The following stories appear in full on today's Vidyya Medical News Service Web site.

Diabetes mellitus represents a spectrum of disorders whose primary clinical manifestation is an absolute or relative lack of insulin, or insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, affects approximately 90 percent of the 10.3 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes. The Office of Dietary Supplements recently sponsored a symposium on the role of supplements in the management of diabetes. Get abstracts from the main presentations in today's issue.

The International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database contains citations published in international scientific journals on the topic of dietary supplements from 1986 to the present. The journals that are the most likely to contain information on dietary supplements and to be cited on the IBIDS database have been placed in a handy reference list that appears in today's Vidyya. Practitioners interested in knowing more about dietary supplements will find this resource invaluable.

The potential use of placebos for medical benefit and their continued use in clinical trials are recent subjects of considerable interest and controversy among the lay public and scientists alike. The placebo effect has also been an increasing focus of attention as an important phenomenon to be understood. To explore the basis for and potential applications of the placebo effect and determine future research opportunities, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration 16 over NIH Institutes and Centers and three Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) agencies, have organized a trans-NIH/DHHS workshop to be held starting 19 November 2000.

The FDA, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have jointly informed physicians that buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist, is not currently approved or legally available in the United States for the treatment of opiate addiction, except when used as an investigational new drug.

In news from the American Heart Association Meeting, people with type 2 diabetes who take the weight-reducing medication Xenical(R) (orlistat) may significantly reduce their long-term risk of coronary heart disease and patients receiving Tracleer^tm (bosentan), the first oral therapy for pulmonary hypertension (PHT), demonstrated significant improvements in their exercise ability and hemodynamics. Tracleer is the first oral agent investigated for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Read about both the Xenical and the Tracleer studies in today's issue.

Ebola Update: As of 13 November, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported 1 new laboratory confirmed case. No new deaths have been reported as of 14 November. The Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported cumulative figures for Gulu district of 321 cases, including 104 deaths.

• Is There a Role for Dietary Supplements in the Management of Diabetes? Abstracts From Clinical Studies

• A Vidyya Resource: Dietary Supplement And Alternative Medicine Journals List

• Leading Experts To Explore The Basis For And Potential Applications Of The Placebo Effect

• Researchers Identify New Genetic Risk Factor For HIV Infection

• The FDA Issues A Clarification On Buprenorphine