Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/ad950323.zip/AD950323.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-23 | 12KB | 214 lines

                     AIDS Daily Summary
                       March 23, 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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"Former City AIDS Official Charged"
"AIDS Researcher Pursued"
"Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern"
"Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper"
"Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS"
"A Personal Story"
"Swiss Law for Safer Blood"
"Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools"
"U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics"
"Agenda: Split Personality"
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"Former City AIDS Official Charged"
Philadelphia Inquirer (03/23/95) P. A1;  Gammage, Jeff
     Francis Stoffa Jr., former head of the Philadelphia AIDS Task
Force, has been charged with the theft of more than $200,000 from
the agency.  "He literally stole the lives of the people he was
trying to help," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.  "The
people who are suffering the worst, the people with AIDS and who
are HIV positive, were mistreated the worst."  Stoffa left the
task force last April, after a criminal investigation of its
fiscal management was launched.  The task force, which also went
by the name of Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives,
provided a number of services in the city, including AIDS testing
and counseling.  Stoffa was expected to be arrested today on
charges of theft, forgery, fraud, and other offenses, said the
district attorney's office.

"AIDS Researcher Pursued"
Baltimore Sun (03/23/95) P. 1A;  Bor, Jonathan
     Offering public money and research space, political and academic
leaders in Maryland are trying to attract world-famous AIDS
researcher Dr. Robert C. Gallo to Baltimore.  Gallo's medical
achievements include the discovery of two leukemia viruses, as
well as crucial findings in the biology of AIDS.  Gallo, who
currently operates the tumor cell biology laboratory at the
National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., would receive a joint
appointment on the faculties of the University of Maryland at
Baltimore's Biotechnology Institute and medical school.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Gallo would receive a total of
$12 million to cover the first three years of costs to establish
a Center for Human Virology at the university.  Maryland Gov.
Parris N. Glendening says he expects competing states and
institutions to offer more money to attract Gallo, who will
likely retire from the NCI after qualifying for his pension in
July.  Gallo has indicated that he will examine other factors in
addition to money concerning his relocation, including academic
environment, lifestyle, and AIDS caseloads.

"Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern"
Reuters (03/22/95);  Charles, Deborah
     Luc Montagnier, the French researcher who first identified HIV,
announced at a Wednesday news conference that the increasing
number of HIV-positive people in Thailand underscores the
country's need to change sexual behavior.  There are an estimated
750,000 people in Thailand infected with HIV, up from
approximately 250,000 in 1991.  Montagnier attributed the
increasing rate of HIV in Thailand to prostitution and sexual
promiscuity.  "We need to give education in school at an age
before sexual activity so the message could be taken more
seriously," he said.  Montagnier made the announcement in
Thailand during a brief visit following the AIDS conference in
Singapore.  The World Health Organization announced in December
that Thailand and India have the fastest growing rates of people
developing AIDS.

"Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper"
Reuters (03/23/95)
     France's Liberation newspaper quoted a High Public Health
Committee report in its Thursday edition which stated that French
doctors must share the blame with authorities for causing
hundreds of hemophiliacs to contract AIDS through HIV-tainted
blood products.  The Liberation said the still unpublished report
blamed the crisis on doctors who collected blood donations,
saying they had failed to screen donors for HIV, and therefore
allowed blood products to be contaminated.  Until now, doctors
had avoided the blame for the mid-1980s scandal in which 1,250
hemophiliacs contracted HIV.  Over 400 of those infected have
since died.  Two former senior health officials have been put in
jail after being found guilty of fraud in connection with the
distribution of tainted blood products.  The two officials, as
well as seven Socialist former government officials--including
former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and two former
ministers--are under investigation by magistrates attempting to
determine if they should face the more serious charge of
poisoning.  They have been accused of attempting to save money by
using up contaminated blood stocks rather than importing
disinfected products.  The Liberation also said the report blamed
doctors for not demanding that authorities provide their patients
with blood products disinfected by heat treatment because that
new disinfection method had not been fully documented at the
time.

"Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS"
Reuters (03/22/95)
     India's Ishwar Gilanda, Secretary of the Indian Health
Organization (IHO), said on Wednesday that New Delhi was
preoccupied with the country's political and economical problems,
and was not focusing enough attention on countering the spread of
HIV.  Gilanda said the city of Bombay contains almost a third of
the country's more than 1 million AIDS cases and 18,000 HIV cases
as of Jan. 1.  Gilanda said a year ago there were 600 AIDS cases
and 13,000 HIV cases.  He also said that a large number of cases
in India are unreported, and that IHO estimates that there are
currently 4  million HIV infections in the country and over
200,000 full-blown cases of AIDS.  The World Health Organization,
which estimates the current number of HIV cases in India between
1.5 and 2 million, projects that figure will increase to around
10 million by the year 2000, according to Gilanda.  He
recommended that the Indian government spend more money on
education, treatment, and management of sexually transmitted
diseases.

