14 EAST ASIA

The report said there were only four AIDS victims in
1990, rising to 172 in 1991. The number of HIV infected
people increased from six in 1990 to 178 in 1991.

In most cases, the disease was sexually transmitted and
was most common among working people.

Dr. Phrayun said Thailand had been chosen by WHO to
conduct a study on vaccine development and to test the
effectiveness of vaccines.

‘Conflict’ Over AIDS Testing Continues Between
Agencies

BK2791024193 Bangkok THE NATION in English
27 Jan 93 p A2

[Text] Renewed debate has intensified among Thailand’s
health personnel on the question of AIDS vaccines being
tested here.

Antagonists are the Public Health Ministry, which is
convinced there is no suitable, effective vaccine yet, and
the Thai Red Cross Society, which argues against hesi-
tancy at a time of emergency.

The conflict flared when it was reported on Monday that
the Thai Red Cross Society’s Programme on AIDS was
secretly working with Japanese doctors in testing an
AIDS vaccine on some 50 volunteers. The report by
DAILY NEWS quoted an unidentified “highlevel” offi-
cial in the Public Health Ministry.

The report coincided with remarks by senior ministry
officials that Thais should not be used as “guinea pigs”
although they may be willing to be tested. Communi-
cable Diseases Control Department chief Prayun
Kunason asked AIDS victims not to lose hope nor
volunteer to be tested for any type of vaccine.

Dr. Praphan Phanuphak, Thai Red Cross director of the
Programme on AIDS, strongly denied the DAILY
NEWS report yesterday.

“Tt was a lie,” he told reporters.

Praphan admitted that he had been approached by a
Japanese doctor, Kenji Okuda, of the Yokohama Uni-
versity who wanted to test a vaccine on Thais.

Praphan said he found the offer interesting but his
request for the ministry’s permission for the programme
has not yet been approved by the Public Health Ministry.

“Vaccine tests can’t be done without permission from
the Public Health Ministry,” he said.

The Public Health Ministry insisted that there were no
AIDS vaccines endorsed by the World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO).

Praphan said WHO had never prohibited AIDS vaccine
tests in any country.

Due to the current rivalry among vaccine producers,
WHO “has to remain neutral and leave it to responsible
institutions to decide [which vaccine should be used]—
under supervision of officials in their respective coun-
tries”, Praphan said.

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

What WHO can do is to “recommend a few names” of
vaccines if a country wants to conduct a large-scale test,
he added.

He said potential volunteers here did not consider them-
selves as guinea pigs.

“Or if you really want to call them so, they will accept
that. It can’t be helped. If Thais are guinea pigs, so are
people in other countries,” he said.

The Thai Red Cross Society appears to have won the
support of HRH Princess Chulaphon, who has said she
favours AIDS vaccine tests in Thailand. The princess,
who heads the Chulaphon Research Institute and has
been an active anti-AIDS campaigner, cited the large
number of AIDS victims here and the readiness of Thai
medical personnel to ensure safe tests.

Doctor Addresses ‘Guinea Pig’ Issue on AIDS

est

BK2901143393 Bangkok Army Television Channel 5 in
Thai 1200 GMT 29 Jan 93

{Text] Thailand is being acutely threatened by AIDS.
Apart from knowledge and self protection, vaccine is a
hope for Thai people. Thai people are currently confused
about testing of AIDS vaccines in their country.

Professor Praphan Phanuphak, the Thai Red Cross’s
AIDS director, and his delegation said that over a dozen
AIDS vaccines are undergoing tests in more than eight
countries, such as the United States, Canada, the UK,
France, Switzerland, and Japan. Several thousand peo-
ple—healthy individuals and HIV positive patients—
have been vaccinated. The result is that every type of
vaccine is very safe and no one has contracted AIDS
from the vaccines. The resulting immunity is useful, the
only difference being that certain vaccines give greater or
longer lasting immunity.

To determine which vaccine is most suitable for Thai
people, tests on Thai subjects will be necessary. The
question which arises is that Thai people will have
become guinea pigs. On this, Prof. Praphan said that this
could be the case but there is no way to avoid it. If Thai
people are labelled guinea pigs, Americans and French
are also guinea pigs because they faced similar tests even
before Thai people. In any event, safety will have to be
taken into account when any test is to be conducted.

Confusion Persists Over Testing AIDS Vaccine

BK0202022993 Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English
2 Feb 93 p2

{Text] Confusion over the testing of AIDS vaccines on
people remains unsettled between the Public Health
Ministry and Thai Red Cross Society Programme on
AIDS.

Red Cross AIDS director Praphan Phanuphak told
Deputy Prime Minister Banyat Banthatthan in a letter
dated January 28 a vaccine sent to the society by a
Japanese company had been used in tests with the blood



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

really know where to start,” he said. Although 40,000
people are tested every month, no pre-test counselling is
provided.

The figures seem to encourage false confidence. Lithua-
nia, with the largest population in the Baltics, has 16
cases of HIV infections; Estonia, the least populous, has
29, perhaps due to greater contact with the West. Latvia
has 19. These are only the reported cases, however, and
the numbers are expected to soar.

Seminar Participants on AIDS Awareness

93WE0148B Tallinn THE BALTIC INDEPENDENT
in English 4-10 Dec 92 p 9

[Text] The prognosis for AIDS awareness in the Baltic
States is not encouraging. That was the verdict of med-
ical staff and teachers attending an international AIDS
seminar in Latvia in the week of November 27.

The seminar, organised by a US health organisation,
aimed to promote better contacts between medical
workers, teachers and the mass media in raising AIDS
awareness in the Baltic region.

“People in the Baltics should think more about the AIDS
problem,” said Vahur Keldrima, an Estonian doctor who
attended the seminar. “The problem is that we only get
30,000 kroons a year from the government.”

Known AIDS Cases Said To Be of Unusual Type

AU0102084893 Kiev HOLOS UKRAYINY in Ukrainian
23 Jan 93 p 12

[Interview with Vitaliy Arnoldovych Kordyum, head of
department at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
Molecular Biology and Genetics Institute and deputy
chairman of the National Committee for Combating
AIDS, by Volodymyr Tarasenko; place and date not
given: “The Entire Population Is in the Risk Group....”;
first paragraph published in boldface]

[Text] Last December, the first scientific conference on
the “Prevention of AIDS in Ukraine” was held in Kiev.
Following the completion of its work, our correspondent
met with V. Kordyum, head of department at the Ukrai-
nian Academy of Sciences Molecular Biology and
Genetics Institute and deputy chairman of the National
Committee for Combating AIDS subordinated to
Ukraine’s president and asked him to answer a few
questions.

Tarasenko: Vitaliy Arnoldovych, last September, on the
directive of Ukraine’s president, the National Com-
mittee for Combating AIDS was created. What has been
done so far?

Kordyum: It is early to speak about achievements. We
began to deal with this problem much later than other
countries. There was no social demand. Only in the
second half of 1987, the USSR Ministry of Health
authorized Ukraine to diagnose AIDS. There are very
few specialists with experience in such work. The
majority of scientists conducted their investigations with

CENTRAL EURASIA 35

just a reference “regarding AIDS.” The National Pro-
gram for Combating AIDS functioned and the financed
research has been in existence for less than one year. This
year, our program must be subjected to expert analysis
by the World Health Organization and be integrated into
world science.

Tarasenko: It was stated at the conference that about 25
million persons had been examined for AIDS. How
realistic is this estimate?

Kordyum: I can neither confirm nor deny this figure. This
estimate was quoted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health.
However, even if all these 25 million persons have been
diagnosed, the resulting data may be erroneous.

Tarasenko: Why?

Kordyum: The diagnostic centers for revealing people
infected with HIV are using the immuno-enzyme
{immuno-fermentnyy] method. It was elaborated and is
in wide use abroad. However, systems that are used in
Ukraine are of low quality.

In addition to this, our analysis of epidemiologic and
some experimental data makes it possible to assume
that, in Ukraine, there is an unusual HIV strain.

Tarasenko: What is such a prognosis based upon?

Kordyum: First, more than one-half of those infected do
not belong to known risk groups, and for 16 percent of
those infected, the source of infection could not be
established at all. Second, according to world experience,
between 25 and 33 percent of AIDS sufferers develop the
Kaposi sarcoma. Only one of the AIDS sufferers
revealed in Ukraine—12 persons altogether—was found
to have it. At the same time, no HIV was detected in
several patients with the Kaposi sarcoma. Third, the
behavior of the virus in cells outside the organism has
specific features that differ from those described abroad.

Tarasenko: It appears that the entire population of
Ukraine is within the risk group. Why?

Kordyum: It is because of a weakening of the immune
system. All factors have their effect here: ecological,
biological, social, economic, and so on. Ukraine seems to
have no parallel in the world in terms of the extent of all
the unfavorable factors acting upon a person. It is
necessary to remember that we have a difficult epidemi-
ologic situation on the whole, not only regarding AIDS.
The first alarming signal is the balding of children in
Chernivtsi. The causes of the disease have not been
ascertained to this day. Representatives of the World
Health Organization voiced an assumption that it has
biological roots. If it is a new disease and a new patho-
genic organism, it may take many years and the highest
level of medicine to establish it. However, our medicine
does not even have enough gauze or cotton wool...

Tarasenko: If an unusual HIV strain is possible in our
country, then, perhaps, foreign diagnostics is not always
applicable?



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

7, The National Committee publishes mandatory nor-
mative acts and monitors their execution.

8. The National Committee is headed by a Chairman
appointed by the President of Ukraine.

The Chairman of the National Committee has deputies
appointed by the President of Ukraine on the basis of the
former’s nominations. The Chairman distributes respon-
sibilities among his deputies and determines the powers
of structural subdivisions of the National Committee.

The Chairman of the National Committee is personally
responsible for the fulfillment of objectives set down for
the National Committee.

9. The National Committee is formed with a staff
including the Chairman of the National Committee,
deputies of the Chairman and members of the National
Committee.

Members of the National Committee are persons of the
following positions: director of the National AIDS Insti-
tute, the chief state public health physician of Ukraine,
the chairman of the scientific council of the National
Committee, the chairman of regional AIDS committees,
executives of the corresponding ministries and other
central bodies of state executive government, and of
organizations, and the leading scientists and highly qual-
ified specialists.

The most important problems of AIDS control, the
status of scientific research in this field, practical intro-
duction of the accomplishments of science, and the
organization of the treatment of HIV carriers and AIDS
patients in Ukraine are examined at meetings of the
National Committee, which are held as necessary but not
less than twice a year.

A board consisting of the Chairman of the National
Committee (Chairman of the Board), his deputies (hold-
ing specific positions) and members of the board is
established in the National Committee to examine and
resolve issues of state management and interdepart-
mental coordination in the area of AIDS control.

The personnel appointed to the National Committee and
its board are approved by the President of Ukraine as
nominated by the Chairman of the National Committee.

10. The National Committee forms a scientific council
that serves as the consultative expert body of the
National Committee.

11. The National AIDS Institute operates under the
National Committee. The institute director is appointed
by the Chairman of the National Committee.

12, The maximum number of workers of the National
Committee and their wage fund are approved by the
President of Ukraine on the recommendation of the
Chairman of the National Committee.

13, The structure and staff of the administration of the
National Committee, the statute on its structural subdi-
visions, on the scientific council and on the National

CENTRAL EURASIA 31

AIDS Institute, and the personnel of the scientific
council are approved by the Chairman of the National
Committee.

14. The expenses of maintaining the administration of
the National Committee are financed by the Ukrainian
state budget.

15. The National Committee decides on the use of assets
allocated from the Ukrainian state budget for the imple-
mentation of the National AIDS Prevention Program in
Ukraine and scientific research in this field.

16. The National Committee is a legal person, it pos-
sesses its own balance and its clearing and other accounts
in banking institutions, its own seal bearing the image of
the Ukrainian State Seal, and its own name.

[Signed] Secretary of the Administration of the President
of Ukraine N. Khomenko

nee

Academician Gennadiy Kharlampiyevich Matsuka,
director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and
Genetics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and
secretary of the Division of Biochemistry, Physiology
and Molecular Biology (OBFMB) of the Ukrainian
Academy of Sciences, was appointed to head the
National Committee.

Alarming Theme: AIDS Among Us
93WE0151A Kiev DEMOKRATYCHNA UKRAYINA in
Ukrainian 24 Sep 92 p 2

[Article by A. Shcherbytska, M.D., Director of Ukrai-
nian Center of the Prophylaxis and Control of AIDS]

[Text] By the decree of the president of Ukraine, regula-
tions were passed forming Presidential National Com-
mittee to Control AIDS and establishing its membership
and composition of the board. The author of this article
is the deputy chairperson of this Committee.

Considering global threat of this disease, a law was
passed on prevention of AIDS and protection of the
population, and the National Program of AIDS Preven-
tion was approved. These acts provide for a system of
measures regarding the diagnosis and prevention of
HIV-infection, information and education about protec-
tive measures, specialized training for medical per-
sonnel, conducting basic and applied research, creation
of a network of enterprises for manufacturing of dispos-
able instruments, sterilization of apparatus for medical
equipment, production of diagnostic test-systems for the
laboratories, etc.

Presidential National Committee for the struggle against
AIDS was created. This is the institution whose direc-
tives will be obligatory on all ministries and departments
involved in execution of this program. For the first time,
all initiatives will have guaranteed financing, starting
this year. In this fashion, a series of measures were
undertaken to protect Ukraine from AIDS, to prevent
the epidemic spread of this horrible disease throughout



40 WEST EUROPE

all expectant mothers, all immigrants, and everyone in
the military. That cannot be used as evidence that their
coercive laws are better.

