|
A.
The Great Possible Threat of Smallpox
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Recent events have linked
biological warfare and anthrax in the minds of most
Americans. But smallpox could pose a far greater
danger. George Rutherford, head of the University
of California, San Francisco's Preventive Medicine
and Public Health Division, says that after a vaccine
wiped out the highly infectious disease in the 1970s,
many people believed it was no longer a threat.
Rutherford:
Which is completely and absurdly wrong. This assumes
that 100 percent of the population is immune to smallpox.
The correct number for that is zero percent.
Narrator:
The vaccine only protects for about twenty years
and the United States stopped vaccinating civilians
thirty years ago.
Rutherford:
Basically, nobody's immune anymore. The U.S. has
15 million doses stored. There's a real worry that
they've outdated. There are currently randomized,
controlled trials going on in St. Louis trying to
see if a half-dose of smallpox vaccine will be equally
as protective as a full dose of smallpox vaccine
just as a way to double the number of doses available.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Researchers Aim to Study the Biomechanics of Shaken
Baby Syndrome
Narrator:
This is Science Today. An expert on the biomechanics
of head and neck injuries is hoping to build a more
realistic model of a baby's skull and brain to better
determine the forces involved in accidental falls
versus child abuse - particularly, shaken baby syndrome.
Mechanical engineer Werner Goldsmith, of the University
of California, Berkeley says the brain injuries that
lead many prosecutors to file charges of child abuse
may also be caused by falls or even chronic bleeding
in the brain.
Goldsmith:
I am convinced that people have been convicted of
child abuse that were innocent. I'm not saying that
there are a large number, but there are cases I've
examined where I know mathematically substantiated,
that the fall caused the death or severe brain injury.
Narrator: Goldsmith says there should
be more collaboration between pediatricians and biomechanicians.
Goldsmith:
If we can
get the two sides to come together, I think it will
be a wonderful thing for science, for medicine and
for humanity.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Deep-space Climate Satellite Set to Monitor the Earth
Narrator:
This is Science Today. For the first time, researchers
will be able to study the Earth from a vantage point
a million miles away in deep space. Francisco Valero,
director of the Atmospheric Research Lab at the University
of California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
will lead this NASA-sponsored study, called the Triana
mission.
Valero:
Normally, we put satellites in orbit very close
to the Earth. This image is usually not complete.
Satellites cannot see the whole Earth. So, Triana
goes far away enough. You can take a look at the sunlit
side of the planet in one image.
Narrator:
The Triana spacecraft and all instruments are built,
tested and calibrated and ready to explore how the
planet's climate works as an integrated system.
Valero:
That is one of the main scientific objectives of Triana.
We want to understand the radiative balance, the energy
balance of the planet and relate that to the issues
of global change and the issues of climate.
Narrator:
Triana's launch date has not yet been announced.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The 'Hospitalist' Model of Inpatient Care is on the
Rise
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent University of California,
San Francisco study has found that a growing method
of inpatient care known as the hospitalist model,
will one day be the dominant mode of hospital care
in this country. According to Jonathan Showstack,
a health policy expert at UCSF, this model provides
hospitalized patients with a hospital-based general
physician.
Showstack:
A major concern among both physicians and patients
regarding the hospitalist model is the transfer of
care once the patient enters the hospital. The concern
is that there will be a discontinuity.
Narrator:
But Showstack
says since hospitalists focus exclusively on hospitalized
patients, they'd be more familiar with the complex
hospital system than most outpatient physicians.
Showstack:
The early evidence is that the hospitalist model does
produce some savings in length of stay and fewer uses
of resources and apparently at equal or possibly better
outcomes of care.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
How to Deal with Post-9/11 Stress Disorders
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Mental health workers are only
now starting to see some long-term effects of the
September 11th attacks. It's been estimated that there
are about 70 thousand cases of post-traumatic stress
disorder in Lower Manhattan alone. So what can be
done for those diagnosed with the disorder? Frank
Schoenfeld is the director of the Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder Clinic at the University of California, San
Francisco.
Schoenfeld:
Psychotherapy's maybe the most common thing used now
because there aren't too many people who are specialists
in treating acute stress with cognitive behavioral
approaches - spiritual counseling probably being a
big one.
Narrator:
The problem, Schoenfeld says, is that treatment programs
for post-traumatic stress disorder are only loosely
organized.
Schoenfeld:
It's important to bring in expert knowledge and clinical
skills at the appropriate time and there needs to
be a network that I think is more tightly integrated
than what we have now with FEMA and the Red Cross,
the Department of Defense, the Veterans' Administration.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
|
