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ROCKVILLE, Md. -- For the second time in as many weeks, the FDA has issued a botulism toxin warning; this time the product is 14.5 ounce cans of French cut green beans manufactured by a Wisconsin food processor.

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Adding serum sodium levels to the mix of factors considered when allocating donor livers may help improve graft and recipient survival, authors of two studies reported.

WASHINGTON -- About 45% of the magazine advertising for beer, wine, and "alcopop" appears in publications with 15% to 30% of their circulation among adolescents, according to a national analysis.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- For the first time, ovarian tissue transplantation between nonidentical sisters has successfully restored fertility, which opens the door for transplantation between compatible, unrelated women.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Obesity is more than twice as likely to be treated seriously if physicians jot the formal diagnosis down in medical records -- a relatively uncommon act by clinicians here.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Progressively more stringent safety standards for blood donation have unexpectedly cut the national donor pool to 37.8% of the U.S. population, researchers here found.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Myocardial infarction patients can be transported quickly and safely for percutaneous intervention at facilities more than 200 miles away, investigators in a model transfer program have found.

HOUSTON -- The rise of a urinary protein may be a quicker way than the standard test to diagnose acute kidney injury in children after a critical illness, investigators here reported.

MILAN, Italy -- The oft-reported inverse relationship between coffee drinking and liver cancer is real, but the reasons for it remain unclear, researchers here said.

We evaluated admissions of HIV-positive persons to an inner-city hospital from 2000 to 2005. There was a decline in the number of substance abusers, homeless persons, injection drug abusers, and African Americans, and there was an increase in patients older than 50 years.

Many of the comments made since the arrival of highly active antiretroviral therapy-the HAART era-relate to the number of those with HIV infection able to return to work or remain active in the community, living with the virus as a chronic disease rather than as an acute, life-ending infection. Looking inside an inner-city hospital to consider the changes, if any, in hospitalizations over the period of rapid implementation of effective antiretroviral therapy makes sense. We expect changes, we think we know what they are, but without verification we would be making policy based on our best wishes or worst fears and not on reality.Hospitals matter and clearly so in inner cities where a public hospital may be the only door open to an uninsured or underinsured population with few resources. In our best post–HAART era dream, HIV-related hospitalizations evaporate as medication puts all symptoms at bay; the HIV-positive person is occasionally an inpatient, but for unrelated problems, such as injuries from an athletic event. In our post–HAART era nightmare, the number of hospitalizations remains high and even rises higher as the adverse effects of drugs and the resistance of HIV to treatment both take their toll on an already vulnerable population.The article by Pulvirenti and colleagues1 reporting on the experiences of one hospital in inner-city Chicago suggests that elements of both are true, and it points toward at least a dozen more studies. Is the drop in admissions of those with substance abuse problems the result of the success of our outreach and syringe exchange programs, or the continuing denial of the very existence of these people? Is the increase in the white population admitted part of a new shift in demographics in the epidemic, or of the demographics of those attracted to or welcome at this hospital? Is the increase of admissions of those older than 50 the result of the successful aging of those infected years ago, or are these new infections in an older population? Is the increase in internal medicine admissions the result of conditions that would have appeared anyway as folks aged, or is this increase an indication of complex, subtle problems caused by antiretroviral therapy over time?What about the push to keep people out of the hospital? Or to shorten length of stay? What are the predictable or planned changes in admissions when a new facility is built as a neighborhood changes? If those plans leave out some of those previously served, is there an organized attempt to ensure continuity of care?Finally, the focus on hospitals in isolation may well mislead policy makers. The early days of the epidemic taught us how important home- and community-based services were. Without a critical analysis, it is impossible to say whether this need has increased or decreased and whether something about other services is behind the reported changes in hospitalization.The arrival of the HAART era let some policy makers stop worrying about HIV, but this article shows us that the availability of effective antiretroviral therapy has not made the HIV policy options any easier. In fact, it leads to even more questions and more concerns about needed services and support, especially for those vulnerable populations most at risk for HIV infection and most likely to turn to public resources for their care.

A new report shows that persons with HIV/AIDS and transplant patients are much more likely to contract about 20 different cancers than those in the general population (McLean T. Australian Associated Press. June 6, 2007). Conducted by the University of New South Wales, the study found that immune deficiency-a problem common to the 2 groups-makes them more vulnerable to infections and cancers, including those in the liver, stomach, skin, lung, cervix, eye, lip, mouth, and penis.

A 22-year-old man with a history of AIDS, gastritis, and perianal warts presented to his primary care physician with a complaint of worsening dyspepsia and diarrhea.

Lichen myxedematosus, or papular mucinosis, is a skin disorder characterized by accumulation of mucin in the dermis. We present the case of a patient with HIV infection and lichen myxedematosus whose skin condition completely resolved with antiretroviral therapy. [AIDS Reader. 2007;17:418-420]

HIV care, with its relatively frequent patient visits, laboratory monitoring, and referrals to outside consultants, generates a significant amount of paper very quickly.

This year’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections offered a symposium on “Driv­ers of the HIV Epidemic and Potential Interventions.”

BETHESDA, Md. -- The success of treatment with the antidepressant citalopram (Celexa) depends partly on a common genetic variation, researchers here said.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Although there was an overall drop in childhood death rates from all causes from 1969 through 2000, most of the declines occurred among children from upper income brackets.