“I believe that concepts are being confused in our
debate,” Smith said. “I believe we could do more in the
area of tracking down the infection, but it is an economic
and structural question. We need skilled people to do it.
There is no reason to introduce coercion in this context,
since according to all indications voluntarism works just
as well and, in this way, we do not frighten people from
ever being tested.”

More Companies Drafting AIDS Policies
93WE0232B Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE in
Danish 14 Nov 92 p 2

[Article by Lars Kaptain: “AIDS Prejudice Can Lead to
Dismissal”]

[Text] HIV and AIDS are still taboo topics in most Danish
companies. But more and more firms are introducing an
AIDS policy that safeguards infected workers and permits
the dismissal of prejudiced colleagues.

No one is infected with HIV on the job. Even so, big
companies are still very hesitant about HIV-infected
employees and pressure from their colleagues and the
management often leads infected people to quit their
jobs.

In one out of 10 Danish companies it is not the infected
person but his or her insecure and prejudiced colleagues
who risk losing their jobs. The Public Health Adminis-
tration has now been campaigning for over a year to get
firms with more than 30 employees to introduce an
AIDS policy that calls for the dismissal of people who
refuse to work with an HIV-infected person. A recent
halfway evaluation shows that every third Danish com-
pany has formulated an AIDS policy as part of its
personnel program.

“We want companies to realize that it is just as unrea-
sonable to be reluctant to work with an HIV-infected
person as with a redhead, and both the Danish Federa-
tion of Trade Unions [LO] and the Danish Employers’
Association [DA] have approved the proposed firing of
unwilling workers,” said senior clerk Henning Jorgensen
of the Public Health Administration.

He stressed that the campaign will continue through
1993 or until almost all firms have taken the matter
seriously.

The approximately 5,000 HIV-infected Danes are
almost all in the active employment age. It has been
demonstrated that it can take 10 years or more from the
time of infection before AIDS breaks out, during which
time the HIV-positive person is healthy and able to
handle his job.

However, it requires great knowledge and understanding
on the part of companies to keep an infected person from
feeling pushed or frozen out.

IPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

The message in the Public Health Administration’s cam-
paign is that the HIV virus is transmitted solely through
sexual contact, in large amounts of blood, or from
mother to child during pregnancy.

The Public Health Administration has earmarked over 3
million kroner for the campaign, which is aimed at
defusing workplace attitudes toward the dread disease
via counties, labor organizations, and branch organiza-
tions.

More AIDS-Related Criminal Cases Ahead

93WE0232A Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE in
Danish 27 Jan 93 p 4

[Article by Bent Winther: “More AIDS Indictments
Predicted”]

[Text] One more HIV-infected person has now been
indicted for engaging in unsafe sex although he was aware
of the risk.

: The police in Vordingborg have charged a 25-year-old

man with having engaged in unsafe sex even though he
knew he was HIV-positive and thus capable of transmit-
ting the virus that causes the deadly AIDS disease.

The Vordingborg case is the second of its kind in
Denmark. The trial of a 34-year-old HIV-infected Hai-
tian whom the police have accused of having sex with
around 30 women although he knew he was infected will
begin in a month.

Prof. Hugh Zachariae of the division of skin and vene-
real diseases at Marselisborg Hospital in Arhus thinks
the two cases are only the beginning.

“We can expect a number of cases like this to come up
now as it becomes known that the prosecuting authori-
ties will accept them. People who have been infected by
someone who knows his or her HIV status will always
feel extremely angry,” he said.

He foresaw great difficulty in proving that those who are
indicted knew they were infected. Doctors do not turn
over the records of HIV-infected people unless the police
have a court order.

The police in Vordingborg have questioned five women
who had slept with the accused 25-year-old man. None
has been infected, according to the police who have
charged the man under Paragraph 255 of the criminal
code which concerns those who “endanger others in a
grossly wanton or similarly reckless manner.”

FINLAND

Paper on Debate to Criminalize Spreading HIV
93WE0047A Helsinki HELSINGIN SANOMAT in
Finnish 1 Oct 92 p 2

[Editorial: “AIDS Peril Is Aggravating’”]

[Text] The incident of the infected person who tried to
conceal his infection and the more recent incident
involving a HIV-positive rapist arouse feelings of fear


8 EAST ASIA

BURMA

Health Minister Returns From India AIDS
Conference

BKI511061292 Rangoon Radio Burma in Burmese
1330 GMT 14 Nov 92

[Text] A Myanmar [Burmese] delegation led by Rear
Admiral Than Nyunt, minister for health, arrived back
in Yangon [Rangoon] by air this evening after attending
the second International AIDS Conference for Asia and
Pacific held in New Delhi from 8 to 12 November 1992.

The minister and delegation were welcomed back at
Yangon airport by Commander Major General Myo
Nyunt, minister for religious affairs; Maj. Gen. Maung
Thint, minister for the development of border areas and
national races; Commodore Sein Lwin, station com-
mander of Irrawaddy Naval Station; Colonel Than Zin,
deputy minister for health; Dr. U Thein Nyunt, acting
resident representative of the World Health Organiza-
tion in Yangon; and directors general and responsible
officials from the health ministry departments.

CAMBODIA

Writer Discusses AIDS Awareness

93WE0036A Phnom Penh PRACHEACHON
in Cambodian 6 Sep 92 p 3

[Text] The existence of the AIDS disease in Cambodia is
a warning for us all to heed. How can we keep this
disease from increasing the number of persons with the
virus? What are the people infected with this disease
supposed to do?

Concerning the numbers recently released by the Ministry
of Health, at the present time there are in Cambodia 45
people who have the AIDS virus. This information has
made a large number of Cambodian people very nervous
about the invasion of our country by this disease of the
century ... but we all have effective means to block this.

1 am requesting that the concern of every Cambodian
about the spread of this disease in our country be
reported in the pages of this newspaper. The worry
increases along with the number of people who have the
disease and who do not know whether they must go to a
hospital or continue living without any care.... A source
which may be considered official has concluded that
there are 17 people infected wiht AIDS in Phnom Penh;
they are prostitutes working in Tuol Kok and Svay Pak.
This is a catastrophe for our society. If we try to
calculate, this number multiplied by only two will
increase by how many in a day? This is the lowest
multiplicand; 34 people can be infected by the AIDS
virus from one girl who has the virus. How many others
will there be if the place has an endless number of
‘guests?’ And there may be 28 others anywhere—in a bar
or in a hotel!

You girls must think about curbing the spread of this
disease and we are making this heartfelt request to our
dear friends who make their living as prostitutes to be

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

most careful. This does not mean that we want to destroy
the livelihood of any young woman. We only want you to
understand and not create a crisis for future generations
of Cambodian children. For example, if one young
woman becomes a carrier of the AIDS virus from a man,
then she is a carrier to other men. What terrible conse-
quences will result? She will certainly lose her job and be
very remorseful.

And what about our fellow citizens who go out and enjoy
illicit sex; what should you do? In order to avoid being
added to the list of people with AIDS, you must be very
careful—there are 15 [infected] people in Tuol Kok and
two in Phum Svay Pak—perhaps there are 28 others
somewhere nearby. If you, our foolish brothers, become
carriers of the AIDS virus to your innocent wives and
children, will you regret it and blame us?

Therefore the Ministry of Public Health and related
agencies must begin a broad education campaign espe-
cially among the women and men who want to be the
players in the ‘AIDS Story’. This is the most effective
way to block an increase in the number of AIDS cases in
our motherland.

National Anti-AIDS Committee Set Up; 45
Positive Cases

BK2611070492 Phnom Penh SPK in French 0400 GMT
26 Nov 92

[Text] Phnom Penh 26 Nov (SPK}—A national anti-
AIDS committee has been created in compliance with a
decision of the Council of Ministers of the State of
Cambodia.

The committee is composed of Health Minister Yim
Chhaili as chairman, Deputy Health Minister Chhea
Thang as vice chairman, and Deputy Labor and Welfare
Minister Suy Sem as vice chairman.

The committee is charged with the tasks of working out
measures to prevent the disease, track down the suspects
of the disease, and provide advice to diverse laboratories
and hospitals responsible for the matter.

In a report presented to the committee’s first session on
20 November, 45 positive cases of AIDS have been
recorded in Cambodia so far.

INDONESIA

Minister Discloses Anti-AIDS Budget Allocation

BK0202034293 Jakarta Radio Republik Indonesia
Network in Indonesian 0000 GMT 2 Feb 93

[Text] The government has allocated 2 billion rupiah to
cope with the proliferation of AIDS. The high amount of
allocation reflects the government’s great attention to the
efforts to cope with the AIDS threat.

Health Minister Adhyatma disclosed this at a hearing
with the parliament’s Commission VIII in Jakarta. The
minister added that the government would give high
priority in providing counselling to the high-risk group



6 INTERNATIONAL

Swiss businessman who donated money for this noble
effort). His idea has been actively supported both by
scientists and by politicians—from Velikhov to Sobchak.
Only some of the powers that be, who wish to “hold
onto” and “control” everything according to the good
old Russian habit, dislike the new institution.

Whatever the case, it looks as if the center is destined to
live. To live, simply because it is very necessary, because
the indefatigable Kozlov, a specialist who is widely
known abroad, will be able to manage it excellently.

A purely scientific conference on viruses is to be con-
ducted from 8 to 16 August in the USA by Robert Gallo,
one of the discoverers of the AIDS virus (National
Institute of Health, Washington). And in November, the
traditional international AIDS conference will be held in

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

St. Petersburg, organized by the Bruce Rappaport Center
and the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Espe-
cially Pure Preparations.

The next international AIDS conference is scheduled in
Berlin from 7 to 11 June 1993.

Tunisia to Seek Compensation for Transfusion
Victims
Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 1

Dec 92 pI

{Text} Tunisia. The republic’s health minister informed
the world community that the Tunisian government
intends to demand compensation from France in behalf
of hemophilia patients who had possibly been infected
with AIDS during transfusions of blood purchased from
France. According to data of the Tunisian Ministry of
Public Health the human immunodeficiency virus was
detected in 12 patients, three of whom have already died.



18 LATIN AMERICA

and a large amount in hard currency for medicine and
food. If they are ill, the amount climbs to 24,000 pesos
and also hard currency.

Terry adds that only three—out of 600—hemophiliac
patients in Cuba have become HIV positive and that at
one point Cuba destroyed 20,000 frozen bags of plasma
to avoid the danger of infection.

Terry concludes by saying that projections for 1993 are
similar to that of 1992, during which the number of cases
was lower than expected and that the danger lies in
homosexual behavior and for females, in heterosexual
behavior.

HONDURAS

AIDS Cases Total 1,124 Nationwide
93WE0081A San Pedro Sula TIEMPO in Spanish
12 Oct 92 p 12

[Text] Tegucigalpa—A total of 60 cases of Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) occurred during
September, thereby raising the number of AIDS victims
to 2,124. However, there were no reports from some of
the country’s regions.

Dr. Enrique Zelaya, the chief of the Health Ministry’s
Epidemiology Division, claimed that, because of the
rapid progress of the disease in the country, for each case
reported there could be between 25 and 40 persons
infected. Hence, it is estimated that between 50,000 and
70,000 have become infected to date.

The authorities reported 3,218 individuals infected with
the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes
AIDS, who, nevertheless have not contracted the disease.
According to Zelaya, during every passing hour over two
persons become infected, in view of the fact that two new
cases are reported daily.

Of the total cases (2,124), 595 have died, and 79 are
under age 13, the majority infected by their mothers, and
the rest by sexual relations. Zelaya cited the case of a
child between 10 and 11 years old, who was raped and
subsequently engaged in prostitution with homosexuals.
AIDS was discovered in him at age 12.

Unlike the situation in the United States, where most of
the cases are reported among homosexuals, in this
country the highest percentage occurs in the heterosexual
group, with 78 percent. Homosexuals and bisexuals
account for only 14 percent.

Seventy-two percent of the cases are located in the
northern zone, from Santa Rosa de Copan to Trujillo; 15
percent are in the capital; and the rest are in other parts
of the country. San Pedro Sula remains in first place,
with 865 AIDS cases, representing 41 percent.

Last year, 494 cases were reported and, during this
period, 469 cases were recorded throughout the entire
country. In San Pedro Sula alone, there were 181 cases
last year, and 224 this year.

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Because of the accelerated rise in AIDS cases, next week
the World Health Organization (WHO) will send two of
its officials to learn the status of the disease and to gauge
the impact of HIV on the Honduran population.

In addition, they will meet with President Rafael Leon-
ardo Callejas, Health Minister Cesar Castellanos, repre-
sentatives of the news media, and other persons involved
in the AIDS program.

Owing to the large number of AIDS cases reported in the
country, and the imminent finalization of the aid from
international agencies due next year, the health author-
ities have requested of the government a budget increase
of 2.8 million lempiras for the campaign to control the
disease. However, it has not yet been approved.

The national funds currently amount to 1.3 million
lempiras, plus 1.8 million in international aid. Much of
this is for reagents used in blood tests, which are
becoming increasingly necessary in view of the rise in
cases due to transfusions.

The ministry is obliged to invest 6 million lempiras in
treatment for AIDS victims next year, because the
number of cases will be larger, and the majority will be
seeking medical treatment in the country’s hospitals.

According to Zelaya, the economic impact of AIDS is
affecting not only the government, but the people as a
whole; considering the fact that the majority of AIDS
victims die between ages 28 and 30, and Hondurans
have an average life expectancy of 62 years.

The physician concluded by noting that, before the year
2000, approximately 30,000 or 40,000 of those now
infected will have died. These persons are part of the
productive force giving an impetus to the nation’s eco-
nomic development.

