November  20, 2003                   

Test May Predict Adverse Reaction to Smallpox Vaccinations - www.newswise.com

Measles 'Controlled' - This Is Lancashire - "Health officials today said a mini-outbreak of measles was under control - but parents still needed to get their children immunised with the MMR jab."

Emory scientists find marker for long-term immunity - www.eurekalert.org - "Scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center and The Scripps Research Institute have found a way to identify which of the T cells generated after a viral infection can persist and confer protective immunity. Because these long-lived cells protect against reinfection by "remembering" the prior pathogen, they are called memory T cells. This discovery about the specific mechanisms of long-term immunity could help scientists develop more effective vaccines against challenging infections."

Comment:  What does this say about current methods of determining vaccine-induced immunity?

Pentagon insists vaccine deaths rare - But family of medic who died wants changes in procedure - AP via MSNBC - "Moses Lacy once accused the Pentagon of a vaccine cover-up. Now, seven months after his daughter’s death following five military-issued shots, Lacy hopes officials finally are taking his concerns about vaccine safety seriously...Some veterans groups critical of government handling of illness in people who served in the Gulf War and the Iraq conflict said they believe the smallpox or anthrax vaccines likely were the culprit in Rachael Lacy’s death — and that the Pentagon knew that all along."

Sultan Declines Comment On Polio Vaccine Crisis Until . . . - Daily Trust via www.allafrica.com

A poxy story - For several hundred years, a type of pox virus known as vaccinia has been saving lives. Today it is still proving useful to medicine - The Economist - "If researchers can discover why vaccinia, and other pox viruses, are so good at evading the efforts of immune cells, they will make a significant advance in understanding the way the human immune system works."

Hopes fade for Aids vaccine - The Guardian, UK

Valley taking the lead in autism research - The Arizona Republic

Temporal Lobe, Autism, and Macrocephaly  - journal article

Public, private effort will study autism - AP via www.indystar.com

Special-ed parents demand compliance - Groups ask for oversight hearing to address complaints - Daily Southtown

Therapeutic nutrition clinic unveils web site to help autistic children - NewsRX.com via www.healthy.net - "Nutrition Care for Children (NCFC) unveiled its new web site, www.nutritioncare.net, to help children with autism, and announced its collaboration with Lorraine Hurley, MD, and Pam Ferro, RN...Judy Converse, a licensed, registered dietitian, founded NCFC in 1999, as a private practice specializing in pediatric nutrition therapies."

New Imaging Reveals ADHD Kids Have Smaller Brain Area - HealthDay Reporter via Yahoo!

Flu closes schools in Fairplay - Nearly one-third of student population out sick at 3 facilities - Rocky Mountain News

Officials monitor flu outbreaks to study possible genetic shift - Amarillo-Globe News

Manitoba Public Health Recommends Measures To Deal With Influenza - www.gov.mb.ca

Hepatitis outbreak in Beaver County running out of gas - State officials still won't say danger has passed - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lewis And Clark Notes Reveal History Of Human Impacts - www.sciencedaily.com - "Prior to the arrival of Columbus in the Americas around 1500, the estimates of Native American population in North America ranged from 2 million to 3.8 million people. But by the time major western settlement by Europeans began in the 1800s, up to 90 percent of the Native Americans may have died from smallpox, measles and other diseases that had already swept the continent after being introduced by Europeans."

SARS Death Rate Doubles In Polluted Cities - www.sciencedaily.com

Africa's Silent Killer - Scattered gains in the battle against AIDS help nurses carry on their work in the face of formidable challenges - "More than a third of adults in Lesotho are infected with HIV or AIDS. An estimated one in 10 children has the disease. Life expectancy has dropped from 60 to 49 years old, probably because of AIDS. Health workers believe the disease is increasing among infants because, Makoae said, 'we just see babies dying maybe after one year, two years. They don't seem to reach four years.'"

AIDS treatments may up heart attack risk - The powerful drugs that beat back the AIDS virus may have a deadly drawback -- they may increase the risk of heart attack, according to a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. - Reuters via CNN - But what if HIV has nothing to do with AIDS, as many believe?

U.S. Syphilis Rate Up for Second Year - AP via The Herald-Sun

Ebola 'suspect list' drawn up as outbreak hits - The New Scientist

State to probe drugs for kids - Child advocates complain psychiatric drugs are being used to control unruly behavior, not to treat mental or emotional illness. - The Miami Herald

Malpractice Insurer Seeks 8% Rate Increase - The Tampa Tribune

Doctors, lawyers spar over malpractice costs - Cleveland Plain Dealer - "Doctors blamed lawyers. Lawyers blamed insurance companies. Both adversaries conceded that more data is needed to pinpoint kinks in the system that have belted Ohio doctors with sky-high malpractice costs."

U.S. prison shipped blood to Canada despite serious safety problems - Canadian Press via www.canada.com

More Ontario hospitals report lapses in disinfecting instruments - Globe and Mail

A cost of disease resistance: paradigm or peculiarity?- BioMedNet (requires registration)

Panel Suggests Electronic Health Records - AP via The Herald-Sun

Childhood Obesity: Do Parents Recognize This Health Risk?  - journal article

Schafer Autism Report

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