If anyone is looking to buy the book for a class or symposium – or, of course, for themselves – the cost will be significantly less than the hardback version, narturally.

Please visit my friends at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble and other major online booksellers below or visit any other site or bookstore where you normally shop to reserve a copy or buy one in the future.

Also in August my first novel, Bad Day for the Home Team, will be released by Zumaya Books. The book is about how a very average man in Sierra Vista, Arizona walks into a pizza place, shoots and kills 30 people, then kills himself. He comes back as a ghost and tries to figure out why he did what he did while a cop, his brother, and a reporter try to also unravel the mystery of “Why he done it?” I will excerpt Bad Day in the weeks before its release and will start visiting sites and groups to talk about the book and others like it. If you have any suggestions for sites that might be good, let me know.

I’ll be posting more about this book and other projects soon.

Having travelled to and spent time in eastern Africa to research Chasing Medical Miracles, I cannon overstate the thorough and heart-wrenching devastation left by AIDS/HIV in poorer countries. There is also a measure of shame to be shared by developed countries in the way we have relentlessly pursued cures and vaccine trials in Africa and other underdeveloped nations. While TB and malaria have throughout history and today killed and harmed more people Africa than has AIDS/HIV, trials to treat and cure those conditions are much more rare than for AIDS/HIV. The reason? TB and malaria and rare in western countries so there is no motivation to conduct trials for drugs for which there is no market. If AIDS/HIV were not prevalent in the western, developed world, you can bet few trials to seek a vaccine or cure would be taking place in the under developed world.

In other recent news… one reports says there have been no serious side effects in trials on an H1H1 vaccine while a German man (in a story on a site that is not as reputable as say, the New York Times but is worthwhile to have a quick look at) claims the experimental H1N1 vaccine dose made him seriously sick. Hmmm … clinical trials registries, which are now mandatory, rarely report results from trials, which kind of misses the point of the entire idea, huh? …  and the FDA gives the go ahead to stem cell trial to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease, a positive and potentially groundbreaking decision on moving ahead with an entirely new category of treatments and cures for hundreds of debilitating conditions.

H1N1 Vaccine Clinical Trials in Adults Free of Serious Adverse Events – Zikkir World (blog) – No serious adverse events have been reported during the first two weeks of clinical trials involving vaccine against the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus … See all stories on this topic

H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Makes German Man Extremely Sick During … Prison Planet.com – And now a German man who participated in H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine clinical trials has said that he became seriously ill as a consequence of theH1N1 Swine Flu … See all stories on this topic

Clinical Trial Registry Includes Few Results – FDA news (subscription) – Nearly 80000 clinical trials have been registered with the NIH website ClinicalTrials.gov in the two years since the FDA Amendments Act made registration … See all stories on this topic

FDA green lights stem-cell clinical trial for Lou Gehrig’s disease – Nature.com (subscription) – Other companies using neural cells include ReNeuron, which received permission from UK authorities this January to start clinical trials for stroke … See all stories on this topic

Little kids to need 2 shots for swine flu – Baltimore Sun – In the clinical trials, the swine flu vaccine produced a strong immune response in children 10 to 17 years old in just 10 days; younger children generally … See all stories on this topic

This is a great example of the positive power of clinical trials… A vaccine for swine flu – which the World Health Organization has recently deemed a worldwide pandemic – is being tested in clinical trials by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. If things go well, the vaccine could be available for use in four months. Other great news today is about the success of a potential cancer vaccine as well as improvements for a gout treatment…

AFP – Swine flu vaccine ready for clinical trials – AFP – Swiss drugs firm Novartis says it has completed a first batch of vaccine for pre-clinical trials and aims to make a version available in about four months. … See all stories on this topic

Working to Improve on Allopurinol, the Standard for Gout – New York Times – United States – But there were signs in the clinical trials that the drug, also known as pegloticase, raised the risk of heart problems. It also caused sometimes severe … See all stories on this topic

St. Jude Medical Announces Leading Sponsorship of Landmark … WELT ONLINE – Berlin, Germany – “Supporting clinical trials like CABANA is an important part of our mission of advancing the practice of medicine through medical technology to help improve … See all stories on this topic

WIVB – Cancer vaccines do well – WIVB – Buffalo, NY, USA – Calling the trial a “qualified success,” Dr. Levy said other clinical trials will be needed to establish the best use of the vaccine in follicular lymphoma … See all stories on this topic

Novartis says A/H1N1 vaccine ready for clinical trials – Xinhua – China – The company plans to start clinical trials with that vaccine in July and expects licensure in the autumn of 2009. The World Health Organization (WHO) on … See all stories on this topic

Asthma Drugs Get ‘Precaution’ Labeling for Possible Psychiatric … Forbes – NY, USA – The agency, which began its review of the data in March 2008, said clinical trial data submitted by the manufacturers of Singulair, Accolate and Zyflo … See all stories on this topic

Biosense Webster to Support Landmark Clinical Trial of Atrial … WELT ONLINE – Berlin, Germany – The results from the CABANA trial will add to the growing body of clinical evidence comparing catheter ablation to drug therapy for AFib and is designed to … See all stories on this topic

Human Genome Sciences shares jump on test results — Bizjournals.com – Charlotte, NC, USA – In March, California-based Genentech Inc. and Massachusetts-based Biogen Idec racked up one of the most recent failures in third-stage clinical trials for a … See all stories on this topic