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Health officials said on Jun 25, 1996 that about 120 people in the New York City area had been stricken by an intestinal ailment caused by an exotic microbe, and they said the illness had been reported in at least ten states and in Ontario Canada. Health officials remain baffled about why the microbe, known as cyclospora, has struck predominantly among adults, only east of the Rocky Mountains, and what is causing it to spread this year

At least 30 children in Haiti have died of acute kidney failure after taking contaminated liquid acetaminophen made by a pharmaceutical company in Haiti, international health officials said last night. Haitians traveling in the United States were warned to discard any bottles of liquid acetaminophen bearing the trade names Afebril and Valodon in case they were contaminated, the Pan American Health Organization in Washington said

United States and Canadian health officials said yesterday that they are mystified by the outbreak of an intestinal infection caused by an exotic microbe. So far a few hundred cases have been reported in at least eight states and Toronto since early May. Outbreaks and sporadic cases have occurred in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts and Toronto. Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta declined to name other states with cases on grounds that the information was preliminary and the states had not issued public statements. Although no deaths from cyclospora have been reported, some patients have needed to be hospitalized because of dehydration

US and Canadian health officials said on Jun 19, 1996 that they were mystified by the outbreak of an intestinal infection caused by an extoic microbe, known as cyclospora. So far, a few hundred cases have been reported in at least eight states and Toronto since early May. The microbe can cause cramping abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, nausea, a mild fever up to 102 degrees Fahrenheit and extreme fatigue

At least 35 people in the New York City area have been stricken since early May 1996 by an exotic parasitic intestinal infection whose source is unknown, health officials said on Jun 18. New York City Health Dept officials said they were alerting doctors and laboratories to look for the parasite, Cyclospora cayetanensis, among patients with unexplained intestinal symptoms. There have been no deaths

Dr. Randas Batista says he has often had dramatic success in performing the operation on more than 300 patients since 1994 near Curitiba in southern Brazil. Several heart surgeons say they have come away amazed after watching Batista do the operation in Brazil or in visits to hospitals in the United States. After shedding their skepticism, several surgeons have performed a small number of the operations at hospitals in the United States, Britain, Italy and other countries. The operation is 'mind-boggling' and 'one of the most important developments in heart surgery in years,' said Dr. Tomas Salerno, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Buffalo General Hospital. The two surgeons grew up in nearby towns in Brazil but did not meet until Batista trained under Salerno in Toronto from 1978 to 1982

Recently, DNA sequences of what appear to be a unique human herpesvirus-like agent (HHV-8) have been detected in different types of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) tumors (Chang, Y., E.C. Cesarman, M.S. Pessin, F. Lee, J.C. Culpepper, D.M. Knowles, and P.S. Moore. 1994. Science (Wash. DC). 266:1865-1869). To further elucidate the possibility that HHV-8 plays a role in the pathogenesis of KS, the expression of HHV-8 RNA was examined in fresh KS tissue specimens which were found to harbor HHV-8 DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The transcription of HHV-8 RNA was detected by RT-PCR in 26 of 29 specimens (89.7%) of the KS tumors including 2 of 3 CKS and 24 of 26 AIDS-KS. No positive signal was detected in eight biopsy specimens of normal skin from healthy donors. By Northern blot analysis, the expression of HHV-8 was detected in 2 of 10 KS tumors examined. Furthermore, the RNA transcripts were observed in endothelial cells lining the irregular vascular spaces and perivascular spindle-shaped cells histologically characteristic of KS in 2 out of 8 different KS specimens examined by in situ hybridization using an antisense probe specific of HHV-8. The detection of RNA expression of HHV-8 in KS tumors further supports the possible etiopathogenic role of this virus in the development of KS

The surgeon, Dr. Randas Batista, says he has often had dramatic success in performing the operation on more than 300 patients since 1994 near Curitiba in southern Brazil. Several heart surgeons say they have come away amazed after watching Batista do the operation in Brazil or in visits to hospitals in the United States. After shedding their skepticism, several surgeons have performed a small number of the operations at hospitals in the United States, Britain, Italy and other countries. The operation is 'mind-boggling' and 'one of the most important developments in heart surgery in years,' Dr. Tomas Salerno, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Buffalo General Hospital, said in an interview. He and Batista grew up in nearby towns in Brazil but did not meet until Batista trained under him in Toronto from 1978 to 1982

Randas J. V. Batista, a Brazilian surgeon, has developed a bold new operation for heart failure that supporters say promises ultimately to allow tens of thousands of people to resume daily activities, stop many medications and avoid transplants. The operation defies conventional medical wisdom because it removes living tissue from the heart. The size of an enlarged heart is reduced by cutting out a large slice of living muscle from the main pumping chamber, which is then stitched together while the heart is beating

Working under primitive conditions in a small rural hospital in Brazil, a surgeon has developed a bold new operation for heart failure that supporters say promises to allow tens of thousands of people to resume daily activities, stop many medications and avoid transplants. The operation defies conventional medical wisdom because it removes living tissue from the heart. The size of an enlarged heart is reduced by cutting out a large slice of living muscle from the main pumping chamber, which is then stitched together while the patient's heart is beating