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Presents news in the field of medicine. Speculation about the cerebral condition of United States Assistant Health Secretary Philip Lee; Right-to-die activists in Oregon; Risk factors for the transmission of HIV; More.

The article comments on the state of healthcare services in New Orleans, Louisiana after 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Healthcare professionals that stayed in New Orleans after Katrina are working to build a system of healthcare that is more effective, efficient, and equitable than the system in place before the hurricane. Before Katrina, Louisiana residents without health insurance received care at one of the state's ten public hospitals, while insured residents went to private hospitals. Public hospitals were underfunded, yet the private hospitals were able to provide expensive specialty care to patients, thus creating a socioeconomically based discriminatory system of medical care. The article comments on ways to reform the healthcare system.

Discusses the work done by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). How she turned the organization around; Importance of her health reforms; Categories of division in the WHO; Use of cost-effective interventions; Efforts to combat malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS; Role of the private sector in providing health services; Debate about whether WHO should implement programs or simply develop them.

Examines the efforts to improve public health along the United States-Mexico border. Role of director Dan Reyna of the New Mexico Border Health Office in Las Cruces; Different approaches to public health in the United States and Mexico; Problem of poverty on the United States side of the border.

Presents a discussion with the leaders of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, Gordon Perkin and William Foege. How the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed money to help prevent and eradicate disease in developing countries; How the monetary gifts have helped revitalize a number of global health initiatives and refocused attention on medical care in developing nations.

Reports on legal developments in the field of medicine. Confidentiality in notifiable disease; Massachusetts Institute of Technology's research on suicide gene cloning; Gen for Wilson's disease.

The article examines how effective the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been in its five years of operation. In 2002, the Fund was launched to raise, manage, and disburse funds to fight the three major diseases killing people in poor countries, which were HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and maleria. According an announcement from the Global Fund in the spring of 2007, the program has treated nearly 3 million turberculosis patients, distributed more than 30 million insecticide-treated bednets, and provided antiretroviral drugs to more than 1 million people infected with HIV. In April 2007, a new executive director to over the management of the organization. The article discusses some of the challenges the new executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, will be facing.

This article reports that the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs is on the rise in the United States according the U.S. government statistics. The abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs jumped 21 percent from 2004-2005. Data suggests that non-medical use of pain relievers was second only to marijuana use. Lloyd Johnston, a professor who tracks adolescent drug use, believes the increase in the abuse of mainstream drugs is due to the perception by teens that illicit drugs are too dangerous but over-the-counter and prescription drugs are safe.

The article focuses on a report issued by the U.S. Institute of Medicine analyzing the progress of the U.S. Global AIDS Initiative since its beginning in 2003. The report praises the program for a strong start in coping with the pandemic, and for its concentration on aiding the countries most affected by the disease. The need to move towards self-sustaining programs for prevention and treatment of the disease in those countries is cited.

The author reports that U.S. President George W. Bush has asked the U.S. Congress to create a federal tax deduction for health insurance. Bush says that it will make health insurance less expensive, reduce the number of uninsured persons and help keep health care costs down. However, those opposed to the plan believe it is not much more than an additional tax break for wealthy Americans that could lead to the collapse of the employer-based health insurance system in the U.S. and do little to assist low-income workers in purchasing insurance. The benefits and drawbacks of the plan are discussed.

The article looks at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to FDA's acting commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, the FDA must change the way it examines and approves new drugs and medical devices. The article discusses FDA's failure to act on the application of the morning after emergency contraceptive, the FDA's Critical Path Initiative, legislation in U.S. Congress that would allow more changes in drug-approval process of the FDA, known as the "Access, Compassion, Care, and Ethics for Seriously III Patients Act," and a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that criticized the FDA's monitoring of postmarket drug safety.

The article looks at how a number of hospitals in the United States have begun adopting Toyota Motor Corp.'s management techniques, including those related to cost cutting, error reduction and patient satisfaction. The author reviews how the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington has sent teams of observers to study how the company operates. The development and history of the "Toyota Development System" is reviewed. According to the author, the goal of the approach is to refine production so that work flows smoothly from one step to the next with no wasted time, effort, or resources. Comparisons between how the approach is applied to the automobile manufacturing industry and how it might be applied to health care are discussed.

Mentions a draft report on homeopathy that is being published by the World Health Organization's Department of Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy. Allegation that the report, "Homoeopathy: review and analysis of reports on controlled clinical trials," is biased toward alternative medicine; Critics of the report, including Cees Renckens, chairman of the Dutch Union Against Quackery, and Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in England; Skepticism for the 2003 report that acupuncture was proved effective in clinical trials; The brief history of homeopathic practice, which was developed by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s; Information about the WHO traditional medicines program.

