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Case Studies
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| Dentist infected with AIDS Allegedly Infects Patients
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Through the use of microbial forensics, it was discovered that a Florida
dentist, by the name of Dr. David Acer, had infected five of his patients
with the AIDS virus. This was found by sequencing amplified viral
fragments from the dentist and the infected patients. Of those five
individuals infected, one was a 67-year old grandmother and another was a
13-year old girl. Dr. David Acer caught national attention in 1990
after he publicly admitted having the AIDS virus and highly recommended that
his patients be tested. He died later on that year. A friend of
Acer's claims that he infected the people intentionally. The friend
recalled Acer's as saying, "When AIDS finally infects a young person and
when it starts hitting grandmothers and people like that, then maybe the
government will do something." As to how Acers was infecting his
patients is still unknown.
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| West Nile Outbreak |
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| Through the investigation of the 1999 West Nile outbreak by the use of microbial forensics, it was discovered that a single strain of the virus from birds and humans in New York was very similar to a strain originally isolated from a dead goose in Israel. It was because of this conclusion that authorities came to the conclusion that the outbreak of the virus was of natural origin.
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| Survey of New Yorkers after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks
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survey was administered to 1,009 adults (516 men and 493 women) in the
Manhattan area three to six months after the September 11th terrorist
attacks. The surveys were conducted from December 15, 2001 to February
28, 2002. The survey examined the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms
of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). All subjects were
interviewed in person and were asked about their emotional status before and
after September 11th. Over half of the subjects reported having at least one severe or two or more mild to moderate symptoms of PTSD. Women were found to report more symptoms than men. The most distressing experiences appeared to be painful memories and reminders; dissociation was rare. Out of a total of 56.3% who had reported symptoms, only 26.7% of those individuals were obtaining treatment.
Delisi, L. E., Maurizio, A., Yost, M.P., Carey, et al. (2003). A survey of New Yorkers after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. American Journal of Psychiatric, 160, 780-783. |
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