Faculty Bibliography

The spread of polio to Guinea and Mali brings to 12 the number of previously polio-free African countries that have experienced an outbreak of the disease since January 2003. The spread also deals another serious setback to the agency's efforts to eradicate the disease by year's end, a goal that is hampered by a funding gap of $100 million

Guinea's last polio case was in October of 1999; Mali's was in January 1999. Before the latest cases were confirmed, the World Health Organization had planned additional synchronized vaccination programs in 22 countries, including Guinea and Mali, in October and November. The program aims to immunize 74 million children younger than 5 years old. The outbreak originated in northern Nigeria, where the government of the Kano state had banned polio immunizations, the health organization said. Religious and political leaders there opposed polio immunization, contending that the vaccine made girls sterile and could spread the AIDS virus. As of Aug. 24, there were 602 polio cases worldwide. Of them, 476, or 80 percent, were in Nigeria. Ninety percent were in Africa, where all but two countries Nigeria and Niger had been freed of polio

Guinea and Mali are outside a ring of countries that had conducted synchronized polio vaccination programs last winter in an attempt to limit the spread of the disease from Nigeria and Niger. Polio was last reported from Guinea in October 1999 and from Mali in January 1999. In addition to Guinea and Mali, the countries to which polio has spread from Nigeria are: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Togo. Map of Africa highlighting polio-endemic countries (Niger and Nigeria) and countries reporting new cases (Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Central African Rep. and Botswana)

The spread of polio to Guinea and Mali brings to 12 the number of previously polio-free African countries that have experienced an outbreak of the disease since January 2003. The spread also deals another serious setback to the agency's efforts to eradicate the disease by year's end, a goal that is hampered by a funding gap of $100 million. Guinea and Mali are outside a ring of countries that conducted synchronized polio vaccination programs last winter in an attempt to create an immunologic firewall to limit the spread of the disease from Nigeria and Niger. Polio was last reported from Guinea in October 1999 and from Mali in January 1999. In addition to Guinea and Mali, the countries to which polio has spread from Nigeria are: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Togo

Afterward, she and I held to the slim chance of a cure. She hurried to show her latest art work at a local gallery, at the same time receiving chemotherapy. The medication made her vomit, and when she became dehydrated she carried intravenous fluids with her. She was a striking sight in my office waiting room, leaning against her IV pole as if it were a cane while talking on her cellphone to friends. I gave her morphine to make her comfortable. The drug lowers blood pressure even as it relieves advanced suffering. I tended to use high doses when a patient's life was all about pain, when he or she was lethargic from the effects of cancer and oblivious to all but the suffering. In Holland, active euthanasia is legal, which means that a dying patient can ask a physician to inject him or her with a deadly drug. This process gives the physician a new power, choosing the exact moment and the cause of a patient's death. It also requires that the physician decide when a patient's quality of life has been so compromised that death is in all ways preferable

The ostrich outbreak was detected on Aug. 2 in Eastern Cape Province, but infection probably began on July 21. Of 9,000 susceptible ostriches on the two farms, 1,500 became ill and 1,000 died, said Dr. Emily Mmamakgaba Mogajane, assistant director general in National Regulatory Services of the National Department of Agriculture. United Nations officials have warned that the strain found in Southeast Asia is a potential threat to human health. In a worst-case situation, if an individual became infected with both the A(H5N1) avian virus and a human influenza virus, the viruses could swap genes to create a new virus and cause a global epidemic

A deadly strain of avian influenza virus has killed more than 1,500 ostriches on two farms in South Africa in recent days and health officials are preparing to kill 30,000 ostriches to stop transmission elsewhere, South African and United Nations health officials said yesterday. The strain affecting ostriches has never been known to infect humans, Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's chief influenza specialist, said by telephone from its headquarters in Geneva. Nevertheless, United Nations officials are urging South Africa to impose strict biosafety measures to prevent spread of the virus and to closely monitor people for possible A(H5N2) infections. The A(H5N2) strain was detected at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South Africa by identifying certain amino acids in the virus that characterize it as highly pathogenic, or deadly strain, Dr. Stohr said. The findings were confirmed at the Veterinary Public Health Laboratory in Weybridge, England, which is part of an international network