Cholera

State health officials determined yesterday that the 69-year-old North Philadelphia woman hospitalized last week with symptoms resembling cholera was in fact suffering from a far less virulent illness. Bob Fisher, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the woman did not have the "classic cholera" strain that occurs in contaminated water and is associated with epidemics in developing countries. Her illness, he said, was caused by the more common and less contagious "non-01" strain of bacteria that is in the cholera family.

"Love In the Time of Cholera" turns out to be the dreaded Butt-Number in the Time of Oscar Season. It's one of the those ambitious attempts to translate a great book that goes wrong almost from the get-go: You see the actors in their laughable old-age make-up, and you know you're one flashback away from at least four decades of high-tone soap opera. The magical realism and Latin sensibility of Gabriel Garcia Marquez seem almost completely missing from this adaptation by Mike Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral")

A 69-year-old woman suffering from cholera - a life-threatening disease common in the Third World but now rare in the United States - was in guarded condition last night in Rolling Hill Hospital in Cheltenham Township, a hospital official said. Anthony Gigliotti, the hospital's executive director, said the woman, whose name was not released, was brought by a family member to the hospital emergency room Wednesday suffering from severe diarrhea. According to Gigliotti, Jacob Goldstein, president of the hospital's medical staff, diagnosed it as a possible case of cholera.

The Indonesian tourist mecca of Bali is suffering from a cholera scare that is keeping Japanese tourists away in droves. The reason: Through late March, more than 200 Japanese returning from Bali had been diagnosed with cholera, according to Japan's Kyodo news service. Balinese hotels have reported cancellations of tour groups. A spokesman for the Bali Hyatt Hotel said 2,000 room reservations had been canceled through May. One tour operator said 90 percent of his Japanese customers had canceled plans to visit Bali between February and May. Restaurants, too, were reporting declines in business.

Think of the epidemics of cholera that have swept away thousands of people in South America, India - and generations ago, in Philadelphia. Picture a back-bay lagoon in Ocean City, N.J., where a guy goes swimming in untested water and comes down with - cholera. Now take a deep breath. And relax. A wave of the deadly disease has not just washed up on the Jersey Shore. "It's an isolated case. It's one case," said New Jersey Health Department spokeswoman Chris Gage. And it's not just that it's a single case.

Like an emerald with wings, a parrot flutters onto the branch of a mango tree, ruffling iridescent feathers on leaves the color of new lettuce. The glorious opening shot of Love in the Time of Cholera, director Mike Newell's adaptation of the ecstatic 1985 novel by Gabriel Garc?a Marquez, is a rhapsody in green. Newell and cinematographer Alfonso Beato brilliantly set the table for a lush and sensual epic that unfolds in Colombia in the period spanning the 1880s and 1930s.

Supplements Vitamin B2 may ward off headaches Huge daily doses of vitamin B2 may be just the thing to ward off migraine headaches in some people. Several researchers have found that 400 milligrams of B2, also known as riboflavin, can lessen both the frequency and severity of migraines in many patients. (The recommended daily dose is 1.5 milligrams.) The treatment offers the most hope to people with mild to moderate migraines. The researchers said in the current issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, that B2 has to be taken daily for at least two to three months to be effective.

The State Department has strengthened its advisory on travel in Ecuador from a caution to a warning, adding information on crime, business travel and cholera. It said some Galapagos Islands tour vessels were substandard in terms of maritime safety, some cases of cholera have been reported in southwestern Ecuador, and business travelers should resolve any legal and financial disputes with Ecuadorian partners before traveling. The level of street crime in Guayaquil is high, the warning said, and visitors to Quito should exercise caution around the famous Quito landmark known as the Virgin of Panecillo.

Court orders Libyan extradited TUNIS, Tunisia - A Tunisian appeals court Tuesday ordered former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi extradited to Libya. Mahmoudi was convicted of illegally crossing into Tunisia and imprisoned there in September, but the conviction was later overturned. Tunisian authorities have continued to hold him, however, after an extradition request from Libya. The Tunisian government has the final say on whether to extradite Mahmoudi. Justice Ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine El Abidine told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Tunisia's president must issue a decree to order the extradition.

