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A.
The Continuing, Deadly Threat of Tuberculosis
Narrator:
This is Science Today. It's estimated that a third
of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis
- and that figure includes about 15 million Americans
with a latent form of the bacterium. Joel Ernst,
an infectious disease specialist at the University
of California, San Francisco, says for years TB
was thought to have been conquered.
Ernst:
It certainly fell from the American consciousness,
at least most of American's consciousness, after about
the 1950s or so. Tuberculosis sanitaria were closed
because they weren't necessary anymore. Anti-tuberculosis
treatment was given as an outpatient and most people
with tuberculosis who received those drugs were cured.
Narrator:
Today however, stealthy strains of the microbe that
causes TB have brought the disease back to pre-antibiotic
days in many parts of the world, including New York
and other parts of this country.
Ernst:
The best chance of defeating it is going to be through
the development of a more effective vaccine.
Narrator:
Public health officials are also calling for
better education about the disease. For Science
Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
What to Do Before Spraying Insecticides
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Those who aggressively spray
insecticides to combat what they perceive as plant
or landscape-damaging insects may be doing these plants
- not to mention the environment - a great disservice.
Mary Louise Flint, an integrated pest management expert
at the University of California, Davis says often
times holes in plants leaves or brown spots in lawns
are caused by underwatering plants or using other
incorrect practices.
Flint: They'll go to the retail
nursery and buy an insecticide and apply it without
even looking to see if whether there is an insect
there causing that damage.
Narrator: So Flint recommends taking
a closer look at what's going on in your garden or
landscape before heading out to the store for insecticides.
And even then, Flint says you may need to do some
homework.
Flint:
First of
all, you need to determine whether there is an insect
on your plant that is causing damage. People will
spray for beneficial insects, too, not recognizing
that they are good.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Lupus: The Facts about this Autoimmune Disorder
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Lupus is an autoimmune disease
in which the body basically turns against itself.
It affects women nine times more than it affects men
and is three times more common in women of color than
in Caucasians. John Davis, an assistant director of
the University of California, San Francisco's Clinical
Trials Center says making the diagnosis is often times
difficult because the symptoms can be confused with
other illnesses.
Davis:
As an example - cancer, chronic infections can
cause the same type of symptoms that lupus causes.
Some medications can even cause a drug-induced type
of lupus. So the way to make the diagnosis is to be
seen and evaluated by a rheumatologist.
Narrator:
Some of the most common telltale signs of lupus are
fatigue, skin rashes, photosensitivity and kidney
or blood disorders.
Davis:
Each patient is an individual with the disease. Not
every patient acts the same even though they have
the same diagnosis. So even though they all have the
same diagnosis, there are different manifestations
going on within each patient.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Hardy Way to Deal with Stressful Times
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In the aftermath of the September
11th terrorist attacks, many people have been dealing
with a range of emotional and financial stress. Dr.
Salvatore Maddi, a psychologist at the University
of California, Irvine, says how a person deals with
stress is not an inherent skill - it can be learned.
In fact, Maddi trains patients to develop what he
calls 'hardiness' skills.
Maddi:
We think of it as a combination of attitudes and
skills that help you cope with stressful circumstances,
whether the stresses are big or small. The attitudes
are what we came to call the three C's - commitment,
control and challenge.
Narrator:
There are
also coping and social support skills. The hardiness
program is based on a 30-minute survey Maddi developed
and extensive research.
Maddi:
The
research has also concerned itself with evaluating
the effects of our hardy training and it shows that
the hardy training really works in the sense that
it increases hardiness, but in addition, it improves
performance, conduct, morale and health.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Non-invasive Methods Gauge How Substance Abuse Affects
the Brain
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Magnetic resonance imaging
and another method called magnetic resonance spectroscopy
have been helping researchers non-invasively study
the brain to better understand its functioning in
a variety of circumstances. Dieter Meyerhoff, a radiologist
at the University of California, San Francisco, has
been using these methods to study how the brain is
affected by alcohol abuse and recovery from alcohol.
Meyerhoff:
We're also looking at how alcohol itself interacts
with the damage that is done by either HIV infection
or substance abuse.
Narrator:
Overall, Meyerhoff says the big question they're asking
is how substance abuse affects the brain and how does
it interact with other problems.
Meyerhoff:
And that is a big problem doing what we call pure
alcohol research - finding patients who have abused
nothing else than alcohol. There is a lot of other
abuse occurring at the same time and very often, there
are many other disorders that we need to rule out
if we want to look at the pure effects of alcohol.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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