From: Billi Goldberg <bigoldberg@igc.apc.org>
Subject: CDC Summary 12/14/92
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Archive-Number: 6630
Organization: unspecified
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 08:00:57 PST

                      AIDS Daily Summary
                       December 14, 1992 
 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 
***********************************************************************
 "Nation: AIDS Activists Stage Protest" Washington Times (12/14/92), P. 
A2
     ACT-UP conducted a demonstration yesterday outside St. Patrick's  
Cathedral in New York City, claiming the Catholic Church has  lobbied 
against gay-tolerance education in schools.  About 100  demonstrators 
gathered across the street from the church carrying signs that read 
"Angry Gay Catholic" and "Just Another Altar Boy  Fighting to End the 
AIDS Crisis."  The protest was spurred by the recent debate over the 
"Children of the Rainbow" multicultural  curriculum, which incorporates 
two books about homosexual  relationships for use classes for students 
as young as six years  old.  Cardinal John J. O'Connor was one of the 
adversaries of the curriculum.  Last week, Schools Chancellor Joseph 
Fernandez  suspended School Board 24 in Queens for rejecting the 
curriculum. The board was subsequently reinstated by the Board of 
Education. 

"Report Cites 40 AIDS Deaths" New York Times (12/14/92), P. C7
     AIDS has recently led to the deaths of at least 40 male skaters  
and coaches in the top ranks of North American figure skating,  
according to The Calgary Herald.  Also, the newspaper reported  
yesterday that at least a dozen others in Canada and the United  States 
are infected with HIV or currently have AIDS.  The  newspaper said it 
based the report on two months of interviews  involving about 125 
skaters, coaches, judges, officials, AIDS  patients, and their friends 
and families.  The AIDS deaths cited  by The Herald include the three-
time Canadian champion Brian  Pokar of Calgary; the 1988 Canadian 
Olympic dance bronze medalist Rob McCall; the former world junior 
champion Dennis Coi, also a  Canadian; the choreographer Andre Denis; 
and Shaun McGill, a  world professional silver medalist for Canada in 
1988.  The  Herald said among those who died of AIDS-related diseases, 
were  Tim Brown of the United States, who became a member of the Canada 
Ice Dance Theatre during the 1970s, and John Carrell, who was a  member 
of the National Ballet of Canada. 

"AIDS Kills Eldest Ray Brother" Washington Times (12/14/92), P. A5
     Ricky Ray, the eldest of three HIV-positive hemophiliac brothers, 
died yesterday of the disease at age 15, according to family  members.  
Ricky and his brothers, Robert, 14, and Randy, 13, who  all contracted 
HIV via tainted blood products, once faced highly  publicized 
discrimination by a local school that prohibited them  from attending.  
The school did so only on the grounds that the  boys were infected with 
HIV.  The Ray family performed a bedside  vigil with Ricky, who earlier 
had returned to his home in Orlando for Thanksgiving after being 
hospitalized for a months in St.  Petersburg.  He was unable to eat 
solid food or sit up and needed an oxygen mask to help with his 
breathing.  Ricky died about 3  a.m. in his home yesterday.  Last month, 
President-elect Bill  Clinton telephoned Ricky to show his support.   
Related Story: Washington Post (12/14) P. D8 

"Councilman Vows Fight on AIDS Facility" United Press International 
(12/13/92)
     Pittsburgh--City Councilman Duane Darkins is threatening to  pursue 
a court battle over a city agency's decision to allow a  former East End 
nursing home to be converted into a facility for  AIDS patients.  Along 
with many other citizens, Darkins opposes  the facility, claiming that 
the area is already overwhelmed with  social service facilities.  After 
debating the issue for six  months, the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of 
Appeals recently approved  the conversion of the former nursing home 
into a 22-bed "personal care boarding home" for people with various 
debilitating  illnesses, including AIDS.  The project is proposed by the 
Verona House Corp., a cooperative effort of the Presbyterian Association 
on Aging, Allegheny General Hospital, and the Catholic Diocese of 
Pittsburgh.  However, Darkins said other sites could be used for  the 
facility.  Darkins, who is a pastor in the Homewood section  and is a 
potential mayoral candidate next year, said his  constituents are "tired 
of our community being used as a dumping  center."  Adversaries also 
claimed that the AIDS center would  subsequently lower property values 
of the area.  But advocates  say that such a facility is urgently needed 
to treat an  increasing number of people affected not only by AIDS, but 
also  muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and other ailments.  The  
Zoning Board said that the burden in the case was on the  adversaries 
"to establish that there would be a general  detrimental effect to the 
neighborhood" if the personal care home were approved. 

"N.J. Panel Backs Free Condoms and Needles Proposals" United Press 
International (12/11/92)
     Trenton, N.J.--Condoms should be offered to high school students  
and inmates, and clean needles should be available to drug  addicts to 
help thwart the spread of HIV infection in New Jersey, according to a 
panel of 48 health experts.  The recommendations  are among 45 contained 
in a 57-page report submitted to Gov. Jim  Florio on Friday by the 
Governor's Advisory Council on AIDS .   The report stresses the need for 
immediate action, compassion for the ill, and significantly more money 
to fight AIDS.  The council cautioned, "The HIV-AIDS epidemic is not 
just a disease of the  gay community or of injection drug users" but 
that HIV infection  through drug use, heterosexual contact, and from 
mother to child  are escalating.  The council commended efforts on 
addressing  AIDS, but was critical of the "disjointed, inadequate, and 
often  too slow" response to the epidemic that lacks a "spirit of  
compassion."  The council said, "Our future generation is at  risk," 
stating that New Jersey ranks fifth in the country with  13,572 AIDS 
cases as of June 1992, and nearly 50,000 others  involving people who 
are HIV-positive.  The council said that New Jersey's prevalence of HIV 
infection among women is the highest  in the nation and twice the 
national rate.  Also, the state is  third in the number of children and 
infants infected with HIV,  accounting for 10 percent of all juvenile 
AIDS cases in the  country.  The report predicts that the current cost 
of treating  AIDS patients should be about $4 billion, a bill that will  
increase to $10 billion within several years based on rising  infection 
rates and the increasing cost of health care. 

"The Most Powerful Icon of the '90s?" Brandweek (11/30/92) Vol. 33, No. 
45, P. 14  (Fleury, Rick)
     The red ribbons worn in support of AIDS have become the universal 
icon of the epidemic, continuously signifying empathy for those  living 
with the disease and hope that the epidemic will end one  day soon.  The 
Ribbon Project was started by Visual AIDS, a group comprised of 
painters, sculptors, arts writers, critics,  curators, museum 
administrators, gallery owners, and others  involved in the arts.  There 
is no exact number of how many red  ribbons have been produced, but 
estimates run well into the  hundreds of thousands.  The idea for Visual 
AIDS was simple,  according to its chairman, Patrick O'Connel.  He said, 
"We wanted to use our talents and resources to address AIDS, to present  
artists' response to AIDS and how the epidemic has affected our  
audience."  The concept for The Ribbon Project resulted from an  April 
1991 meeting of the Visual AIDS Artists' Caucus in New  York.  During a 
discussion of the proliferation of yellow ribbons honoring the soldiers 
of Operation Desert Storm, the idea  emerged, said one member of Visual 
AIDS.  AIDS advocates were  noting the amount of money spent for AIDS 
care and research as  only a fraction of the cost of the Persian Gulf 
War.  But the  artists did not want AIDS ribbons to create a dispute 
over the  war.  The meeting agreed that the point was to create a 
statement solely on AIDS.  Subsequently, a "ribbon subcommittee" decided 
on the color of the ribbon, with a single, simple fold, and  presented 
it to a general meeting of the Visual AIDS  organization, where it was 
widely accepted.  Two weeks later at  the Tony Awards, host Jeremy Irons 
introduced the ribbon.  Since  then, the presence of the ribbons has 
become widespread. 

"HIV Antibody Testing and Posttest Counseling in the United  States: 
Data From the 1989 National Health Interview Survey" American Journal of 
Public Health (11/92) Vol. 82, No. 11,  P. 1533  (Anderson, John E. et 
al.)
     The 1989 National Health Interview Survey was used to determine  
how successful HIV counseling and testing programs have been in  the 
United States, especially among those at increased risk for  HIV 
infection.  John E. Anderson and colleagues from the Centers  for 
Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., found that 20 percent of the NHIS 
sample reported having been tested for HIV infection, mostly through 
blood donations.  The percentage of NHIS respondents who  reported that 
they had ever been tested for HIV antibodies  increased from 15 to 10 
percent of the population between the  1987 and 1989 NHIS surveys.  In 
1989, 13.7 percent had been  tested through blood donations, 3.6 percent 
for voluntary  reasons, and 3.2 percent as part of mandatory programs 
like those in the military or for immigration purposes.  Among those who 
are at increased risk of HIV infection, 41.5 percent had been  tested--
more than twice the rate of the general population.   About half of the 
reported tests for this group were voluntary.   The researchers 
predicted that by 1989, over 36 million persons  had been tested at 
least once for HIV.  In addition, for persons  at high risk, the rate of 
receiving posttest counseling was 9.8  percent--over 10 times that of 
the total populations (0.9  percent).  While persons with increased risk 
of HIV infection had been tested and counseled at a much higher rate 
than the general  population, the majority of this group had not yet 
been tested,  conclude Anderson et al.

"The Progression of Untreated HIV-1 Infection Prior to AIDS" American 
Journal of Public Health (11/92) Vol. 82, No. 11,  P. 1538  (Hoover, 
Donald R. et al.)
     Diagnosing AIDS at CD4 cell counts less than 200 could  
substantially reduce pre-AIDS morbidity, write Donald R. Hoover  and 
colleagues from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,  Md.  The 
researchers conducted a study to estimate the timing and impact of HIV-
1-induced effects on homosexual men during the  period immediately 
preceding a diagnosis of AIDS.  Beginning 2 to 2.5 years (5 visits) 
prior to an AIDS diagnosis, case subjects  had more total symptoms than 
did their matched control subjects.  The average total symptoms in case 
subjects increased to 1.19  (53.7 percent reporting at least one 
symptom) by 6 to 12 months  prior to AIDS and to 1.93 within 6 months 
before AIDS.   Immediately following an AIDS diagnosis, case subjects 
had an  average of 4.00 total symptoms.  Symptoms including thrush and  
fever were specific for imminent AIDS onset, being uncommon in  the 
control subjects and, until 6 to 12 months prior to AIDS  diagnosis, in 
the case subjects.  The researchers found that not  all individuals 
reported AIDS symptoms.  Within six months prior  to AIDS, 35 percent 
reported no symptoms.  Also, within the six  months following AIDS 
diagnosis, case subjects' unemployment  increased to 9 percent and 
depression to 34.3 percent.  At 6 to  12 months and within 6 months 
before AIDS, 17.1 percent and 31.5  percent respectively were anemic, 
while 37.7 percent and 64.7  percent had CD4 counts less than 200. 

"Homo for the Holidays" Advocate (12/15/92) No. 618, P. 62  (Chicklet)
     A contest is being conducted to incorporate the powerful imagery  
of the gay male erotic video with an educational safer-sex  outreach 
program.  It is sponsored by the San Francisco AIDS  Foundation, Falcon 
Studios, and the San Francisco-based nonprofit media-arts organization 
Frameline.  Wayne Blankenship, the  foundation's contest coordinator, 
said, "Erotic videos really  have a stronghold on gay men's fantasies 
and about how we feel  about real-life sex.  Unfortunately, because of 
government  funding, AIDS organizations are not able to be explicit with  
their material.  We are expected to take a 'be a nice boy and  have a 
safer sex' approach.  Our goal with this project is to  combine hot 
erotica with safer-sex information in a usable and  practical way."  The 
main focus of the contest is to minimize the risk of HIV transmission 
while promoting sex, said Blankenship.   Contest judges will be 
determining which filmmakers apply the  most creative safer-sex 
techniques in the films.  The videos will first be judged by AIDS 
educators and will then be critiqued by  professional video producers 
and pornography stars on the basis  of artistic and erotic merit.  The 
contest is currently in  progress and will end on March 1, 1993.