Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to John S James.
An outbreak of staphylococcus skin infection, causing large boils that are difficult to treat because these bacteria are resistant to many antibiotics, has spread recently among gay men in some cities, and also in certain prisons. In the past this infection occurred mainly in hospitals.
Citizen-action campaigns (like getting people to call Congress or their state representatives to support Medicaid, ADAP, or other program for access to medical care) could get much more response if they were made accessible to the millions of people who are already supportive but not already involved. We suggest several ways to make action alerts and other citizen organizing work better.
The presidential initiative to increase funding for global AIDS prevention and treatment is widely seen as a groundbreaking advance. But critical time will be lost if the U.S. focuses so heavily on building its own new system, instead of using multinational organizations like the Global Fund that are ready now.
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People with HIV and certain other medical conditions must avoid smallpox vaccination, and also vaccinia infections from others who have been vaccinated recently.
Governments can override patents for legitimate purposes, including public health. But many small or poor countries hve no pharmaceutical industry to manufacture medicines themselves, and global trade rules being phased in will prevent others from exporting to them without the patent holder's permission. Negotiations to solve this problem broke down when the U.S. insisted that any agreement apply only to AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and similar major epidemics--excluding cancer, heart disease, and hundreds of other diseases.
Gilead Sciences announced that it will make its drug tenofovir available at cost in all of Africa, and in some of the poorest countries elsewhere.
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Besides antivirals and immune-based treatments, a third approach is to reduce the harm caused indirectly by HIV, which is probably more important than the direct killing of infected cells. Some animals do not get sick when infected with HIV-like viruses despite very high viral loads--suggesting that they have successfully evolved to tolerate the virus instead of eradicating or suppressing it. Understanding how they do so might lead to a new kind of HIV treatment.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.