Infectious disease clinics of North America
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Infect. Dis. Clin. North Am. · Jun 1995
International health: beyond the year 2000. Project selection. Many needs, few resources.
With the tightening of health budgets in developing countries and aid donor allocations, the question of setting priorities is again at the forefront of policy issues. The luxury of letting a free market in health projects flourish cannot be afforded. This article reviews some of the major proposals for setting such priorities set out in recent years and argues for additional criteria to be applied, as well as the essential role of a new international mechanism to bridge the gap between the world of health research and service needs in the field. With some modest leadership in this area, the 1990s could be a time of major broad-based achievements in international health.
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Although women live longer than men, new evidence indicates women bear a disproportionately heavy burden of disease. The effect of disease on economic productivity of women in developing countries has been largely ignored. ⋯ Although men and women usually experience similar rates of many diseases, rates of exposure and treatment vary between men and women. If untreated, factors adversely affecting women's health in one stage compound women's ill health in succeeding stages.
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Infect. Dis. Clin. North Am. · Jun 1995
Some international efforts of medical schools to improve health care systems.
With growing frequency, medical schools are challenged to redirect their educational and research programs to better respond to the inadequacies of healthcare delivery systems. Some of the accomplishments and difficulties that may arise when this is attempted can be found in the experience of three new schools linked to large healthcare systems in different areas of the world.
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Central nervous system invasion by Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, occurs in many, if not most, patients with syphilis. Laboratory findings from untreated asymptomatic syphilis patients with abnormalities of cerebrospinal fluid are termed asymptomatic neurosyphilis and represent a group that has an increased risk for developing clinical neurosyphilis syndromes. Clinical neurosyphilis syndromes, which occur in a minority of patients, may become apparent at any time in the natural history of untreated disease and often cause serious morbidity for individuals who develop them. Because there is no single sensitive and highly specific test for neurosyphilis diagnosis, clinicians must approach this important syndrome using a combination of clinical and laboratory data and a firm understanding of the disease.
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Infect. Dis. Clin. North Am. · Mar 1993
ReviewStaphylococcus aureus bacteremia and endocarditis. New diagnostic and therapeutic concepts.
Staphylococcus aureus is an important and prevalent cause of both uncomplicated bacteremia, as well as endocarditis. This article addresses the following controversial strategies: diagnosis of endocarditis in staphylococcemic populations; optimal treatment strategies for right-sided and left-sided S. aureus endocarditis; use of echocardiography in S. aureus endocarditis; and therapy options for catheter-associated staphylococcemias.