The 'slippery slope': handling HIV-infected health workers
Article Abstract:
A panel of experts convened in August at the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to assess the impact on policy as the result of the probable infection of a patient by a dentist with AIDS. The ethical and moral issues that the group examined invite a number of questions, such as whether the practices of HIV-infected health workers should be limited. CDC estimates that the possibility of getting AIDS from an infected health professional is between 1 in 100 thousand and 1 in 1 million operations. However, the case of dentist to patient transmission of HIV is particularly difficult to assess, because the evidence for this source of transmission is relatively circumstantial. Even the manner by which the case became known to the CDC is extraordinary. A public health worker searching for the cause of AIDS in a young female patient learned that the patient had undergone an extraction approximately 2 years before at the hands of a dentist who was known to the case worker as an AIDS patient. A single sample of blood drawn from patient and dentist showed a genetic similarity between the HIV viral infections in both patients. There was no evidence that problems with the extraction could have led to the transfer of the virus. The biggest difficulty in this case is the mode of transmission from dentist to patient. One consultant raised the possibility that a casual transmission, perhaps an aerosol, was responsible. The consensus reached at the meeting was that a method of restricting HIV-infected health workers from performing some, or perhaps all, invasive procedures is required. It is anticipated that months of work will be required to complete the necessary procedures and rules. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1990
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JFK's death - the plain truth from the MDs who did the autopsy
Article Abstract:
In their first public interview since the assassination, the two doctors who performed the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy said with absolute certainty that Kennedy was killed by two bullets fired from above and behind that destroyed a sizable portion of his skull and brain. James Joseph Humes and J. Thornton Boswell said no one interfered with the procedure and that there was no effort to suppress the results. The chief of photography at the Bethesda (MD) National Naval Medical Center, where the autopsy was performed, took 52 photos, which were never altered or confiscated by the FBI. Humes said he burned his autopsy notes, after copying them, because they were covered with the president's blood. The doctors' determination of the cause of death was confirmed several times over the course of the decade. They dismiss the speculations of the conspiracy theorists, including Oliver Stone, who produced the film, 'JFK.'
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1992
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The sure Super Bowl bet - injured players are penalized for life
Article Abstract:
All retired football players have suffered injuries, and one-third have become partially or totally disabled as a result, yet only 3% of the injuries qualify for disability payments under the National Football League's (NFL) pension plan. Miki Yaras, director of benefits of the National Football League Players' Association has been fighting to increase that percentage for most of her 14 years on the job. She wants Lloyds of London to extend its career-ending injury coverage to all 1,650 football players in the NFL. She believes most owners lose interest in players when they retire because of injuries, but an NFL spokesman denied this. The average age at death of the first 20 players covered by the NFL pension plan who have died of natural causes is 37. The National Institute of Occupational Health is following the 9,100 players covered by the plan since it began in 1959.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1992
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