Focuses on the economic elements of the obesity epidemic. Report that rates of obesity continue to rise despite the warnings of doctors and public health campaigns; Significance of environmental factors in overeating behaviors; Impact of economic factors on health behaviors; Report that the cost of high-fat, high-sugar foods have fallen, while rates of obesity among the poor have risen; Discussion of collaborations between economists and public health workers to address economic factors of obesity; Discussion of food choices and obesity as issues of public health.

Focuses on the design of hospital rooms and the views of Craig Zimring, professor of architecture and psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture. Discussion of Zimring's report, "The Role of the Physical Environment in the Hospital of the 21st Century: A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity," which was co-authored by Rober Ulrich, professor at Texas A&M University; Idea that hospital design impacts medical outcomes; The high level of noise around nursing stations; Reasons for high turnover in nursing; The importance of decentralizing floor plans and replacing multi-patient rooms with single one; The additional cost of design changes that improve outcomes; Websites where the report will be posted.

Reports on community-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or CA-MRSA, which are resitant to all β-lactam antibiotics, including cephalosporins. Virulence of CA-MRSA in some United States communities; Outbreak among prison inmates and others; Indication that hospital strains are resistant to several drugs; Characteristics that distinguish CA-MRSA strains from hospital MRSA strains; Mention of pediatric research and mortality by Robert Daum and co-workers in Chicago and by Sheldon Kaplan and co-workers in Texas; How β-lactam antibiotics kill staphylococci; Significance of the mecA gene and cassette in MRSA strains; Efforts to determine the virulence and prevalence of CA-MRSA; Recommended first-line therapy.

Focuses on the ALLHAT hypertension and lipid treatment trial. Comment of epidemiology professor, Paul Whelton, who was on the ALLHAT steering committee; Details of the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack study which compared calcium-channel blocker amlopidine, the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor lisinopril, and the α-adrenergic blocker doxazosin with chlorthalidone, an old thiazide diuretic; Reaction of drug companies to the results; Discussion of the outlook for marketing campaigns.

Reports that the first HIV vaccine to be tested in a large randomized clinical trial failed to reduce overall infection rates. Number of volunteer participants; Percentage of blacks, Asians, and other non-white volunteers who did not contract the virus; Questions as to why some certain groups have a better immune response to the vaccine; Comments from Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID);How the vaccine is composed of recombinant forms of the HIV surface protein.

New training methods for U.S. combat medics are transforming the care of war casualties. In late afternoon of October 3, 1993, Robert Mabry, then a U.S. Special Forces medic in the 15-man Combat Search and Rescue Team, drop-roped from a hovering helicopter into the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, to join in a battle that was to become the most intense, sustained firefight U.S. combat forces have fought since the Vietnam War. Mabry and his fellow soldiers were assigned to the first crash site. As they drop-roped they came under intense fire, and within minutes after landing, several of the rescue team had been hit, including Mabry. Experiences like Mabry's and those of other combat medical personnel have led the U.S. military to re-examine the training of combat medics. Since the Vietnam War, U.S. military tactics and the nature of warfare have changed.

Presents a brief history of the World Health Organization (WHO). International cooperation for disease prevention and control; Importance of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); Initiation of the WHO in 1948; Mass campaigns against yaws, endemic syphilis, leprosy, and trachoma; Examples of WHO activities.

Reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended that GlaxoSmithKline be allowed to market alosetron, a serotonin antagonist, for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Discussion of side effects and deaths due to alosetron, which was previously withdrawn from the market; Demand of IBS patients for access to the drug; Provision that there be significant restrictions on who can prescribe the drug and that patients be carefully followed.

Discusses the outlook for health care reform in the United States as of November 18, 2000. How the Senate and the House of Representatives are evenly split among the Republicans and the Democrats; Speculation as to the outcome of the presidential election; Speculation that compromise could occur on several major health issues such as a patients' bill of rights, Medicare reform and the medically uninsured, due to pressure from the public.

Reports on the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's issuance of an official statement warning physicians to use with great caution short-acting nifedipine in the treatment of hypertension, angina, and myocardial infarction. Results of a panel review of studies that have raised concerns about the safety of the drug; Analysis of mechanisms to explain the adverse reactions seen with nifedipine.

Highlights the Ninth International Congress of Immunology in San Francisco, California on July 23-29, 1995. Research presented by Stephan H.E. Kaufman of the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany; Vaccine development study by Robert L. Modlin of the University of California Los Angeles; Symposium on autoimmunity in the central nervous system.

Reports on the state of Oregon's vote to allow their physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medicines to terminally ill patients who wish to take their own lives. Oregon as the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide; Terms of the ballot initiative; American Medical Association's (AMA) opposition to the Oregon measure.

Reports on the need to enforce laws that discourage the use of tobacco products by children and youth in the United States. Percentage of American smokers; Need to establish a tobacco-free social norm; Recommendations of the panel from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.

Reports on the federal government's full-scale investigation of the long-term physiological effects of radiation exposure of patients who received nasopharyngeal radium irradiation. Use of nasopharyngeal radium irradiation to relieve lymphoid obstruction of the eustachian tube and for other ear, nose and throat problems; Nasopharyngeal irradiation of submarine sailors and military aviators.

