Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/ad950315.zip/AD950315.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-15 | 12KB | 208 lines

                     AIDS Daily Summary
                       March 15, 1995

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 Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction
of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Nation of Islam Clinic Markets AIDS 'Cure'"
"Self-Insemination May Carry Risk of HIV Infection"
"Suit Seeks Release of Babies' AIDS Test Results"
"Employee Sues City Over Job"
"Across the USA: Maine"
"Bill to Provide Private HIV Testing at Home Advances"
"AIDS Expert Grilled at Inquiry"
"AIDS Funding Change Criticized"
"Primary Prevention of Cryptococcal Meningitis by Fluconazole in
HIV-Infected Patients"
"AIDS Research Priorities"
************************************************************

"Nation of Islam Clinic Markets AIDS 'Cure'"
New York Times (03/15/95) P. A22
     A Nation of Islam clinic in Washington, D.C., which has received
almost $600,000 in federal funds during the past two years, is
dispensing an unlicensed "miracle cure" for AIDS, the Chicago
Tribune reported on Tuesday.  The Abundant Life Clinic is run by
Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, the Nation of Islam's chief doctor, who
once accused the federal government of developing HIV to
eradicate blacks.  Alim describes what he is selling as a form of
interferon, which studies have found to be ineffective in
fighting AIDS.  In Nation of Islam publications, the clinic
advertises that Alim has found the cure for HIV.  He said, in a
1992 speech, that one of his pills taken daily for six months
would cure AIDS.  In 1992, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
said that his church had acquired the exclusive distribution
rights in the United States for Immunex, a brand of interferon.
However, Dr. George Carlo, acting technical director of Pharma
Pacifica Management Ltd. of Australia, which owns the Immunex
trademark, said, "How could anyone give them the rights to
distribute the drug?  It's illegal to sell it in the United
States."  Related Stories: Chicago Tribune (03/14) P. 1-1; USA
Today (03/15) P. 3A

"Self-Insemination May Carry Risk of HIV Infection"
Washington Post (03/15/95) P. A3
     There is a risk of contracting HIV for women who practice
self-insemination with sperm that has not been properly screened
for HIV, a researcher has cautioned.  Another researcher,
however,  said there have been no reported cases of HIV infection
through artificial insemination since 1986, and said a woman's
risk of becoming infected in such a fashion is "probably remote."
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
recommends that semen donors be tested for HIV, it is not known
how many actually are, said Mary E. Guinan of the CDC's HIV-AIDS
office, writing in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.  "Artificial insemination is safe but not completely
so," she wrote.  Still, in another study reported in the same
journal, Maria Rosario G. Araneta found that seven of 199 women
artificially inseminated with semen from five HIV-infected men
between 1981 and 1985 tested HIV-positive.  The test for HIV
antibody became available in 1985, and no cases of infection
through artificial insemination have been reported since then,
said Araneta, an epidemiologist with the Naval Health Research
Center in San Diego.

"Suit Seeks Release of Babies' AIDS Test Results"
New York Times (03/15/95) P. B6;  Lee, Felicia R.
     The Association to Benefit Children, a New York City advocacy
group for children, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to have all
newborns in New York state tested for HIV and their mothers
notified of the results.  A bill, which would require such
testing and disclosure, is expected to go to the Senate floor
after being approved by a health committee on Tuesday.  Gretchen
Buchenholz, the executive director of the association, said that
her organization's suit on behalf of HIV-infected children is an
effort to extend their lives of the kids and prevent unnecessary
pain.  The suit claims that the state's "blind" HIV testing is
unfair because it is unlike the state's other mandatory testing
of newborns for other diseases, in which case the mothers are
informed of the results.  In its suit, the association has
requested that all children born in New York state be tested
within 30 days, and that an "HIV risk assessment" be made for all
children in the care, custody, and control of the state.

"Employee Sues City Over Job"
Philadelphia Inquirer (03/15/95) P. B1;  Rosenberg, Amy S.
     On Friday, Cecil Hankins--an African American employee of
Philadelphia's Health Department--sued the city, claiming he was
passed over for the job of program director of Philadelphia's
AIDS office because "the position had been set aside for a member
of the white community."  Hankins,47, contends that the city
lowered the education requirements for the head of the AIDS
Activities Coordinating Committee in 1993 so that a
"lesser-qualified white male" could be hired.  The lawsuit also
alleges that the city has a policy within the AIDS office of
"altering job requirements for the purpose of preventing
qualified African Americans from advancing within the
organization."  Richard Scott, the man who was given the
director's position, was removed in October after leaders of
minority groups said he was insensitive to their needs.

