ALICE PARK: Narrowing down the huge number of advancements made in the past year is always our hardest task. We try to include items that are fresh, innovative and represent a change in thinking about the way a disease is diagnosed or treated. We will certainly continue to monitor developments in Fragile X research over the coming years to determine whether there are advancements worth including in future lists.

In your piece on malaria, you state that malaria was "eradicated in North America with the development of a vaccine 50 years ago". What vaccine? Why is this vaccine not used today? The CDC states that eradication in the U.S. was achieved by "drainage, removal of mosquito breeding sites, and spraying (occasionally from aircrafts) of insecticides". Your statement must be in error.
Salli Wood
Easton, Pa.

COCO MASTERS: Unfortunately, the statement was in error and we are correcting it now. Current methods of prevention and treament for malaria involve oral doses of antimalarial drugs. But as the item states, there is hope that a malaria vaccine that has shown to be effective for up to 18 months, in a test conducted in Zambia, will soon be available.

The year 2005 saw a surge of new informative sites covering health and the latest in the medical research. Even teens are searching and discussing their health concerns in such places as WebMD, eMaxHealth.com and MedicalNewsToday. People increasingly seek health information online. How do you see the role of the web evolving in providing medical and health news for an average person?
Lilit Alikhanyan
Hickory, N.C.

ALICE PARK: There is no question that the internet is becoming a critical source of health information for everyone -- particularly the younger generations growing up w/the Web. The key issue, of course, is reliability, and ensuring that the information you pull has been vetted by qualified professionals. More sites from medical organizations, including the ones you mention, as well as those supported by professional organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, are beefing up their patient-info sections to provide more comprehensive materials. These sources are always just the beginning, however. It makes sense to discuss what you find on the Web with your own doctor so together you can evaluate how relevant the information is for you.

If happiness is only a state of mind; why cant modern medicine make this come true? For example,the drug Cocaine can provide a pleasure fifteen times more that that of an orgasm experienced by a virgin for the first time!
Wilson Frederick
Trichy, India

SORA SONG: If there is a study comparing the pleasure derived from a virgin's orgasm to that of a cocaine high, please send it along. We would be curious to read it. (To clarify, however, the rush of a drug trip is not quite the same as happiness per se.)

Otherwise, the short answer to your question is that the interplay between mind and body is often tricky and not easily traced or quantified. There is no single brain center for "happiness" and no single external trigger of the emotion. Researchers generally measure happiness using subjective rating scales and surveys, not with brain scans or MRIs. So, given that scientists need to understand at least some of the pathways of a bodily process -- be it physiological disease or mental illness or happiness -- to be able to treat or re-create it, we shouldn't hold our breath for a happiness pill anytime soon. Thanks!

Your questions on the year in medicine

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