The Arsenal Files 8/The Arsenal Files Collection #8 (Arsenal Computer) (1996).ISO/health/ad961104.txt

Text File | 1996-11-11 | 10KB | 182 lines

                     AIDS Daily Summary
                    Monday, November 4, 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


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"Merck Delays AIDS Drug's Distribution in Pharmacies Until
Sometime in 1997"
"The Changing Face of AIDS"
"Foreman and Morrison Earn the Right to Fight Again"
"Science Votes No on California's Marijuana Plan"
"Louisiana Race for Senate Going Down to the Wire"
"Morrison Raising Funds, Questions"
"India-Health: Illegal AIDS Vaccine Test Worries..."
"HIV Prevention in Developed Countries"
"Grievance Filed in TB Case"
"Kemped Out"
******************************************************

"Merck Delays AIDS Drug's Distribution in Pharmacies Until
Sometime in 1997"
Wall Street Journal (11/04/96) P. B6; Tanouye, Elyse
     Merck's new AIDS drug Crixivan will not be available in
retail pharmacies at the end of this year, as the company had
planned, due to production limitations and higher-than expected
demand.  Wider distribution of the drug, which was approved in
March, will be delayed until sometime next year.  Merck announced
Friday that the drug is being approved in foreign countries more
quickly than expected, and that demand in the United States also
exceeded the company's expectations.  Merck initially distributed
Crixivan only through a retail mail-order service, a plan that
was criticized by AIDS activists and retail pharmacists.

"The Changing Face of AIDS"
New York Times (11/04/96) P. A26
     The AIDS rate is rising in the black community, and will
continue to be a serious threat until black leaders and citizens
recognize the problem, according to an editorial in the New York
Times.  Black leaders met at a conference last month to address
the problem and the denial among many in the black community.
AIDS now kills more blacks aged 25 to 44 than any other cause,
more than homicide, heart disease, and accidents combined.  By
the end of the year 2000, blacks are expected to account for more
than half of all new AIDS cases, while whites will make up about
30 percent.  While white gay men were actively fighting AIDS
early in the epidemic, the black community was denying it, the
editors claim.  At the conference, participants called for a
national emergency effort to curb the spread of the disease among
blacks as well as an end to the silence within the community.

"Foreman and Morrison Earn the Right to Fight Again"
New York Times (11/04/96) P. C7; Pollack, Andrew
     Both George Foreman and the HIV-positive heavyweight Tommy
Morrison beat their opponents, Crawford Grimsley and Marcus
Rhode, respectively, in Sunday's fights in Tokyo.  Morrison said
the fight will improve acceptance of HIV-positive boxers.  "This
is a dangerous thing, no doubt about it," he said.  "But we're
trying to prove to people that it can be a positive thing as
well, and I think we did that tonight."  Rhode said he was never
worried about contracting HIV in the ring.  Morrison returned to
boxing to raise money for his foundation, Knockout AIDS, to
benefit children with HIV.  He said he is willing to fight again
to raise money for the cause and suggested that Foreman could be
his next opponent.

"Science Votes No on California's Marijuana Plan"
New York Times (11/04/96) P. A26; Rosenthal, Mitchell S.
     The legalization of marijuana for medical use is not
supported by scientific evidence and could be dangerous, contends
Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House, a drug
treatment facility in Los Angeles.  In a letter to the editor of
the New York Times, he says that there is no scientific proof
that marijuana benefits patients with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, or
multiple sclerosis any more than other treatments.  He points to
his experience treating young drug addicts and says that "fully
40 percent of the teenagers who are in treatment have abused
nothing more potent than pot."

"Louisiana Race for Senate Going Down to the Wire"
USA Today (11/04/96) P. 12A; Hall, Mimi
     In Louisiana, Republican Louis "Woody" Jenkins, a former
state representative, is facing Democrat Mary Landrieu, former
state treasurer, in one of the closest Senate races this year.
In a recent debate, Jenkins said he opposed increased AIDS
funding because 90 percent of the problem would be eliminated if
gay people would "stop engaging in the acts they're engaging in."

