This induced stress in the weaker animals, causing physiological changes in the brain, including reduced brain cell production and shrinkage of the hippocampus, a critical area of the brain associated with memory and learning. After tianeptine treatment, the research team destroyed the animals to study their brain tissue. They found tianeptine had increased hippocampus volume, restored brain chemical metabolism and aided brain cell growth. These findings are reported in the Oct. 2 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Most exposure to the virus probably occurs in childhood, when there may be no symptoms, but antibodies would remain into adulthood, said Dr. Alberto Ascherio of Harvard's School of Public Health. Coupled with previous research showing that people without Epstein-Barr antibodies rarely develop multiple sclerosis (MS), the findings are "strong evidence in favor of a link," said Ascherio, lead author of the study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The GAO found similar problems on three other cancer-risk-assessment panels in recent years. In one case, seven of 17 advisory-board members worked for chemical companies or for industry-affiliated research organizations. Five other panelists had received consulting or other fees from chemical manufacturers.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- An outbreak of bubonic plague in Uganda has killed 14 people in the last three weeks, officials said. A government health official said on Thursday that the disease is believed to have been caused by an influx of rats into several villages. The rats entered four villages in the northwestern Nebbi district near the Congo border, said Dr. Dam Okware, who is coordinating the government's efforts to halt the spread of the fatal disease. The rats normally live outside the villages but seek shelter during the annual rainy season, he told Reuters. So far, 23 people have been infected with the disease, which affects the lymph nodes, and 14 have died. No new cases have been reported since October 3, Okware said. The bacterial disease is transmitted from rodents to humans by fleas living on the infected animals. Humans can also get it through direct contact with infected blood or tissues.

Should an outbreak occur, the nation's ability to respond is untested. After seven decades, responses are bound to be rusty. Private vets, for instance, have little experience with the disease. In Italy, a 1993 outbreak was spread inadvertently by a vet who failed to take proper precautions, even though he recognized the ailment. The USDA has hundreds of vets across the nation helping keep watch. But that's not many against a susceptible animal population of close to 165 million sheep, cattle and swine, especially if a farmer, wary of a costly federal quarantine, delays reporting the symptoms.

CLINTON, Okla. - Bar-S Foods is recalling 14.5 million pounds of meat and poultry products that may be contaminated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced. The company voluntarily recalled the meat, which may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Thursday. Recalled products include lunch meats, whole hams, sausages, hot dogs and corn dogs.

(http://www.chronicillnet.org/articles/summary.html) In this article, author Neenyah Ostrom comments on the failure of the poliovirus eradication program to rid the world of childhood paralysis. According to one international paralysis tracking website, thousands of cases of childhood paralysis continue to be reported worldwide each year with no apparent association with the poliovirus.

The federal government is the driving force behind the change. Pressed by advocates for pediatric AIDS patients, Congress in 1997 offered pharmaceutical manufacturers lucrative incentives to include children in their studies. And in December, the Food and Drug Administration began requiring companies to test almost all new medicines on young people.

Doctors refer to this blending of East and West, of new age and old school, as integrative medicine. It's "an approach being used at a number of major academic medical centers," says Ralph Snyderman, dean of Duke University School of Medicine. Duke, Harvard, Albert Einstein Medical Center and other institutions "have taken an approach which combines all the best of science-based conventional medicine" with alternative practices.

Anthrax can be contracted from soil or farm animals, particularly goats and sheep, but until recently had not been detected east of the Mississippi River since the 1970s, experts said yesterday. Dr. Martin Hugh-Jones, a veterinarian and anthrax expert at Louisiana State University, said acidic soil conditions in the Deep South are generally a deterrent to the organism's long-term survival. That is one key reason, officials said, that law-enforcement officials have become involved in the investigation into how two men working at a newspaper in Boca Raton, Fla., were infected with the disease, which can be deadly if left untreated. Here is a breakdown on the disease:

Despite years of warnings and legal action to prod the nation's largest blood supplier into quickly improving its safety controls, recent FDA inspections continue to find serious problems, agency officials say. "The FDA believes that existing violations are serious because they present a real potential for harm," Jay Epstein, director of the FDA's office of blood research and review, said yesterday.

Frist, 49, a second-term senator from Tennessee, chairs the Republican campaign to regain the Senate majority in 2002. He is sponsoring an alternative proposal, backed by President Bush, that limits lawsuits and damage awards.

Researchers aren't certain how frequently Borrelia burgdorferi - -the corkscrew-shaped bacteria that causes Lyme disease--attacks the brain or nervous system. Dr. Brian Fallon, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry atColumbia University and director of its Lyme Disease Research Program, estimates that if diagnosed and treated early, less than 5% of sufferers will develop brain or nerve complications--a condition known as neuroborreliosis. If leftundiagnosed and untreated, the Lyme bacterium may attack the brain or nerves in as many as 40-50% of patients.

His is a Sunday sermon the congregation does not want to hear. So when Phill Wilson steps up to the pulpit at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Los Angeles he knows he needs to shake people up. As he stares into the sea of wary black and Latino faces, Wilson tells a story about the time his brother accidentally set the house on fire, and how he and his siblings were afraid to call the Fire Department because they didn't want people to find out. Just as the congregation starts to feel comfortable with its guest speaker, Wilson--an openly gay black man and one of the country's most outspoken voices on AIDS--gets serious. "Our house is on fire!" he preaches. "The fire truck arrives, but we won't come out, because we're afraid the folks from next door will see that we're in that burning house. AIDS is a fire raging in our community and it's out of control!"

"I think it's a problem of scientific integrity. People have a right to know the outcome of research, particularly when they were participants," says researcher David Antonuccio of the Reno Veterans Affairs Medical Center.