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Reuters Health: Gum disease poses heart risks
The bacteria that build up in gum disease can travel through the bloodstream
to the heart and contribute to artery-clogging plaque buildup, according
to the results of a study in animals conducted by Caroline Genco, a MED
associate professor of medicine, and researchers have also observed that
people with gum disease seem to be at risk of heart disease, says the
September 30 Reuters Health. Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria can actually
migrate from the mouth to the heart, says Genco, and cause inflammation
in arteries, which promotes atherosclerosis. Researchers are working to
develop a vaccine against P. gingivalis that could help reduce the incidence
of heart disease, Genco says, but adds, "It is very important to
practice good oral hygiene and to see a dentist regularly, especially
if you have other risk factors for heart disease."
National Review: New American Girl marketed as "first"
Kaya, Pleasant Company's newest addition to its popular
American Girls doll line, takes the series in a new direction, writes
Peter Wood, a CAS associate professor of anthropology, in the September
26 issue of the National Review. She is marketed as "the first American
girl," he says, based on her biography as a member of the Nez Perce
tribe of the aboriginal people living in America in 1764. Unlike the other
American Girls, who live in moments of ethnic oppression and social crisis
-- for example, Kirsten is an immigrant pioneer girl growing up in Minnesota
in 1854, Addy is living in Philadelphia in 1864, having escaped slavery
with her mother, Kit is growing up in 1934, during the Depression, and
Molly, who lives in 1944, has a father serving overseas in the U.S. armed
forces -- Kaya lives at the apex of her culture's development. The Lewis
and Clark Expedition is still 40 years away, and Chief Joseph's famous
surrender to the U.S. Army, "I will fight no more forever,"
will not occur for more than a century. But Kaya is a pure fantasy figure,
Wood writes, who "will, however, spare your daughter the lessons
on plantation agriculture, the hacienda system, immigration policy, slavery,
class disparities, the Great Depression, and war that the other American
Girls purvey." However, he concludes, "In a market crowded with
vacuous Barbies and gimmicky dolls of every multicultural type, the American
Girls stand out as exceptionally well-conceived toys. Too bad that they
are also helping to pass along a sense that American history is mainly
a story of identity groups and consumerism."
New York Times: New plan for smallpox attack
Federal health officials instructed states last week to prepare to vaccinate every American in the event of a biological attack using smallpox and issued a detailed 48-page plan, entitled "Smallpox Vaccination Clinic Guide," showing how each state could quickly inoculate as many as one million people in the first 10 days. An article in the September 24 New York Times says that the new guide supplants the earlier "ring vaccination" plan in which public health workers would track down and vaccinate infected people and those who came into contact with them, working in concentric circles until the outbreak was contained. William Bicknell, an SPH professor in the department of international health, who is critical of the ring vaccination plan because recent studies show it would not contain a large outbreak, says that a mass vaccination would contain an epidemic in 40 to 45 days. "If they do it correctly, with the proper planning, you can vaccinate millions and millions of people in a very short time," he says.
4
October 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations