Capsules

P: The famed Pasteur Institute of Paris put on sale 6,000 series (three shots each) of a modified Salk anti-polio vaccine, found the situation in France diametrically opposite to that in the U.S.: supply far exceeds demand. One reason is that polio is much less common in France; so is the wherewithal to buy the vaccine, which costs $7.15 for the three shots.

P: Nationwide surveys of illness and disability, the first in 20 years, are authorized in bills passed by both Senate and House. Estimated annual cost of the continuing program to find out who suffers from what: $1,250,000.

P: Aminophylline, a valuable drug for treatment of asthma, can be dangerous when given by mouth or intravenously. For convenience, many doctors have taken to giving it to children in rectal suppositories, but this too can be hazardous, warned Detroit's Dr. Anthony C. Nolke. In the A.M.A. Journal he reported 21 cases of severe illness (vomiting, raging thirst and maniacal agitation) and four deaths from it.

P: To locate defects inside the heart, Physician David H. Lewis of Philadelphia and Engineer James R. Brown Jr. of the U.S. Naval Air Development Center at Johnsville, Pa. have devised a microphone (more precisely, a transducer) no bigger than a pinhead (.06 in. diameter). Slipped into the heart at the end of a catheter, it applies the principles of submarine detection to the detection of disease.

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