Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is a weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A report in the June 5, 1981, issue of the MMWR published the cases of five men in what turned out to be the first report of AIDS to appear in medical literature. As of 2009[update], the journal's current editor-in-chief is Frederic E. Shaw, MD, JD, who has served in that role since 2007.[1]
Called "the voice of CDC", MMWR is the main method for publishing "timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations" that have been received by the CDC from state health departments, with each issue covering reports that have been received in the week through Friday, and published on the following Friday. Material published in the MMWR is in the public domain and may be reprinted without permission.[2]
Over the years, MMWR has provided insights into health-related trends, such as the spread of Hepatitis A at attendees of jam band concert tours,[3] several dozen deaths in teens participating in what is called the "choking game" (February 2008),[4] a report about the elevated death rate among fisherman in the Pacific Northwest (April 2008),[5] and improvements in public health after the implementation of municipal smoking bans (January 2009).[6] The initial reports of a novel swine flu virus which led to the 2009 swine flu pandemic were published by MMWR on April 24, 2009.[7]
First report of AIDS
Los Angeles-based general practitioner Joel Weisman and immunologist Michael S. Gottlieb of the UCLA Medical Center had encountered a series of gay male patients with symptoms that appeared to be immune system disorders including significant loss of weight and swollen lymph nodes, accompanied by fever and rashes, in addition to two patients with chronic diarrhea, depressed white blood cell counts and fungal infections. Gottlieb diagnosed these and a number of his other patients as having pneumocystis pneumonia. A report they jointly wrote published in the June 5, 1981, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, described their patients, "5 young men, all active homosexuals, [who] were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California" of which "[t]wo of the patients died" by the time of the original report.[8] This notice has been recognized as the first published report marking the official start of the AIDS pandemic and as "the first report on AIDS in the medical literature".[9]
References
- ^ MMWR Staff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed July 24, 2009.
- ^ Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: About Us, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed July 24, 2009.
- ^ O' Neil, John. "VITAL SIGNS: HAZARDS; Outbreak on the Concert Circuit", The New York Times, September 9, 2003. Accessed July 24, 2009.
- ^ via Associated Press. "NATIONAL BRIEFING | SCIENCE AND HEALTH; Count Of 'choking Game' Fatalities", The New York Times, February 15, 2008. Accessed July 24, 2009.
- ^ Bakalar, Nicholas. "Northwest Fishery Posts Highest Fatality Rate", The New York Times, May 13, 2008. Accessed July 24, 2009.
- ^ Bakalar, Nicholas. "Smoking Ban Improves a City’s Health", The New York Times, January 12, 2009.
- ^ Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Infection in Two Children --- Southern California, March--April 2009, MMWR, April 24, 2009
- ^ Staff. "Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles", Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 30, 1996 / Vol. 45 / No. 34. Accessed July 24, 2009. This is a reprint by the CDC of the original June 4, 1981, report.
- ^ via Associated Press. "Doctor Who Co-Authored First AIDS Report Dies", The New York Times, July 23, 2009. Accessed July 24, 2009.
External links
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