Faculty Bibliography

''The influenza season has wound down very dramatically, declining to levels lower than we often expect at this time of year,'' said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a top influenza expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Monday, Dr. Fukuda and many other influenza experts restated their concern about the potential for a new strain of avian influenza that has emerged in Asia to trade genes with a human strain, creating a new virus that would be highly lethal to people. Working with Paul J. Edelson and Stephen S. Morse of the Columbia School of Public Health and Lone Simonsen of the National Institutes of Health, Mr. [Donald R. Olson] identified ''a herald wave'' of the epidemic that began earlier in 1918. The age pattern of deaths in New York City changed markedly from February to March 1918: a pattern that had taken the lives of people predominantly 65 or older became one that involved those predominantly under 45

Lassa fever is one of the hemorrhagic fever viruses, and its discovery was as striking as any in the history of virology. Yale halted research into it because infections acquired in the laboratory there killed one worker, in addition to making Casals deathly ill. Casals' team found the Lassa fever virus in the blood of three American missionary nurses who had become ill in northern Nigeria. Two of the nurses died there. The third was Lily Pinneo, who had cared for her two nursing colleagues in Nigeria. She flew to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where she recovered after a nine-week stay. Casals first felt ill in June, 1969, shortly after he began working with the virus. But he said he did not think he had Lassa fever because the severe pain in his thigh muscles was a symptom the nurses had escaped. A friend persuaded him to go to Columbia- Presbyterian. As Casals' illness became increasingly severe, his doctors began to suspect the virus he was investigating

Nigeria is believed to have also exported the infections to the seven other previously polio-free African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Togo and Chad. The World Health Organization says the exported cases and continued opposition to polio vaccination by religious and political leaders in the northern states of Nigeria are jeopardizing its efforts to eradicate polio by the end of this year. Dr. [David L. Heymann] said the vaccine being used in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa was the same one that reduced the incidence of paralytic polio to less than 758 cases in 2003. Nigeria accounted for 347 of those cases. Nigeria sent the vaccine to South Africa for testing. Although the tests found no elements of hormones or infectious agents other than the Sabin polio virus used in the oral vaccine, Dr. Heymann said, they did not satisfy the critics. So a second set of tests is being performed in India.

The young brides are apparently acquiring H.I.V., the AIDS virus, from their husbands, who tend to be many years older and were infected before marriage, the officials said. Dr. Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser to United Nations AIDS program, said ''it's the first time we have ever seen'' differences in H.I.V. infection rates between married women and sexually active single women ages 15 to 19. She commented from the agency's headquarters in Geneva on remarks made at the meeting by Dr. [Paul DeLay] and Carol Bellamy, the director of Unicef. ''The striking finding here is that among 15-to-19-year-old girls who are sexually active in these two settings, the fact of being married carries significantly higher risk -- in part because of the increased age differential between spouses and in part because condom use in marriage has not been promoted,'' she said. ''Common H.I.V./AIDS protection messages are often inappropriate for married adolescents who seem to have been a forgotten population.''

Sexually transmitted diseases and certain other common infections affect women disproportionately, compared with men, and can be dangerous, particularly in pregnancy, said the official, Dr. Julie L. Gerberding. Dr. Gerberding is director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. One is that certain diseases can cause more serious illness and lead to more severe complications among pregnant women. Another is that women are at least four times more vulnerable to infection from H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. New H.I.V. infections are also increasing among women in the United States. In 2001 in New York City, 35 percent of new H.I.V. diagnoses were in women, compared with 28 percent before 2001

''Low influenza vaccination rates among health care workers pose a serious health threat to the patients in their care, including infants and children, the elderly and chronically ill,'' said Dr. William Schaffner, a board member of the foundation, a nonprofit group in Bethesda, Md., dedicated to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Many members of the advisory panel expressed strong support for the foundation's plea. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, has recommended influenza vaccinations for health workers since 1986 and so took no action on Wednesday. The Department of Health and Human Services appoints the 15-member panel to advise the centers, which are based here, on influenza immunizations and others. Dr. Kathleen M. Neuzil of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and the University of Washington, urged state health departments and the centers to formally track influenza vaccination rates among health workers. Dr. Neuzil attended the meeting as a representative of the American College of Physicians, which supports the foundation's program

MedImmune's hopes that its competitors' exhausted supplies would raise sales of FluMist were dashed, Dr. [Peter A. Patriarca] said, even though the company engaged in a comprehensive promotional program about the dangers of influenza and advertised FluMist directly to consumers. Current recommendations caution people receiving FluMist, particularly health workers, to limit contact with such patients. But Dr. Patriarca contended that the recommendations had been overinterpreted to mean that FluMist should not be used by health workers. MedImmune plans to ask the F.D.A. to expand approval for FluMist to include children younger than 5 and adults ages 50 to 64. Also, Dr. Patriarca said that MedImmune was conducting trials at colleges and schools to determine FluMist's safety and effectiveness among students

Jordi Casals-Ariet, the epidemiologist who was nearly killed in 1969 by Lassa fever while his team at Yale was discovering the virus that causes it, died in Manhattan on Feb. 10, his wife, Ellen, said on Friday. He was 92. Casals's team found the Lassa fever virus in the blood of three missionary nurses from the United States who had become ill in northern Nigeria. Two of the nurses died there. The third was Lily Pinneo, who had cared for her two colleagues in Nigeria. She flew a hospital in Manhattan, where she recovered. Casals first felt ill in June 1969, shortly after he began working with the virus. But he said he did not think he had Lassa fever because his severe thigh-muscle aching was a symptom the nurses had escaped. A friend persuaded him to go to Columbia- Presbyterian. As his illness grew more severe, Casals's doctors began suspecting the virus

Dr. [Jordi Casals-Ariet] first felt ill in June 1969, shortly after he began working with the virus. But he said he did not think he had Lassa fever because his severe thigh-muscle aching was a symptom the nurses had escaped. A friend persuaded him to go to Columbia- Presbyterian. As Dr. Casals' illness became increasingly severe, his doctors grew to suspect the virus he was investigating. Jordi Casals-Ariet was born in Spain and served with the Spanish Army before earning his medical degree from the University of Barcelona in 1934. After interning there, Dr. Casals moved to Manhattan and worked at Cornell University Medical College from 1936 to 1938, when he joined the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. In 1952, Dr. Casals joined the Rockefeller Foundation. It supported field stations around the world where scientists collected samples from people and animals and sent them to Dr. Casals, asking his team to identify them

Lassa fever is one of the hemorrhagic fever viruses, and its discovery was as striking as any in the history of virology. Yale halted research into it because infections acquired in the laboratory there killed one worker, in addition to making [Jordi Casals-Ariet] deathly ill. Casals' team found the Lassa fever virus in the blood of three missionary nurses from the United States who had become ill in northern Nigeria. Two of the nurses died there. The third was Lily Pinneo, who had cared for her two nursing colleagues in Nigeria. She flew to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where she recovered after a nine-week stay