Africa — history
Some of the earliest evidence of medical practice comes from Africa. The Egyptians were well known, over 5000 years ago, for their advanced knowledge of medicine. Relics from the time ...
African customary law
This useful, albeit disputed, term denotes a body of largely unwritten laws that have been derived from social practices regarded as obligatory by the communities concerned. The account below is ...
Ali Hassan Mwinyi
1925–President of Tanzania from 1985 to 1995; initiated the country’s transition to a multiparty system.Born in Dar es Salaam (in what was then Tanganyika), Ali Hassan Mwinyi spent his ...
Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) brought civil rights protections enjoyed by other minority groups to people with disabilities. An earlier law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, had made it ...
animal testing
Animals have been widely used for many years to test vaccines, pharmaceutical drugs, cosmetics, etc. This is a legal requirement under the US Food and Drugs Act and similar legislation in most other ...
antibiotics and anti-infective drugs
Six categories of drugs are used in the treatment of infections, according to the type of organism against which they are active:• antibacterial drugs• antiviral drugs• antiprotozoal drugs• ...
antiretroviral
(ARV) (anti-ret-roh-vy-răl)describing a drug or therapy that inhibits or slows the growth of retroviruses, specifically HIV, and is used in the treatment of HIV infection and AIDS. Antiretroviral ...
Arthur Ashe
(1943–93)An African-American born in Richmond, Virginia, USA, who showed precocious tennis talent from the age of 8. He attended UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) on a tennis scholarship ...
autoimmune disease
A heterogeneous group of diseases, some of obscure etiology, including rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, characterized by development of antibodies that attack the host's cells and ...
autopsy
(aw-top-si)a review of the clinical history of a deceased person followed by external examination and dissection of the body and ancillary investigations (e.g. toxicology) in order to determine the ...
AZT
abbr. for azidothymidine; 3′‐azido‐3′‐deoxythymidine; other names: zidovudine; Retrovir; an analogue of thymidine, the phosphorylated form of which is an inhibitor of reverse transcriptase in ...
Beira, Mozambique
Major city of central Mozambique.Named after a former Portuguese province, Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. Beira is located at the mouth of the Pungue and Buzi ...
Beth Brant
(b. 1941), also known as Degonwadonti, short fiction writer, poet, essayist, editor, and activist.Brant, a Bay of Quinte Mohawk from Theyindenaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada, was born in ...
bisexual
adj.1. describing an individual who is sexually attracted to both men and women. 2. describing an individual who possesses the qualities of both sexes.1. describing an individual who is sexually ...
blood donor
A person who gives blood for storage in a blood bank. The blood can then be used for transfusion into another patient. In Britain collection is organized by the National Blood Transfusion Services, ...
Botswana
Former British protectorate of Bechuanaland. British influence in the region was established by the London Missionary Society and traders operating northward from Cape Colony in the early 19th cent. ...
Bushmen
Term, often considered derogatory, used to describe the San, a group of Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers who live in the Kalahari Desert.The first European encounter with the so-called Bushmen of ...
Candida albicans
A yeast (yeasts are classified as fungi) species frequently found as part of the commensal oral microbial flora and the female genital tract, having two distinct forms (dimorphic). The organism can ...
cardiothoracic surgery
Disease of the heart valves primarily affects the mitral and aortic valves, which, respectively, allow blood to flow in one direction into and out of the left ventricular pumping chamber ...
