NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/sci/med/aids/2272

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From: [e-mail] (Billi Goldberg)
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Subject: CDC Summary 1/26/93
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Date: 27 Jan 93 06:01:12 GMT
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                       AIDS Daily Summary
                        January 26, 1993
 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.  Copyright 1992, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
=======================================================================
 "Sex Adds to Fears of Parents of Retarded" New York Times (01/26/93),
P. A1  (Belkin, Lisa)
     While topics of relationships and sexuality are difficult to
address for any parent, they are even more so for the parents of  the
mentally and emotionally disabled.  Doctors, therapists, and  families
did not even discuss sexuality and the mentally retarded for decades.
But in recent years sexual expression has been  viewed as a right.  Many
parents and programs began educating  those who are capable of
understanding about sex.  Yet now in the age of AIDS, the ground is
shifting again, as guardians are  concerned about the newest risks of
sex.  Before parents can  decide what to discuss with their child, they
have to determine  how much their child can understand.  Betty Pendler,
who leads  sexuality workshops for parents of the mentally retarded,
decided that her own daughter, who can travel on her own and manage the
basics of daily life, could understand almost everything.  She  says her
daughter, Lisa, knows all about AIDS prevention and  birth control.  But
another mother said that her son, who has  Down syndrome, barely
comprehends the basics.  The primary  concern of most parents is that
their children understand enough  so they are not easy targets for
abuse.  According to Pendler,  parents sometimes face the issue of
homosexuality among retarded  adults.  She said it took many years for
experts to determine  that some mentally disabled people are capable of
consenting to  sex.  It is still unclear what level of understanding is
required to choose homosexual sex.  Although there is no reason to
believe that the level of homosexuality is high among the mentally
retarded population, Pendler added, there is no reason to believe it is
low either.
=======================================================================
"AIDS Scams Con the Unwary" Washington Post (Health) (01/26/93), P. 9
(Henry, Sarah)
     Underground drugs taken to treat AIDS can often result in  unwanted
side effects, even though many AIDS patients feel  desperate enough to
try anything that might cure them of the  disease.  One case of drug
fraud involved Jim Looney, an  HIV-positive man from Los Angeles, who
took Viroxan to treat his  condition.  He heard about the underground
treatment and decided  to start injecting the drug--a plant extract that
his lawyer  describes as having the consistency of refrigerated honey.
His  physician had subsequently convinced him to have a catheter
surgically inserted into a vein in his chest so that the Viroxan  could
flow directly into his blood stream.   Looney is one of as  many as 100
HIV-positive patients who were convinced that Viroxan concocted in a
doctor's home could keep them alive, even cure  them of AIDS.  He spent
about $20,000 on the treatment, which he  took for about nine months.
Consequently, he developed lumps of  dead tissue on his buttocks and
hips from the painful Viroxan  injections and potentially serious blood
clots from the catheter. The drug also accumulated under his skin,
causing his arms and  fingers to swell.  Looney, as well as eight other
patients, has  filed a civil lawsuit alleging medical negligence and
malpractice, fraud, conspiracy, and emotional distress against  the
physicians, radiologist, pharmacist, and Los Angeles hospital where he
had his surgery.  The case emphasizes the difficult  issue for the
entire AIDS community.  Many HIV-positive  individuals are willing to
try federally unapproved treatments,  some of which seem effective for
maintaining health, but find out too late that the treatments actually
are useless.
=======================================================================
"Mom With AIDS Seeks Precedent" Chicago Tribune (01/25/93), P. 1-7
(Fegelman, Andrew)
     A Chicago woman with AIDS wants a guardian appointed to care for
her two young children only after she can no longer care for  them.  In
addition, she wants to remain their only parent until  that day arrives.
The unnamed woman's attorney, Linda Rio,  expects to test the limits of
the Illinois probate law on Monday  when she asks a Cook County judge to
establish a new category of  guardian.  Rio said she will ask Judge
George Cole to name the  woman's sister as the children's guardian, but
the girl's aunt  would only take the role when their mother is not well
enough to  care for them.  The request contradicts Illinois law, which
often views guardianship as something immediate.  Rio said that nothing
happens with terminally ill parents, at least until the parent  dies.
In those cases, it can be more than a month before a  guardian is named.
Attorneys are calling the new concept  stand-by guardianship, a policy
they say is becoming necessary as more parents die of AIDS, leaving a
growing number of children  orphaned.  According to advocates, a change
in the law is not  only needed because of AIDS cases, but for any
terminal illness.  The AIDS Legal Council of Chicago and Families' and
Childrens'  AIDS Network have filed legal papers supporting Rio's
position.   They also expect to request that state legislation similar
to  what has been approved in Florida, Michigan, and New York provide
for the appointment of stand-by guardians.  Susan Curry, legal  director
for the AIDS Legal Council, said, "This is a disease  where the law has
to bend, where the judges and the legislature  have to institute more
flexible procedures for those parents."
=======================================================================
"Ramos Backs Condoms for Anti-AIDS Fight" Reuters (01/25/93)
     Manila--Philippine President Fidel Ramos on Monday endorsed
efforts to curb the spread of HIV infection by backing the use of
condoms.  He said that condom use was government policy as a  means to
"stop, deter, or minimize AIDS as a universal threat  that could even
affect very adversely the survival of mankind."   His position could
broaden the rift with the powerful Roman  Catholic Church, which objects
to the government's population  policy and any form of artificial birth
control.  In the  Philippines, more than 350 people are reported to be
infected  with HIV, but government officials say the actual number could
be 10 times as high.
