Faculty Bibliography

The World Health Organization and the Chinese government are taking extraordinary steps to confirm that a suspected case of SARS in a 32-year-old television producer in southern China is truly SARS, officials of the United Nations agency said Sunday. The man is recovering well from pneumonia, possibly caused by SARS, in a hospital in Guangzhou. But findings from tests for SARS conducted in three laboratories in Guangdong and Beijing are inconclusive, the W.H.O. said. Initial tests show no evidence of antibodies to SARS in the patient's blood, Dr. Klaus Stohr said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the W.H.O. investigation of SARS earlier this year

Most of Mr. [Ted Morgan]'s book covers what historians have called 'the Communist problem' and 'the Communist issue.' The former involved the penetration of the federal government by Communist agents during the New Deal era and World War II, a time when security measures ranged from lax to nonexistent. As Mr. Morgan demonstrates, American Communists were able to construct spy networks in the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Manhattan Project with remarkable ease. 'Soviet espionage harvested a full crop of spies,' he writes, including Alger Hiss, Julius Rosenberg and Harry Dexter White. Mr. Morgan finds much to admire about the young 'Senator [Joe McCarthy],' including compassion and generosity. But as McCarthy 'rose in politics, he abandoned whatever scruples he may have had and gave in to expediency,' Mr. Morgan writes, continuing, 'He was like a character in a medieval morality play, fought over by an angel and a devil.' The devil won. Mr. Morgan's narrative provides ample evidence of the damage done to individuals and institutions by McCarthy and his allies. But Mr. Morgan is right, I think, to portray the senator and the Communist Party as equal partners in the soiling of American politics, with 'both employing falsehood and deceit, both using heated rhetoric and hidden informants, and both making unfounded charges against their government'.

Having reduced the worldwide incidence of paralytic polio by 99% over the last 15 years, the organization, a U.N. agency, said it was on the verge of eradicating polio when the Nigerian setback occurred this year. Nigeria has reported the largest number this year, 251, compared with 145 for the comparable period last year. Epidemiologists have traced the spread of polio from Nigeria to four countries that were previously thought to be polio-free: Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana and Togo. Niger, the fifth country, has had a succession of imported cases. Four polio cases have also occurred since late June in Lagos in southern Nigeria, which had been polio-free since April 2001

The C.D.C. does not know how many Americans have become ill from influenza this season; the agency does not keep that statistic. Its usual basis for declaring a flu epidemic is a statistical calculation concerning the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia. So far, that measure has not indicated an epidemic. Distinguishing between the symptoms of a cold and those of the flu or the many other viruses that can cause respiratory illness at this time of year, Dr. [Julie L. Gerberding] said, ''Colds generally creep up on people and are associated with runny nose and a lot of nasal congestion, sore throat and sneezing'' -- symptoms that are less common with influenza. People with influenza should stay at home, to avoid transmitting the virus to commuters and fellow workers, Dr. Gerberding said, and should also drink plenty of fluids and take over-the-counter medications that help address specific symptoms. But parents should not give aspirin to children or teenagers suffering from the flu, because of the risk that doing so could lead to their developing brain or liver damage

About three dozen children have died from influenza or its complications, David Daigle, a spokesman for the centers, said. But, on average, 92 children die every year from influenza. Mr. Daigle said the centers expected to send out epidemiologists around the country to study pediatric cases, and one element they want to study is whether other infections are joining with the flu virus to produce some of the more severe cases. In Texas, Children's Medical Center of Dallas had 644 confirmed flu cases as of yesterday, compared with 97 for the entire flu season last year, a hospital spokesman, Reyes Abila, said. At least 225 children have been hospitalized there, with 32 in intensive care, most on ventilators, Mr. Abila said. Three have died, including two who had underlying illnesses. The third was healthy but developed a severe bacterial infection in addition to influenza. Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Utah, said there seemed to be an increase in influenza in the Salt Lake City area. Incidence of influenza is about five times what it has been in children in the last four years at his hospital, Dr. Pavia said

About three dozen children have died from influenza or its complications, according to David Daigle, a spokesman for the centers. But, on average, 92 children die every year from influenza, and it is not yet known whether the disease this year will be unusually severe among children. Daigle said the disease centers expected to send out epidemiologists around the country to study pediatric cases in an effort to learn whether other infections are joining forces with the flu virus to produce some of the more severe cases. At least 225 children have been hospitalized, with 32 in the intensive care unit, most on ventilators. Three have died, including two who had underlying illnesses. The third was healthy but developed a severe bacterial infection in addition to influenza

The World Health Organization said yesterday that a 44-year-old medical researcher who is ill with SARS in a Taiwan hospital appeared to be an isolated case. The researcher apparently developed SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, after working with the virus in a military laboratory in Taiwan. Health officials in Taiwan and in Singapore, where the man had traveled after exposure in a high-security laboratory, are tracing his contacts. They are being monitored for signs of SARS, Mr. [Dick Thompson] said in a telephone interview. Taiwan reported to the World Health Organization that the researcher was probably exposed to the SARS coronavirus on Dec. 5, two days before he traveled to Singapore for a meeting. He returned to Taiwan on Dec. 10, around noon, felt unwell that night and put himself in quarantine at home. On Dec. 16 his symptoms worsened and he called an ambulance to take him to a hospital

Most of the 24 states reporting widespread influenza are in the West, and Dr. Ostroff noted that ''in many relatively severe flu years, approximately two-thirds of the states will be reporting widespread activity.'' The uncertainty is not limited to where influenza will strike. The virus also changes so frequently that scientists have to alter almost yearly the vaccine to protect against it. Scientific committees make educated guesses about the choice of the three strains of influenza virus used in each year's vaccine. This season's demand appears to have outrun supplies. One reason is that health officials and doctors have urged people to be immunized in the event that SARS returns. While there has been no known transmission of SARS since last summer, there is no test to detect it in its initial stages, so doctors confronted with a patient with respiratory disease might have trouble telling whether it is SARS or influenza. If the patient is vaccinated against influenza, the thinking goes, there might be less chance of confusion

Adam Ereli, another department spokesman, said the surgery had been scheduled for some time, but that [Colin Powell] and his aides had not chosen to disclose it until the day it was performed. They got it at its early stage, Ereli said. Ereli said that [James Baker] would limit his contacts to discussion of Iraq's debt. Any suggestion that Powell is being shunted aside is a bunch of hooey, said Ereli, who called the Baker-Powell relationship complementary, not competitive

News of Mr. [Colin Powell]'s cancer surprised all but his closest associates. Adam Ereli, another State Department spokesman, said the surgery had been scheduled for some time, but neither Mr. Powell nor his aides chose to disclose it publicly until the day it was performed