Recently, full-page advertisements have appeared in the New York Times and other newspapers promoting the Viralizer (Viral Response Systems, Greenwich, CT), a heated nebulizer-sprayer device marketed for treatment of colds, sore throats, allergy and sinusitis symptoms. The device is available without a prescription for about $30 to $40.

Ablation of the globus pallidus, an old treatment for Parkinsons disease, is being tried again, using more refined stereotactic techniques, improved brain imaging and new methods for recording neuronal activity (CW Olanow, Ann Neurol, 40:341, September 1996).

Some patients may be asking healthcare providers about the surgical techniques to enlarge the penis that are widely promoted on the Internet. Phalloplasty was first used to treat traumatic or surgical amputation (for cancer), epispadias and Peyronie's disease (JP Yurkanin et al, J Urol 2001; 166:1769).

Keratoconus is a fairly common, progressive, noninflammatory, corneal-thinning disorder in which the cornea has a conical shape. Rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses or corneal transplantation are effective treatments, but intracorneal ring segments and collagen cross-linking procedures offer some new alternatives in the management of the disease.

The FDA has expanded its Emergency Use Authorization for the adjuvanted protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Novavax to include use of the vaccine as a two-dose primary series in adolescents 12-17 years old. The vaccine was authorized for primary immunization of adults in July 2022.

The possibility that use of mifepristone (Mifeprex, and generics) may be restricted has led to questions about alternatives for medication abortion.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of April 24 there have been 844 confirmed cases of measles in the US in 2025; 11% of cases have resulted in hospitalization and 3 patients have died. The majority of cases (96%) have been in unvaccinated persons or in those whose vaccination history was unknown

Recombinant interferon alfa-2b (Intron A - Schering) was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for intralesional treatment of genital warts (condylomata acuminata). Interferon was previously available only for treatment of hairy-cell leukemia (Medical Letter, 28:78, 1986).

Since the last Medical Letter article on this subject (volume 25, page 54, 1983), transplantation of various organs has become routine, but problems of supply and demand have persisted. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which has contracted with the federal government to maintain a list of patients waiting for transplantation and a registry of patients who have received an organ, reports that 18,251 patients received an organ transplant in 1994, and as of June 1995 more than 40,000 patients were waiting for one.

The FDA has licensed MenQuadfi (Sanofi Pasteur), a quadrivalent polysaccharide conjugate vaccine that uses tetanus toxoid as a protein carrier, for prevention of invasive meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroups A, C, W, and Y (MenACWY) in persons ≥2 years old.