Epi News Briefs 11/05/01

 

Editor's Quote of the Week "It makes me angry. And its depressing to think there may not be an endpoint if someone is continuing to perpetrate this." Scott Fridkin, CDC epidemiologist commenting in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on the anthrax attack from Washington DC where he has been involved in the investigation.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

If you have been as confused as we are about all of the details surrounding the appearance of anthrax cases throughout the month of October, then you will welcome the first epi curve of the outbreak published by CDC in the November 2, 2001 MMWR. The epi curve with 21 cases illustrates very clearly that there have been two patterns or clusters, one of 9 cases and another of 12 cases following the mailing of contaminated letters postmarked in mid-September to four media companies and another in early October to Senator Tom Daschle’s office.

The cases have occurred among persons who worked in the District of Columbia, Florida, New Jersey, and New York City. Cases occurred four or five days after the postmarks on contaminated letters and peaked at 7-11 days after the postmarked dates.

What remains of concern is that until the source of these letters has been found and prevented from sending more, there can be no assurance that we have seen the last wave of attack. As stated by one of the CDC epidemiologists on assignment to Washington DC, “It would be great to be able to leave here saying, ‘We put the fire out, we’re heroes.’ That doesn’t seem likely now. But if we can just set the stage for another city’s response to this, that would be an achievement. The situation is evolving too rapidly for us to do much more than that.”

Alvan Feinstein Is Dead At 75

Alvan R. Feinstein, M.D., died on October 25, 2001 at the age of 75 while attending a meeting in Toronto, according to a NY Times obituary and a news release from Yale University where he was the Sterling Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. In a letter to the faculty of Yale School of Medicine, Dean David Kessler, M.D., and Ralph Horwitz, M.D., professor and chair of medicine, stated, "Alvan Feinstein blended a commitment to clinical care with an unrelenting confidence in the value of rigorous clinical research, and in doing so modeled a life of scholarship and friendship. He was a master at developing young scholars by holding them to the only standard he knew, the highest attainable."

WHO Wants Action Against Tobacco Advertising

Warning that one billion people will die from tobacco use in this century, about 150 million in the first two decades, WHO is opposing voluntary advertising codes being promulgated and adopted by manufacturers. Instead, WHO is calling for lawmakers around the world to take action against advertising of tobacco and tobacco products to protect the health of the populations. WHO Director Gro Brundtland has called tobacco addiction a communicable disease--communicated through advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.

WHO’s index of suspicion about the intent of tobacco companies in promoting voluntary codes of advertising has been raised recently by revelations from an internal WHO inquiry which found that tobacco companies had come together to develop plans to thwart tobacco control through a series of overt and covert means, according to the WHO press release. A more full account of these tobacco company activities which relate directly to epidemiology has been published in the November issue of the AJPH.

November Issue Of The Epi Monitor Coming Soon

The November issue of the Epidemiology Monitor will arrive in mailboxes in mid-November and will be posted on this site in early November. Access will be free until the beginning of 2002. Below are the headlines from the November issue.

Pattern in Anthrax Attack Emerges After One Month

Public Health Groups Concerned That New Funding For State And Local Anti-Terrorism Activities Will Fall Far Short Of The Need

UCLA Epidemiologist Creates Bioterrorism Website

Alvan Feinstein Dead At 75

Human Subjects Accreditation Group Releases Proposed Standards For Comment and Review

First Workshop On Doctoral Education In Epidemiology Being Planned

“Teaching Epidemiology” Published In Second Edition

Hopkins’ Alfred Sommer Elected To The National Academy of Sciences

Recap Of Epi News Briefs From EpiMonday

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Held Over

More Than 100 Congress Of Epidemiology Photos Now Available For Viewing

By special arrangement with Richard Kwok, University of North Carolina epidemiology student and amateur photographer, the Epidemiology Monitor has prepared a photo gallery of more than 100 exclusive photos shot at the Congress of Epidemiology 2001. Each photo was obtained with permission and the names of the individuals are included with each photo for easy identification. This gives epidemiologists a chance to link names with faces in a way that has not been easy to do in the past.

Photos were taken of colleagues engaged in various activities at the Congress in various locations. Thus, the photos include shots of colleagues at their posters, out in the surrounding park, listening to presentations, touring the art gallery during the reception, and many other scenes. Viewers can look at a batch of photos all at once by viewing the thumbnail photos or viewers can click on any individual photo and view a larger version

To view the photo gallery, click here

 

Epidemiologist Creates List of Triumphs in Epidemiology

Are you sick and tired of hearing smoking and lung cancer used over and over again as the prime example of what epidemiologists do and contribute to public health? Well, your days of misery are over. Thanks to Diana Pettiti, Kaiser Permanente epidemiologist, a new list of 55 contributions which epidemiology has made to public health has been prepared. Most of the findings were of risk factors which increased the risk of disease, but about a third were for factors which protect against disease.

