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Announcing The INs and OUTs of HIV therapy-Chicago, USA. 22 September

2001

Get the latest information and register now for the CME certified

Satellite Symposium chaired by Michael Saag, MD, Saturday, September

22, 2001, 20.15  - 22.15 at the McCormick Place, Room E451, while

attending the 41st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and

Chemotherapy (ICAAC) Supported by an unrestricted educational grant

from Roche and Trimeris Pharmaceuticals. http://InsandOutsofHIV.com

 

 

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MedPulse is a weekly index of key news and features on Medscape's

specialty sites compiled by Medscape's Editors.

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___________________ NEW FEATURE ARTICLES THIS WEEK ____________________

 

-- MEDSCAPE ORIGINAL ARTICLES --

 

FOCUSED CLINICAL REVIEW: THE MANAGEMENT OF INFECTIOUS DIARRHEA

Scott D. Lee, MD, and Christina M. Surawicz, MD, discuss the clinical evaluation and approach to management of acute diarrhea.

Medscape Gastroenterology 3(5), 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42450.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUG LEVELS

The present approach of administering a standard fixed dose of an antiretroviral drug to all adults is not likely to ensure the optimal anti-HIV response, and strategies that integrate pharmacologic knowledge into the design of dosing regimens warrant careful evaluation

Medscape HIV/AIDS: Annual Update 2001. (C) 2001 by iMedOptions, LLC.

http://id.medscape.com/42393.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

THERAPEUTIC DRUG MONITORING: STEP BY STEP

A practical guide to analyzing and optimizing antiretroviral drug levels in HIV-infected patients.

Medscape HIV/AIDS: Annual Update 2001. (C) 2001 by iMedOptions, LLC.

http://id.medscape.com/42394.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

MEDLINE ABSTRACTS - ANTIVENOM THERAPY

What's the latest in snakebite antivenom therapy? Find out in thiseasy-to-navigate collection of recent MEDLINE abstracts compiled by the editors at Medscape Pharmacotherapy.

Medscape Pharmacotherapy, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42470.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES --

 

WEST NILE VIRUS: A REEMERGING GLOBAL PATHOGEN

The recognition of West Nile virus in the Western Hemisphere in the summer of 1999 marked the first introduction in recent history of an Old World flavivirus into the New World.

Emerging Infectious Diseases (7)4, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42466.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

EMERGENCE OF METRONIDAZOLE-RESISTANT BACTEROIDES FRAGILIS, INDIA

The authors report the first metronidazole-resistant strain of B.fragilis from India.

Emerging Infectious Diseases 7(3), 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42389.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

PROPER NOMENCLATURE FOR THE HGE AGENT

Until a cogent reclassification based on objective criteria is firmly accepted, the creation and use of new scientific name combinations for a single bacterium yield clinical and laboratory confusion and should be avoided.

Emerging Infectious Diseases 7(3), 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42391.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS IN MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS STRUCTURAL GENES

A recent article by Fraser et al. discussed the frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two genomes of M tuberculosis. The article contains an inaccurate representation of the published M. tuberculosis data on SNP frequency.

Emerging Infectious Diseases 7(3), 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42392.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- INFECTIONS in MEDICINE --

 

NEW ORLEANS CITYWIDE ROUNDS: AN INGUINAL MASS

A 41-year-old homosexual man was referred by his primary care physician with the chief complaint of a mass in his left groin that had failed to respond to multiple courses of antibiotics.

Infect Med 18(8):375-377, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42474.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL --

 

NONTUBERCULAR MYCOBACTERIAL PULMONARY INFECTION IN IMMUNOCOMPETENT MEN

Nontubercular mycobacteria are increasingly recognized to cause lung disease in immunocompetent patients.

South Med J 94(7):719-723, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42456.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- OTHER JOURNALS --

 

THE USE OF TANNIC ACID IN THE LOCAL TREATMENT OF BURN WOUNDS: INTRIGUING OLD AND NEW PERSPECTIVES

A whole array of remedies has served in the local treatment of burns through the ages.

Wounds 13(4):144-158, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42459.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

SUSPECTED ALLOPURINOL-INDUCED ASEPTIC MENINGITIS

Drug-induced aseptic meningitis is a syndrome with symptoms similar to those of infectious meningitis.

