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The Arsenal Files Collection #8 (Arsenal Computer) (1996).ISO
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ad961014.txt
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1996-10-16
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AIDS Daily Summary
Monday, October 14, 1996
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National
AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a
public service only. Providing this information does not
constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC National AIDS
Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this
text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this
information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
******************************************************
"Police Break Up AIDS Protest at White House"
"A New Danger in the Age of AIDS"
"In Age of Acupuncture and Nose Piercing, Who Can Give Blood?"
"When AIDS Hits Home"
"Clinton, in Detailed Interview, Calls His Health 'Very Good'"
"Obituary: Janice A. Burns, 33, Who Sought a Wider Understanding
of AIDS"
"AIDS Program Criticized"
"Marijuana Club's Founder Arrested"
"Congress: Biomedical Research Wins Big"
"The New Tuskegee Experiment"
******************************************************
"Police Break Up AIDS Protest at White House"
Washington Post (10/14/96) P. B3
More than 300 AIDS activists took part in a demonstration at
the White House Sunday to protest President Clinton's AIDS
policies and to voice demands for guaranteed access to AIDS
treatments, increased AIDS research, and federally funded needle
exchange programs. The event, called a political funeral, was
organized by ACT UP. The protesters, who marched from the Mall
where the AIDS Memorial Quilt was on display, threw funeral urns
over the wrought iron fence at the White House.
"A New Danger in the Age of AIDS"
Washington Post (10/14/96) P. A4; Tippit, Sarah
The disclosure of confidential AIDS records by a Florida
health worker has focused attention on new threats to the
security of medical records in the information age. As computer
networks, insurance databases, and computer hackers proliferate,
concerns about maintaining such confidentiality have been raised.
The official, William Calvert III, who was an investigator with
the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, is
accused of using a list of local HIV-positive residents to screen
potential dates for himself and his friends. Calvert was fired
last Wednesday. Investigators are now trying to determine if the
list was published on the Internet or whether there is a network
of AIDS information brokers.
"In Age of Acupuncture and Nose Piercing, Who Can Give Blood?"
Wall Street Journal (10/14/96) P. B1; Chase, Marilyn
When the threat of AIDS appeared in the 1980s, the
screening process for blood donors became more probing and
specific. Potential blood donors are now screened for disease
risks based on medical and lifestyle information. A person who
has had malaria must wait at least three years to give blood, for
example, and a person with a history of cancer is rejected.
Donors are also rejected if they have ever injected street drugs
or steroids. Practices like acupuncture, tattooing, and ear or
body piercing disqualify donors for a year. The use of certain
drugs also make donors ineligible for shorter time periods. The
risk of contracting HIV from a blood transfusion has been reduced
to as little as two in one million.
"When AIDS Hits Home"
Washington Post (10/12/96) P. A1; Goldstein, Amy
AIDS, more than any other disease, has become a part of
American society, evidenced by the numerous community groups,
fund-raising efforts, and corporate sponsorships focused on AIDS.
The wide acceptance of the disease in the 1990s is especially
surprising because it was highly stigmatized in the 1980s. The
portrayal of AIDS as universal has fueled the integration of the
disease into society. However, while AIDS has become a popular
social issue, the disease has spread to the margins of society.
Moreover, AIDS has been increasingly linked to intravenous drug
use, to poverty, and to minorities.
"Clinton, in Detailed Interview, Calls His Health 'Very Good'"
New York Times (10/14/96) P. A1; Altman, Lawrence K.
President Clinton reports, in his first interview about his
health, that he has never had a serious illness and that he would
make such an illness public if he developed one while in the
White House. As part of an exam for a life insurance policy,
Clinton tested negative for HIV in 1990. He has not been
re-tested. Clinton said he was "not in any kind of at-risk
category--there is nothing I've done that would indicate that I
could have become positive" for HIV. Clinton will be tested for
HIV again in the future, according to White House physician Dr.
E. Connie Mariano.
"Obituary: Janice A. Burns, 33, Who Sought a Wider Understanding
of AIDS"
New York Times (10/14/96) P. A15; Saxon, Wolfgang
Janice A. Burns, who worked to educate the public about AIDS
through her writing and speaking, died of the disease on Sept. 28
in New York. Burns wrote "Sarah's Song" about her life with her
husband William Burns, and their struggle to live with AIDS. She
was active in several AIDS organizations and has spoken to
thousands of high school students about her experiences.
"AIDS Program Criticized"
Houston Chronicle (10/11/96) P. 11A
A new housing program for AIDS patients in Los Angeles has
come under attack by Congressional Republicans. The program will
use federal funds for the housing but will not evict people for
using illegal drugs, even if the drugs are used in the facility.
Critics argue that a government policy requires that any resident
of public or assisted housing be evicted for drug use.
"Marijuana Club's Founder Arrested"
Washington Post (10/12/96) P. A15
The founder of San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers Club, which
provided marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer, and other terminal
diseases, was arrested Friday on charges of selling the drug to
dealers. Dennis Peron, also the leader of a ballot measure to
legalize marijuana for medical use, is accused of conspiracy, as
well as possession and sale of marijuana. California's Attorney
General Dan Lungren, who led a raid on the club in August, said
five other people allegedly involved in the club are being sought
on similar charges.
"Congress: Biomedical Research Wins Big"
Science (10/04/96) Vol. 274, No. 5284, P. 27; Marshall, Eliot;
Lawler, Andrew
The 1997 appropriation bill recently passed by Congress
includes a 6.9 percent funding increase for the National
Institutes of Health, raising the research center's budget to
$12.7 billion. The total is some $330 million greater than the
spending proposals offered by either the Clinton administration
or the Senate. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), chair of the House
appropriations subcommittee responsible for NIH's budget, wanted
to take AIDS spending authority away from the NIH's Office of
AIDS Research (OAR). The new bill gives OAR much of the control
of AIDS funding, as well as an "estimated" budget of $1.5
billion. The directors of OAR and NIH share the authority to
transfer up to 3 percent of this money from one institute to
another.
"The New Tuskegee Experiment"
Village Voice (10/01/96) Vol. 41, No. 40, P. 8; Hentoff, Nat
A new law in the state of New York, sponsored by
Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn, requires that mothers be informed
if their newborns test positive for HIV. Mayersohn pushed for the
legislation for years, battling opponents that included the Gay
Men's Health Crisis, the ACLU, and some feminists and medical
societies. Jim Dwyer, a columnist for the New York Daily News, is
credited for his investigative reporting, then for Newsday, on the
need for mandatory testing and notification. He showed that the
opposition's argument--that pregnant women could be persuaded to
seek their test results voluntarily--was inadequate.
Additionally, the claim that mandatory testing would keep some
women from seeking health care was also countered by Dwyer, who
interviewed minority women who said mandatory testing would have
saved their children's lives. In an interview with Dwyer, Dr.
Arthur Ammann, a specialist in pediatric AIDS, compared the
anonymous testing of infants in New York to the Tuskegee
experiment, in which black men with syphilis were observed, but
not treated, in a government study. Amman also noted that, in
1983, the community agreed that anyone who had contracted HIV
through a blood transfusion had a right to be informed. He argued
that infants should have the same rights.