Speaking at the Congress of Epidemiology 2001 in Toronto, Pettiti mentioned she had prepared the list in anticipation of being on the panel at the Congress. She did not get to show her list at the time, so The Epi Monitor arranged to obtain the list and is making it available to the epidemiology community.

Criteria

The criteria for including risk or protective factors on the list were 1) there is widespread agreement that the association is causal, and 2a) the initial hypothesis was derived from an epidemiologic study (sometimes incidentally) and was subsequently confirmed as causal in a clinical trial or epidemiologic study, or 2b) an initial clinical observation was made or a cluster was noted and subsequent epidemiologic studies were able to explain the initial the initial observations to discover or establish the risk or protective factor.

Call For More Examples

The Epi Monitor invites readers to submit other examples both historical and modern. Simply click on "Contact Us" and send an email with your nominations for the list and with an accompanying justification for each example. As new contributions to epidemiology are reviewed and qualify to be added, the list will be modified and kept current on The Epi Monitor website.

Call For Commentaries and Anecdotes

In addition, we would like to add short commentaries by epidemiologists who can relate anecdotes or other interesting facts and observations about the discoveries listed here. Each discovery started as a hypothesis and had to navigate the demanding pathway from initial observation through subsequent findings and across the threshold of causality before being widely accepted. Any readers familiar with this pathway for any of the discoveries are invited to submit comments. Dr Petitti offered to get the ball rolling in the near future with a couple or three paragraphs about toxic shock syndrome and tampon use which she is very familiar with. We will post these "stories of discovery" as we receive them.

To view the list, click here

 

EpidemiologyWinning Tongue In Cheek Headlines Selected For Humorous Magazine Cover

Ten winning tongue in cheek headlines for our humorous magazinc cover contest have been selected from a larger number of contest entries. Below is the picture of the magazine cover with the winning headlines.

The winning headlines were submitted by the following individuals. Also mentioned below are several runner up headlines which our judges considered very amusing, but alas not everyone could win! The entrants who submitted one or more of the winning headlines will receive $25 for each headline selected.

1. Melissa Adams/Gay Epi Lifestyles: Cross-Over Designs

2. Melissa Adams/Do’s And Dont’s of Epi-Quette

3. Melissa Adams/Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell---Double Blinding In Military Studies

4. Dimitri Prybylski/Confessions Of An Index Case---Time, Place, and Person Revealed!

5. Mark Colvin/Sensitivity Analysis---Are You Really A New Man?

6. Mark Colvin/Absent Sex Life? Lucky You! 38 Sexually Transmitted Diseases You Won’t Get

7. David Morens/Adjusting For Sex In 10 Easy Lessons---What The Kama Sutra Failed To Mention

8. Mary Anne Pietrusiak /Boosting Your Confidence Intervals

9. Mary Anne Pietrusiak/ New Diet Lowers P Values

10. Mary Anne Pietrusiak/Do You Have Survey Phobia? Take Our Quiz and Find Out!!

 

Tongue in Cheek Headline Contest
Runner Up Entries

These were also among our favorites and were submitted by many of the same authors above. In addition, Timothy Jacobs submitted some of the runner up headlines.

 

1. EpiCurves: Our Swinsuit Edition

2. Dating That EpiHunk: How Far To Go When Discussing Epi Methods On Your First Date

3. The Glass Ceiling--Why No Epidemiologist Has Won The Nobel Prize

4. Don’t Let Him Make You Feel Insignificant--Avoiding Negative Associations With Your Biostat Guy

5. How To Convert Survey Refusals--Tips From The Clergy

6. Celeb Sightings: Where To Spot Epi Heart Throbs At Congress 2001

7. Can This Relationship Be Saved? Perilous Interactions!

8. Recall Bias---How To Deny That Affair

9. Eleven Blue Women--Raunchy Humor From America’s Top Female Epidemiologists

10. From Snow To Frost---Epidemiology Tackles Global Warming

11. Confessions Of A Super Data Model

12. Snowed Under: The Real Story Behind The Broad Street Pump

13. Bungee Data---Are You Stretching The Limits Of Plausibility In Reporting Your Study Findings?

14. Got Data??---10 Questions Your Thesis Committee Is Sure To Ask You!

15. Dr. Epi-Med--Startling Confessions Of An Epidemiologist Turned Physician

16. Kiss My Disk!! 10 Great Responses To Idiots Who Put Down Epidemiologists

 

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