"Across the USA: Maine"
USA Today (03/15/95) P. 9A
     A bill in Maine's legislature would allow anyone exposed to
another person's blood to demand that person be tested for HIV.
The measure would also prohibit insurers from requiring HIV
tests, except for those people seeking life policies of $100,000
or more.

"Bill to Provide Private HIV Testing at Home Advances"
Houston Chronicle (03/14/95) P. 15A;  Tuell, Sherry Carter
     On Monday, a bill that would provide for anonymous home HIV
testing received tentative approval, and was slated for a vote
before the full House on Tuesday.  The bill, which is sponsored
by Texas Rep. Glen Maxey (D.-Austin) would permit
over-the-counter sales of home test kits to detect the virus that
causes AIDS.  Direct Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Johnson &
Johnson, is awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval to
manufacture HIV test kits similar to those for pregnancy, blood
sugar levels, or blood pressure levels.  Under Maxey's bill, the
Texas Department of Health would establish and enforce standards
of testing and counseling for the home test kit, which would cost
about $30.  An HIV test at the health department costs about $10.
The measure has drawn criticism from some AIDS activists who
object to the telephone counseling provision.

"AIDS Expert Grilled at Inquiry"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/14/95) P. A4;  Coutts, Jane
     On Monday, Canadian Red Cross lawyer Earl Cherniak repeatedly
suggested that AIDS expert Dr. Don Francis had not been nearly as
aggressive in his recommendations for controlling AIDS as he had
claimed.  Francis, a former epidemiologist with the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), last week said that if the
Red Cross had incorporated his recommendations, it might have
reduced HIV infection in Canada "by at least three-quarters, if
not 90 percent."  He based this criticism of the Red Cross on a
memo he wrote in January 1983, in which he said that blood banks
should refuse donations of blood or plasma if the donors were
intravenous drug users, promiscuous, or had sexual partners who
were either.  During several hours of cross-examination, Cherniak
noted repeated instances in which Francis and his colleagues at
the CDC could have pushed harder for the recommendations to be
adopted.

"AIDS Funding Change Criticized"
Houston Chronicle (03/14/95) P. 13A;  Stinebaker, Joe
     Minority social service agencies in Harris County, Texas, say
that after years of progress, they and their clients are no
longer receiving a fair share of this year's federal AIDS
funding.  Groups such as the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and the Association for the
Advancement of Mexican Americans have long relied on "minority
set-aside" contracts with the Ryan White Council to provide
financial, legal, and health services to county residents who
have HIV or AIDS.  In August, an assistant county attorney
informed the council that the "set-asides" are illegal under
state law, effectively ending the program.  Now, as the 1995-1996
contracts are being signed, some of the minority-run agencies
claim they are being frozen out in favor of larger, more
established social service agencies.  Health workers, council
members, and others says that the federal government has tied the
council's hands on how to get funds to the minority community and
then threatens punishment if the council does not improve its
relationship with minority agencies.

"Primary Prevention of Cryptococcal Meningitis by Fluconazole in
HIV-Infected Patients"
Lancet (03/04/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 548;  Quagliarello,
Vincent J.;  Viscoli, Catherine;  Horwitz, Ralph I.
     Quagliarello et al.'s study of the use of oral fluconazole
provides evidence for the use of the drug in preventing a first
episode of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-infected people.
During the six months before lumbar puncture--a method of
specific diagnosis--two of the 18 subjects with cryptococcal
meningitis and 26 of the 72 controls were exposed to fluconazole.
This finding indicates a 92 percent protective efficacy for
fluconazole exposure.  The researchers concluded that fluconazole
decreases the risk of a first episode of cryptococcal meningitis
in people with CD4 counts less than 250.  Because the patients
were exposed to fluconazole for an average of 30 days, it is
possible that a significant protective effect could be achieved
with less than daily use.

"AIDS Research Priorities"
Science (03/03/95) Vol. 267, No. 5202, P. 1249;  Kramer, Larry
     In a letter to the editor published in Science, AIDS activist
Larry Kramer uses the phrase "heartbreakingly inadequate" to
describe the "comprehensive research plan" as presented by Dr.
William E. Paul, director of the Office of AIDS Research at the
National Institutes of Health, to deal with the AIDS epidemic.
To Kramer, a plan means strategy, priorities, direction, goals,
and results.  He questions the goals and vision of Paul's plan.
Although Paul's strategy heralds "investigator-initiated research
proposals," the process each scientist must go through to obtain
funding is still one "fully determined by the procedure of peer
review as part of the entire competitive process."  Kramer
concludes that the new Republican Congress is just beginning to
sense what AIDS activists discovered long ago--that NIH has never
produced a cure to any major illness, and that for $14 billion
each year, the taxpayers are getting a bad value for their money.