From: bigoldberg@igc.apc.org (Billi Goldberg)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: CDC Summary 1/12/92
Date: 12 Jan 93 15:43:43 GMT
Organization: unspecified
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Archive-Number: 6749


                      AIDS Daily Summary
                       January 12, 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 

 "Spread of AIDS is Spurred by Racism, U.S. Panel Says" New York Times 
(01/12/93), P. A14  (Leary, Warren E.)
     The National Commission on AIDS said yesterday that the AIDS 
epidemic should be considered a racial issue because its spread is 
spurred by discrimination and the disease disproportionately affects 
minorities.  In a report to the White House, the advisory panel said 
that black and Hispanic Americans now comprise 46 percent of the 
nation's AIDS cases and that efforts to curb the epidemic have been 
thwarted by discrimination, poverty, and the lack of health services.  
The commission, which has one black and one Hispanic member among the 12 
commissioners, said the fight against AIDS could be lost if prevention 
and treatment programs targeted at ethnic groups are not strengthened.  
Many commissioners said that in order to deal with the epidemic, the 
ethnic nature of the disease in the United States needed to be stressed, 
despite the chance that white people might start seeing AIDS as a 
minority disease that affects "other" people and not themselves.  Harlon 
L. Dalton, a professor at Yale Law school and a commissioner who is 
black, said, "I am terribly worried that once it is learned that the 
face of AIDS is darkening, broad public support may fade."  The 
commission's report said, "Injection drug use has played a significant 
role in the disproportionate impact of AIDS on African Americans and 
Hispanics-Latinos.  In these communities the proportion of AIDS cases 
attributable directly to injection drug use is four times that for 
whites."  The commission also recommended that more members of racial 
minorities be included in clinical trials for AIDS treatments. Related 
Story: Washington Post (01/12) P. A3; Baltimore Sun (01/12) P. 3A 

"Pharmacist With H.I.V. Awarded Job" New York Times (01/12/93), P. B5  
(Henneberger, Melinda)
     A pharmacist who was denied a job because of his HIV-positive 
status was rehired without any restrictions in his work by the 
Westchester County Medical Center in New York, according to a lawsuit 
settlement that is considered a landmark legal victory for health-care 
workers infected with HIV.  Following a six-year legal battle, a lawyer 
for the pharmacist said the settlement "sends a very clear message, 
based on overwhelming expert evidence, that health-care workers pose 
almost no risk to patients and that discriminating against them is 
irrational, contrary to the public health and illegal."  The county's 
governing body, the Board of Legislators, unanimously approved the 
agreement that will allow the hospital to keep its $107 million in 
annual federal funding, which had been threatened under civil rights 
laws.  The agreement also grants the pharmacist as much as $330,000 in 
back pay, legal fees, and compensation for "emotional damage."  The case 
emerged in 1986 when the hospital agreed to hire the pharmacist under 
certain limitations that would have prohibited him from preparing 
intravenous solutions.  Then, hospital officials contended that he could 
inadvertently prick his finger through his glove and pass a drop of his 
blood into an IV-bag, where HIV can be transmitted to a patient.  The 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ruled in 1990 that the 
hospital violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by refusing to give the 
pharmacist a job free of restrictions.  The ruling was appealed by the 
hospital to the department's Civil Rights Reviewing Authority, which 
upheld the previous decision. 

"Firms Buying Life Insurance of the Dying" St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
(01/11/93), P. 1  (Novak, Tim)
     Viatical settlement companies, which buy life insurance policies of 
terminally ill patients, particularly AIDS patients, are currently not 
regulated, but may be soon.  These companies, which advertise mainly in 
publications that target homosexual readers, are unregulated in 47 
states and are not insurance companies. But the National Association of 
Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has developed a committee to study 
viatical settlement companies to determine if they should be regulated 
in each state.  Richard Rogers, deputy director of the Illinois 
Department of Insurance, said, "The NAIC has a model that's being 
floated.  It would require them to be registered, and there would be 
guidelines requiring what the level of payment might be.  That may be 
the way all states are going."  According to Rogers, his agency hasn't 
received any complaints involving viatical settlement companies, but he 
said that "the potential is there to take advantage of people."  Living 
Benefits, one of the largest viatical settlement companies, has 
purchased about 600 life insurance policies since 1989.  Critics argue 
that viatical settlement companies take advantage of dying people.  
Sister Jean deBlois, associate director of the Center for Health Care 
Ethics at St. Louis University Medical Center, said, "If the person is 
in the last stages of AIDS, and somebody's approaching them offering 
money, they may not have the capacity to make those kinds of decisions.  
I can't say these people are providing a service, particularly when you 
look at the profit margin." 

"Vietnam to Test Foreigners for AIDS" Reuters (01/11/93)
     Hanoi--Many people in Vietnam will be tested for HIV, including 
foreigners who want to live there, local prostitutes, drug addicts, 
prisoners, and homosexuals, a news report in Hanoi said on Monday.  The 
Jan. 8 issue of the Saigon Newsreader said that the government released 
a decision on Dec. 18 stating that these groups would be tested for HIV.  
The report indicated that local people who tested HIV-positive would not 
be allowed to get married.  It said that foreigners seeking permission 
to spend more than three months in Vietnam would have to undergo HIV 
testing.  A total of 79 HIV-positive people have been reported in 
Vietnam, with no cases of AIDS.  Last month, Vietnam's national AIDS 
committee cautioned that growing prostitution activity, drug abuse, 
smuggling, and tourism would result in an influx of HIV cases.  The 
committee said there were about 300,000 prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City, 
formerly Saigon, and some 100,000 drug addicts in Vietnam.  However, the 
state-operated Vietnam News Agency said on Sunday that actual statistics 
were higher, with approximately 600,000 prostitutes in Vietnam and about 
800,000 drug addicts. 

"Chiron Unit Tests Treatment for Cause of AIDS Blindness" Wall Street 
Journal (01/12/93), P. A6
     Chiron Corp. announced it began testing a device that could reduce 
the cost and toxicity of treating AIDS-related blindness. Chiron 
IntraOptics Inc., a division of Chiron Corp., obtained exclusive rights 
for ophthalmic applications of the drug delivery technology from Control 
Delivery Systems Inc.  The company will sponsor the clinical testing 
that uses the technology to inject anti-viral drugs into the patient's 
eye to treat infections of the retina caused by cytomegalovirus.  
Current treatments for the AIDS-related disease, known as CMV retinitis, 
include injections of the drug ganciclovir, at a cost of about $100,000 
a year.  An implantable device that delivers the drug may reduce the 
cost to one-tenth the original sum, according to William Link, chairman 
and chief executive officer of Chiron IntraOptics.  The company also 
hopes to reduce side effects from the toxins.  In pre-clinical trials, 
the delivery system stopped progression of the disease in 28 out of 30 
patients.  A second study, to be conducted over an eight-month period, 
will test 80 patients.  In March, the company will begin an experiment 
with 200 people.

"Inaugural Notebook: 200 Marchers to Carry AIDS Quilt" Washington Post 
(01/12/93), P. D3  (Pressley, Sue Anne)
     The Presidential Inauguration will involve, for the first time, 
panels of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, carried by marchers in 
the parade.  In addition, volunteers will distribute tens of thousands 
of red ribbons to other participants in the Jan. 20 parade and to 
viewers along the parade route.  Among the leaders in the group of 200 
marchers, who will carry 100 panels from the quilt, are the reigning 
Miss America, Leanza Cornett, who has made AIDS awareness one of her 
projects; Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and 
a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention; and Jeanne 
White Gender, the mother of Ryan White, the Indiana teenager who died of 
AIDS in 1989.  They will all march behind a banner that reads, "Renewed 
Hope."  Gregg Stull, chairman of the National Capital Area chapter of 
the quilt project, said that although the AIDS Memorial quilt has been 
displayed at the former president's back door in the past five years, 
"neither President Reagan nor President Bush visited the display.  This 
time we have been asked by a president to bring the quilt to him in the 
first few hours of his administration.  Let us hope that this is a 
signal that the Clinton administration will do all it can to effect an 
end to the AIDS epidemic."  The quilt, in its entirety, contains more 
than 25,000 panels, commemorating more than 30,000 AIDS patients who 
have died, and representing 2 percent of AIDS deaths worldwide. 