Pharmacotherapy 21(8):1007-1009, 2001

http://id.medscape.com/42468.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

_______________________________________________________________________

___________________________________ NEWS ______________________________

 

-- TUBERCULOSIS --

 

INTENSIVE CONTROL EFFORT PREVENTS TB CASES AND DEATHS IN PERU

Peru's adoption a decade ago of DOTS (directly observed treatment—short course) as the treatment strategy for tuberculosis has prevented a substantial number of cases and deaths.

http://id.medscape.com/42541.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- INFLUENZA --

 

AVIRON SAYS NO NEW CLINICAL TRIALS NEEDED TO GET FLUMIST BACK ON TRACK

The US Food and Drug Administration has requested additional information from Aviron with regard to its biologics license application for the influenza vaccine FluMist, the Mountain View, California-based concern said on Monday evening.

http://id.medscape.com/42380.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

NEW INTRANASAL INFLUENZA VACCINE SHOWS PROMISE IN CHILDREN

A new inactivated, intranasal anti-influenza vaccine prompts antibody responses in children, according to results of a small study by Israeli researchers.

http://id.medscape.com/42525.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

GENETIC TWEAK TURNED AVIAN INFLUENZA VIRUS INTO 1997 KILLER

Using new technology called plasmid-based reverse genetics, investigators in Wisconsin have demonstrated that a single-base alteration in the gene encoding hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein changes a mildly infectious influenza virus into a killer.

http://id.medscape.com/42546.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- HIV/AIDS --

 

GB VIRUS C MAY INHIBIT HIV REPLICATION

Two reports in the New England Journal of Medicine for September 6 suggest that infection with the GB virus C -- also known as the hepatis G virus -- improves survival in patients infected with HIV by directly influencing HIV replication.

http://id.medscape.com/42404.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

DRUG-RESISTANT HIV REACHING EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS

By 2005, 42% of all HIV patients in San Francisco will not respond to drugs currently used to treat the disease, according to UCLA investigators.

http://id.medscape.com/42311.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

MANY HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS RECEIVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE FROM MEDICAL

PROVIDERS

Nearly half of a nationally representative cohort of HIV-infected individuals had experienced a mood or anxiety disorder within a 1-year period, according to two reports in the Archives of General Psychiatry for August.

http://id.medscape.com/42333.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

RATE OF HIV TESTING DURING PREGNANCY INCREASING, BUT STILL LOW

Since the US Public Health Service released guidelines in 1995 recommending HIV testing for all pregnant women, the proportion of women tested has increased.

http://id.medscape.com/42339.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

UNAIDS STRESSES HARM CAUSED BY HIV STIGMA, DISCRIMINATION

Only by removing the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS and discrimination against those infected can communities break the cycle that links AIDS to poverty, racism, and gender inequality, representatives of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said today.

http://id.medscape.com/42425.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

RWANDA REORGANIZING ITS EFFORTS TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS

The president of Rwanda, a sub-Saharan country with one of the highest HIV infection rates, delivered the keynote address here at AIDS Vaccine 2001, the first international scientific meeting devoted to vaccine research and development.

http://id.medscape.com/42543.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

This is only a selection of this week's HIV/AIDS NEWS. Read all the latest news about advances in this field, from Reuters and Medscape Wire.

http://www.medscape.com/hiv/news

 

And you can subscribe to the HIV/AIDS Medpulse, as well as other specialty Medpulses, by updating your profile at the following link:

http://www.medscape.com/profile

 

-- OTHER STDs --

 

FREE CONDOM DISTRIBUTION ENCOURAGES BOYS TO ACCESS SEXUAL HEALTH

SERVICES

Distributing free condoms at a sexual health clinic appears to help teenage boys overcome their reluctance to access sexual health services, according to investigators in London.

http://id.medscape.com/42340.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

HPV TESTING PLUS CERVICAL CANCER SCREEN IS COST EFFECTIVE IN

HIV-INFECTED WOMEN

Adding molecular testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) to a cervical cancer screening program for HIV-infected women improves outcomes and is cost effective compared with annual cytological screening alone, investigators report.

http://id.medscape.com/42299.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

AGGRESSIVE HPV VARIANT COMMON AMONG MEXICAN WOMEN WITH CERVICAL CANCER

An aggressive human papillomavirus 16 variant, known as the Asian-American (AA) variant, is often found in Mexican women with cervical cancer, a finding that may help explain the high incidence of cervical cancer in Mexico.

http://id.medscape.com/42363.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

TESTING FOR HIGH-RISK HPV FLAGS FALSE-NEGATIVE CERVICAL SMEARS

Baseline cervical smears of women who go on to develop cervical cancer usually contain high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA before any cytologic abnormalities are identified, according to a report by Dutch researchers.

http://id.medscape.com/42408.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

 

-- HEPATITIS --

 

DAILY HIGH-DOSE INTERFERON INDUCTION THERAPY NOT ADVANTAGEOUS IN

HEPATITIS C

Initial induction treatment with daily high-dose lymphoblastoid interferon (IFN) alpha-n1 appears to be no better than the standard interferon regimen for chronic hepatitis C, Spanish researchers report in the August issue of the Journal of Medical Virology.

http://id.medscape.com/42320.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

COMBINED HEPATITIS A/B VACCINE PROVIDES LONG-TERM IMMUNITY

A combined vaccine against hepatitis A (HAV) and hepatitis B (HBV) elicits long-term antibody persistence in adults and children, according to a report in the September Journal of Medical Virology.

http://id.medscape.com/42401.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- PEDIATRIC ID --

 

