Faculty Bibliography

The controversies surrounding hormone replacement therapy have left many women confused and afraid. Providers have been faced with long-standing assumptions challenged by an abundance of new data in the past few years, with little guidance on how to interpret these findings. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework for understanding breast cancer risk associated with postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy, with a particular focus on how observational studies and randomised trials provide complementary information. This framework considers the data on risks of various hormonal preparations, the profiles of women at risk, and ends with an expert opinion in this context

At the same time, the prevalence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, U.N. officials said. The global death total would be even higher without the efforts in recent years to provide antiretroviral therapy to hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients in poor countries, said Dr. Kevin De Cock, the World Health Organization's chief AIDS official. Still, he said, such drug therapy has not reached enough poor people to match the degree of decline in death rates in wealthy countries

At the same time, the prevalence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, UN officials said Tuesday. 'Even limited resources can give high returns when investments are focused on reaching people most at risk and adapted to changing national epidemics, said Dr. Paul De Lay of the international body's AIDS program, known as Unaids. Nevertheless, 'these estimates are amongst the most robust for any disease of global public health importance,' said Dr. Kevin De Cock, the World Health Organization's chief AIDS official. The global death total would be even higher without the efforts undertaken in recent years to provide anti-retroviral therapy to hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients in poor countries, De Cock said. Still, he said, such drug therapy has not reached enough poor people to match the degree of decline in death rates seen in wealthy countries

At the same time, the prevalence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, UN officials said Tuesday. 'Even limited resources can give high returns when investments are focused on reaching people most at risk and adapted to changing national epidemics, said Dr. Paul De Lay, of the international body's AIDS program Unaids. Nevertheless, 'these estimates are amongst the most robust for any disease of global public health importance,' said Dr. Kevin De Cock, the World Health Organization's chief AIDS official. The global death total would be higher without the efforts undertaken in recent years to provide anti-retroviral therapy to hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients in poor countries, De Cock said. Still, he said, such drug therapy has not reached enough poor people to match the degree of decline in death rates seen in wealthy countries

At the same time, the prevalence of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, United Nations officials said. The officials said they were encouraged by new data showing declines in H.I.V. prevalence among young people from 2000 to 2005 in eight African countries: Botswana, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In Portugal, new H.I.V. infections among injecting drug users declined after the introduction of special prevention programs focused on H.I.V. and drug use

House [Television Program] -- [Allison Cameron] keeps [George Hagel] from being discharged from the hospital by slipping him the antiseizure drug phenytoin, which causes him to stagger and crash through a glass wall. When cerebrospinal fluid is needed, Dr. Eric Foreman decides that the patient is too obese for a routine lumbar puncture, so he takes Hagel to the operating room and inserts a needle into the back of his brain. When he does this, Hagel goes blind. Finally, House notices that Hagel's fingers are deformed (known as 'clubbing'), and orders X-rays, which confirm a paraneoplastic syndrome that House believes is associated with small cell cancer of the lung -- which would explain the coma and blindness. The diagnosis is confirmed by bronchoscopy. Hagel will be treated with radiation but is only expected to live a few months. The reality: A morbidly obese patient presents a series of unique diagnostic problems. Scanners have weight limits -- 450 pounds in many cases -- limiting imaging options. Because of Hagel's mass of fatty tissue, it would also be extremely difficult to place a spinal needle into his lumbar canal, the optimal place to draw fluid in a spinal tap. Ultimately, a neurosurgeon might be needed to place the needle in the back or the neck. But the needle would not generally be placed in the brain, and blindness as a direct result of this rare procedure is unlikely

Dr. Chan would take office in early January, filling a vacancy left by the death of Dr. Lee Jong-wook, a South Korean, from a stroke on May 22. Her term would run to June 2012. The agency's 34-member executive board nominated Dr. Chan, 59, most recently the W.H.O.'s top official on communicable disease, in secret balloting. As Hong Kong's health director, Dr. Chan led its response to two major disease outbreaks that threatened the world's health and economy. In 1997, she ordered 1.4 million chickens and ducks slaughtered to control the first cases of the A(H5N1) strain of avian influenza. In 2003, she led the investigation of SARS after the new virus, which had emerged in mainland China, had spread to Hong Kong. In 2005, she became the W.H.O.'s top official for communicable diseases