Faculty Bibliography

Assist pumps were first developed as a temporary measure to keep people with advanced heart failure or other severe cardiac problems alive while they waited for heart transplants. But when many patients, unable to get transplants, lived with the pumps for long periods -- some for four years -- doctors began looking to the device as a permanent therapy. Nevertheless, Dr. [Eric A. Rose] said that the device was not a cure for heart failure and that it involved a complication rate 2.35 times higher than that for drugs in the study. The complications included serious infections, bleeding and mechanical malfunctions like motor failure, kinking of the tubes and worn bearings. Dr. Rose said that the rate of complications was expected to fall with modifications to the device. The HeartMate is implanted in the abdomen and connected by two tubes to a ventricle, one of the heart's pumping chambers, and to the aorta, the body's main artery. One tube drains blood from the ventricle into the device, which pumps the blood to the aorta to nourish the body. Most assist pumps help the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber

About 3:30 a.m., after Dr. [Sherif R. Zaki] had finished explaining his findings, ''we walked away convinced,'' Dr. [Jeffrey P. Koplan] said. Ms. [Erin O'Connor] probably had anthrax. The C.D.C. doctors informed the New York City Health Department's top epidemiologist, Dr. Marcelle Layton. Dr. Koplan said the disease centers would remain on high alert for anthrax. The lull in reported cases ''has little meaning when a criminal act has been performed and someone is out there potentially with the will and the tools to do this again,'' Dr. Koplan said. At the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, concrete barriers now restrict access, and armed private security guards inspect visitors' cars. (Photographs by Robin Nelson for The New York Times)(pg. F4); To deal with anthrax, Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan rallied the federal disease centers' largest epidemiological force. (Associated Press)(pg. F1)

Dr. [Bruce G. Weniger] searched the National Library of Medicine's information base for scientific articles concerning the potential use of animals as sentinels for anthrax. When he found that a number of small animals were susceptible, he wondered why he had not heard of their use in the current outbreak, and he decided to ask. Why were animals not being used as sentinels in the current outbreak, Dr. Weniger asked of the speaker at the weekly meeting, Dr. Marc S. Traeger, a C.D.C. epidemic detective who is assigned to the Florida state health department. Dr. Traeger spoke about the investigation of anthrax in Florida that he had begun as soon as the first case was suspected in early October. As a veteran of West Nile fever investigations, Dr. Traeger said that health workers were using birds as sentinels for the viral infection, and that veterinarians monitor cattle and other animals for naturally occurring anthrax. Use of animal sentinels ''might be something that could be explored'' for anthrax, he said

ATLANTA - The U.S. government has begun taking steps to cope with the possibility of a terrorist attack involving smallpox by training doctors to recognize the disease and by vaccinating small teams of experts who would rush to any part of the country to contain and treat a suspected outbreak. Tens of millions of Americans under the age of 30 are susceptible to smallpox because they were never vaccinated; the United States and Canada both stopped smallpox immunizations in 1972. Tens of millions of older people who were vaccinated decades ago are thought to have decreased protection because the vaccine may have worn off. Baffled U.S. investigators have said that despite more than 1,000 leads, they are no closer to finding out who is responsible for the deadly mail assault that started after the Sept. 11 airplane attacks on the United States

Bayer, the manufacturer of Cipro, is stoking frenzy and playing into public hysteria by promoting the drug. What the drug company is not telling anybody is that Cipro was originally tested as an alternative treatment for anthrax only for penicillin-allergic patients, and a generic is just as effective and costs one-tenth of what Cipro costs.

Tens of millions of Americans younger than 30 are susceptible to smallpox because they were never vaccinated; the United States stopped smallpox immunizations in 1972. Tens of millions of people vaccinated decades ago are thought to have decreased protection because the vaccine may have worn off. Smallpox can be confused with chickenpox. In making the diagnosis, a doctor touches the skin. Smallpox lesions tend to feel as if they are deep in the skin, in contrast to the lesions of chickenpox, which feel superficial. Chickenpox itches; smallpox lesions can be very painful. Even doctors who have seen smallpox cases have been wrong. Doctors at the disease centers misdiagnosed a case of chickenpox as smallpox in Washington in the mid-1960's. And earlier this year, epidemiologists at the centers responded to a call from health officials in a Central American country where a missionary doctor who had seen smallpox became suspicious about several cases of rash and fever in a remote village. But the rash turned out to be from something else

Tens of millions of Americans younger than 30 are susceptible to smallpox because they were never vaccinated; the United States stopped smallpox immunizations in 1972

Smallpox patients are usually quite sick. The infection is characterized by a rash and a fever of at least 102 degrees. The rash and symptoms begin to develop 11 or 12 days after a person is exposed to the virus. The characteristic lesions can occur anywhere on the body, but they usually appear on the face first, and they tend to appear more on the arms and legs and less on the chest, abdomen and back. Palms and soles are favorite areas. The earliest lesions tend to appear as raised bumps that often contain fluid. Over a period that can last as long as 19 days, the lesions become firm, filled with pus, and then form scabs. The illness can leave its victims blind and scarred. Smallpox can be confused with chickenpox. In making the diagnosis, a doctor touches the skin. Smallpox lesions tend to feel as if they are deep in the skin, in contrast to the lesions of chickenpox, which feel superficial. Chickenpox itches; smallpox lesions can be very painful

Smallpox can be confused with chickenpox. In making the diagnosis, a doctor touches the skin. Smallpox lesions tend to feel as if they are deep in the skin, in contrast to the lesions of chickenpox, which feel superficial. Chickenpox itches; smallpox lesions can be very painful

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is taking the steps, say they have no evidence that anyone is readying a terrorist attack using smallpox, a disease that was eradicated worldwide 21 years ago. But they say smallpox is so deadly that it is important to prepare for any attack. Smallpox is of particular concern because of its potential to spread quickly. Tens of millions of Americans under the age of 30 are susceptible to smallpox because they were never vaccinated; the United States stopped smallpox immunizations in 1972. Tens of millions of older people who were vaccinated decades ago are thought to have decreased protection because the vaccine may have worn off. Another major concern is that generations of American doctors have never seen a case of smallpox. The only ones who have are a few hundred doctors who participated in the World Health Organization's smallpox eradication program decades ago