"Morrison Raising Funds, Questions"
Boston Globe (11/02/96) P. G2; Borges, Ron
     Tommy Morrison defends his decision to return to boxing,
despite the fact that he has HIV, based on the fact that he feels
healthy.  "It's a dormant virus.  It's not doing anything to me.
I feel perfectly fine, but people expect me to be 120 pounds and
dying," he said.  Although Morrison said he initially felt
hopeless against the virus, his attitude improved when he started
learning about HIV and decided to start a foundation to raise
funds to help children with AIDS.  For Morrison, the easiest way
to raise money for the cause was to fight again.

"India-Health: Illegal AIDS Vaccine Test Worries..."
IPS Wire (10/31/96)
     An illegal clinical trial of an AIDS vaccine in India, made
public by a newspaper reporter a year ago, has been more fully
described in a citizen's report by an AIDS discrimination group.
The trial was conducted by a U.S.-based doctor of Indian origin
with the aid of a controversial Indian physician who works with
prostitutes in Mumbai.  Indian medical officials in Mumbai were
not aware of the trial in which 10 HIV-positive patients received
a vaccine, known as Manisyl, that they were told would cure them.
One of the patients has died, another is dying of blood cancer,
and two of the remaining eight have not been located.  One of the
patients has filed suit against the doctors, and the AIDS
organization is demanding a judicial inquiry into the "bovine
immunodeficiency vaccine" trials.

"HIV Prevention in Developed Countries"
Lancet (10/26/96) Vol. 348, No. 9035, P. 1143; Coates, Thomas J.;
Aggleton, Peter; Gutzwiller, Felix; et al.
     While significant advances have been made in treating AIDS,
strategies to prevent the spread of HIV remain critical to
combating the disease.  Dr. Thomas J. Coates, of the University
of California, San Francisco, and colleagues review, in the
Lancet, the successes and failures of HIV prevention strategies
throughout the developed world.  Prevention programs implemented
early have proven successful in developed countries, especially
those that targeted injection drug users and homosexual men.
Cities that began early to offer treatment for drug use, clean
syringes, and outreach, for example, maintained low HIV
prevalence compared to cities that did not offer these services.
Likewise, low HIV incidence has been achieved in cities where gay
communities initiated HIV prevention strategies.  Meanwhile,
heterosexual transmission, which is attributed mainly to
transmission from injection drug users to their sexual partners,
is increasing in the United States, Europe, and Canada.  The
authors suggest that prevention strategies are needed to target
this group, as well as heterosexuals that do not use injection
drugs.  The authors conclude that, despite the considerable
success of prevention efforts, failures are occurring because of
political barriers to effective strategies and because more
effective strategies are needed to reach the groups most at risk.

"Grievance Filed in TB Case"
Federal Times (10/28/96) Vol. 32, No. 38, P. 4; Rivenbark, Leigh
     A prison union local claims that management at an Allenwood,
Pa., federal prison was negligent in protecting employees from an
inmate with tuberculosis (TB).  Last March, eight employees at
the facility tested positive for exposure to the disease.
However, the exposure was only recognized after an inmate was
admitted to a local hospital and found to have a tubercular mass
in his lung.  The American Federation of Government Employees
local at Allenwood has charged that the prison management
depended on the hospital to provide masks for the guards, adding
that the masks were not the kind required to protect wearers from
contracting TB.  The Bureau of Prisons and the warden claim that
they reacted as quickly as possible to the threat.  The warden
rejected a grievance filed by the local, and the matter will go
to arbitration next year.  Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has cited the prison both for failing to
offer follow-up care to employees who tested positive for TB and
for failing to provide the proper masks to employees.

"Kemped Out"
Village Voice (10/29/96) Vol. 41, No. 44, P. 8; Schoofs, Mark
     Despite the GOP's depiction of Jack Kemp as an advocate for
the poor, AIDS activists remember his role in barring people with
AIDS from federal housing programs for the handicapped in 1990.
Under Kemp's leadership, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development refused to include AIDS as a disability, making
people with the disease ineligible for federal housing programs
for the disabled.  The reason cited was that HIV killed too
quickly to qualify as "an impairment which is expected to be
long-continued and indefinite duration."  Activists appealed to
Kemp, who failed to respond.