Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed an entire beloved city and shattered a large part of the US Gulf Coast. Unlike the destruction of 9/11, it is difficult to say at the time of this writing whether or not this region will ever be fully restored. In light of these and other man-made and natural disasters, the world needs to revisit its approach to disaster planning and preparedness to insure ...

In spite of advances made in the management of the other more common cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, significant progress in the treatment of pancreatic cancer remains elusive, more so with the recent negative results of several much anticipated randomized trials. Gemcitabine has been a standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer since it was shown a decade ago to result in a super...

In Luanda maybe more than elsewhere, controlling the city landscape is synonymous with polity at large. Despite a tremendous political change in Angola during twentieth century, paper traces how modernist plans elaborated late colonial period (1945–1975) have influenced planning imagination of until today. It argues that construction boom reshaped end war 2002 can be interpreted as promise to b...

O u r ability to detect and monitor infectious disease threats to health is in jeopardy. False perceptions that such threats had dwindled or disappeared led to complacency and decreased vigilance regarding infectious diseases, resulting in a weakening of surveillance--the foundation for control of infectious diseases (1). However, such infectious diseases as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (...

In the late 19 Century European powers claimed political suzerainty all over Africa, which was effectuated in the early part of the 20 Century and dwindled after the Second World War. Between 1952 and 1965 most African territories became ‘independent’ again and members of the United Nations. A few laggards still resisted or became ‘special cases’. The Portuguese territories only became independ...