Microbiology: Virus Passes Acid Test for Entering Cells Drug Therapy: Failure of HIV Therapy Pits Researchers vs. Drug Maker Research Safety: New Post Adds Vigor to Biological Safety Research Resources: Mass Spectrometry Moves to the Quad Primary Care: World Health Problems Are Diagnosed at the Community Level Molecule Flips Master Switch for Growth of Nerve Cell Axons NIH Panel Outlines Optimal Longterm Treatment for PKU Drug Use Up Among College Students Patterns Found in Gene Transcription Response to DNA Damage HMS and HSPH Faculty Elected to the IOM New HMS Program in Clinical Science Grants Master of Medical Sciences Degree Orkin Is First Holder of Nathan Chair In Memoriam New Associate Dean of Educational Technology Honors and Advances Grad Student Science Series Hits Mark with Adults in Local Community Front Page

PRIMARY CARE World Health Problems Are Diagnosed at the Community Level Emphasizing the need for a community-based approach to global health issues, Jim Yong Kim, HMS assistant professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine and executive director of Partners in Health, presented a lecture on Oct. 17 as part of the Cabot Primary Care Lecture Series. Kim has supervised dozens of community-based projects in Haiti, Peru, Mexico, and Boston. His interests lie in infectious disease and the political economy of health care. In a Cabot Series lecture, Jim Kim called on physicians to reorient community medicine toward serving the poor worldwide. —Steve Gilbert Kim addressed the major obstacles to effectively treating infectious diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS in poor communities. In particular, he demonstrated the relationship between politics and effective community care of infectious disease, and he challenged the audience to redefine community medicine to better serve those living in poverty worldwide. For example, Kim said that UNICEF's large-scale efforts at primary health care in the developing world are ineffective in dealing with the current crises of AIDS and multidrug-resistant TB. He argued that the basis for the UNICEF approach to primary care was cost-effectiveness and questioned the idea that effective health care for poor communities should depend on the ability of those communities to support their health care economy. Kim also addressed several recent developments in international health, particularly in the area of infectious disease. The diseases of poverty have only recently become "sexy," he said, expressing appreciation for the manifest interest in TB and AIDS such as the U.S. government's recent $1 billion increase in foreign health aid. Kim was cautious in his praise, however, and said that although groups like the World Health Organization have been "converted" and now deal with the diseases of poverty more effectively, the "tunnel vision" such groups have in dealing solely with the crises of AIDS and tuberculosis may prevent other diseases of poverty from being eradicated. In a memorable closing statement, Kim encouraged the audience in caring for communities to heed the words of poet Wendell Berry and remember that "it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of mercy and justice" and to act accordingly. —Tarayn Grizzard