Medicine & Health

Photographer John Dugdale is joined by psychotherapist Robert Levithan to talk about a new class of AIDS fighting drugs. Both men have the AIDS virus; they are being treated with protease inhibitors. The treatment is helping them live normal lives. John Dugdale's photographs are collected in the recent book "Lengthening Shadows Before Nightfall." Robert Levithan conducts workshops called "Outliving AIDS" for those with AIDS who are living longer than expected.

Joseph and Julia Quinlan. They are the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan. Joseph Quinlan died this past Saturday at the age of 71. A lawyer for the family said the cause was bone cancer. He and his wife became early pioneers in the "right to die" debate" after they fought for the legal authority to remove a respirator that their daughter was attached to after doctors said she had no hope of coming out of a coma. She then lived nine more years.

Rutgers Professor of Science and Public Policy Leonard Cole has written "The Eleventh Plague, the Politics of Biological and Chemical Warfare." In it, he tells about the extraordinary danger posed by biological and chemical weapons. He reveals how the United States Army conducted tests for many years using both biological and chemical agents on Americans.

Senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal, George Anders. He's been covering the business side of medicine since 1993. His new book is "Health Against Wealth: HMOs and the Breakdown of Medical Trust." He's concerned with the lack of control individuals have within the health maintenance organization system.

Berube is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and is the author of the new book, "Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child." It's about the birth of his son in 1991, Jamie, who has Down syndrome, and how that has affected his family's life. Berube writes in the introduction, "individual humans like James are compelling us daily to determine what kind of 'individuality' we will value, on what terms, and why."

Scientists Dr. Joseph B. McCormick and Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch. Their book, in collaboration with Leslie Alan Horvitz, is "Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC." It's a personal account of this husband/wife team's work with the world's most horrible diseases: Ebola, Lassa fever, Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, and AIDS. McCormick was instrumental in the creation of the high-tech "hot zone" lab at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Fisher-Hoch was a pioneer in research on Legionnaire's Disease, Ebola and Lassa Fever.

Dr. Fred Sheftell is the co-founder of The New England Center for Headache and the co-author of the book, Headache Relief. He's also co-authored the new book, Headache Relief for Women: How You Can Manage and Prevent Pain (Little, Brown & Co.) (The New England Center for Headache is located in Stamford, Connecticut).

Personal Health columnist for the New York Times Jane Brody. Her new book is a timely one: "Jane Brody's Cold and Flu Fighter" (W.W. Norton, in paperback). In it she gives advice on how to tell if you are suffering from a cold, the flu, or an allergy, and the best treatment for each.

Lonny Shavelson writes about five people who were considering assisted suicide. His book A Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide explores the agonizing dilemma that family and friends must face in deciding whether to assist. Shavelson argues in favor of legalized Physician-assisted suicide. Shavelson is a writer, photojournalist and emergency-room physician living in Berkeley, California. A Chosen Death is published by Simon and Shuster 1995.

Rome cofounded the Boston's Women's Health Collective, which published the book that became women's bible for healthcare, Our Bodies Ourselves. She talked with Terry in 1990 when the Women's Health Collective was celebrating it's 20th anniversary. Rome died of breast cancer on Saturday, June 24, 1995.