ALGORITHM IMPROVES DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF BREATHING DIFFICULTIES IN CHILDREN

A modification to the WHO algorithm for the management of childhood acute respiratory infections can help in differentiating infection from wheeze-related disorders -- and in choosing appropriate empiric treatment in the primary care setting -- according to a study from

India.

http://id.medscape.com/42398.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

BEHAVIOUR AND COGNITIVE PROBLEMS CAN PERSIST FOR CHILDREN WITH OTITIS MEDIA

Children with otitis media with effusion (OME) can have behaviour and academic performance problems into at least their early teens, according to a report in the August issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

http://id.medscape.com/42321.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

ROUTINE ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS OF BURN WOUNDS IN CHILDREN NOT NECESSARY

Routine antibiotic prophylaxis against group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GAS) infection is not necessary in children with burns, according to Dr. Robert L. Sheridan and others at the Shriners Burn Institute in Boston.

 

-- GI TRACT --

 

FAMOTIDINE, OMEPRAZOLE COMPARABLE IN H. PYLORI TREATMENT

Famotidine or omeprazole used in combination with amoxicillin and tinidazole appear equally effective in eradicating Helicobacter pylori infection, according to Taiwanese researchers.

http://id.medscape.com/42352.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- CJD/BSE --

 

BRITAIN HAS NOT LEARNED 'MAD COW' LESSON, SCIENTIST SAYS

Just as Britain confirmed its 2000th case of foot and mouth disease, a leading scientist said Tuesday the government had not learned the lessons of an earlier farming crisis -- mad cow disease.

http://id.medscape.com/42377.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- AIDS VACCINES --

 

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM SETS TONE OF FIRST INTERNATIONAL AIDS VACCINE

CONFERENCE

The first international, abstract-driven AIDS vaccine conference opened here Wednesday night with a note of cautious optimism.

http://id.medscape.com/42544.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

NIH ACCELERATES AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH

Since 1990, the US National Institutes of Health has increased HIV/AIDS vaccine research funding by more than six-fold, with a projected budget of $356.6 million for fiscal year 2002, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),

told conference participants here Wednesday night.

http://id.medscape.com/42536.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

UGANDA AND IAVI ACCELERATE AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH

In a partnership agreement signed on August 30th, the Government of the Republic of Uganda and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) have agreed to work together to accelerate the development and testing of three AIDS vaccines.

http://id.medscape.com/42312.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- CNS INFECTIONS --

 

POWASSAN VIRUS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS CAUSE OF ENCEPHALITIS

Four cases of encephalitis attributed to Powassan virus, a North American tick-borne flavivirus, arose in Maine and Vermont between September 1999 and July 2001 -- the first cases in the United States since 1994.

http://id.medscape.com/42527.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

MENINGITIS IN INFANCY CAN LEAD TO SEVERE, SUBTLE DEFICITS

Five-year-old children who contracted meningitis during their first year of life are at a 10-fold higher risk of severe or moderate disability than children who never had meningitis, according to prospective study results.

http://id.medscape.com/42519.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- DRUG NEWS --

 

NEW APPROVAL - REBETOL

An archive of news announcement from the FDA's HIV/AIDS email list.

http://id.medscape.com/42387.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

FDA ADVISORY MTG, TENOFOVIR AND VORICONAZOLE

An archive of news announcement from the FDA's HIV/AIDS email list.

http://id.medscape.com/42388.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

-- OTHER ID NEWS --

 

SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE MAY BE GLOBAL WARMING'S GREATEST MEDICAL THREAT

Climate change associated with global warming is already increasing the spread of infectious diseases, researchers at the New York University School of Medicine maintain, and is likely to cause increasing threats to public health if not reversed.

http://id.medscape.com/42336.rhtml?srcmp=id-090701

 

______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________ MEMBER NEWS ___________________________

 

Medscape Membership Information

http://www.medscape.com/Home/Help/Tech/MedPulse.html .

 

ORGASM INDUCED ASTHMA?

Believe it or not, it is possible. Listen to what CBS Healthwatch's

expert has to say on this and several other Asthma related issues.

http://www.medscape.com/mp/AE/orgasmasthma

 

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Stay up-to-date with the latest clinical information on several

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Newsletters available to you for free. To add or change your

subscription preferences, point your browser to the link below and edit

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http://www.medscape.com/Home/registration/profile/Profile.html

 

MEDSCAPE DRUGINFO DATABASE

Drug Search 2000 is a market-leading drug information search tool based

on our integrated database. This database was developed  as a joint

effort of First DataBank, the American Society of Health-System

Pharmacists and Medscape. The database combines information from the

National Drug Data File with information from the American Hospital

Formulary Service Drug Information.

http://promini.medscape.com/drugdb/search.as

 

MEDSCAPE GIVES YOU THE LATEST ON HEPATITIS C TREATMENT

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection is increasing worldwide.

Medscape's Hepatitis C Resource Center gives you

the latest medical news and clinical information on this disease entity,

with an emphasis on approach to management.

Stay informed with Medscape.

http://www.medscape.com/mp/rc/hepc

 

 

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