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Armenian National Institute, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the Armenian National Institute website.

Mercury Exposure And Malaria Prevalence Among Gold Miners In Pará, Brazil, Ellen K. Silbergeld, Denis Nash, Circey Trevant, G. Thomas Strickland, Jose Maria De Souza, Rui S.U. Da Silva

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Outbreak Of West Nile Virus Infection In The New York City Area In 1999, Denis Nash, Farzad Mostashari, Annie Fine, James Miller, Daniel O'Leary, Kristy Murray, Ada Huang, Amy Rosenberg, Abby Greenberg, Margaret Sherman, Susan Wong, Marcelle Layton

Publications and Research

Background In late August 1999, an unusual cluster of cases of meningoencephalitis associated with muscle weakness was reported to the New York City Department of Health. The initial epidemiologic and environmental investigations suggested an arboviral cause.

Methods Active surveillance was implemented to identify patients hospitalized with viral encephalitis and meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid, serum, and tissue specimens from patients with suspected cases underwent serologic and viral testing for evidence of arboviral infection.

Results Outbreak surveillance identified 59 patients who were hospitalized with West Nile virus infection in the New York City area during August and September of 1999. The median age …

The Role Of Pathology In An Investigation Of An Outbreak Of West Nile Encephalitis In New York, 1999, Wun-Ju Shieh, Jeannette Guarner, Marci Layton, Annie Fine, James Miller, Denis Nash, Grant L. Campbell, John T. Roehrig, Duane J. Gubler, Sherif R. Zaki

Publications and Research

An outbreak of encephalitis occurred in New York City in late August 1999, the first caused by West Nile virus in North America. Histopathologic and immunopathologic examinations performed on human autopsy materials helped guide subsequent laboratory and epidemiologic investigations that led to identification of the etiologic agent.

Update: West Nile Virus Encephalitis — New York, 1999, Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Denis Nash

Publications and Research

The West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis outbreak continues to wane in the Northeast with the onset of cooler temperatures and continued vector-control operations. This report updates the progress of the ongoing investigation. Since the last published update (1), five additional domestic human cases and one international case have been identified. As of October 19, 56 (31 confirmed and 25 probable) cases of WNV infection have been identified, including seven deaths (Figure 1). The date of onset of the latest cases was September 22. The international case was a Canadian citizen who had visited the New York City (NYC) area in …

Update: West Nile-Like Viral Encephalitis — New York, 1999, Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Denis Nash

Publications and Research

The outbreak of human arboviral encephalitis attributable to a mosquito-transmitted West Nile-like virus (WNLV) continues to wane in the Northeast (Figure 1). As of October 5, the number of laboratory-positive cases had increased to 50 (27 confirmed and 23 probable), including five deaths. The increase in cases is mainly a result of completed retesting with West Nile virus antigen of specimens previously tested with the related St. Louis encephalitis virus antigen and to intensive retrospective case finding in the ongoing epidemiologic investigations (1,2).

Outbreak Of West Nile-Like Viral Encephalitis -- New York, 1999, Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Denis Nash

Publications and Research

An outbreak of arboviral encephalitis was first recognized in New York City in late August and has since been identified in neighboring counties in New York state. Although initially attributed to St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) virus based on positive serologic findings in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples using a virus-specific IgM-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the cause of the outbreak has been confirmed as a West Nile-like virus based on the identification of virus in human, avian, and mosquito.

The Guillain-Barre Syndrome And The 1992-1993 And 1993-1994 Influenza Vaccines, Tamar Lasky, Gina J. Terracciano, Laurence Magder, Carol Lee Koski, Michael Ballesteros, Denis Nash, Shelley Clarke, Penina Haber, Paul D. Stolley, Lawrence B. Schonberger, Robert T. Chen

Publications and Research

Background
The number of reports of influenza-vaccine-associated Guillain-Barré syndrome to the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System increased from 37 in 1992-1993 to 74 in 1993-1994, arousing concern about a possible increase in vaccine-associated risk.

Methods
Patients given a diagnosis of the Guillain-Barré syndrome in the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 influenza-vaccination seasons were identified in the hospital-discharge data bases of four states. Vaccination histories were obtained by telephone interviews during 1995-1996 and were confirmed by the vaccine providers. Disease with an onset within six weeks after vaccination was defined as vaccine-associated. Vaccine coverage in the population was measured through a random-digit-dialing …

When The Hazard Is Human: Irrationality, Inequity, And Unintended Consequences In Federal Regulation Of Contagion, Paula Berg

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rhodococcus Equi And Arcanobacterium Haemolyticum: Two "Coryneform" Bacteria Increasingly Recognized As Agents Of Human Infection, R. Linder

Publications and Research

Rhodococcus equi and Arcanobacterium haemolyticum, formerly classified in the genus Corynebacterium, are members of the loosely defined taxon "coryneform" bacteria. Although they are the etiologic agents of distinct human infections, both organisms are frequently overlooked, which results in missed or delayed diagnoses. R. equi, long known as an important pathogen of immature horses, has become in the past three decades an opportunistic pathogen of severely immunosuppressed humans. Most cases are secondary to HIV infection. When specifically sought in throat swab cultures, A. haemolyticum is found responsible for 0.5% to 2.5% of bacterial pharyngitis, especially among adolescents. These two microorganisms represent …

On Epidemiology And Geographic Information Systems: A Review And Discussion Of Future Directions, K. C. Clarke, S. L. Mclafferty, B. J. Tempalski

Publications and Research

Geographic information systems are powerful automated systems for the capture, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial data. While the systems have been in development for more than 20 years, recent software has made them substantially easier to use for those outside the field. The systems offer new and expanding opportunities for epidemiology because they allow an informed user to choose between options when geographic distributions are part of the problem. Even when used minimally, these systems allow a spatial perspective on disease. Used to their optimum level, as tools for analysis and decision making, they are indeed a new …

A Population-Based Serologic Survey Of Immunity To Tetanus In The United States, Peter J. Gergen, Geraldine M. Mcquillan, Michele Kiely, Trena M. Ezzati-Rice, Roland W. Sutter, Gabriel Virella

Publications and Research

Background. Vaccination rates are frequently considered a surrogate measure of protection. To provide more accurate estimates, serum levels of antibody against tetanus were measured as part of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which studied a representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States.

Methods. We measured tetanus antitoxin using a solid- phase enzyme immunoassay in serum samples from 10,618 persons six years of age and older who were examined during phase 1 of NHANES III in 1988 to 1991.

Results. Overall, 69.7 percent of Americans six years of age and …

Consumption, Silicosis, And The Social Construction Of Industrial Disease., D. Rosner, G. Markowitz

Publications and Research

In the wake of the bacterial revolution after Robert Koch identified the tuberculosis bacillus, medical and public health professionals classified the various forms of consumption and phthisis as a single disease--tuberculosis. In large measure, historians have adopted that perspective. While there is undoubtedly a great deal of truth in this conceptualization, we argue that it obscures almost as much as it illuminates. By collapsing the nineteenth-century terms phthisis and consumption into tuberculosis, we maintain that historians have not understood the effect of non-bacterial consumption on working-class populations who suffered from the symptoms of coughing, wasting away, and losing weight. In …

Bibliography: Women, Aids, & Activism, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

This annotated bibliography of the ACT UP/NY Women & AIDS Book Group's Women, AIDS & Activism reflects the scientific, feminist, gay, lesbian, HIV-community work that informed the book's production and ACT UP/NY's activism up to 1990. Book Group members: Marion Banzhaf, Cynthia Chris, Kim Christensen, Alexis Danzig, Risa Denenberg, Zoe Leonard, Deb Levine, Samuel Lurie, Monica Pearl, Catherine Gund, Polly Thistlethwaite, Judith Walker, and Brigitte Weil. Additional members of the original Women and AIDS Handbook Group included Jamie Bauer, Heidi Dorow, Maria Maggenti, Ellen Neipris, Ann Northrop, Sydney Pokorney, Karen Ramspacher, Maxine Wolfe, and Brian Zabcik.

Caring Choices: Decision-Making About Treatment For Catastrophically Ill Newborns, Betty Wolder Levin

Publications and Research

Decision making for catastrophically ill newborns has recently emerged as a social issue. Advances in biomedical technology and practice, and changes in other economic, social and political factors have led to controversy about norms to guide treatment choice. While much has been written on how such decisions should be made, there has been little social science research on how such decisions are actually made.

The purpose of this dissertation is to elucidate the way that clinicians think about treatment decisions for catastrophically ill newborns. The focus is on decision making with respect to the limitation of treatment in those situations …