Reports on Genentech Inc.'s denial of charges that it has engaged in illegal marketing schemes to promote off-label use of its genetically engineered human growth hormone called Protropin. Company's alleged efforts to recruit normal children as patients; Areas of concern in connection with the company's marketing schemes.

Reports on the lawsuit filed by the state of Mississippi against 13 American tobacco companies. Compensation and punitive damages sought for smoking-related Medicaid expenses; Arguments used by tobacco companies in winning previous lawsuits.

Reports on the National Association of Community Health Centers' lawsuit challenging the federal government's policy of granting waivers that allow states to implement managed care programs for Medicaid patients. Unfairness of managed care programs to the poor and community health center networks; Alleged illegality of Medicaid waivers granted by the government.

Reports on a ruling by US District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein that mentally competent and terminally ill adults have a constitutional right to commit suicide with the assistance of a physician. Nature of the case brought to court by three terminally ill patients, four physicians caring for the terminally ill and the Compassion for Dying group; Rationale for Rothstein's ruling.

Reports on the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) charge that Upjohn Co. committed a misconduct when it tried to conceal dangerous side-effects of the sleeping pill Halcion or triazolam; Conduction of the investigation in 1991 and 1992; Summary of the FDA's report; Marketing of Halcion; Other charges by the FDA against Upjohn; Reactions of Upjohn officials to the FDA's report.

Reports on the blood shortages in the United States blood bank. Urgent public appeals for donations; Blood bank official's suspected causes of the January crisis. INSET: UK donation drive, by Sarah Ramsay..

Describes how Tabita Bricci, a Pentecostal Christian, went all the way to the US Supreme Court to refuse a caesarean section. Doctors' opinion that the child would be born dead or severely brain damaged; Attorney Colleen Connell; Court rulings; Bricci's natural birth.

Reports on the approval of Mutual of Omaha insurance company to pay for an unconventional `lifestyle change' program to treat heart disease without drugs or surgery. Use of stress management, yoga and meditation, exercise and strict low-fat diet to reduce atherosclerotic lesions and heart disease; Evaluation of severity of ischemia and response to treatment.

Reports on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' release of guidelines for the use of antiretroviral drugs recommended for the treatment of HIV-infected adults. Comparison with previous guidelines; Appropriate zidovudine dosage for individual patients.

Discusses a consensus statement issued by the US National Stroke Association and seven other neurological organizations. The statement that patients with stroke should be evaluated and treated within six hours of the onset of symptoms; The series of stroke-prevention screenings which was launched by the National Stroke Association; More.

Reports that 15 large US and European drug companies have agreed to collaborate in some clinical testing of their antiviral AIDS drugs. Details of the Inter-Company Collaboration for AIDS Drug Development; Comment from Daniel Hoth, director of the AIDS division of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; More.

Informs that Florida has become the first state to enact a wide-ranging health-care reform plan based on `managed competition.' The chartering of 11 non-profit `Community Health Purchasing Alliances'; Possible impact on insurance premiums; More.

Comments on the shooting death of Dr. David Gunn, by an anti-abortion protester. Admission by Michael F. Griffin that he pulled the trigger; View of Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Pamela Maraldo; The Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act; More.

Comments on a report from the US National Research Council (NRC), which suggests that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has had little effect on US society as a whole. Focus on the changes that the epidemic has caused in the public health system, health-care finance and delivery, clinical research and drug regulation, religious organizations and more.

The article presents a profile of Michel Kazatchkine, the executive director of the Global Fund to fights AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The article discusses the early portion of Kazatchkine's career, which included studying at St. Mary's Hospital in London, England, and then going to Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1985, Kazatchkine started an AIDS clinic in a district of Paris, France, that had the highest rates of the disease. According to the article the AIDS work done by Kazatchkine in Paris led his to become Director of the French National Agency for AIDS Research, in 1998. He would then take part in the early planning meeting for the Global Fund, which he would go on to become the executive director of in 2007.

This article reports on the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhoeae in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer recommends fluoroquinolones for the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The drugs have lost their therapeutic effect as a drug resistant strain of the disease, believed to have come from south east Asia, took hold in America. The CDC is recommending the use of ceftriaxone or cefixime in the treatment of uncomplicated urogenital or anorectal gonorrhoeae. Cephalosporins are the last class of antibiotic for which resistance has not been detected.

The article discusses efforts by U.S. scientists to lobby the Congress for greater funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), lest American leadership in biomedical research be ceded to European and Asian competitors. On March 19, 2007, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni appeared before a U.S. Senate committee. He testified that the NIH clinical research budget in real terms adjusting for inflation dropped off 35% since 2002 and NIH grants have declined 20-30% in the same time period. The 2003 budget of U.S. President George W. Bush calls for a cut, rather than a rise in NIH funding.