JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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For 30 years, chancroid has been an uncommon and geographically localized disease in the United States; a mean of 878 cases were reported annually between 1971 and 1980. Since 1981, however, numerous outbreaks have established chancroid as an endemic disease in many additional areas and, in 1986, 3418 cases, the largest number since 1952, were reported. ⋯ Efforts to eradicate disease in outbreak areas have been only occasionally effective and have been hampered by difficulty in locating potentially infected individuals and by travel by infected individuals. The failure to eradicate outbreaks leaves residual sources for new disease transmission into yet additional areas.
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Review
Risk factors for cutaneous melanoma. A practical method of recognizing predisposed individuals.
Cutaneous melanoma is rapidly becoming a potentially curable cancer if it is detected and properly treated in an early phase of development. Unlike other cancers, which are usually hidden from detection until they are relatively large or metastatic disease has occurred, cutaneous melanoma is readily detectable simply by examining the skin. ⋯ The most important melanoma risk factors (in decreasing order of importance) for a given individual are as follows: a persistently changed or changing mole, adulthood, irregular varieties of pigmented lesions (including dysplastic moles and lentigo maligna), a congenital mole, Caucasian race, a previous cutaneous melanoma, a family history of cutaneous melanoma, immunosuppression, sun sensitivity, and excessive sun exposure. Selective screening and appropriate treatment of individuals who have these risk factors may reduce the morbidity and mortality of cutaneous melanoma.