Faculty Bibliography

With Hong Kong reporting two more cases of a new viral strain of influenza over the weekend, scientists are escalating efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic, U.S. health officials said on Monday. The new reports bring to six the number of cases attributed to a strain of influenza previously known to infect only poultry. Two of the six patients died, but none spread the disease, and it is a mystery how the virus is being transmitted, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta

With Hong Kong reporting two more cases of a new viral strain of influenza over the weekend, scientists are escalating efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic, U.S. health officials said yesterday. The new reports bring to six the number of cases attributed to a strain of influenza previously known to infect only poultry. Two of the six patients died, but none spread the disease, and it is a mystery how the virus is being transmitted, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The viral strain is entirely new, and it is far too soon to know whether the cases are the harbinger of a global epidemic or will end up as a medical oddity, said Dr. Robert Webster, of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a member of the World Health Organization's influenza team

No one was more skeptical about using magnets for pain relief than Dr. Carlos Vallbona, former chairman of the department of community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Vallbona had long been fascinated by testimonials about magnets from his patients, and even from medical leaders. But his interest in magnet therapy became more serious in 1994, when he and a colleague, Carlton F. Hazlewood, tried them for their own knee pain. The pain was gone in minutes. 'That was too good to be true,' Vallbona said. Vallbona knew that the power of suggestion can fool both patient and doctor. But he also wondered: Could strapping small, low-intensity magnets to the most sensitive areas of the body for several minutes relieve chronic muscular and joint pains among patients in his post-polio clinic at Baylor's Institute for Rehabilitation Research?

NO ONE was more skeptical about using magnets for pain relief than Dr. Carlos Vallbona, former chairman of the department of community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. So Dr. Vallbona was amazed when a study he did found that small, low intensity magnets worked, at least for patients experiencing symptoms that can develop years after polio. Dr. Vallbona had long been fascinated by testimonials about magnets from his patients, and even from medical leaders. But his interest in magnet therapy became more serious in 1994 when he and a colleague, Carlton F. Hazlewood, tried them for their own knee pain. The pain was gone in minutes. ''That was too good to be true,'' Dr. Vallbona said. First, Dr. Vallbona informally tested magnets on a few patients. One was a priest with post-polio syndrome who celebrated mass with difficulty due to marked back pain that prevented him from raising his left hand. After applying a magnet for a few minutes the pain was gone, Dr. Vallbona recalled, and, ''the priest said this was a miracle.''

Millions of Americans who took either of two diet pills removed from the market in September should get medical checkups for evidence of possible heart damage, Federal health officials said yesterday. Use of the drugs was linked in an earlier study to heart valve damage, and preliminary evidence from five surveys indicates that about 30 percent of those who used the drugs had heart valve abnormalities, although most had no symptoms. The health officials also urged that all users of the drugs -- whether or not they have symptoms of heart disease -- have an echocardiogram before any dental or other procedure for which antibiotics have long been recommended to prevent dangerous infections of a heart valve. An echocardiogram will help determine whether antibiotic prophylaxis is needed, the guidelines said

Millions of Americans who took either of two diet pills removed from the market in September should get medical checkups for heart damage, federal health officials said Thursday. The officials estimated that 1.2 million to 4.7 million people in the United States used the prescription drugs, fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, either singly or with another drug, phentermine, a combination popularly known as fen-phen. Use of the drugs was linked in an earlier study to heart valve damage, and preliminary evidence from five surveys indicates that about 30 percent of those who used the drugs had heart valve abnormalities, although most had no symptoms

In a surprising reversal of longtime health gains, fewer adult Americans are aware they have high blood pressure, fewer are getting effective therapy, and more are dying as a result, Federal health officials said here today in issuing new treatment guidelines for the ailment, which affects 50 million Americans. Over the last 25 years, therapies to fight high blood pressure have led to significant declines in deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease. But the latest health statistics show a rise in severe kidney disease and heart failure, a slight rise in the rate of stroke, and a leveling in the death rate for Americans with coronary heart disease. These conditions often occur as complications of longstanding high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension. ''We are very concerned to see this decline in awareness and control,'' said Dr. Claude Lenfant, the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a Federal agency in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Lenfant and Dr. Edward J. Roccella, who is in charge of the Government's education program on high blood pressure, said the institute was developing new public announcements and a research program intended to improve compliance with therapy, which generally has to be lifelong

In a surprising reversal of longtime health gains, fewer adult Americans are aware they have high blood pressure, fewer are getting effective therapy and more are dying, federal health officials said Thursday in issuing new treatment guidelines for the ailment affecting 50 million Americans. Over the past 25 years, anti-high blood pressure therapies have led to significant declines in deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease. But the latest statistics show a rise in severe kidney disease and heart failure, a slight rise in the rate of stroke, and a leveling in the death rate for Americans with coronary heart disease. These conditions often occur as complications of long-standing high blood pressure, also called hypertension. The reason for the abrupt reversal is not known, federal health officials and experts in high blood pressure said at a news conference. But they said contributing factors could be an increase in obesity, growing complacency among doctors and patients about high blood pressure, a large number of patients who stop drug therapy because of unwanted effects, such as decreased sexual interest and fatigue, and lack of effective communication to the public

Over the last 25 years, anti-high blood pressure therapies have led to significant declines in deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease. But the latest health statistics show a rise in severe kidney disease and heart failure, a slight rise in the rate of stroke, and a leveling in the death rate for Americans with coronary heart disease. These conditions often occur as complications of long-standing high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension

In a surprising reversal of longtime health gains, fewer adult Americans are aware they have high blood pressure, fewer are getting effective therapy and more are dying, federal health officials said Thursday in issuing new treatment guidelines for the ailment that affects 50 million Americans. Over the past 25 years, therapies against high blood pressure have led to significant declines in deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease. But the latest health statistics show a rise in severe kidney disease and heart failure, a slight rise in the rate of stroke, and a leveling in the death rate for Americans with coronary heart disease. These conditions often occur as complications of long-standing high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension