Faculty Bibliography

Summary: The 1997-98 decline is not as big as the 1996-97 drop, and AIDS specialists request more prevention efforts Death rates from AIDS in the United States slowed again in 1998, but the rates are no longer falling as rapidly as they did from 1995 to 1997 after the introduction of combination drug therapy, health officials said Monday. The rate of infection with HIV, the AIDS virus, is no longer declining and has stabilized, the officials said. About 40,000 Americans have been infected annually in recent years

Death rates from AIDS complications in the United States slowed again in 1998. But the rates are no longer falling as rapidly as they did from 1995 to '97, after the introduction of combination drug therapy, health officials said Monday at a meeting in Atlanta. And the rate of infection with HIV, the AIDS virus, is no longer declining but has stabilized, the officials said. About 40,000 Americans have been infected annually in recent years. Although these rates are much lower than they were at their peak in the 1980s, the slowing rate of decline shows that more aggressive prevention efforts are needed, officials said. At the same time, a new method of testing blood has been providing more information about trends in new infections and fresh ways to detect hot spots of infections. These steps are expected to help focus prevention efforts on groups in which the virus is being transmitted most rapidly

Trying to lose weight quickly for an upcoming movie role, actor [MARTIN LAWRENCE], 34, last week went for a jog in suburban Los Angeles, in 100-degree heat with 40 percent humidity, wearing several layers of clothing. He was found unconscious an hour later with a body temperature of 107 degrees. Suffering from heatstroke, Lawrence remained in a coma for three days, his kidneys barely functioning. Doctors now hope he'll make a complete recovery, without any brain, kidney, or cardiovascular damage. If the body temperature rises to 105 degrees or more - as Martin Lawrence's did - that's heatstroke, the most serious of all illnesses caused by heat. If emergency treatment is not begun within two hours, the person can die. Call 911 if you are concerned about someone with dangerous heat-related symptoms

Doctors in Boston reported yesterday that a bone-marrow transplant had enabled a kidney transplant patient to survive without antirejection drugs and that nearly a year later, she was showing no sign of rejection. The circumstances of the operation were unusual: the patient had a form of cancer, multiple myeloma, that led to kidney failure as a complication, and doctors said they felt the only possible treatment was a double transplant. But they also hoped the transplants would induce a state of immune tolerance in the patient, a condition known as mixed chimerism. The new procedure has limited use, said Dr. Thomas Spitzer, a transplant researcher at Massachusetts General and a participant in the procedure. In this case, the donor was the patient's sister, increasing the chance of success because of their biological closeness. The doctors also said they used a new, less toxic type of bone marrow transplant, which allows the recipient to preserve most of her own marrow. This led, the doctors said, to the blended immune system that characterizes mixed chimerism

'Dead bodies do not create diseases among survivors,' Michel Thieren, a medical officer in the World Health Organization's department of emergency and humanitarian action, said in an interview. 'Natural disasters do not import diseases that are not already present in the affected area.'

''Dead bodies do not create diseases among survivors,'' Dr. Michel Thieren, a medical officer in the World Health Organization's department of emergency and humanitarian action, said in a telephone interview. ''Natural disasters do not import diseases that are not already present in the affected area.'' W.H.O., a unit of the United Nations, is speaking out to correct misinformation about the health hazards of disasters ''because myths are about to create panic in the field and divert the resources and the assistance from those who really need them,'' Dr. Thieren said. But Dr. Thieren's comments disputing this were echoed by other health officials, who said Turkey's greatest public health needs were to monitor the incidence of infectious diseases and restore basic water and sanitation services

Leading journals like The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and Nature have long been criticized for withholding information about their articles until publication. These embargoes, critics say, serve mainly to protect the journals' position in the marketplace. The journals respond that their efforts in evaluating and editing manuscripts justify the delays. Few would say that articles in leading journals are distorted or unreliable, but the quest for profits raises several disturbing issues: the journals' increasing appetite for publicity; how a burst of publicity from an article can inflate the importance of a new finding; the drug industry's influence on journals through advertising revenues, and the reluctance of journals to account publicly for their profits and how they are spent. Last month, Dr. Jerome P. Kassirer, the top editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, resigned under pressure in a dispute with its owner, the Massachusetts Medical Society. In January, the American Medical Association dismissed the top editor of its journal, Dr. George D. Lundberg, for publishing a survey during the Clinton impeachment hearings on attitudes about sex

MICHAEL Korda, 65, editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, went out alone for a jog in Central Park and was later found unconscious. After an alert passer-by administered CPR, Korda was rushed to the hospital. It was soon determined that Korda lost consciousness because of a cardiac arrhythmia - an irregular heartbeat causing a sharp reduction in the flow of oxygen-rich blood from his heart to his brain. Fortunately, he was resuscitated without damage

For the 10 percent of Americans fighting allergies, it's also important to make sure you've got the right diagnosis. Allergies occur when people are sensitive foreign matter, usually seasonal pollen or year-round dust mites, which when it gets into the system causes an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the nostrils, setting off runny noses and eyes. Nasalchrom inhaler spray, for one, is excellent, but only works if used a week before your symptoms usually start until the end of the season. Antihistamines such as Allegra, Zyrtec or Claritin also ward off allergic reactions if taken early and regularly

The efficacy and toxicity of foscarnet cream for the treatment of mucocutaneous herpes simplex virus lesions or lesions that were clinically unresponsive to systemic acyclovir treatment (median, 30.5 days) in AIDS patients were studied in a phase I/II, open-label, nonrandomized multicenter trial. In the study, 20 patients with advanced stages of AIDS were treated with foscarnet 1% cream five times a day for a mean duration of 34.5 days. Response of index lesions (n = 20) was judged to be completely healed (8 lesions), excellent (4 lesions), or good (1 lesion) in 65% of lesions. The median time to first negative herpes simplex virus culture of index lesion was 8 days. Among 15 patients with pain at baseline, 11 had complete resolution of pain and 2 had at least a 50% reduction. Clinical adverse events included skin ulceration (4 patients), application site reactions (3 patients), fever (3 patients), and headache (3 patients). Five (25%) patients developed new lesions due to herpes simplex virus at sites other than those being treated topically while enrolled in the study. Topical foscarnet 1% cream appears to be a safe and effective treatment for acyclovir-unresponsive mucocutaneous herpes simplex virus infection in AIDS patients