Yaws was introduced into the Americas by African slaves beginning in the 16th century and may have already been present before the arrival of Columbus. In the 1950s, programs for the eradication of yaws were undertaken in almost all American countries in which yaws was endemic. By mass treatment of cases and contacts with penicillin, the programs against yaws have dramatically reduced the incid...

The search for plasma lipoproteins began at the turn of the century. It was not until 1949 that a meeting of the Faraday Society celebrated the separation of the alpha and beta lipoproteins. At that moment, ultracentrifugists in Berkeley were already busily converting "alpha" to high density lipoprotein and "beta" to low density lipoprotein; the modern era of lipoproteins had begun. Over the su...

Infant mortality rates vary from area to area. Part of this variation is due to the socioeconomic characteristics of the area and part to other factors including the obstetric, paediatric, and community health services. Four social indicators associated with infant deaths are used to control for some of the variations in socioeconomic characteristics and residual variation is then examined. The...

Since December 1967, 263 human cardiac transplant operations have been performed throughout the world. Eighty-two of these were performed at Stanford University Medical Center, In 1974, 27 such operations were performed, 15 at Stanford Survival rates for the entire Standford series are 48% at one year and 25% at three years; survival rates at one and three years for patients surviving the first...

IT HAS BEEN a hundred years since Alexander Graham Bell succeeded in transmitting speech electrically. As is well known, the first words spoken by Bell on the telephone on 10 March 1876 were: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." What is not generally remembered is that the very first telephone call was also the first telephone call for medical assistance for Bell had just upset the wet battery ...

Sickness and non-work-related accidents in 1973 left the Nation’s workers with a short-term potential earnings loss of $20.9 billion. Cash benefits, largely through accident and sickness insurance and sick leave, replaced $7.2 billion or almost 35 percent of the loss. In 1973, even more than in previous years, inflation helped to push the income-loss and benefit levels above the levels a year e...

The Rorschach Inkblot Test has been the source of long-standing controversies as to its nature and its psychometric properties. Consistent with behavioral science research in general, the concept of statistical power has been entirely ignored by Rorschach researchers. The concept of power is introduced and discussed, and a power survey of the Rorschach literature published between 1975 and 1991...

According to preliminary estimates of the Nation's health spending in fiscal year 1975, health expenditures reached $118.5 billion, or $547 per person. Total health spending showed a 14-percent rise, significantly higher than the increase in 1974 when price controls in the health industry were in effect for most of the year. The acceleration of health spending during 1975 was accompanied by a s...

The arterial switch operation, also called the Jatene procedure, is an operation in which surgeons redirect the flow of blood through abnormal hearts. In 1975, Adib Jatene conducted the first successful arterial switch operation on a human infant. The arterial switch operation corrects a condition called transposition of the great arteries, abbreviated TGA, also called transposition of the grea...