when sewage backs up during the rainy season in Africa and Asia. Allegations about impurities in the vaccine have caused alarm and confusion among many people in Nigeria and elsewhere. Tests of the vaccine have refuted such claims, said Dr. David Heymann, the director of the World Health Organization's polio eradication program. The vaccine purchased by Unicef meets the organization's standards and has been used safely to eliminate the disease from many countries

As polio cases surge in Nigeria and the virus spreads to other countries, West and Central Africa are on the brink of the largest polio epidemic in recent years, alarmed officials of the World Health Organization and UNICEF said yesterday. Allegations about impurities in the vaccine have caused alarm and confusion among many people in Nigeria and elsewhere. Tests of the vaccine have refuted such claims, said Dr. David L. Heymann, the director of the World Health Organization's polio eradication program. The vaccine purchased by UNICEF meets the organization's standards and has been used safely to eliminate the disease in many other countries. In addition to Sudan, the virus has spread from Nigeria to the following nine countries since last August: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo

Allegations about impurities in the vaccine have caused alarm and confusion among many people in Nigeria and elsewhere. Tests of the vaccine have refuted such claims, said Dr. David L. Heymann, the director of the World Health Organization's polio eradication program. The vaccine purchased by Unicef meets the organization's standards and has been used safely to eliminate the disease from many other countries. In May, Kano's governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, pledged to resume vaccinations. But that has not happened, Dr. Heymann said. Meanwhile, polio has spread not only in Kano but from that state to other parts of Nigeria. In addition to Sudan, the virus has spread from Nigeria to the following nine countries since last August: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo

As polio cases surge in Nigeria and the virus spreads to other countries, western and central Africa are on the brink of the largest polio epidemic in recent years, officials of the World Health Organization and Unicef said Tuesday. Equally alarming, health officials said, is that the surge in polio cases in Nigeria and its spread to other countries is occurring during a season when transmission of the polio virus is usually at its lowest. That signals the potential for a large epidemic as polio enters the season when transmission is highest, they said. Tests of the vaccine have refuted such claims, said Dr. David Heymann, director of the World Health Organization's polio eradication program. The vaccine as purchased by Unicef meets the health organization's standards and has been used safely to eliminate the disease from many other countries

In 1980, despite his mother's history of senility, it was only a hypothetical possibility that Reagan would develop Alzheimer's. The disease's hereditary pattern was, and is, not precisely known. As it turned out, the disease is believed to have afflicted Reagan's brother, Neil, too. Whether their mother's dementia was from strokes or Alzheimer's, or both, is not known. No one can be absolutely certain when Reagan's Alzheimer's began. Then, as now, blood and other practical laboratory tests did not exist to detect the initial stages of Alzheimer's, which takes years to damage the brain, or to distinguish it from other forms of dementia. Lacking a test, Alzheimer's is estimated to account for half of all dementia cases. Strokes and other diseases cause the remainder. Doctors did not start giving Reagan psychological tests that can point to Alzheimer's until after he was thrown from a horse in Mexico in 1989, and suffered a subdural hematoma that was removed surgically. Initial tests did not show evidence of Alzheimer's, but subsequent ones, performed around 1993, did, his doctors have said