Capsules

Among the research findings reported by the A.M.A. last week:

> One of the most rewarding medical advances of the 1950s was the finding that heart damage from rheumatic fever could usually be averted if repeated attacks of strep throat were prevented by long-term use of penicillin. A particular type of streptococcus sets up a reaction that attacks the heart's muscle and especially its valves. That, said Tulane University's Dr. George Burch, seems to be only part of the story. Viruses, a thousand times smaller than strep bacilli, are also involved, and in heart disease they may be more important. Burch had been puzzled because many patients with damaged valves had no history of rheumatic fever. He knew that many viruses may attack the heart, and that some of them cause infections that seem relatively mild at the time. The cardiologist chose a virus called Coxsackie B4 for his tests and injected it into thousands of mice. Virtually all suffered heart injury and damage to the pancreas, and some had injury to the kidneys. To test his thesis in humans, Burch took blood from autopsy subjects who had damaged heart valves but no history of rheumatic fever. In many cases he found evidence of a long-ago B4 infection. How viruses and strep bacteria, together or separately, work to harm the heart is not yet clear. But if B4 proves to be the principal culprit, Burch foresees the possibility of developing a vaccine against it.

> Devotees of the Afro coiffure are splitting hairs. Teasing and picking any hair is damaging, said Dr. Algie C. Brown of Atlanta; it causes the shafts to fracture and encourages infections. The hair of blacks is especially vulnerable if it has previously been treated with chemicals or hot combs to straighten it. To Dermatologist Brown the condition is trichorrhexis nodosa; to the Afro cultivator, this means that he is losing his hair. Brown's prescription: a natural, unteased Afro.

> Of the many diseases that are apt to erupt in recruit camps when thousands of young men from diverse backgrounds are thrown together, one of the deadliest is Type C virulent meningitis. The fatality rate is high, and death may occur within a few hours after appearance of the first symptoms. Even victims who recover may suffer permanent deafness or brain damage. Now, reported Lieut. Colonel Phillip E. Winter, the Army has a highly effective vaccine, which was developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In the 1970-71 respiratory-disease season, when the vaccine was used only after epidemics had broken out, the Army recorded 124 cases of Type C, with eight deaths. In the 1971-72 season the vaccine was given routinely, and there have been just eleven cases, with one death. Only one man who had been vaccinated contracted the illness.

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