Word: endotoxin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...disruption to the body's immune response -- caused, for instance, by severe burns, chemotherapy or major abdominal surgery -- allows these rod-shaped bacteria to multiply out of control and invade other parts of the body, eventually entering the bloodstream. Once there, one part of the bacterial cell wall called endotoxin can trigger a cascade of lethal effects, culminating in multiple organ failure and death, sometimes within hours...
...treatment, reported by Dr. Elizabeth Ziegler and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine, employs a man-made antibody called HA-1A designed to zero in on the endotoxin molecule and render it harmless. Although the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve HA-1A for use in the U.S., the agency has given the Pentagon special permission to utilize the antibody in the gulf. Large quantities are on hand in MASH units and field hospitals...
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