"TB: The Scourge Strikes Again" Washington Post (Health) (01/12/93), P. 
12  (Colburn, Don)
     Public health officials made it their goal in 1989 to completely 
eradicate tuberculosis within 20 years, but three years later they say 
they have little or no hope of meeting the 2010 deadline.  In 1989, the 
plan was realistic because of three factors: the retreat of TB into 
isolated pockets of the nation; biotechnology's potential for better 
means of diagnosing, treating, and preventing TB; and advances in 
computer and telecommunications technology.  But a resurgence of TB, 
particularly in large cities, has overwhelmed any chance of eliminating 
the disease.  The fight against TB is being driven by factors like the 
spread of HIV, the influx of immigrants from countries where TB is 
rampant, and increasing numbers of homeless and chronically ill people 
in crowded conditions without access to adequate health care.  The 
resurgence of TB is not on a massive scale--yearly reported cases have 
increased only a few thousand in the past few years.  But the sudden 
reversal of a steady 30-year decline is alarming.  The slow 
disappearance of the disease had caused doctors and laypeople to think 
that TB was no longer a significant public health threat.  It was in 
1985 that TB bottomed out in terms of case numbers.  Yet over the past 
six years, the number of cases reported nationally has climbed from 
22,000 to 26,000--a jump of 18 percent.  What is most frightening to 
health officials is the growth of strains of TB that are resistant to 
drugs like isoniazid, rifampin, and pyranzinamide. 

"F.D.A. Drug Reviews in '92 Fall Short of a Record Pace" New York Times 
(01/11/93), P. D2  (Freudenheim, Milt)
     The Food and Drug Administration last year failed to match the 
record high of 30 drug approvals in 1985 and 1991 by authorizing only 26 
new drugs.  But after pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and 
Congress, the agency expects to drastically cut last year's average 
review period of more than 22 months for potential new treatments.  The 
FDA has already proved its ability to hasten the review process for 
chemical compounds that were perceived as priorities.  The agency said 
that in 1992 it had approved four high-profile products in less than 
eight months: Hoffman-La Roche's DDC for treating AIDS; Burroughs 
Wellcome's Mepron for AIDS-related pneumocystis carinii pneumonia; 
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol for ovarian cancer, and SmithKline 
Beecham's Halfan, an anti-malaria drug.  The FDA hopes to cut its review 
time for high-priority drugs to six months with the help of additional 
staff members financed by the recently authorized user fees to be paid 
by the manufacturers of new drugs awaiting approval.  The agency took an 
average of 22.6 months to approve the new drugs last year.  In addition 
to the chemical-compound drugs, the FDA approved 13 biological 
substances, including Baxter Healthcare's genetically engineered 
treatment for Factor VIII blood deficiency, in which the patients' blood 
lacks the protein that causes clotting. 