Court orders Libyan extradited TUNIS, Tunisia - A Tunisian appeals court Tuesday ordered former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi extradited to Libya. Mahmoudi was convicted of illegally crossing into Tunisia and imprisoned there in September, but the conviction was later overturned. Tunisian authorities have continued to hold him, however, after an extradition request from Libya. The Tunisian government has the final say on whether to extradite Mahmoudi. Justice Ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine El Abidine told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Tunisia's president must issue a decree to order the extradition.

Like an emerald with wings, a parrot flutters onto the branch of a mango tree, ruffling iridescent feathers on leaves the color of new lettuce. The glorious opening shot of Love in the Time of Cholera, director Mike Newell's adaptation of the ecstatic 1985 novel by Gabriel Garc?a Marquez, is a rhapsody in green. Newell and cinematographer Alfonso Beato brilliantly set the table for a lush and sensual epic that unfolds in Colombia in the period spanning the 1880s and 1930s.

To stop the bacteria that cause disease, medicine's chief approach has been to go on the attack: using antibiotics that smother a microbe's critical enzymes, foul up its genetic instructions, or disrupt the formation of its cell wall. But bacteria are shifty, and they eventually develop ways to sidestep these assaults. Yesterday, Princeton University scientists reported progress with a less hostile approach, one they hope will someday yield an entirely new class of drugs: simply "talking" to bacteria in their own language.

"Love In the Time of Cholera" turns out to be the dreaded Butt-Number in the Time of Oscar Season. It's one of the those ambitious attempts to translate a great book that goes wrong almost from the get-go: You see the actors in their laughable old-age make-up, and you know you're one flashback away from at least four decades of high-tone soap opera. The magical realism and Latin sensibility of Gabriel Garcia Marquez seem almost completely missing from this adaptation by Mike Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral")

A dark mark mars the history of the Irish in Chester County, and it's linked to a mysterious mass grave in East Whiteland Township called Duffy's Cut. In 1832, 57 Irishmen from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry arrived in Philadelphia to work on a stretch of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad as cheap labor. Within six weeks, they were all dead, but exactly where they were buried and how they died is unclear. The story of the men is told in a gripping 52-minute docudrama called The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut, filmed mostly in Ireland, but also in Chester County.

Harry L. Smith Jr., 76, formerly of Jenkintown, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at Thomas Jefferson University, died of prostate cancer Dec. 6 at Ann's Choice, a retirement community in Warminster, where he had lived for two years. Dr. Smith earned his doctorate in microbiology from Jefferson in the 1950s and spent his professional career there. He divided his time among teaching, research into cholera and other intestinal infectious diseases, and administrative duties on committees at the Medical College and the College of Graduate Studies.

Think of the epidemics of cholera that have swept away thousands of people in South America, India - and generations ago, in Philadelphia. Picture a back-bay lagoon in Ocean City, N.J., where a guy goes swimming in untested water and comes down with - cholera. Now take a deep breath. And relax. A wave of the deadly disease has not just washed up on the Jersey Shore. "It's an isolated case. It's one case," said New Jersey Health Department spokeswoman Chris Gage. And it's not just that it's a single case.

The type of cholera that afflicted a man in Cape May County occurs in isolated cases and is not the same as that associated with outbreaks of the disease in developing countries, medical experts said yesterday. Cape May County health officials said an unidentified 30-year-old man was treated last month for diarrhea caused by the bacteria known as Vibrio cholorae non-01, which afflicted 46 people in the United States in 1999. Louis Lamanna, the county's public-health coordinator, said the man could have contacted the disease by swimming in a brackish lagoon in Ocean City's back bays or by eating undercooked or raw shellfish, both of which the man told officials he had done.

The type of cholera that afflicted a man in Cape May County occurs in isolated cases and is not the kind associated with outbreaks of the disease in developing countries, medical experts said yesterday. Cape May County health officials said an unidentified 30-year-old man was treated last month for diarrhea caused by the bacteria known as Vibrio cholorae non-01, which afflicted 46 people in the United States in 1999. Louis Lamanna, the county's public-health coordinator, said the man could have contacted the disease by swimming in a brackish lagoon in Ocean City's back bays or by eating undercooked or raw shellfish, both of which the man told officials he had done.