=======================================================================
"AIDS Discoverer Plans New Group to Combat Disease" Reuters (01/24/93)
     Paris--French AIDS researcher Luc Montagnier announced Sunday  that
he was helping establish a new organization to fight AIDS.   Montagnier,
who co-discovered HIV in 1983 along with U.S.  researcher Robert Gallo,
said he and UNESCO (the United Nations'  science and education body)
director-general Federico Mayor  expect the group to research AIDS and
run prevention programs.   Montagnier said that the group would be
formally announced next  week.  He added, "The project came up as a
result of a meeting  with the head of UNESCO."  He said one objective of
the group  will be to examine areas of research that were neglected
because  they were "risky" and might not have produced any results.
"There have been advances on the virus but not so much on the  illness
itself.  There are still a lot of areas to be explored,"  said
Montagnier, adding that these areas involved issues like the effects of
the body's response to AIDS.  In Le Monde newspaper,  Montagnier wrote
an article that reviewed 10 years of AIDS  findings, and said that the
outlook for stopping the disease was  not very clear.  "There are 10
million people infected, of whom  the majority will die in the next 10
years, unless progress is  made in treatment," he said.  Moreover, he
said AIDS could also  be hiding a time-bomb in the form of infectious
diseases such as  tuberculosis, which was almost eradicated in the
developed world  but is in danger of reemerging.
=======================================================================
"French Minister Urges Ex-Patients to Get AIDS Tests" Reuters (01/24/93)
     Paris--French Health and Humanitarian Action Minister Bernard
Kouchner encouraged all people who were operated on or received a blood
transfusion in the last 10 to 15 years to undergo HIV and  hepatitis
testing.  In France, more than 1,200 hemophiliacs were  infected with
HIV after receiving transfusions from contaminated  blood stocks in the
mid-1980s.  Most of the hemophiliacs were  infected with HIV before
controls to screen and purify the blood  products took  effect in 1985.
Last year, the government  introduced legislation to streamline the
country's system of  blood donation, storage, and distribution in order
to make the  system completely safe.  Kouchner said, "Other developed
countries seem to deal with this plague better than us."  He  supports
controlled distribution of needles--to prevent HIV  infection through
shared contaminated needles--and also medical  use of methadone, a drug
used to help IV-drug addicts break their habit.  According to official
estimates, of the 150,000 to  300,000 heroin addicts in France, 40
percent are HIV-positive.
=======================================================================
"Miss America Presents Panel for National AIDS Quilt" United Press
International (01/25/93)
     San Francisco--Miss America Leanza Cornett on Monday offered a
panel for the national AIDS quilt commemorating Florida women who have
died from AIDS.  Cornett, 21, of Jacksonville, Fla.,  presented the
panel to Names Project, the organization which  handles the famous quilt
that honors AIDS patients.  The panel  featured a quote from Mother
Teresa and listed names of several  Florida women who died of the
disease.  Kimberly Bergalis, who  asked Congress for more AIDS funding
before dying in December  1991, was one of the women listed on the quilt
section.  Cornett  has served as a volunteer for more than a year with
the Hope and  Help Center of Central Florida, which cares for AIDS
patients.   Cornett said she considers herself "an AIDS activist first,
Miss  America second."  She hopes to have a career in theater and said
that she has lost several actor-friends to the disease.  Her
outspokenness on the AIDS issue is a departure from Miss Americas of the
past.  However, she said the pageant is firmly standing  behind her.
=======================================================================
"Vaccine Trials to Begin" American Medical News (01/18/93) Vol. 36, No.
3, P. 19
     Clinical trials are expected to begin this month to learn whether
three genetically engineered HIV vaccines can be safely used by  HIV-
positive pregnant women to protect their developing babies  from
infection.  The trials will be conducted by researchers from Connecticut
and Yale Universities in Hartford, Conn.  The first  trial will consist
of 24 HIV-positive women in their sixth month  of pregnancy who will be
given the gp160-class vaccine,  manufactured by MicroGeneSys Inc. of
Meriden.  Five other trials  across the country will test the safety of
the vaccines in  newborns and other children by the spring.
Approximately 20-30  percent of all babies born to HIV-positive mothers
develop HIV  infection themselves.
=======================================================================
"AIDS's Economic Toll is Staggering, Too" Business Week (01/25/93) No.
3302  (Collingwood, Harris)
     The worldwide economic impact of the AIDS epidemic could be as
devastating as its toll on human lives.  A recent study by  DRI/McGraw-
Hill predicts that by the year 2000, AIDS-related  medical expenses and
lost productivity throughout the world will  escalate and cost as much
as $500 billion annually.  This would  be equivalent to the size of
Mexico's economy just disappearing.  Africa and the Middle East will
feel the hardest impact from  AIDS, which could depress their gross
domestic product (GDP) by  more than 4 percent by the next century.  In
addition, Asia,  aside from Japan, could lose as much as 3 percent of
national  output.  While Japan has a low rate of HIV infection, it could
be affected by depressed exports to North America and the rest of  Asia,
where the epidemic is more prevalent.  According to DRI,  the Japanese
economy will lose about 1 percent GDP--about as much as the U.S.
=======================================================================
"Business Briefs: 91 AIDS Drugs Now in Testing" American Medical News
(01/11/93) Vol. 36, No. 2, P. 14
     The Food and Drug Administration approved three new AIDS drugs
during 1992 and another 11 await approval, reports a survey by  the
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.  Among 91 AIDS  treatments and
vaccines in development, 50 involve women and 13  involve children in
clinical trials.  A total of 17 AIDS drugs  had been approved as of
December 1992.