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A new skin test developed by a team of federal scientists at the CDC in Atlanta promises to improve the surveillance for the deadly Ebola infection that occurs in remote areas of Africa

WASHINGTON - Fifty years after tuberculosis became curable, a worldwide surge in drug-resistant strains of the disease is occurring not just because of the limits of medical science but also because of the profit motives of pharmaceutical companies, experts at an international meeting here last week said. Many participants, in all 250 experts from 40 countries, also strongly criticized the World Health Organization, a UN agency in Geneva, for spending minuscule amounts on tuberculosis after declaring it a 'global health emergency.' While it was the first time the agency had so designated any disease, it spent only $800,000 of its $1 billion annual budget on tuberculosis. It also spent $4.6 million from other sources on tuberculosis last year

WASHINGTON - Fifty years after tuberculosis became curable, a worldwide surge in drug-resistant strains of the disease is occurring, not just because of the limits of medical science but also because of the profit motives of pharmaceutical companies, experts said at an international meeting here last week. There are more cases of tuberculosis today than ever worldwide. At least 2 million people die from it each year, many from strains of the bacteria that have become resistant to the available drugs

Dr. Lee Reichman, executive director of the National Tuberculosis Center at the New Jersey Medical School in Newark, said at the meeting that when he had briefed a New Jersey political leader about a growing tuberculosis problem in that state, the elected official, whom he did not identify, said, 'My constituents don't get TB!' 'the drugs sit in a laboratory drawer' because a number of big drug companies have rejected offers to develop them, Dr. Bloom said. 'It's very discouraging.' Dainippon, Dr. Reichman said, 'took back the license from Parke-Davis and transferred it to Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer, which held U.S. rights for Sparfloxacin' against other diseases.

After years of recommending AZT as the first-line drug for treating the virus that causes AIDS, federal health officials are considering a change because of surprising results with other drugs. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview that he planned to convene a meeting where independent experts could decide whether AZT should remain the first choice. A large study paid for by Fauci's institute and reported last week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine, or ddI, and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine (ddC)

WASHINGTON - After years of recommending AZT as the first-line drug for treating the virus that causes AIDS, federal health officials are considering a change because of surprising results with other drugs. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview that he planned to convene a meeting at which independent experts could decide whether AZT should remain the first choice. A large study paid for by Fauci's institute and reported last week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine, or ddI, and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine (ddC)

A large study paid for by Dr. Fauci's institute and reported this week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine, or ddI, and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine, known as ddC. The participants were randomly divided into four groups, which received AZT alone, ddI alone, a combination of ddI and AZT, or a combination of ddC and AZT. Of the participants, 57 percent had taken AZT before entering the study, and 43 percent had not. Although all three other treatments in the study fared better than AZT alone, among participants who had never taken AZT the most significant benefit was found in those who received the combination of ddC plus AZT

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview that he planned to convene a meeting where independent experts could decide whether AZT should remain the first choice. A large study paid for by Fauci's institute and reported last week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine, or ddI, and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine (ddC)

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview that he planned to convene a meeting where independent experts could decide whether AZT should remain the first choice. A large study paid for by Fauci's institute and reported last week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine, or ddI, and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine (ddC). One part of the study showed that ddI lowered the rate of death from HIV infection to 5 per cent from 10 per cent when compared with the use of AZT alone over 147 weeks

Federal health officials warned yesterday that a drug prescribed to treat high blood pressure and heart disease should be used \'with great caution, if at all,\' and that the safety of related drugs taken by millions of Americans was unclear. The warning from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute applied specifically to large doses of the short-acting form of nifedipine, which is marketed as Procardia by Pfizer Inc. and as Adalat by Bayer Co. Calcium channel blockers help relax arteries by selectively preventing movement of calcium ions across cell membranes of heart muscles and blood vessels without changing the amount of calcium in the blood