"A Personal Story"
Chicago Tribune (03/22/95) P. 2-3;  Johnson, Steve
     For an experimental series of reports, Chicago's WBBM-Channel 2
has hired Rae Lewis-Thornton, an amateur reporter who has AIDS.
Lewis-Thornton's reports are part of the CBS affiliate's attempts
to give its broadcasts more of a community service focus.  WBBM
News Director John Lansing says the AIDS reports will also help
break down stereotypes about HIV-positive people.  Although
similar projects have been initiated elsewhere, Lansing says,
"Our response is, we don't think enough has been done.  I worry
about our kids getting a strong enough message."  Lewis-Thornton,
who made her condition publicly known in 1992, claims that she
also wants to use her reports to confront existing stereotypes.
"This is an opportunity to show women the face of another woman
who is living with AIDS," she says.

"Swiss Law for Safer Blood"
Lancet (03/11/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 640;  McGregor, Alan
     A mandate by the Swiss government to strengthen quality control
of blood supplies, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan.
1, is still awaiting approval by the Parliament.  Under the
order, the Federal Public Health Office will be responsible for
ensuring that all blood products and organ transplants undergo
all the standardized tests, including those for HIV and hepatitis
B and C.  Blood donors will be required to fill out a detailed
questionnaire.  The Blood and AIDS working group recommended the
new measures.  The Ministry of Interior formed the group after it
was determined that blood products supplied to hospitals by the
Swiss Red Cross were the source of HIV infection in several
patients.  The only person to have been charged as the result of
these infections is Professor Alfred Haessig, who was director of
the Red Cross central laboratory at the time.  He is charged with
having permitted the preparation and sale of blood derivatives in
which HIV contamination was a suspected possibility.

"Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools"
Nation's Health (03/95) Vol. 25, No. 3, P. 9
     Although sexual abstinence should be encouraged, young people
should have access to condoms in school, according to "Condom
Availability for Youth"--a new policy statement from the American
Academy of Pediatrics.  Public health concerns necessitate the
removal of barriers and restrictions to condom availability, said
the report.  The number of HIV-infected teens, for example,
doubles every 14 months.  Schools are a suitable location for
teens to have access to condoms because they are likely to have a
comprehensive array of related educational and health care
resources.  To be most effective, condom availability should be
organized through a community process and be accompanied by
school health programs, parental involvement, counseling, and
positive peer support.

"U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics"
AIDS Alert (03/95) Vol. 10, No. 3, P. 43
     In the first national study of hospital costs for treating HIV
and tuberculosis (TB), researchers from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than one-third of
young adult TB patients were also treated for HIV or AIDS, and
that co-infection significantly boosted the morbidity and cost of
health care in young adults.  The study used data from 1985-1990,
during which time the national cost of inpatient care for HIV and
TB was $8 billion--5 percent of which was spent on co-infected
patients.  "The increasing co-prevalence of hospital patients
with both diseases is a big problem," said Dr. Lisa Rosenblum of
the CDC.  About 418,200 young adults were hospitalized for HIV
and 77,700 for TB during the five years.  A total of 16,200 were
hospitalized for co-infections.  Although an average of 21
percent of all TB patients were also HIV-positive, the rate
increased significantly during that time, from 10.6 percent for
1985-1988 to 39 percent in 1990.  The researchers found that
patients with extrapulmonary TB had a higher prevalence of HIV
than those with pulmonary TB.  Rosenblum suggested that the
higher rate of HIV with extrapulmonary TB indicates the greater
risk for disseminated disease in immunocompromised patients.
Another high risk factor for co-infection was drug-addiction,
which affected 27 percent of co-infected patients.

"Agenda: Split Personality"
Advocate (03/07/95) No. 676, P. 16
     AIDS has two faces in the United States--one east of the
Mississippi River and one west of it--said speakers at the
seventh annual AIDS Update Conference earlier this year.  "In the
East it more resembles what we see in the Caribbean, where it's
increasingly heterosexual, hitting women, children, and
minorities," said Dr. Michael Gorman of the University of
Washington.  He added that 80 percent of the new cases west of
the Mississippi River are still gay.  The geographic gap
complicates AIDS prevention efforts, educators said.