October 1958

Alumni Bulletin

Spring/Summer 1983

Yale Medicine

October 1958
Alumni Bulletin

Artificial Kidney to be Purchased

“The School of Medicine has received $5,000 from the United Fund of Middletown, Connecticut, as a contribution in support of basic research. In announcing the gift, Dean Lippard stated that the money will be used for the purchase of an artificial kidney. The equipment for hemodialysis will be set up in a special laboratory adjacent to the Fitkin 2 medical ward and will be under the direction of Dr. Franklin Epstein, assistant professor of medicine. It will be available for treatment of selected patients and for research in renal physiology. One of the research studies will involve investigation of the effects of renal failure on the nervous system.”

Spring/Summer 1983
Yale Medicine

Mystery of Lyme Disease a Step Closer to Being Solved

“Scientists at the School of Medicine have isolated for the first time a newly recognized spirochete from the blood, skin or cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Lyme disease. ‘The recovery of this organism from patients provides important evidence that the I. dammini spirochete is the causative agent of Lyme disease,’ according to Dr. Allen C. Steere, principal investigator of the research.

“… The new finding has implications for better diagnosis and treatment of the illness, and may help in the understanding of some other immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

“Lyme disease, first recognized in 1975 by Yale medical scientists including Dr. Steere and Dr. Stephen E. Malawista, professor of medicine and head of the Section of Rheumatology, has affected hundreds of people along the Atlantic coast and in some mid- and far-western states. It typically begins in summer with a unique skin lesion, erythema chronicum migrans (ECM), which sometimes expands to a diameter of five inches or more, and may be accompanied by flu-like symptoms. …

“The first clue that Lyme disease was caused by an infectious agent was the fact that several children with typical symptoms lived in the same neighborhood in Lyme, Connecticut. …”