Word: bacillus
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...with some success, to awaken sleeping immune systems to combat cancer. The techniques of this approach vary widely. Some doctors still use Coley's bacterial-toxin formula; others inject vaccine made from killed mumps virus and diphtheria bacteria. Many, however, prefer a live-bacteria tuberculosis vaccine called BCG (for Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, after the Frenchmen who developed...
...with lepromatous leprosy, the most severe form of the disease. Lim, who worked closely with Good's Minnesota group, infused the patients with large doses of white cells from unmatched donors weekly for periods of up to 16 weeks, in an attempt to stimulate an immune response against the bacillus responsible for the disease. The treatment, used on patients who had failed to respond to other therapy, helped in all cases, switching on idling immune systems. All patients are now disease free, and one has been so for a year and a half...
...uterus! Private property!" huffs Actor James Coco. "Please," says Robert Drivas, playing the tired claim jumper. "I've been swimming up that cervix for hours." The scene is as bizarre-and funny-as it sounds, but the message is purely educational. For Coco is a gonorrhea bacillus, and Drivas, his rival, is syphilis. Their little one-acter is part of an unprecedentedly frank one-hour special about the dangers of venereal disease that will be aired by the Public Broadcasting System next week...
...natural susceptibility to leprosy, and thus far no artificially infected animal has lived long enough for the slow-developing disease to reach the later, progressive stages in which it can be fully studied. None, that is, except armadillos. Gulf South researchers report that an armadillo infected with the leprosy bacillus has survived well into leprosy's progressive phase. They now hope to raise a whole laboratory colony of leprous armadillos and use them to study a malady that until now has been completely observable only in humans...
...Backlash. To save their trees, some people tried using a biocide called Bacillus thuringiensis, which infects the caterpillars with a lethal virus. Smelling like musty hay, "BT" unfortunately may cause difficulties for people with allergies. Other tree owners turned to home remedies. They swatted the bugs with shovels, burned them with blow torches. Mrs. Marie Rusicka of Marlboro, N.J., actually spent three hours every day hand-picking the bugs off her trees. To keep caterpillars on the ground from climbing to the greenery, some citizens wrapped tree trunks with greased burlap bandages, then every evening stamped out the squishy bugs...