Faculty Bibliography

After years of controversy and delay, federal officials Friday approved the first vaccine in the United States to prevent chickenpox, one of the most contagious childhood diseases. Saying the vaccine was 70 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing the viral infection, the Food and Drug Administration gave Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., approval to market the chickenpox vaccine for children 1 or older. The vaccine, known as Varivax, will be available in about six weeks and costs doctors $39 a shot, the company said. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading association for pediatricians, said it would soon recommend the vaccine for all children and for adolescents and adults who have not had the disease. The academy is working with an expert committee on immunization practices that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to draft consistent guidelines for use of the vaccine

In a significant finding about the body's natural defenses, scientists have found that the tongue harbors natural antibiotic substances that protect cuts from being infected by the billions of microbes that infest the mouth. The new finding adds to a growing body of evidence that animals produce a variety of natural antibiotics that serve as a defense against infection. The cow tongue antibiotic is a short protein known as a peptide. Because the tongues of humans and cows are similar, the human tongue presumably possesses a similar antibiotic defense mechanism, although its peptides remain to be identified, said Dr. Michael Zasloff, the head of the team from the Magainin Research Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., that reported the finding in Friday's Science

After years of controversy and delay, federal officials on Mar 17, 1995 approved the first vaccine in the US to prevent chicken pox, one of the most contagious childhood diseases. The FDA said the vaccine was 70% to 90% effective in preventing the viral infection

After years of controversy and delay, federal officials Friday approved the first vaccine in the United States to prevent chicken pox, one of the most contagious childhood diseases. Saying the vaccine was 70 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing the viral infection, the Food and Drug Administration gave Merck & Co. approval to market the chicken-pox vaccine for children 1 or older. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading association for pediatricians, said it would soon recommend the vaccine for all children and for adolescents and adults who have not had the disease. The academy is working with an expert committee on immunization practices that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency in Atlanta, to draft consistent guidelines for use of the vaccine

In a significant finding about the body's natural defenses, scientists have found that the tongue harbors natural antibiotic substances that protect cuts from being infected by the billions of microbes that infest the mouth

In a significant finding about the body's natural defenses, scientists have found that the tongue harbors natural antibiotic substances that protect cuts from being infected by the microbes that infest the mouth. The new finding adds to a growing body of evidence that animals produce a variety of natural antibiotics that serve as a defense against infection. The cow tongue antibiotic is a short protein known as a peptide

Complications of these drugs, referred to by doctors as NSAIDs (pronounced EN-seds), are a significant public health problem. The complications have been described in a medical journal as the most prevalent serious drug toxicity in the United States. [Warren] Christopher's ulcer sent him to the intensive care unit of Ottawa Civic Hospital during President Clinton's visit to Canada the week of Feb. 20. Doctors there said the ulcer had been caused by complications of Ansaid, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug made by Upjohn Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich. It is one of 25 NSAIDs approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration. Among people aged 65 and over, half have pain or swelling in at least one joint. Rheumatologists say it would be harder to give patients relief if NSAIDs were not available. Their use is expected to increase as more people live longer. But some experts say that aggressive marketing practices of drug companies have made NSAIDs too popular and that many people could get as much relief with fewer adverse effects and at less cost if they took milder drugs like acetaminophen (Tylenol), which is not an NSAID. Some prescription NSAIDs cost 12 times more than over-the-counter ibuprofen

The bleeding stomach ulcer that Secretary of State Warren Christopher suffered as a complication of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug he took for arthritis vividly illustrates the dangers of such drugs. Complications of these drugs, referred to by doctors as NSAIDs (pronounced EN-seds), are a significant public health problem. The complications have been described in a medical journal as the most prevalent serious drug toxicity in the United States. Christopher's ulcer sent him to the intensive care unit of Ottawa Civic Hospital during President Clinton's visit to Canada the week of Feb. 20. Doctors there said the ulcer had been caused by complications of Ansaid, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug made by Upjohn Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich. It is one of 25 NSAIDs approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration

Mr. Christopher's ulcer sent him to the intensive care unit of Ottawa Civic Hospital during President Clinton's visit to Canada last month. Doctors there said the ulcer had been caused by complications of Ansaid, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug made by the Upjohn Company of Kalamazoo, Mich. It is one of 25 Nsaid's approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration. About 3.4 percent of the 2.2 billion prescriptions written each year are for Nsaid's. Millions more nonprescription Nsaid's are bought as over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen, which are often used for short-term use to relieve inflammation and pain from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Nsaid's are among the oldest commercial drugs still on the market; aspirin and another Nsaid, sodium salicylic acid, were developed in the 19th century. In the 1950's, drug companies began marketing the first newer ones and the numbers have been increasing ever since. The latest Nsaid approved was in 1993. Most studies of the drugs last only a few weeks, while the pain of the condition is present for months or years in most cases. Few studies have compared the effectiveness of an Nsaid with that of a pure analgesic like Tylenol, and 'one of the main reasons for this paucity of comparative studies of simple analgesics and Nsaid's must be the vested interests of the pharmaceutical industry,' Dr. Dieppe's team wrote