Experts predict that in a few years, the virus will be nationwide. Those on the front lines of the public health campaign to eliminate West Nile Virus say it was money well spent. The virus, which is especially dangerous to the elderly, killed one person this year. Seventeen others, most of them in New York, became severely ill.
Mysteries remain, including how the virus got the United States in the first place.
Indeed, the potential use of placebos for medical benefit and their continued use in clinical trials are recent subjects of considerable interest and controversy among the lay public and scientists alike. The placebo effect has also been an increasing focus of attention as an important phenomenon to be understood. Perspectives on the necessity for including a placebo in randomized clinical trials also will be examined. Arthur Kleinman, MD, professor of Social Anthropology, Harvard University, and of Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Harry A. Guess, MD, PhD, vice president, Epidemiology, Merck Research Laboratories, will serve as conference co-chairs. Earlier this week, the Clinton administration put in place a final safety standard that it says will prevent hundreds of thousands of painful workplace injuries a year caused by repetitive motion.