"Healthy, Gay, Guilt-Stricken: AIDS' Toll on the Virus-Free" New York 
Times (01/11/93), P. A1  (Navarro, Mireya)
     Even though many homosexual men have been spared by the AIDS 
epidemic, they still have had their lives transformed by the disease 
because they have seen their friends die from AIDS.  An HIV-negative gay 
man in New York City said, "For a gay man, friends are everything; it's 
not like we have kids and families." Some of the uninfected men have 
channeled their hurt and anger into advocacy and social work for the 
sick and dying.  However, mental health experts say many other HIV-
negative gay men experience clinical depression, hypochondria, sexual 
dysfunction, and other serious psychological problems as a result of the 
12 years of unrelenting personal loss.  Some experts call it a mental 
health crisis that could have a serious impact on efforts to control the 
disease.  They caution that some gay men are relapsing into unprotected 
sex, drug use, and other self-destructive behavior because they do not 
want to survive or do not believe they will.  Such reactions have been 
most prevalent in cities with large homosexual communities like New York 
and San Francisco.  In addition, there has been little mention of the 
problems of this population, even by the men themselves.  Some of the 
men claim they are too embarrassed to address their problems, and too 
afraid of diverting attention or resources to themselves, when so many 
others have greater needs. Moreover, many of these men say they 
tactfully refrain from discussing their HIV status with friends who are 
infected.  Some have even lied to friends claiming that they, too, are 
HIV-positive.  Thomas Moon, a gay psychotherapist in San Francisco, said 
that these men will have to live as best they can and experience a great 
deal of suffering. 

"Stars Flock to Be in HBO Film About the Early Years of AIDS" New York 
Times (01/11/93), P. C11  (Weinraub, Bernard)
     An HBO movie about the first years of the AIDS epidemic will 
involve several high-profile celebrities.  The movie "And the Band 
Played On" is based on the 1987 best-selling book by Randy Shilts.  It 
gave an account of the early years of the disease, when a small group of 
health officials and other people fought apathy and hostility from parts 
of the government, the medical establishment, and even gay groups and 
individuals.  "And the Band Played On" is the first full-scale drama to 
deal with the politics and early years of the AIDS epidemic in the late 
1970s and early 1980s.  When the film was first announced, many actors 
did not want to become involved with it because it dealt with AIDS and 
gay men.  Only when Richard Gere joined up for a small part as a 
choreographer with AIDS, did others decide it might be worthwhile.  
Soon, Anjelica Houston and Steve Martin signed on, and others followed, 
including Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, Glenne Headly, Sir Ian McKellen, Howie 
Mandel, Richard Masur, B.D. Wong, Charles Martin Smith, Phil Collins, 
and Swoozie Kurtz.  Matthew Modine will take the lead role as Don 
Francis, a researcher who was among the first to recognize the 
implications of the AIDS epidemic.  Lily Tomlin will portray a public 
health official named Selma Dritz, who played an early role in trying to 
curb the spread of HIV.  The movie, which is longer than two hours, is 
to be shown on HBO in August or September.

"News in Brief: Ohio" Advocate (12/29/92) No. 619, P. 25
     An HIV-positive man from Elyria, Ohio, filed a complaint with the 
state civil rights commission on Nov. 18 arguing that he was illegally 
denied membership at a health club because of his illness.  The man, 
Kevin Fisher, said the club's denial infringed state and federal laws 
against disability-based discrimination in public accommodations.  He 
said an employee at a Bally's health club in Elyria told him that he 
would be prohibited from Bally's clubs across the state because he is 
infected with HIV.  However, officials at Bally's headquarters in Los 
Angeles said the chain does not ban HIV-positive individuals from its 
clubs. 

"News in Brief: The Nation" Advocate (12/29/92) No. 619, P. 28
     A federal investigation was requested by hemophiliacs on Nov. 20 to 
examine allegations that top officials of medical firms knowingly 
permitted HIV-tainted blood products to enter the nation's blood supply 
in the early 1980s.  Michael Rosenberg, president of the Hemophilia/HIV 
Peer Association, a national support group, said, "We were contaminated 
by a specific medical product marketed by conglomerates that knew it was 
a dangerous product."  Rosenberg spoke at the annual meeting of the 
National Hemophilia Foundation in Atlanta.  Despite the Centers for 
Disease Control's 1982 suggestion that blood products may be 
contaminated, the products were not routinely screened for HIV until 
1985. 
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids