From: Billi Goldberg <bigoldberg@igc.apc.org>
Subject: CDC Summary 8/21/92
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Archive-Number: 5949
Organization: unspecified
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 07:32:27 PDT

                         AIDS Daily Summary
                           August 21, 1992 
 The Centers for Disease Control (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 
Clearinghouse, or any other organization.  Reproduction of this text is 
encouraged; however, copies may not be sold.  Copyright 1992, 
Information, Inc., Washington, DC 
************************************************************************
 "CMA Moves to Protect AIDS-Infected Doctors" Toronto Globe and Mail 
(08/20/92), P. A8  (Mickleburgh, Rod)
     The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) decided yesterday that  HIV-
positive physicians should not have to disclose their  condition to 
their patients, stop practicing medicine, or stop  performing surgery.  
David Walters, coordinator of the CMA's  health care and promotion 
committee, said that in Canada, HIV has never been transmitted from a 
doctor to a patient.  He said the  CMA recommends that doctors who are 
infected with HIV talk to  their own physicians and their department 
heads if they work at a hospital.  The CMA approved a position paper on 
HIV in the  workplace for the first time at the organization's annual  
convention.  The report said the rights of doctors "must be  protected, 
including from wrongful discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS status, 
or perceived status."  In addition, the paper  said that doctors do not 
have the right to test a patient for HIV without his or her consent.  
The convention voted to make AIDS  reportable by name in every province 
of Canada.  Both Alberta and Quebec currently keep the identity of AIDS 
patients confidential. Quebec public health officer John Osterman said 
the current  situation in his province makes it almost impossible to 
compile  accurate AIDS data because of the confidentiality of names, 
age,  sex, and birthdates. 

"AIDS Crisis Spawning Insurance Scams" Chicago Tribune (08/20/92), P. 1-
6
     On Wednesday, Illinois securities regulators focused their  
attention on schemes that promised big returns for purchasing the life 
insurance policies of AIDS patients, and cautioned that the  epidemic 
has prompted a new influx of such scams.  The scams,  which were not 
properly registered, used unsolicited,  high-pressure come-ons to 
attract investors.  Legitimate  companies use their own funds or capital 
they have raised legally to buy policies from patients at a discount and 
become the  beneficiaries themselves.  This type of purchase gives 
patients  immediate funds to pay for costly treatments.  The regulators  
said the firms under examination act as middlemen, making direct  
appeals to investors to buy the policies of patients without  addressing 
the risks involved.  North Dakota securities  regulators recently issued 
cease and desist orders against  National Insurance Marketing Inc. of 
Panama City, Fla., and Life  Partners Inc. of Waco, Texas, to prevent 
them from conducting  business in the state.  The North American 
Securities  Administrators Association said that at least three other 
states  are investigating similar actions.  North Dakota Securities  
Commissioner Glenn Pomeroy said the firms provided potential  investors 
with a "menu" of dying patients, including life  expectancy data and 
medical histories. 

"Aids Distills Disquiet Within the Party" Financial Times (08/21/92), P. 
5  (Kaminski, Matthew)
     The Republican National Convention has emphasized that the party  
links gays with AIDS and immoral behavior.  A sign frequently  displayed 
at the convention said, "Family rights forever, gay  rights never."  
Patrick Buchanan, who spoke Monday at the  convention, attacked the 
Democratic party for its association  with "militant" homosexuals.  In 
the past, Buchanan has been  known to have commented that AIDS is God's 
retribution against  gays.  The Democrats openly support gay rights and 
featured two  HIV-infected speakers at the New York Convention last 
month.  But the Republican party continues to tie the spread of HIV to 
what  it considers immoral conduct.  Despite the convention's central  
theme of "traditional family values," a touching moment came on  
Wednesday night when an HIV-positive woman spoke to delegates  about the 
disease.  Mary Fisher attempting to tie her message  with the party's 
overt theme, said, "We do the president's cause  no good if we praise 
the American family but ignore a virus that  destroys it."  Republicans 
have utilized gay rights and AIDS as a means to beat the opposition.  
However, during Fisher's speech  many delegates cried. 

"Ask Beth: When Should Kids Learn About AIDS?" Boston Globe (08/20/92), 
P. 91
     Children need to be educated about AIDS before reaching  
adolescence, writes columnist Beth of "Ask Beth."  A concerned  parent 
wrote Beth asking if the nation's children are getting a  sufficient 
AIDS education, because her 12-year-old seems to know  more about the 
disease than her 16-year-old.  Beth replied that  there is some proof of 
junior high students being more receptive  to AIDS lessons than high 
school students, although some parents  and school districts are 
hesitant to start AIDS education so  early.  Beth asserts that 
prevention efforts are more effective  when younger children are taught 
to avoid starting risky behavior ahead of time.  Additionally, it would 
be helpful a lot of  doctors spoke about AIDS to young people, she said.  
A survey,  reported in Pediatrics and conducted statewide in 
Massachusetts,  showed that 80 percent of the teenagers said they had 
seen a  doctor in the last year, but only 13 percent said they had  
addressed AIDS, which is unfortunate because obtaining  information from 
a physician has proven beneficial, concludes Beth.

"Dr. Linda J. Laubenstein, Pioneer in Study, Treatment of AIDS; at 45" 
Boston Globe (08/20/92), P. 69
     A renowned AIDS researcher died Aug. 15.  Dr. Linda J.  
Laubenstein, a blood and cancer specialist, was among the first  
physicians to detect a mysterious disease that subsequently  became 
known as AIDS.  She was seriously handicapped from  childhood from 
polio, which left her paraplegic.  Her colleague,  Dr. Jeffrey Green 
said she was "the ultimate AIDS physician."  He said she would see 
patients in the middle of the night and make  house calls, using her 
motorized wheelchair and riding public  buses.  She and Dr. Alvin 
Friedman-Kien wrote the first medical  journal report of an increased 
prevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma,  which until then had been very 
uncommon.  The first case Dr.  Laubenstein saw was a 33-year-old man who 
had two purple spots  behind his ears and who at first responded to 
cancer treatment.   However, he died 18 months later with more than 70 
lesions  covering his body.  At that point, she had treated 62 AIDS  
patients, a fourth of the cases reported nationwide.  Laubenstein had 
told her father that "this problem is not going away," and  that she was 
seeing the beginning of an epidemic.  Years later,  her practice became 
increasingly devoted to treating AIDS  patients.  She and Dr. Green 
founded a nonprofit company,  Multitasking, in 1989 that sold office 
services to other firms  and that employed AIDS patients. 

"Health Care Workers Infected With Human Immunodeficiency Virus" Journal 
of the American Medical Association (08/05/92) Vol. 268,  No. 5, P. 601  
(Weinstein, Bruce D.)
     It would be better to heed the advice of patients than that of  
expert panels on whether to allow HIV-positive health-care  workers to 
perform certain procedures, writes Dr. Bruce D.  Weinstein of West 
Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va.  Drs.  B. Lo and R. Steinbrook 
gave an accurate overview of the ethical  and public policy issues 
regarding health-care workers with HIV  infection.  They cite important 
concerns about the proposal of  the Centers for Disease Control to 
establish expert review panels to decide whether infected health-care 
workers ought to be  allowed to conduct certain procedures, on a case-
by-case basis.   But they neglect to note that the most problematic 
factor of  these panels is that its required task is not strictly 
scientific or clinical, and therefore the members of the panel will not  
necessarily make the correct recommendations.  The problem is not the 
consistency of advice from expert panels, but the lack of  expertise 
about what kinds of practices are too risky to allow or even what 
constitutes a harm worth avoiding.  The CDC's proposal  is based on the 
philosophical fallacy that expertise can be  expressed in these matters 
independently from a certain moral  viewpoint, concludes Dr. Weinstein. 

"News in Brief: France" Advocate (08/13/92) No. 609, P. 29
     The former head of the French blood transfusion service admitted  
during his trial on fraud and negligence charges in Paris July 8  that 
he made a mistake which resulted in hundreds of hemophiliacs contracting 
HIV.  The French official, Michael Garretta, is one  of four former 
government officials who was indicted for  neglecting to take 
appropriate action to protect the blood supply in 1984 and 1985 after 
learning of the high risk of tainted blood in the supply.  Garretta told 
the court, "I understand very well  that I made a mistake.  I failed to 
import heat-treated blood."   According to prosecutors, the four 
government officials permitted the dissemination of unscreened HIV-
infected blood instead of  authorizing the use of an American blood 
disinfection technique,  in order to allow French researchers to develop 
their own version of it first.  Garretta claimed that he was used as a 
scapegoat for incompetent and poor management practices by many 
government  workers.  "I made this mistake, but I will soon show you 
that  everyone has made it,"  he said.

"News in Brief: South Africa" Advocate (08/13/92) No. 609, P. 29
     The spread of HIV could become as rampant in South Africa as it  is 
in other African countries, due to continuous racism,  ignorance, and 
poverty, according to a recent study conducted by  the Johannesburg city 
council's health and housing directorate.   The study's author, Mary 
Crewe, said that South Africa's AIDS  prevention programs are lacking 
because they stress decreasing  the number of sex partners rather than 
defining safe-sex methods. Moreover, the campaign elicits tones of 
racism, said Crewe.   "Many white South Africans seem to take a grim 
satisfaction from  projections which suggest that, if nothing else, AIDS 
will reduce the effects of the black birthrate," she said.  "Whites 
express  moral objections to explicit safer-sex campaigns and the  
promotion of condoms.  It would appear that the state's main  concern 
has been not to offend whites," added Crewe.  Clive  Evian, director of 
the Johannesburg city council's AIDS  prevention program, predicted that 
about 250,000 of South  Africa's 37 million residents are infected with 
HIV.  Of those  who live in poverty--a vast majority of South Africans--
20  percent may be infected in ten or 15 years, said Evian.

"News in Brief: United Arab Emirates" Advocate (08/13/92) No. 609, P. 30
     A new health ministry committee in the United Arab Emirates   
created to develop new AIDS legislation in accordance with  guidelines 
recommended by the World Health Organization is  contemplating barring 
people with HIV infection from certain  jobs.  The action would be in 
opposition of WHO policies that  condemn discrimination against AIDS 
workers.  The country has  already imposed extreme HIV-related 
restrictions on foreigners,  who account for approximately 80 percent of 
the country's  population of 1.9 million.  The restrictions require that 
all  foreigners, most of whom are from India, Pakistan, Thailand, and  
various African countries, are tested for HIV and deported if  they test 
positive.  While only eight native residents have been  reported with 
AIDS, the country has established an aggressive  AIDS prevention 
campaign.  On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, 1991, the  ministry distributed a 
guide to safe-sex to students.  The  government is also participating in 
a program designed to  increase AIDS awareness through religious and 
scientific  programs, proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council 
Secretariat in May, and is requesting that AIDS education be implemented 
in  schools.  Furthermore, religious leaders are funding anti-AIDS  
programs and encouraging prevention of HIV infection in mosques. 

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