JAMAICA

Health Minister Discusses AIDS Situation in
Country

FL1202132993 Bonaire Trans World Radio in English
1100 GMT 12 Feb 93

{Text] AIDS continues to be a concern in the Caribbean.
Jamaica’s Minister of Health Easton Douglas talks about
the problem:

[Begin Douglas recording] When you’re dealing with
HIV and AIDS, you are dealing with something that is
sometimes difficult to speak about because you are
speaking about sexology and sex and in the Caribbean,
that is still a sensitive thing to talk about. People have
developed severe hostility to AIDS victims that they
know about. Some of them have been burned out of their
homes. They have lost their jobs. They have no means of
support because they are rejected even by their family
and this is another area where we the government now
have to be supporting them because many of them who
had been very independent and self-sufficient before
have now become total dependents on the state just for
survival—for food, for clothing, for shelter. So we have



36 CENTRAL EURASIA

Kordyum: This question requires special investigation.
However, work on creating our own diagnostic centers is
under way. This year we already hope to receive a
positive result.

Tarasenko: Are there enough specialists to conduct diag-
nostic tests?

Kordyum: The training of medical cadres for work with
AIDS patients needs to be improved. Today, it is only
the Kiev Institute for Advanced Medical Studies whose
financial, organizational, and informational possibilities
are very limited that trains such specialists in Ukraine.

Tarasenko: Interesting results obtained in the sphere of
creating methods for the prevention and treatment of
AIDS were also reported at the conference.

Kordyum: Here, work is conducted in two directions. The
first of them is the elaboration of fundamentally new
technologies for treatment and prevention based upon
the concept of intracellular immunity. This year, it is
planned to test such technologies on human cells
infected with HIV.

Second, there is the chemical and biotechnical synthesis
of new medicinal preparations. Several dozen potentially
promising preparations are ready for testing. However,
the absence of cellular strains containing HIV does
makes it impossible to start research. So far, we have to
send new preparations for biological testing abroad.

Our own first preparation against AIDS has been
obtained and begun to be used. Interferon Alpha-2 is
undergoing clinical testing. Its use on patients with the
Kaposi sarcoma has produced a positive result.

Tarasenko: Is cooperation with scientists in other coun-
tries being established?

Kordyum: Since we do not have proper experience, it is
very important to become integrated into world science.
We cannot constantly invent the wheel. Today, we feel
an acute information deficit. About 10,000 medical
journals are published in the world, but only about 10 of
them reach us. Computerized conferences dealing with
AIDS are organized abroad, as is the computerized
exchange of information functions among scientists. The
data bank on this problem is, so far, closed to us: There
is no money.

Scientists understand that nobody will be able to put an
end to AIDS—the plague of the 20th century—by one’s
own efforts alone. That is why they are looking for
contacts.

Tarasenko: How do you evaluate the results of the
scientific conference on the “Prevention of AIDS in
Ukraine”?

Kordyum: The conference managed to reveal shortcom-
ings and advantages of studies on which there are no
publications at all. We must make an essential reorien-
tation of many investigations and begin to prepare for
devising a new program.

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Official Says New Type of AIDS Discovered

0W2701182493 Moscow INTERFAX in English 1715
GMT 27 Jan 93

[Following item transmitted via KYODO]

[Text] Many instances of violations of the law on the
prevention of the AIDS virus by the employees of
medical institutes and the directors of enterprises and
organisations have been uncovered in the Donetsk
region by the attorney’s office.

Yuriy Zaitsev, an official of the regional attorney’s
office, has told Interfax that the rules for sterilising
instruments in childrens hospitals were being broken, as
were those governing disinfection in hairdressers’ salons
and stomatology co-operatives. He said that 34 of the 44
registered AIDS carriers in the region were foreigners.

Vitaliy Kordium, who is the deputy chairman of the
National Committee for the fight against AIDS, told the
“Golos Ukrainy” (“Voice of Ukraine”) newspaper that
he thought that a new type of the virus existed in
Ukraine. He said that, due to environmental and social
and economic problems, the whole of the republic’s
population was at risk.

Compulsory AIDS Tests on Frequent Visitors

HK2801073693 Hong Kong AFP in English 0644 GMT
28 Jan 93

[Text] Hong Kong, Jan 28 (AFP)—China is to impose
compulsory AIDS tests on all visitors who enter the
country more than 12 times a year in the latest measure
to combat the fatal disease, press reports said Thursday.

Those most affected by the measures, introduced this
month but covering the past year, are expected to be
Chinese from neighbouring Hong Kong and Macao,
newspapers here said.

In the past, AIDS tests were only applicable to foreigners
who planned to stay more than three months in China.

The tests, which reportedly take only a few minutes to
detect whether a subject has the virus which causes
AIDS, are carried out soon after visitors set foot at any of
the ports of entry in the country.

A spokesman of the Health Bureau in the southern
Chinese city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong prov-
ince, said the measures had been strengthened to keep
the AIDS virus from entering China.

He said that since the compulsory tests were introduced,
more than 12 visitors including some from neighbouring
Hong Kong had been refused entry this year.

However, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Health
Department said it had not received any such notice
from China.

AIDS tests are carried out voluntarily in the British
colony.



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993 4 AIDS

Purchase of AIDS-Contaminated Blood Revealed /London KEYHAN, 21 Jan 93]
Health Official Reports 219 People Affected With AIDS Virus /Tehran IRNA, 25 Jan 93]

ISRAEL

AIDS Rate in Israel Said ’One of the Lowest’ (Jerusalem Qol Yisra’el, 26 Nov 92] .
PAKISTAN
NWFP Said To Lead in Number of AIDS Patients
[Syed Bukhar Shah; Peshawar THE FRONTIER POST, 28 Oct 92] ...
Regional AIDS Statistics Reviewed (Mirza Nagi Zafar; Karachi DAWN, 13 Dec 92] ..

SRI LANKA

Editorial Stresses Dangers From AIDS (Colombo DAILY NEWS, 2 Dec 92]
CENTRAL EURASIA

Commentary Examines AIDS Threat, Legal Measures /Kiev Radio Ukraine World Service, 4 Aug 92]
Venereal Diseases in Soldiers {Moscow PATRIOT, | Sep 92] ......
AIDS in Moldova [Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, 15 Sep 92]
AIDS in Ukraine [Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, 15 Sep 92] ..
Ukrainian Presidential Directive on AIDS Decree [Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY, 23 Sep 92]
Ukrainian Statute on National AIDS Committee /Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY, 23 Sep 92]
Alarming Theme: AIDS Among Us

[A. Shcherbytska; Kiev DEMOKRATYCHNA UKRAYINA, 24 Sep 92] ....
AIDS in Bukovina /S. Petryk; Kiev DEMOKRATYCHNA UKRAYINA, 24 Sep 92]
Lack of Funding Threatens AIDS Program, Research

[Roza Sergaziyeva; Moscow ROSSIYSKIYE VESTI, 21 Oct 92]
Obstacles to AIDS Prevention Education in Lithuania

[Tallinn THE BALTIC INDEPENDENT, 4-10 Dec 92]
Seminar Participants on AIDS Awareness Tallinn THE BALTIC INDEPENDENT, 4-10 Dec 92]
Known AIDS Cases Said To Be of Unusual Type /Kiev HOLOS UKRAYINY, 23 Jan 93
Official Says New Type of AIDS Discovered [Moscow INTERFAX, 27 Jan 93] ..
Compulsory AIDS Tests on Frequent Visitors /Hong Kong AFP, 28 Jan 93] ...
New Laser Blood Test Device Eliminates AIDS Risk

[Veronika Romanenkova; Moscow ITAR-TASS, 28 Jan 93]
Government To Require All Foreigners To Pass AIDS Test [Tashkent Uzbekistan APN, 4 Feb 93]
Moscow, Oblast Have 27 AIDS Cases, 103 HIV-Positive {Moscow IZVESTIYA, 4 Feb 93]
Supreme Soviet to Discuss Bill on AIDS Preventive Measures [Moscow ITAR-TASS, 8 Feb

WEST EUROPE
AUSTRIA

Latest AIDS Figures Published /Salzburg SALZBURGER NACHRICHTEN, ! Dec 92]
CYPRUS

HIV-Positive Cases Since 1986 Detailed Nicosia CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY, 29 Jan 93] sss 38
DENMARK

Pressure To Change Existing HIV Anonymity Law

[Pernille Stensgaard; Copenhagen WEEKENDAVISEN, 23-29 Oct 92] .....
More Companies Drafting AIDS Policies

[Lars Kaptain; Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, 14 Nov 92] ....
More AIDS-Related Criminal Cases Ahead

[Bent Winther; Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, 27 Jan 93] ....



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Commentary Examines AIDS Threat, Legal
Measures

PM2311160592B Kiev Radio Ukraine World Service in
English 0000 GMT 4 Aug 92

[Commentary by correspondent (Zhana Mishchevska)
on the AIDS threat in Ukraine; all figures as heard]

[Excerpt] (Passage omitted] Unfortunately, AIDS hasn’t
passed over Ukraine. According to specialists’ opinion,
the AIDS virus was brought to Ukraine from abroad,
from the African and Asian Continents. HIV-infected
people from these regions came to study or work in
Ukraine, but nowadays the epidemic process is
neglected, and the disease spreads among the inhabitants
of Ukraine irrespective of the initial source. Statistics
indicate that there are about 280 HIV-infected people in
Ukraine: There are 179 foreigners, 101 citizens of
Ukraine, and 15 children among them. Comparing the
statistic data, I have noticed that the AIDS cases is
quickly rising in Ukraine. In 1991, only 21 HIV-infected
people were registered in our country, and during the
first half of 1992 18 people. AIDS testing at public health
centers began in 1987, and since that time the number of
HIV infected people increased in 16 times.

But what does the Ukrainian Government do to prevent
this violent endemic disease? Nowadays, 136 diagnostic
laboratories where AIDS testing are carried out function
in Ukraine. In most cases, they are situated at the
stations of blood transfusion, hospitals, and scientific
research institute. Recently, two important legislative
documents were adopted in which the main trends of
prophylaxis and struggle against AIDS were determined.
The first is the law on prevention of AIDS disease and
social protection of population of Ukraine, and the
second is the national program of AIDS prophylaxis in
Ukraine. A coordinative council at the Ministry of
Public Health was created for the purpose of realization
of this law and the national program. Not only the
leaders and specialists of the Ministry but many other
scientific research institutes and the Academy of Sci-
ences of Ukraine became the members of this coordina-
tive council. But the specialists understand very well
that, firstly, it’s necessary much money for scientific
investigation, AIDS testing, and treatment. (sentence as
heard] It means that the national income should be
revised in favor of medicine.

Venereal Diseases in Soldiers
93WE0145H Moscow PATRIOT in Russian No 35, 1
Sep 92 p5

[Article: “Bacteriological Sex Bombs”’]

[Text] Today’s Russian soldier is reasonably well armed
to fight an adversary, but he is absolutely defenseless
against venereal diseases and AIDS, writes the army
newspaper of the Volga Military District, SOLDAT
OTECHESTVA.

In just two nights 18 persons from the commandant’s
company caught gonorrhea from a certain oversexed
citizen N. at the district training center.

CENTRAL EURASIA 2»

The checkpoint gates and fences of military units are
literally plastered with prostitutes. They’re not greedy as
a rule—they don’t demand money. But they are willing
to service any number of servicemen for a few drinks and
a token gift. And so it is that army doctors are compelled
to fight syphilis and other venereal diseases. Military
medical personnel are anxiously awaiting the appearance
of AIDS in soldiers.

This is a fully realistic threat. Sexual problems are not
being solved in our army yet. And it is also hard for the
servicemen to protect themselves. You can’t get that
many condoms on a soldier’s pay, and anyway, you can’t
find them in army stores.

AIDS in Moldova

93WE0051D Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA in
Russian 15 Sep 92 p 6

[Text] Twenty-three carriers of the AIDS virus have been
registered in Moldova. Sixteen of the infected individ-
uals are foreign citizens. Two of the persons infected
with AIDS have died.

AIDS in Ukraine

93WE0051E Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA in
Russian 15 Sep 92 p 2

[Article: “Number of AIDS Patients Grows Larger”]

[Text] According to a report from the Ukrainian AIDS
Prevention and Control Center in 8 months of this year
25 carriers of the human immunodeficiency virus were
revealed, which is twice more than in the corresponding
period of last year. Most of the infected individuals were
discovered in Odessa Oblast and in Kiev. There still are
“clean” oblasts in Ukraine as well—Volyn, Vinnitsa and
Khmelnitskiy.

Ukrainian Presidential Directive on AIDS Decree
93WE0052A Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY in Russian 23
Sep 92 p6

[Directive of the President of Ukraine on the Statute on
the National AIDS Committee]

[Text] 1. The attached Statute on the National AIDS
Committee under the President of Ukraine, and the
personnel appointed to this committee and to its board,
shall be approved.

2. The maximum number of workers of the administra-
tion of the National AIDS Committee shall be estab-
lished at 90 units, and money to maintain the committee
in 1992 shall be allocated in an amount of R4.4 million,
including a wage fund of R2.1 million.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Finances shall finance the
expenditures to maintain the committee out of assets
from the Ukrainian state budget for the maintenance of
bodies of state executive government.

3. The wages of workers of the National AIDS Com-
mittee shall be established in correspondence with wages
of ministry workers.



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

of AIDS victims, but not yet with the patients themselves
as claimed in some news reports.

He said he had received permission from Chulalongkon
University’s Medical Science Department Moral Com-
mittee on June 18 last year to test the vaccine on human
beings but, since the use of AIDS vaccines is a sensitive
matter, he had sent a letter to the Public Health Ministry
seeking its approval to test the vaccine on people as of
June 30 last year.

He has still to receive a reply from the ministry.

The ministry’s communicable disease director-general,
Prayun Khunason said yesterday he had already replied
to Dr. Praphan’s request, saying he was waiting for more
information regarding the vaccine from the World
Health Organisation.

Food and Drug Administration [FDA] Deputy Secre-
tary-General Mongkhon na Songkhla said any vaccines
brought into the country for use in tests involving people
first had to be cleared with the FDA.

Dr. Praphan said the Japanese company had wrongly
believed the Red Cross had used the AIDS vaccine for
testing with Thai people, but he had sent a letter to them
last September clarifying the situation.

He said there were AIDS vaccines being tested on human
beings in several countries around the world, and the WHO
has never opposed the use of vaccines in any country.

Dr. Prayun contested that there were no vaccines which had

passed both the first and second phase of testing, which
means they had not been proved to be completely safe.

For this reason, his ministry has not yet approved their use.
Dr. Prayun denied he had ever said WHO did not

approve the use of AIDS vaccines, but that the organi-
sation had not recommended their use.

Ministry Notes Over 100 Percent Rise in AIDS
sufferers

BK1102042793 Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English

11 Feb 93 p6

[Text] The number of AIDS cases rose from 408 in 1991
to 869 last year, according to a report from the Epide-
miology Division of the Ministry of Public Health.

The number of cases of AIDS-related complex (ARC)
increased from 398 to 896 in the same period, the report
says.

EAST ASIA 15

Since the first AIDS case was reported in Thailand in
1984, 620 of the 1,389 people registered as AIDS carriers
have died. 219 of the 1,658 people with ARC have died.

Most females with AIDS-ARC are 20-24 years of age and
most males 25-29.

In 78.3 percent of the reported AIDS-ARC cases, the
disease was sexually transmitted.

The report shows that the transmission of the disease
from mothers to infants increased from 137 cases to the
end of 1991 to 142 cases to the end of January 1992. 205
children suffering from the disease are below school age.

The largest single occupational group represented among
the AIDS cases is that classed as labourers, with 1,219
cases, followed by farmers (550), civil servants (149),
and housewives (54).

VIETNAM

Government Issues Decree on Compulsory AIDS
Testing

BK1801132093 Hong Kong AFP in English 0949 GMT
18 Jan 93

[Text] HANOI, Jan 18 (AFP)—Foreign residents of
Vietnam will face compulsory AIDS testing under a
government decree published Monday that also targets
prostitutes, drug addicts prisoners and homosexuals.

The December 18 decree, published by the semi-official
VIETNAM INVESTMENT REVIEW, is aimed to con-
trol the explosion of aquired immune deficiency syn-
drome (AIDS) that has engulfed nearby countries such as
Thailand. The decree stipulates that carriers of the AIDS
virus will be refused permission to marry, and that a
spouse’s positive test result can be considered grounds
for divorce.

Foreigners who register to live for more than three
months in Vietnam will be tested for HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS.

The decree comes despite warning from international
specialists at a conference here last month that treating
AIDS as a foreign phenomenon could harm efforts to
prevent its inevitable spread inside the country.

Though Vietnam has reported only 79 cases of HIV, health
officials acknowledge that the true number of carriers is
unknown as only 140,000 people have been tested.

Vietnam so far has no facilities to test blood used in
transfusions for HIV, according to Le Dinh Hong, vice
chairman of the national AIDS committee.



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

ALGERIA

Investigation To Check Blood Supply Launched
93WE0094A Algiers EL WATAN in French
8 Nov 92 p6

[Text] “We have never used blood products for hemo-
philiacs from the Merieux Institute or blood from the
French National Institute,” said Professor Benabadji, a
former administrator of the Blood Transfusion Depart-
ment at the Mustapha University Hospital Center.

The French daily newspaper LE MONDE reported that
AIDS-contaminated blood products were exported in
1985 to other European countries and the Maghreb. That
revelation has raised the question: Did ENAPHARM
[National Enterprise for Supplying Pharmaceuticals]
import any of these products?

Neither ENAPHARM nor the health ministry have
given a definitive response to that question. The health
ministry has simply announced that an investigation will
be made at ENAPHARM.

Professor Benabadji noted that his department used
products imported from Austria and Sweden. The only
products imported from the Merieux Institute, he said,
were gamma globulins and albumin, which carry no risk
of contamination.

However, Professor Benabadji was speaking solely for
the Mustapha University Hospital Center. It remains to
be seen whether the Merieux Institute exported its blood
products for hemophiliacs to other university hospital
centers.

The investigation at ENAPHARM appears to be the only
way of obtaining a definitive answer.

Uncertainty Over Safety of Blood Supply

93WE0202B Algiers LE SOIR D’ALGERIE in French
21 Dec 92 p3

[Text] The contaminated blood scandal in France has
drawn a number of reactions, but above all it has
revealed gaps in a defective health system.

The sequence of events finally ended in a resounding
scandal, following which Michel Garretta, the director of
the blood transfusion service in France, was sentenced to
four years in prison without parole.

Certain political personalities whose testimony was
given during the trial are also going to be tried before the
High Court. These involve, among others; Georgina
Dufoix, former minister of health; and Laurent Fabius,
former prime minister; who will appear before the court
at his own request.

It is not our intention to present an analysis of an event,
which pertains more properly to French internal politics.
However, it must be said that the blood transfusion
scandal—and this is not a tasteless pun—makes our
blood boil.

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA a

It is not known how many Algerians had surgical oper-
ations in France between 1980 and 1985. It was during
these six years that the problem of tracking down the
virus causing AIDS was under study.

In France a systematic search was undertaken to deal
with any eventuality, whereas, as far as we in Algeria
were concerned, a wait and see attitude prevailed.

However, a commission was established. It is charged
with preparing a list of sick persons transferred to France
for medical care who may have been contaminated while
receiving blood transfusions. This commission is also
charged with disseminating information. However, it
must be said that, in view of the ridiculous revelations
which have been made and the way things are going,
pointing out inadequacies in what has been done is really
a rather sad act of whimsy.

The cases of Algerians who contracted HIV from blood
transfusions in France were swept under the table with
painful speed whenever they were raised.

We recall that a media uproar followed involving all
kinds of horrors that took place since the beginning of
this affair.

A well-known lawyer even promised to defend the inter-
ests of Algerians who came down with AIDS.

Well-known personalities, apparently moved much more
by their political ambitions than by humanitarian con-
siderations, have taken public positions on this question.

Now it is a silence of death that holds our attention.

The commission referred to above still exists. However,
like other organizations of its kind, it has adopted a low
profile (we would be tempted to say that it is almost
invisible), and the principal figures in it cannot be
contacted,

And in this specific case it would apparently seem that
they are counting a great deal on the census to be carried
out in French hospitals to determine the identities of the
Algerians who came down with AIDS.

At a time when the question is being raised in a deter-
mined way, we seem proudly to be ignoring the fact that
it is sick Algerians who are involved. In fact, this matter
concerns the entire credibility of the Algerian Govern-
ment toward its citizens and foreign medical groups.

However, our Tunisian neighbors, who are in the same
position, have not hesitated to make their position clear,
and with the greatest firmness. They have decided to
defend the rights of Tunisians whose blood was contam-
inated during surgery which they underwent in France.

Our silence threatens to cost us a great deal.

In France

Some 250 hemophiliacs have died as a result of AIDS.
About 120 of them were infected through blood transfu-
sions.



IPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Carec Expects 1,000 New AIDS Cases by Year
me

FL1811230292 Bridgetown CANA in English 2202
GMT 18 Nov 92

[Text] Port of Spain, Trinidad, Nov 18, CANA—The
Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (Carec) expects 1,000
new AIDS cases in the region by the end of the year, an
official said.

“Since we have been monitoring AIDS cases in the
Caribbean, there has been an increasing trend. In fact,
the first case was reported in 1982 and since then we
have over 3,000 cases reported to us at the end of 1991,”
said Dr. John Farley, head of the special programme on
sexually transmitted diseases at the Port-of-Spain based
Carec.

“As well, we have been having an increase in the number
of cases reported and in fact by the end of this year, we
will have at least 1,000 new cases reported through Carec
member countries.”

Dr. Farley told CANA previously gay males were the
ones infected with AIDS, but it was now a one-to-one
ratio of male to female. As a result, there has been an
increase in the number of children infected with the fatal
virus,

“This is a disturbing trend. I think we have to recognise
that the disease is sexually transmitted mainly in the
Caribbean and can be transmitted to mother to child. So,
therefore in terms of preventing, we have to aim at
everyone who has unprotected sexual activity with more
than one partner or more than a steady partner and that’s
the only way we’re going to get around the issue.”

Dr. Farley said care and clinical management of persons
with AIDS were emerging as two of the most critical
issues confronting health authorities and governments in
the Caribbean. To respond to this, Carec is holding a
workshop expected to end on Thursday to arrive at a
consensus on appropriate and cost-effective mechanisms
for the care and management of AIDS patients in the
Caribbean.

CUBA

Health Minister Terry Speaks on AIDS

FL2101154293 Havana Cuba Vision Network in
Spanish 0230 GMT 20 Jan 93

{Editorial Report] Havana Cuba Vision Network in
Spanish at 0230 GMT on 20 Jan carries its “Open
Agenda” program on the accomplishments and goals of
the Cuban program against AIDS. Program host [uni-
dentified] states that the goal of this program is to dispel
the people’s worries concerning AIDS.

The host asks guest Hector Terry Molinet, the vice
minister for hygiene and epidemiology of the Public
Health Ministry, to explain the role of Cuba’s policies—
routine blood tests and interning of HIV-positive

LATIN AMERICA 7

patients—in the fight against AIDS; policies which have
provoked international criticism and accusations of
human rights violations.

Terry says that the Cuban program is fundamentally
based on the same strategy used against all sexually
transmitted diseases and that the tests are essential for
epidemiology control purposes. Terry adds that, up to
last week, 886 HIV-positive individuals had been iden-
tified, thanks to the over 13,430,000 million tests con-
ducted since the beginning of the program in April 1986.

Terry adds that the Cuban average life expectancy for
patients who rigorously follow treatment is 12 years,
similar to the average worldwide.

The hosts relay a viewer’s question on what is the most
successful medical treatment. Terry answers that the
most used medicine is azidothymidine [ZDU, formerly
AZT], which has yielded the best results in avoiding the
onset of clinical symptoms by stopping the virus from
multiplying, or in patients with AIDS, by prolonging life
expectancy. He goes on to say that other products have
been developed: DDI, DDC, and Interferon; and work is
being conducted internationally on 14 vaccines. In
response to another viewer’s question, Terry states that
many countries, including Cuba, are experimenting with
herbal medicine.

The host asks Terry how many people have died of AIDS
in Cuba. He answers that 94 individuals have died of
AIDS and 11 HIV-positive individuals have died of
other causes.

Terry goes on to give statistics: 80 percent of HIV-
positive females and 65 percent of HIV-positive males
are under 30 years of age; of the 886 HIV-positive
individuals, 257 or 28.8 percent are females; and 629 or
71.2 percent are males. The number of homosexuals has
surpassed the number of heterosexuals despite the
increase in heterosexual cases during 1992. There are
112 homosexual or bisexual patients.

The host plays a video interview with HIV-positive
patients who stress the importance of information,
monogamous behavior, and use of condoms in order to
avoid infection.

Terry is asked of the dangers tourism represents with
respect to AIDS. He says that like anywhere else, and like
any other sexually transmitted disease, it is all related to
knowledge of your partner’s behavior and that for this
reason, we have to boost the education of the personnel
involved in this field.

The host asks if mosquitoes or lice can transmit the HIV
virus. Terry states that laboratory tests have not shown
that the virus can be transmitted in this manner.

Terry states that they have worked very hard during the
last ten years, but that there is no end in sight. The
Cuban program has had positive results as a contain-
ment wall to avoid the massive and exponential spread
of this disease. One million dollars a year is used in the
AIDS program. Every AIDS patient costs 14,000 pesos



30 CENTRAL EURASIA

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers shall resolve the
issue of treatment and health improvement services for
workers of the National AIDS Committee.

4. The chairman of the National AIDS Committee and
representatives of the President of Ukraine in the oblasts
and in the cities of Kiev and Sevastopol shall establish
regional and local AIDS committees in compliance with
the Ukrainian law “On AIDS Prevention and Social
Protection of the Population.”

5. Together with the representative of the President of
Ukraine in the city of Kiev, the chairman of the National
AIDS Committee shall submit proposals to the admin-
istration of the President of Ukraine regarding establish-
ment of a National AIDS Institute in the city of Kiev,
and building space for the administration of the
National Committee and this institute.

[Signed] President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk
Kiev, 16 September 1992

Ukrainian Statute on National AIDS Committee

93WE0052B Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY in Russian 23
Sep 92 p 6

{Statute on the National AIDS Committee Under the
President of Ukraine]

{Text] 1. The National AIDS Committee Under the
President of Ukraine (hereinafter—the National Com-
mittee) is a special body of state executive government,
formed in compliance with the Ukrainian law “On AIDS
Prevention and Social Protection of the Population.”

2. The National Committee is subordinated and answer-
able to the President of Ukraine.

The Constitution of Ukraine, the Ukrainian law “On
AIDS Prevention and Social Protection of the Popula-
tion” and other Ukrainian legislative acts are the guide-
lines for activities of the National Committee.

3. The principal objectives of the National Committee
are:

—-providing state-level management in the area of AIDS
control;

—implementing state policy in the area of AIDS control;

—-providing for interdepartmental coordination on
AIDS control measures;

—shaping public opinion regarding state policy in the
area of AIDS control.

4. In accordance with the objectives set down for it, the
National Committee:

—drafts intersector AIDS control programs and super-
vises their fulfillment;

—monitors implementation of AIDS control measures
by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, its bodies and
institutions locally, and all other state bodies, as well
as enterprises, institutions and organizations, regard-
less of their forms of ownership;

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

—coordinates the work of sector ministries and other
central bodies of state executive government in mat-
ters of AIDS prevention, diagnosis and treatment;

—analyzes epidemiological monitoring of the incidence
of AIDS in Ukraine, and organizes prompt reaction to
change in the epidemic situation;

—corganizes the conduct of fundamental and applied
scientific research on the problems of surmounting
human immunodeficiency virus and controlling
AIDS;

—provides for expert examination of scientific research
in this field, and implements measures to introduce it
into the practice of treating HIV carriers and AIDS
patients;

—organizes Ukraine’s collaboration with the World
Health Organization and other international organiza-
tions; collaborates with scientific and therapeutic
institutions of foreign states in regard to AIDS;

—represents the interests of Ukraine abroad in AIDS
control problems;

—participates in the writing and signing of international
agreements of Ukraine in AIDS control matters;

—encourages participation of the mass media in imple-
menting AIDS control programs;

—keeps the President of Ukraine, the government, other
bodies of state executive government, bodies of local
and regional self-management and the population
regularly informed on the status of AIDS morbidity
and progress in controlling this disease;

—participates in the writing of draft normative acts on
problems of AIDS control;

—finances the expenses of AIDS control measures;

—draws up recommendations for regional and local
AIDS committees.

5. The National Committee has the right:

—to obtain, from bodies of state executive power, infor-
mation necessary for fulfillment of the objectives
foreseen by this Statute;

—to enlist the aid of scientific research institutions,
institutions of higher education, other institutions and
the leading scientists and highly qualified specialists in
solving problems within the competency of the
National Committee;

—to convene meetings, conferences and symposiums on
problems within its competency.

6. In the fulfillment of the objectives set down for it, the
National Committee coordinates with central bodies of
state executive government of Ukraine, the Crimean
Republic, local state administrations, bodies of local and
regional self-management, and the corresponding bodies
of foreign states.



12 EAST ASIA

general public. That was done to ensure that the prosti-
tutes who attended would trust the project officials of the
Duang Prathip Foundation. The topics discussed at the
seminar included knowledge about the spread of AIDS
and the importance of using condoms. Besides this, the
prostitutes were all given blood tests in order to check on
the spread of this disease.

The blood tests showed that the incidence of AIDS was
highest in prostitutes in the 20-24 year old age group,
with 35 percent of those in this age group having the
virus. This was followed by those in the 15-19 year old
age group, with 23 percent having the virus, and those in
the 25-29 year-old age group, with 13 percent having the
virus. The AIDS virus was not found in any of the
prostitutes over the age of 29.

So that this seminar could have the greatest impact
possible, project officials selected a number of the pros-
titutes to serve as representatives in disseminating infor-
mation about AIDS to other prostitutes. By using this
method, project officials hoped that prostitutes would
cooperate more as compared with having project offi-
cials or state officials disseminate information. How-
ever, the efforts by project officials have not achieved the
results expected. This is because prostitutes frequently
change work places, and those prostitutes selected to
disseminate information on AIDS have not been sup-
ported by those who look after prostitutes so that other
prostitutes will trust them. Moreover, those who look
after Prostitutes have not implemented resolute mea-
sures requiring prostitutes to ensure that their customers
use condoms. That is because they are afraid of losing
money. Besides this, many prostitutes still mistakenly
think that those who contract AIDS can be cured of this
disease and that healthy-looking men do not have the
AIDS virus.

Concerning this, there are several interesting facts con-
cerning the knowledge and understanding of prostitutes
about AIDS. Of the 72 prostitutes in the sample, 95
percent said that they knew that having sexual inter-
course without a condom could result in their con-
tracting AIDS. But 68 percent still mistakenly think that
mosquitoes can transmit the AIDS virus.

As for trying to get customers to use condoms, 85 percent
of the 72 prostitutes in the sample said that they try to
get customers who are unwilling to use condoms to start
using condoms. But only 15 percent said that they are
successful in getting such customers to use a condom. If
a customer is unwilling to use a condom, the prostitutes
must give in to the wishes of the customer, because they
need the money. [passage omitted]

Thai Red Cross Urged To Screen Blood for New
‘Deadly’ Virus

BK2411022792 Bangkok THE NATION in English
24 Nov 92 p B7

[Excerpt] A medical professor and member of the Thai
Red Cross’s division of science said he has found evi-
dence on the existence in Thailand of a new and deadly

IJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

virus which can be transmitted through sexual inter-
course and blood transfusion like the HIV virus.

In a special interview with The Nation, Prof. Dr.
Thirawat Hemachutha, who is also the director of
Bangkok Hospital’s Brain Centre, said a study by his
medical team has discovered the first case of a type of
human retro virus called HTLV-I in Thailand. The virus,
he said was believed to be associated with a type of
leukemia and is suspected also to be the cause of partial
paralysis in humans.

A study published in the Febuary issue of THE TRANS-
ACTIONS OF THE ROYAL TROPICAL MEDICINE
AND HYGIENE indicated that the team found the virus
in blood samples taken from women working in three
message parlours in Thailand. All three parlours are
owned by the same person.

“We in the medical circle believe that this virus affects
the T- cell count in adults and is also the cause of
leukemia. The same virus could lead to spastic para-
paresis or permanent paralysis of the lower part of the
body. Many studies have shown that this virus is found
abundantly in the blood, spinal cord and brain of 90
percent of patients, most of whom are from Japan and
the Caribbean who eventually die from either of both
diseases,” he said.

Dr. Thirawat said the HTLV-I virus, a genetic cousin of
the AIDS- causing HIV virus, can be transmitted to
another person through blood transfusion or sexual
intercourse. However, the affected person might not
even exhibit any symptoms of the disease for decades.

“Like AIDS there is presently no cure for this virus.
Fortunately, it has not yet spread as rapidly as the HIV
virus,” he emphasized.

He suspects the virus to have been transmitted by
Japanese males who are part of sex tour groups which
frequent massage parlours where some of the women
examined are employed.

Japan, he noted, has the largest number of cases for both
adult T-cell leukemia and spastic paraparesis in Asia.
Surveys conducted in Japan revealed almost all patients
who have any of the two diseases have the virus as well.

Dr. Thirawat said he has already notified the Thai Red
Cross of his findings, although he was uncertain as to
what their reaction will be.

Informed sources, however, said that the Thai Red Cross
does not have any plan of setting up an HLTV-I virus
screening programme on donated blood, as it has done
with the HIV virus, due to budgetary constraints.

“The Thai Red Cross believes that the problem is not yet
serious enough to warrant the allocation of a huge
amount of moncy to screen blood donations for this new
virus,” the same sources said.

But Dr. Thirawat said he would like the Thai Red Cross
to immediately start a screening programme for the new


4 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

ZIMBABWE

AIDS Awareness Not Altering Behavior
93WE0100B Harare THE SUNDAY MAIL in English
18 Oct 92 p7

[Text] WHILE the number of diagnosed AIDS cases
have topped the 14,000 mark since 1987, the public
seems to have caught on to the fact that the AIDS threat
is for real and many are responding to awareness cam-
paigns positively.

A recent survey conducted showed that most people are
not aware of the disease although disappointingly only a
few have responded to calls for behavioural changes.
Despite being aware of the scourge, most people have
failed to refrain from having more than one partner.

Dr. Everisto Marowa, the national co-ordinator of the
National AIDS Control Programme attributed the con-
sciousness to the intensified media coverage on the AIDS
subject ever since the epidemic was first discovered. Dr.
Marowa said in an interview recently that apart from media
(print and electronic), people have become aware of the
prevalence of the disease through direct communication with
health workers, educational institutions and even from
knowing or seeing a person suffering from the disease. Dr.
Marowa said that the latter had become more common as the
scourge took its toll.

Despite this awareness, there appeared to be no significant
behaviour changes on the national scale. Dr. Marowa, how-
ever, conceded that there were cases of attitude changes in
individuals and this could be evidenced through the
increased use of condoms in the country.

“There is an increase in condom acceptance. People have
also reduced the number of their partners. Some even have
one partner. Whether these changes have made an impact on
the overall transmission of the disease is another question.
We would like to see changes in STD statistics and a
reduction of new HIV cases, he said.

Mrs. Helen Nyamande of the AIDS Counselling Trust
also said there was indeed a greater awareness of the
disease among people than was the case long back. She
said that some three years back most people who used to
question the existence of the disease (calling it Runyoka)
were now genuinely concerned about the prevalence of
the epidemic. They were concerned with the health of
their relations, friends and acquaintances.

Mrs. Nyamande, however, said that there was also a change
in people’s behaviour. People were increasingly asking ques-
tions on how the disease is contracted and on how to avoid
the disease. People from all walks of life were also increas-
ingly volunteering to help in the AIDS cause.

“People are moving away from unsafe behaviour
towards safer behaviour. They are also showing changes
in behaviour towards people already affected by the
disease,” she said.

Meanwhile, in a survey conducted in the streets of
Harare, people interviewed showed an awareness of the

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

disease and recognised a sample of a condom they were
shown. They also showed a knowledge of the role that the
condom played in preventing HIV infections.

“Tam aware of the disease and that it is fatal. What with
all the reports in the Press and television, who would not
be aware? Although we know that the condom can
prevent the disease, our husbands do not want to use
them,” said Amai Lydia Mabikwa of Kuwadzana,
adding that she regularly collected condoms at hospitals
but only her sons made use of them.

Statistics made available by the NACP show that 14,023
cases of AIDS have been diagnosed in the country since
1987. Males in the 20-39 age group have been more
affected by the scourge. 4,318 male cases have been
diagnosed, compared to 3,544 female cases since 1987.

An alarming revelation of the statistics is the fact that
children below the age of five are also being diagnosed as
having the disease. Some 2,403 cases of AIDS have been
diagnosed in this age group since 1987.

Since most people being diagnosed with the disease
today got infected ten years ago, most organisations
predicted that the numbers of those infected was not
likely to decrease in the near future.

Government Releases ‘Alarming’ AIDS Statistics

MB2911104592 Johannesburg SUNDAY TIMES
in English 29 Nov 92 p 4X

[Article by SUNDAY TIMES reporter, Harare: “Alarm
as Zimbabwe’s AIDS crisis deepens”]

[Text] Despite massive AIDS awareness campaigns in
Zimbabwe, more and more new cases are being diag-
nosed in the country.

Alarming statistics were released ahead of and during the
HIV/AIDS awareness week which began on Monday.

The trend of fullblown AIDS cases recorded since the
first case was identified in 1985 is: 1987—119 cases,
1988—320, 1989—1,632, 1990—5,994, 1991—10,551
and by September 1992 the figure had risen to 16,882.

However, National AIDS Control Programme coordi-
nator Everisto Marowa said in a recent report that this
figure was an underestimate and that there could be as
many as 40,000 AIDS cases.

National AIDS Council chairman Dr. Macleod Chitiyo
believes that for every one AIDS case reported, five others go
unreported. Some of these cases, it is believed, do not go to
hospital, but seek treatment from traditional healers.

The number of people infected with the HIV virus that
causes AIDS rose from 54,000 in 1990 to 676,000 this



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Pakistan. The National Institute of Health, Islamabad
has initiated a National AIDS Programme to collect and
further test HIV sero-positive cases with Western Blot
Technique—a final confirmatory test for HIV infection.
NIH has reported 24 CASES OF CLINICAL AIDS. Of
these 52 percent are Pakistanis and 48 percent for-
eigners. Table II shows yearly the distribution of HIV
sero-positive and AIDS cases in Pakistan.

Table II
Year HIV Sero-Positive AIDS cases
1986 04 00
1987 12 03
1988 08 03
1989 12 07
1990 30 01
1991 34 04
1992 38 06
Total 138 24

The province-wise distribution of HIV sero-positive cases is Punjab
26%, NWFP 55%, Sindh 34%, Balochistan 0% and Federal Capital
Area 15%.

Karachi, the largest metropolitan city, with a population
of over 8 million people, is most vulnerable. A number of
private and government laboratories have screened var-
ious populations for HIV sero-positive individuals.

Table III. HIV Sero-Positivity in Various Laboratories in

Karachi

‘Laboratory No. of ‘%Positive Patients Individuals

blood

donors
AKUH 32,000 0.003% 15,482 0.23%
Lab.
Sindh Lab. 820 0.03% 425 2.3%
JPMC 15,00[as 1.59% 2,050 1.6%
Lab. printed]
Karachi 1,655 0.18%
Lab.
Total% 468" 7.0% 1.3% 2.0%
* Donors +
patients

Researchers at JPMC AIDS Laboratories have screened
various high and low risk populations for HIV antibody.
Positive cases have been confirmed by National Institute
of Health. Tables IV and V [not reproduced] give posi-
tivity rates in populations of low risk and high risk
individuals.

The scene in Pakistan is clear—AIDS is here! Since
unfortunately no reasonable hope exists for a cure of the

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 21

disease or vaccine or therapy, Education that will change
behaviour remains the most important strategy for com-
bating this disease.

In the context of Pakistan the challenge is clear. We must
put in place effective, affordable, culturally and reli-
giously sensitive preventive programmes as a matter of
urgency. The Annual Conference of Pakistan Associa-
tion of Pathologists from December 12-14, 1992 pro-
vides a forum for this discussion.

[Passage omitted]
SRI LANKA

Editorial Stresses Dangers From AIDS
93WE0224A Colombo DAILY NEWS in English 2 Dec
92 p6

[Article: “AIDS and Us”]

[Excerpt] Some of the comfortable assumptions that
many of us have about AIDS have been dispelled by Dr.
G. N. Jayakuru, the director of the government’s
AIDS—STD (sexually transmitted diseases) Programme.
In an article he wrote for this page yesterday, he said that
as much as 35 percent of AIDS transmissions in this
country is indigenous—that is from Lankan to Lankan.
Also, the predominant mode of such transmission is by
sex between men and women.

Far too many Lankas have grown complacent in the
belief that AIDS is a disease brought here by foreign gays
who come here for sex with our beach boys. That
element may not have been entirely absent in the initial
introduction of the disease, but we are now very far away
from September 1986 when the first case was recorded
here. Many of us also believed that heterosexuals were
not at risk.

Not so, Dr. Jayakuru has said. He said in his article that
homosexual transmissions (that is sex between men) and
bi-sexual transmission by men who have'sex with men as
well as women had contributed substantially to the
initial presence of AIDS here. But it has now been clearly
established that as far as the future goes, sex between
men and women will be the predominant mode of
transmission.

This is a message that must be sounded loud and clear
because, as we said at the beginning, too many Lankans
have made too many comfortable assumptions; and,
these being wrong, expert correction is very much in
order. World AIDS Day, which fell yesterday, was an
occasion for a great deal of publicity on the problem and
we are glad that the media here have joined in the public
education effort undertaken by both the government and
NGO sectors.

We are indeed fortunate that ours is a literate population
and both radio and television, along with the print
medium, have a very wide reach in Sri Lanka. The health
education authorities have been working hard in getting
the message across and hopefully the dangers of AIDS
have been adequately communicated to those who may



24 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

He said with regard to frequent travel of Iranian
nationals abroad, they must be educated on ways of
protecting themselves from the killer disease.

AIDS virus destroys the immune systems of the infected
people, leaving them susceptible to a wide range of
diseases.

He said the most important problem existing in this
regard in Iran is that the Iranian physicians are not much
familiar with the clinical symptoms of AIDS and people
know little about how the virus is transmitted and
spread.

“The best way to fight the disease is to provide people
with necessary education in this respect,” he said.

Najafi put the number of people diagnosed as carrying
HIV or having AIDS until Oct. 22 this year at 211. He
said the first AIDS victims in Iran was identified in
1987.

The ratio of AIDS victims to population in Iran is 3.6 in
every one million while the figure is 810 in the United
Arab Emirates, 310 in Bahrain, 172 in Qatar and 88 in
Kuwait.

Foreign Blood Products Main Cause of AIDS
93AS0449W Tehran ABRAR in Persian 20 Dec 92 p 11

{Interview with Dr. Najafi, head of the Health Center of
the City of Yazd; interviewer, date and place not given]

{Text] Among the recipients of blood products from
foreign countries are 78 persons afflicted with the AIDS
virus.

Dr. Najafi, the head of the Health Center of the City of
Yazd, said in an interview: The remaining 17 percent
have been infected through sexual contact, 2 percent
from mother to child, 2 percent in miscellaneous ways,
and 1 percent are addicts who contracted the virus
through injection.

He added: Most of the AIDS patients have contracted
the disease through blood products and through sexual
contact in the northern and southern provinces, respec-
tively.

Dr. Najafi said: Given the present trend, traveling to
other countries will necessitate the awareness of the
passengers, and any sort of negligence shall have tragic
consequences.

He mentioned the most important problem in this area
to be lack of precise awareness of physicians of the AIDS
symptoms and also lack of awareness of the people about
the ways this deadly disease is transmitted and spread.
He said: The best way to fight the spread of AIDS is to
inform the people and give the necessary training in this
area.

He said: Today, this disease has become a social and
health problem for various countries.

He announced the number of people with the AIDS virus
in Iran as 211 by 1 Aban (23 Oct 1992] of this year and

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

said: In 1366 [21 Mar 1987-20 Mar 1988], the first AIDS
patient was identified in Iran, and every year the number
of these patients increases.

He added: The number of persons infected with the
AIDS virus in Iran is 3.6 persons for every | million
people. This figure in the Persian Gulf countries,
including the United Arab Emirates, is 816 persons; in
Bahrain, 310 persons; in Qatar, 172 persons; and in
Kuwait, 88 persons per 1 million people.

Ads To Warn Public Against Threat of AIDS
93AS0443Z London KEYHAN in Persian 14 Jan 93 p 5

[Text] The Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical
Education invited filmmakers and film script writers to
cooperate with that Ministry to fight AIDS. The
spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and
Medical Education said: We intend, with the coopera-
tion of the filmmakers, to send health messages to the
people through television and cinema to prevent AIDS.
He added: With the cooperation of professional artists,
we are making several short films to be shown on
television and in cinemas. Also, it has been decided to
provide aid for filmmakers who include messages about
AIDS and our intended slogans in their films. One of the
slogans that will be heard and seen on Iranian radio and
television and in cinemas is: AIDS has no cure and no
vaccine and is very easy to prevent.

Purchase of AIDS-Contaminated Blood Revealed

93AS0448Z London KEYHAN in Persian 21 Jan 93 pp
1,11

[Text] In Tehran it was announced that another AIDS
patient has died. This is the second time that a patient
infected with AIDS has died. However, physicians who
did not want their names revealed told KEYHAN that
infections with the devastating AIDS disease goes back
to the years 1985-1986 when the Iran-Iraq war was
constantly claiming victims and wounded personnel who
were operated on became infected through the transfu-
sion of contaminated blood, and many of them died in
the nation’s hospitals.

In the midst of this, it has recently been disclosed that
Iran also, along with Greece, Marrakech, Tunisia, and
several other countries, is among the countries that have
purchased contaminated blood from France.

Physicians and experts consider the fight against the
spread of AIDS, which has become alarmingly wide-
spread in Iran, to be “extremely difficult” for technical,
religious, psychological, and social reasons, and they
believe that the number of AIDS victims in the country
is much higher than what officials have announced.

After the official announcement that an Iranian infected
with AIDS had died in Mashhad, it is now reported that
another patient has died, this time in Rasht. In the
scandal of the sale of blood contaminated with the AIDS
virus, which is continuing now in France, Iran was not
on the list of countries who have received contaminated
blood from the French National Blood Transfusion



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

ANGOLA

AIDS Researcher Discusses Trend in Country

93WE0077A Luanda JORNAL DE ANGOLA in
Portuguese 14 Oct 92 p9

[Text] The negative effects on the development and
organization of the health service resulting primarily
from the war and certain factors that enhanced the
spread of AIDS, such as the exodus of rural people and
their settlement in urban areas, and their break with the
social and cultural values and codes of conduct that are
respected by closed societies in rural areas, were the
issues that dominated JORNAL DE ANGOLA’s inter-
view with Dr. Teresa Cohen.

Dr. Cohen, a professor at Agostinho Neto University,
has been persistently and meticulously conducting
research on the disease since 1987. Recently she repre-
sented Angola at the 38th International Pharmacy Con-
gress held in Lisbon, Portugal, where she participated in
a symposium on AIDS.

Also participating in that meeting were leading interna-
tional experts, such as Portuguese Professor Odete San-
tos, who was part of the team that identified the second
AIDS virus, and Elizabeth Arevalo, a Brazilian.

Dr. Cohen said that her work at the symposium focussed
on aspects of “sexual behavior in Africa,” which com-
pared Angolan data with data resulting from research
performed in seven (7) [as published] countries, i.e.,
Zaire, Tanzania, Zambia, Senegal, Uganda, and
Cameroon.

“By comparing data, we were able to conclude that with
the modernization of customs, one aspect of traditional
family life that had changed the most was the relation-
ship between the married couple,” Teresa Cohen said.

She went on to say that today, the traditional marriage
with payment of a dowry for the wife’s virginity, sexual
abstinence after childbirth, and having sexual relations
with only one spouse, had virtually disappeared, espe-
cially in urban areas.

These aspects of traditional life have been replaced by
free unions, the professor said, in which sexual relations
with various partners are permitted.

Teresa Cohen also pointed out that it is the countries
located in sub-Saharan Africa where the highest rates of
infection from HIV-1 and HIV-2 have been found and
where these viruses have been associated the most fre-
quently.

According to Teresa Cohen, by the year 2000, this part of
Africa is expected to have a total of 14 million adults
infected by HIV and over 5 million cases of AIDS. “This
means that over 4 million children in Africa will be born
infected by HIV by the year 2000,” she indicated.

Today, African governments have agreed that Africa has
been severely affected by the AIDS epidemic, because it

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1

has over half of the 10 to 12 million men, women, and
children who have contracted the infection throughout
the world.

In the opinion of this researcher, even though Angola
only has about 450 AIDS cases, it cannot ignore the fact
that this figure is below the actual numbers, because
nobody knows the real magnitude of the disease
throughout the country.

“We can therefore argue that the AIDS epidemic is
directly linked to socio-economic and political factors,”
she stressed, and added that “moreover, both are also
linked to the entire development of the African conti-
nent.”

Teresa Cohen said that “social, economic, and political
factors are the primary causes of the spread of the
infection in Angola, including the aberrant (if we can use
that term) sexual behavior of the people.”

According to surveys conducted in Angola, the people
know that AIDS exists, but they do not have a clear
understanding of the consequences of the disease and of
what it represents in the life of the family. “Education is
therefore essential.”

At the final meeting of the scientific symposium that was
part of the 38th Congress of the International Federation
of Pharmacy Students, organized by the Association of
Pharmacy Students of the University of Lisbon, Dr.
Cohen suggested that any serious initiative aimed at
controlling the spread of AIDS should not only advocate
“protected sex,” but also indicate alternative measures
that could be implemented in the communities, and
particularly affecting women, such as providing employ-
ment to combat prostitution, and improvements in med-
ical care and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases,
and most importantly creating jobs in rural areas to stem
the exodus to the cities. It is important to note that
Teresa Cohen is a member of the international executive
committee of SWAA, the Association of Women
Fighting AIDS in Africa.

BOTSWANA

Estimates Indicate 60,000 Infected With HIV
Virus

MB2201193193 Gaborone Radio Botswana Network in
English 1610 GMT 22 Jan 93

[Text] The Ministry of Health estimates indicate that
60,000 people are infected with the HIV virus in
Botswana. It says 20,000 to 40,000 orphans may be left
without support by the year 2000 as a result of the
impact of the AIDS epidemic.

In its AIDS update report the ministry says this year it
has allocated close to 5.5 million pula for a [word
indistinct] known as the reprogramming document. It
says 50 percent of the budget goes to the prevention of
sexually transmitted infections, and the other half is for
management, blood transfusion, laboratory services,
clinical management, epidemiology, and research. The



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993 5 AIDS

FINLAND
Paper on Debate to Criminalize Spreading HIV [Helsinki HELSINGIN SANOMAT, I Oct 92] .... 40
FRANCE

Judiciary Panel Views Limitation in Tainted Blood Scandal /Paris AFP, 22 Jan 93] ..... 41
GERMANY
Health Minister Reports 60,000 Infected With AIDS
[Berlin NEUES DEUTSCHLAND, 8 Feb 93] .... 42
SWEDEN
Doctors: Deport Aliens Who Spread HIV [Stockholm SVENSKA DAGBLADET, 28 Oct 92] ......... 42

UNITED KINGDOM

Changes in Fight Against AIDS Announced

[David Fletcher; London THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 17 Dec 92]
TB Patients Given Secret AIDS Tests

[Victoria Macdonald; London THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 27 Dec 92] ....

INTERNATIONAL

Minsk AIDS Conference [Anton Gubankov; St. Petersburg NEVSKOYE VREMYA, 22 Jul 92] sss 44
Report on International AIDS Conference

[Anton Gubankov; St. Petersburg NEVSKOYE VREMYA, 11 Aug 92] ....
Tunisia to Seek Compensation for Transfusion Victims

[Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, 1 Dec 92]



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

virus which he said might be transmitted to patients who
receive blood from a blood bank.

“Both the Japanese and the US Red Cross have already
started a screening programme for this virus. I would like
the Thai Red Cross to do the same since there is a very
high possibility that some customers of massage par-
lours, who have already caught the virus, might donate
blood to blood banks. With no screening, there is no way
for us to know how safe donated blood is,” he stressed.
[passaged omitted on other medical developments]

Chiang Mai Hospital Treating AIDS-Infected
Babies

BK2601033193 Bangkok THE NATION in English
26 Jan 93 p A2

[Text] A Major hospital in Chiang Mai is treating 92
babies infected with the AIDS virus, more than 50 of
whom have been abandoned by their mothers, an AIDS
specialist in the northern province said yesterday.

In a bid to curb the increasing number of abandoned
infants, the management of Maharat Nakhon Chiang
Mai Hospital has instructed doctors and nurses not to
inform the mothers of infected babies of their children’s
infection, the specialist said.

“Medical personnel have been asked to avoid telling the
mothers that their babies are infected,” said the source
who asked not to be named. “If they are confronted with
curious mothers, or if the babies show some symptoms,
they are advised to say that the infants were infected
with some other disease.”

The specialist said a total of 92 babies are being treated
at the hospital after they were born with the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes the deadly
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

AIDS destroys the body’s immune system, making the
victim fatally vulnerable to opportunistic infections. But
the HIV can stay dormant in the body for years before
symptoms appear.

The source said the growing number of HIV-infected
babies was causing the hospital a manpower problem. He
said that, in an effort to help, many infected mothers had
formed a group to assist each other and help the hospital
take care of the abandoned children.

The specialist, accusing the government of returning to
its former news black-out policy on AIDS, estimated that
the real number of HIV carriers— those who have not
yet shown symptoms—could be between 900,000 and
1,500,000.

He noted that the Public Health Ministry had stopped
publicizing the number of detected AIDS carriers.

“T think this has something to do with tourism,” he said.

He urged the government to pay attention to the
increasing number of infected babies, “although they
will find it hard to survive”.

EAST ASIA 13

AIDS is also spreading among teenagers in Chiang Mai,
especially those who come from other provinces to study
here, he said.

“The students from other provinces are free to do
anything—sex, drugs and even ‘freelance’ prostitution,”
he said.

Medical Official Views AIDS Problem; Provides
Statistics

BK2601022593 Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English
26 Jan 93 p 6

[Text] The Public Health Ministry yesterday confirmed
there were no vaccines approved by the World Health
Organisation to contain AIDS.

Dr. Praphan Phanuphak of the Thai Red Cross Society
said recently AIDS vaccines tested in some countries had
proven successful and should be used in Thailand, but
Public Health Minister Buntham Khaewatthana said
yesterday there was no suitable vaccine yet.

Dr. Praphan said on television on January 5 the ministry
was slow to decide on the use of AIDS vaccines.

AIDS victims interviewed on the same programme said
they did not mind being used to test the vaccines as there
was the chance they would die from the disease anyway.

Mr. Buntham said WHO reports there are now 12
candidate vaccines, but they are still in the early phases
of their trials.

Communicable Diseases Department director-general
Phrayun Khunason said the ministry was concerned
about the people and could not permit the use of any
vaccine which had not been scientifically validated and
approved by WHO.

Dr. Phrayun said even willing people could not be used
to test the vaccines because the medicines were not
registered with the Food and Drug Administration.

It is also not sure whether they have any side effects.

“We can’t be sure vaccines which were not dangerous in
other countries will have the same reaction on Thai
people,” he said.

Dr. Phrayun said people should not lose hope and be
willing to try out just any medicine, as this could hasten
their death.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr.
Chamrun Mikhanon warned people against being taken
advantage of by others who overstated the therapeutic
effects of vaccines for their own benefit.

The first reference centre for AIDS will soon be opened
at Sirirat Hospital.

The centre will produce vaccines once they have been
developed, he said.

The ministry’s Epidemology Division put the number of
AIDS victims in Thailand at the end of last year at 1,251
and the number of HIV infected at 1,588.



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

SOUTH AFRICA

Health Department To Make AIDS, Tuberculosis
Priorities

MB0202162993 Johannesburg SAPA in English 1538
GMT 2 Feb 93

[Text] Cape Town Feb 2 SAPA—Tuberculosis and AIDS
would be major priorities of the Department of National
Health in 1993/94, the minister, Dr. Rina Venter,
announced on Tuesday [2 February]. The AIDS model-
ling group had projected that by the year 2010 one in five
people would be infected with the HIV virus if there was
no intervention, she said at a media briefing in Cape
Town. The best scenario projected by the group was that,
with education programmes, 40 percent partner reduc-
tion and active condom promotion programmes, one in
12 persons would be HIV positive.

As of January, 47,764 HIV positive cases had been
reported, and by October last year 1,517 had developed
full blown AIDS. The national budget for direct AIDS
intervention for 1992/93 amounted to more than
R[rand]37 million.

Dr. Venter said TB also remained one of the major
health problems, and its prevalence would increase as
HIV infection increased. The number of notified cases of
TB had doubled from 44,781 in 1972 to 73,906 in 1991.
To combat the disease, the TB advisory group has
developed a control programme for which the depart-
ment was making additional funds available in the
1993/94 financial year.

SWAZILAND

Nine AIDS Deaths last Quarter of 1992

MB1001174493H Mbabane Swazi Television in English
1830 GMT 4 Jan 93

[Editorial Report]—The director of health services
reports that nine people died of AIDS during the last
quarter of 1992. A statement from the director said the
total number of AIDS cases reported “during the last
quarter of 1992 is 17, and nine of them are already dead.
Two of these are children between the ages of zero to
four years. The rest of the cases are between 15 and 59
years of age.” The statement says during these difficult
economic circumstances locally and internationally, the
costs involved in managing an AIDS patient should be
absorbed. The number of AIDS cases “as of December
1992 from 1987 is 248, and of these 97 people have died
from the disease.”

UGANDA

Over 20,000 Registered AIDS Cases
93WE0193A Alma-Ata KAZAKHSTANSKAYA
PRAVDA in Russian 29 Aug 92 p 5

[Article: “AIDS Breaks Records”]

[Text] More than 2,000 Uganda soldiers die daily from
the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 3

According to a statement by the country’s president,
Yoweri Museveni, this number significantly exceeds the
losses of the National Resistance Army in 5 years of
military activities against followers of the former presi-
dent, Milton Obote, in the course of which close to 400
people died.

Uganda’s first AIDS case was recorded in 1982. Now just
the officially registered number of patients is over
20,000, and there are around 7 million carriers of the
deadly virus, which is almost half of the country’s
inhabitants.

Although Uganda was one of the first on the continent to
begin the fight against the spread of AIDS in 1987, it has
nonetheless “captured the lead” in the scale of the
disease’s occurrence.

As we know, condoms are the simplest and most avail-
able preventive resource. However, their use was prohib-
ited in Uganda for a long time, and it was not until 1990
that the “taboo” was finally lifted. But even to this day,
many firmly believe that use of this birth control device
will only lead to a drop in morality.

ZAMBIA

AIDS Cases Fill 50-70 Percent of Hospital
93WE0095B Lusaka TIMES OF ZAMBIA in English 2
Oct 92p1

[Text] A RESEARCH by the Nursing Council of Zambia
has established that about 50-70 percent of the beds at
the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka are
occupied by patients with AIDS related complexes.

By July about 6,000 in Lusaka and 19,000 cases of HIV
and AIDS related complexes were recorded and this
prompted in council to engage in further research.

One of the researchers Mrs. Josephine Himoonga, at a
one-day workshop on methods used to control and
prevent AIDS among the sexually active in Lusaka said:

“After the research we realised that although people
knew about AIDS and how it was transmitted, they had
not tried to change their sexual behaviour.”

The research conducted among a cross-section of insti-
tutions later established that 69 percent of the popula-
tions still indulged in ritual cleansing and sexual rela-
tionships.

World Health Organisation (WHO) resident representa-
tive Mr. Wilfred Boayue hailed the nurses for taking up
the challenge to research intensively into the AIDS
epidemic.

He said it was encouraging to see nurses try to work out
a programme to help change people’s behaviour rather
than wait for other researchers to do the work.



IJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

gone through the schools, the churches, through nongov-
ernmental organizations. We launched relentless public
education and we have established in every parish in
Jamaica a clinic to deal specifically with sexually trans-
mitted disease and also deal with AIDS prevention
programs. Our supply of blood is safe. Every drop of
blood that is donated through our blood bank is tested
for HIV or AIDS before it is sent on at all to be
transfused to anybody. [end recording]

Jamaican Health Minister Douglas.
PANAMA

High Incidence of AIDS Related Deaths

PA2811030292 Panama City LA ESTRELLA DE
PANAMA in Spanish 25 Nov 92 p la

[Report by Cesar Gomez Marin—all figures as received]

[Text] AIDS continues to cause ravages in Panama. The
number of AIDS cases recorded from 1984 up until 30
October, now totals 397 cases, of which 247 cases have
been fatal. The number of fatal cases represents 60.7
percent of the total number of AIDS cases recorded.

It must be pointed out that a significant portion of the
AIDS cases recorded have taken place in the 20-44 age
group, as well as in the 45 and over age group.

On the other hand, deaths by AIDS-related causes have
also been quite high in the aforementioned age groups.
At least 144 men and 33 women in the 20-44 age group
have died, 73.4 percent of the total number of deaths. In
addition 47 men and 5 women in the 45 and older age
group have died from AIDS-related causes. This repre-
sents a 21.6 percent of the total number of deaths.

According to figures disclosed by the Health Ministry
Department of Supervision and Control of Transmis-
sible Diseases and AIDS, the most common method of
infection continues to be through sexual contact. Of the
total number of cases recorded, 318 cases (269 men and
49 women) were infected through sexual transmission.
This figure represents 80.1 percent of the total number of
recorded AIDS cases. Homosexual contact follows as the
main cause of infection with 38.3 percent [152 men and
no women].

AIDS transmitted through heterosexual contact accounts
for 96 cases among men and 49 among women. These
figures represents 34.0 percent of the total number of
recorded cases. It is followed closely by AIDS acquired
through blood transfusions with 40 cases among men
and 10 among women, or 12.6 percent of the total
number. AIDS acquired through bisexual contact
accounts for 31 cases among males and none among
women, followed closely by AIDS cases through intrave-
nous (I.V.) drugs with 27 cases among men and one
among women.

LATIN AMERICA 19

ST. LUCIA

Survey Shows Inadequate Understanding of AIDS

FL1602192893 Bridgetown CANA in English 1751
GMT 16 Feb 93

[Text] Castries, St. Lucia, Feb 16, CANA—A survey here
shows St. Lucians don’t know a great deal about AIDS
(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

Director of the St. Lucia AIDS/HIV/Sexually Trans-
mitted Diseases Prevention and Control Programme,
Dr. Michel Oohms, said the survey was carried out over
the last two Carnival celebrations.

She said that 93.5 percent of 150 persons interviewed
had expressed a desire for further education on sexually
transmitted disease, particularly during Carnival cele-
brations.

“Everybody had some comment to make.... Many spoke
of the very low moral standard among young people ...
having sex without thinking of the consequencies,” she
remarked.

“Some people mentioned the Carnival babies, and the
recent research in Trinidad and Tobago showed this is a
reality. It is probably the same thing in St. Lucia.”

She said that an alarming 31 percent of St. Lucians did
not know what STD stood for, and that 41 percent did
not feel at risk of contracting HIV that causes AIDS.

“Despite the intensive education on modes of transmis-
sion (of the AIDS virus) we noticed that a significant
number ... could not list the three or four ... essential
ways of transmission,” she said.

Dr. Oohms said that an alarming 18 percent of those
interviewed only knew of the disease being transmitted
from mother to the child. “This is a big area of concern,”
she remarked.

She said the survey also revealed that 41 percent of St.
Lucians had never used a condom in their life, with 55
percent saying yes.

“Asked how often do you use condoms during Carnival
encounters, five percent said always, one percent said
often, six percent said sometimes, and 31 percent
never,” she reported.

She said that many St. Lucians while being aware of the
hotline, were not using the service.

“Some people were thinking it was open 24 hours a day
... and was for people already suffering from the dis-
ease,” she said.

St. Lucia has so far recorded a total of 84 AIDS cases
with 44 persons already dead from the disease, for which
there is no known cure.



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

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INFORMATION
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a WEST EUROPE

GERMANY

Health Minister Reports 60,000 Infected With
AIDS

AU0902094193 Berlin NEUES DEUTSCHLAND in
German 8 Feb 93 p 5

[ADN/ND report: “60,000 Citizens Are Infected”]

[Text] Bonn (ADN/ND)—With 60,000 people in Ger-
many infected with AIDS, there is no reason for an
all-clear, according to Health Minister Seehofer. Thanks
to comprehensive information, the immune deficiency
disease has “not” spread “‘as dramatically” as was feared
in the eighties, but this must not lead to negligence.
“AIDS is still incurable. The only weapon is precau-
tion,” the minister stressed. According to Sechofer,
4,879 people have died of AIDS in the FRG. The disease
has broken out in 9,205 cases of infection. The minister
said the focus must “no longer only” be “on information,
but must shift to nursing.”

SWEDEN

Doctors: Deport Aliens Who Spread HIV

93WE0086B Stockholm SVENSKA DAGBLADET in
Swedish 28 Oct 92 p 8

[Article from TIDNINGARNAS TELEGRAMBYRA:
“Deportation for Spreading HIV”)

{Text] It should be possible to deport asylum seekers who
knowingly infect others with HIV. That is the view of
physicians specializing in infectious diseases in Stock-
holm county who want the government to revise current
legislation. According to the aliens law, only crimes
which carry with them a prison sentence of at least one
year can result in deportation. At the government chan-
cellery building, an overhaul is underway which would
also make petty repeat crimes, for example theft and
shoplifting, grounds for deportation.

UNITED KINGDOM

Changes in Fight Against AIDS Announced

93WE0204 London THE DAILY TELEGRAPH in
English 17 Dec 92 p 5

[Article by David Fletcher]

[Text] Pregnant women are to be offered an AIDS test as
a routine part of ante-natal care in an attempt to halt
further spread of the virus, the Department of Health
announced yesterday.

The decision follows the finding from surveys that as
many as one in 200 pregnant women is HIV positive in
parts of inner London whereas the incidence is only one
in 16,000 in other parts of the country.

Special testing centres are to be set up away from their
traditional setting in sexually transmitted disease clinics
to encourage more people to take a test.

IPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

New guidelines on testing people and the importance of
tracing and informing their partners have been sent to
health chiefs to make it easier to have an HIV check with
a shorter waiting period for the result.

The Department of Health’s AIDS budget is being
increased by 15 percent to £195 million a year to cover
the new arrangements.

Announcing the changes Mrs. Bottomley, Health Secre-
tary, said all tests will be voluntary.

“The aim is to encourage people to come forward for
testing if they think they may have been at risk but do
not feel comfortable approaching genito-urinary medi-
cine clinics or their own GPs.

“We are asking managers to consider setting up HIV
testing centres away from conventional settings such as
GUM clinics and to provide speedier results to take
some tension out of the procedure.

“These decisions will be for local managements to make
in the light of local circumstances, and testing will
continue to be on a voluntary basis and with the
informed consent of the patient,” she said.

The Department said it was not promoting “widespread,
indiscriminate” testing but wanted all pregnant women
in areas where there is a high-risk of HIV infections—
such as inner cities—to be offered a test.

Mrs. Bottomley said partner notification should be vol-
untary and infected people should be helped to under-
stand the consequences.

She backed the decision by Mr. Clarke, Home Secretary,
not to create a new criminal offence of knowingly
spreading HIV, and announced a review of public health
legislation to control the spread of communicable dis-
eases.

Lady Cumberlege, junior health minister, told a London
conference that the Association of British Insurers has
agreed that a negative HIV test taken as a routine part of
ante-natal care will not lead to further investigation.

“They have also agreed to ensure that insurance proposal
forms allow for clear and unequivocal explanations to be
given of the circumstances of HIV tests and counsel-
ling,” she said.

The agreement follows difficulties experienced in getting
life insurance after insurance companies had been told of
an HIV test, even though the result had been negative.

The Royal College of Mid-wives welcomed testing for
pregnant women as a logical follow-on from the Depart-
ment’s programme of anonymous testing.

According to the latest figures from the Public Health
Laboratory Service, the number of cases of AIDS
reached 6,684 by the end of October, of whom 4,126
have died.



6 CHINA

WHO Official: Time Running Out for China To
fight AIDS

HKO0112101392 Hong Kong AFP in English 0838 GMT
1 Dec 92

[Text] Beijing, Dec 1 (AFP}—Time is running out for
China to fight AIDS with changing lifestyles greatly
increasing the disease’s chance of spreading in the
world’s most populous country, the World Health Orga-
nization (WHO) said Tuesday.

“For the last three years, WHO has urged that there is
still time to act. That time is rapidly running out,” the
United Nations body’s representative in Beijing, Ber-
nard Kean, told a gathering to mark World AIDS Day.

China has detected 932 people who carry the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) believed to cause AIDS,
most of them intravenous drug users in the southern
province of Yunnan.

Only 12 people have had full-blown AIDS symptoms,
five of them foreigners or overseas Chinese.

But Kean warned that with the country’s fast economic
development, increasing drug use and prostitution could
help spread the disease, which is generally transmitted sex-
ually or by the use of shared needles for injecting drugs.

“There is a rapidly expanding portion of the population
that is mobile and affluent,” he said. “Among this sector
is a growing number of people who patronize prostitutes
or use drugs.”

“Unfortunately, the very people who are personally benefit-
ting from economic progress may include those most at risk
for HIV transmission,” the representative said.

No sexually transmitted diseases were detected in China in
1979, but just 13 years later, there are more than 360,000
cases, he said. The authorities registered 148,000 drug users
last year, which Kean said suggested that three times that
number of people actually abused drugs.

Another official, Arthur Holcombe, resident representa-
tive of the United Nations Development Program, called
on China to learn from the experience of neighboring
countries to try to change the behavior of high-risk
groups instead of driving them underground.

“Public policy should be based on realities, not ideals,
regarding drug using and sexual behaviors, and (should)
concentrate on making drug using and sexual behaviors
safe,” Holcombe said.

He urged the promotion of condom use among prostitute
clients and supplying clean syringes and needles to drug
users instead of jailing them.

But according to Western AIDS experts here, the chances
are slim that the government will stop seeing homosex-
uals, prostitutes and drug users as criminals for the sake
of disease prevention.

“The police state mentality here says you have to prosecute
them, which is really an obstacle to designing education and
prevention programs,” one of the experts said.

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Ignorance and fear about AIDS remains high in China,
even among health workers. Farmers in a Beijing suburb
were last year reported to have burned oil paintings they
thought could spread the disease.

The government has not implemented a long-term AIDS.
control program, but started a three-year program in
1990 that includes limited HIV testing, training of health
workers and condom production and distribution.

China is also searching its traditional herbal pharma-
copeia for an AIDS cure and has reported promising
results with a drug called “glyke” in tests conducted on
Tanzanian subjects.

Worker Contracts AIDS Virus While Overseas

K0202105093 Shenyang Liaoning People’s Radio
Network in Mandarin 2300 GMT 1 Feb 93

[Summary] The Shenyang Public Health Quarantine
Bureau recently examined and diagnosed a returned
worker as carrying the AIDS [Acquired Immunodefi-
ciency Syndrome] virus.

A worker called Sun, who was a worker of a certain unit
in Shenyang city, went abroad to work in December
1991 and returned home in January 1993. When
entering the country, he was examined and diagnosed as
carrying the AIDS virus. According to the epidemiolo-
gist’s investigation he was infected with the AIDS virus
while having a tooth extracted in the foreign country.

Ability To Control AIDS Said Inadequate

HK2001110693 Hong Kong ZHONGGUO TONGXUN
SHE in Chinese 0921 GMT 3 Jan 93

[Text] Beijing, 3 Jan (ZHONGGUO TONGXUN
SHE)—Days ago an authoritative person from the Chi-
nese Ministry of Public Health warned that although
there are scarcely 1,000 AIDS carriers on the Chinese
mainland at present, the relevant experts have estimated
that the figure is far beyond this because China’s moni-
toring and control ability is inadequate.

Apart from AIDS being spread through prostitution and
homosexuality, the risk of AIDS being spread through
blood transfusion cannot be overlooked, because no
AIDS antibody testing mechanism has been established
for blood donors. In addition, the spread of AIDS virus
through the common use of injection syringes by intra-
venous drug addicts is the most serious in China.

The relevant experts pointed out that as there are already
conditions for the spread of AIDS, China’s best method
to control this spread is to popularize propaganda and
education.

Cabinet Discusses AIDS; Economist Warns of
Threat to Reform

HK0802110393 Hong Kong AFP in English 0921 GMT
8 Feb 93

[Text] Beijing, Feb 8 (AFP}—The Chinese cabinet met
recently to discuss a growing AIDS threat after a report



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

year. However, the health ministry has estimated that
about 800,000 people in Zimbabwe are HIV-positive out
of a population of 10-million.

The cases surfacing now, some experts say, are a result of
infections five to 10 years ago.

Zimbabwe ranks fifth in Africa in terms of the number of
AIDS cases reported to the World Health Organization.

Another shocking revelation by Health Minister Tim-
othy Stamps was that 42 percent of pregnant women in
one province, Masvingo, in the south of the country,
tested HIV-positive in June this year.

The main method of transmission was through heterosexual
sex and from infected mothers to the baby at birth.

However, there has been a significant increase in the use
of condoms—60 million condoms have been used so far
this year compared with 40-million used last year.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 5

Army Contests Statement on HIV Infection Rate
Among Troops

MB2601103293 Johannesburg SAPA in English

2212 GMT 25 Jan 93

[Text] Harare Jan 25 SAPA—The Zimbabwe National
Army [ZNA] on Monday demanded the Commercial
Farmers’ Union [CFU] withdraw a recently published
statement claiming that half Zimbabwe’s soldiers are
HIV positive.

A statement by the the ZNA public relations directorate said
information on HIV was confidential, and since the “CFU
could not have had access to such information, and since
they do not have medical facilities for sampling blood, we
call upon the CFU to withdraw its statement”.

It added that the percentage given by the CFU was
“ridiculous because it is not backed by facts. The CFU’s
statement is unaunthentic and misleading”.

The CFU’s figures have also been rejected by the Zim-
babwe police and by Minister of Health and Child
Welfare Timothy Stamps.



38 WEST EUROPE

AUSTRIA

Latest AIDS Figures Published

AUO0112131092 Salzburg SALZBURGER
NACHRICHTEN in German I Dec 92 p 6

[“SN-i.b” report: “After 10 Years of AIDS Prevention:
The Message Does Not Arrive”]

[Excerpt] [passage omitted] The number of HIV-infected
persons continues to rise. By 20 November 1992 847
cases of AIDS were registered, 509 patients have died so
far. Juergen Pelikan, head of the Ludwig-Boltzmann
Institute for Medical and Health Sociology, said on
Monday [30 November] that there are 4,000 registered
cases of HIV-infected Austrians; probably another 8,000
persons are also infected. [passage omitted]

CYPRUS

HIV-Positive Cases Since 1986 Detailed

NC3001063693 Nicosia CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY in
English 1648 GMT 29 Jan 93

[Text] Nicosia, Jan 29 (CNA}—Four new HIV virus
cases were detected in Cyprus in January. Three were
foreigners, who have already left the island and the
fourth is a 19-year-old Cypriot, an official announce-
ment said Friday.

The total number of HIV virus cases since October 1986
has reached 134, with Cypriots counting for 72 of the
cases. The overwhelming majority of the Cypriots
infected with the virus were men (65) while the most
infected age group is between 20 and 29, which claims 38
cases.

The announcement added that “the main way of trans-
mitting the virus in the recorded cases is sexual contact
(51 persons). Forty-one of the 72 cases is likely to have
been infected overseas while only 12 cases say their
infection was likely to have taken place in Cyprus.”

DENMARK

Pressure To Change Existing HIV Anonymity
w

92WD0097A Copenhagen WEEKENDAVISEN in
Danish 23-29 Oct 92 p 4

[Article by Pernille Stensgaard: “My Name Is Anders
and I Want To Be Tested For HIV”)

[Text] A man from Haiti and a brand-new father from
Svendborg may be about to change Denmark’s AIDS
policy which, otherwise, has remained unchanged since
1987. The two have turned the country upside down and
led the critics to speak to thunderous applause. The man
from Haiti has apparently seduced droves of Danish
women, even though he was tested—and found posi-
tive—back in 1985. Apparently, he did not tell the
women he was infected, nor did he use condoms. Can
this really be allowed to happen?

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

The man from Svendborg is also infected and is the
father of a newborn child who underwent unnecessary
and useless treatment and suffered terribly because no
one at the hospital knew that its parents were sick. Can
this really be allowed to happen?

The man from Haiti impressed EXTRA BLADET so
much that the newspaper placed the man’s picture on
page one as a warning. The other man made an impres-
sion on Palle Juul Jensen of the Board of Health and this
was more fatal to Denmark’s AIDS policy, for the chief
medical officer raised the first official criticism ever of
the AIDS guidelines. In the future, if he gets his way,
upon admittance to the hospital the record will state if he
or she is infected—whether or not the patient wants this.
The physician in charge must also be informed if the
hospital receives a positive test. None of this is possible
today, but very few HIV-infected people forbid it. This
protection is a matter of principle. A person infected
with HIV can always remain anonymous until he
develops AIDS and must be treated at the hospital.

Up until now everyone involved—Folketing, the health
minister, the Board of Health, the AIDS Secretariat, the
National Association of Gays and Lesbians, and the
Hemophilia Association—has been almost vehemently
united behind the policy of voluntariness and ano-
nymity. Otherwise, high-risk groups would go under-
ground and the infection would spread, if people did not
dare be tested. This large group of people who are in
agreement are now angry because the extremely irre-
sponsible behavior of two people may bring registration
and coercion down on everyone else who is HIV-
positive.

Now Jensen has opened the door and expressed doubt
concerning the AIDS policy of his minister and of his
own AIDS Secretariat. The minister has expressed out-
rage at him and the secretariat is furious, since both cases
can be handled with the laws we have today. The man
from Haiti has been charged under the aggravated
assault law that deals with felony bodily harm and
carries a sentence of up to 12 years. In the other case, the
physician’s oath of silence can be broken if there is a
danger to the health of others. The only change in the
upcoming new guidelines from the Board of Health is a
clarification, rather than a change. There is no special
legislation dealing with HIV and AIDS, but the guide-
lines are as follows:

Everyone has the right to take an HIV test anonymously
from one’s own doctor, from another doctor, or at the
special screening clinics.

All public employees, including those working in public
health, are sworn to secrecy. But if a patient refuses to
tell his spouse or the person with whom he is living that
he has the disease, then, in the opinion of the Board of
Health, the physician has the right to do so. The oath of
silence can also be waved in the interests of a child (the
Svendborg case).



26 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

Our correspondent ’Ofra Nehmad reports that the data
published by the Health Ministry today, on the eve of the
international AIDS day on 1 December, state that the
scope of the disease in Israel is one of the lowest in the
world. Health Minister Hayim Ramon said that the
regulations by his ministry and the Interior and Immi-
grant Absorption Ministries, to prevent the entry of
immigrants from the West who have AIDS as of |
January, will not be implemented for the time being. The
concerned ministers will first discuss the matter and then
decide how to prepare for the absorption of immigrants
with AIDS.

PAKISTAN

NWFP Said To Lead in Number of AIDS
Patients

93WE0092A Peshawar THE FRONTIER POST in
English 28 Oct 92 p 1

[Article by Syed Bukhar Shah]

[Text] Thirty AIDS patients out of a total of 200 in
Pakistan have died and 55 cases in NWFP [North-West
Frontier Province] have been detected so far. The actual
number of AIDS patients is much higher than the
detected patients as symptoms of the AIDS cannot be
discovered easily.

These views were expressed by the experts during a press
conference organised by Saeedul Majeed, dean Faculty
of Medicine in Peshawar on Tuesday.

All the 55 patients in NWFP were healthy and had come
to hospital for donating their blood, they said. These
patients were ignorant of their disease as the symptoms
of AIDS could be observed after 10 to 15 years. The
treatment of such patients could not be done throughout
the world and they had to die if once affected, they
added.

They said NWFP was on top of the list of such patients
as majority of the people of this province often visited
other countries and had more chances to meet AIDS
patients. Similarly, majority of the youths of our country
go to other countries for jobs, so they are more vulner-
able to this disease.

The homosexuality and transfusion of blood, they said
were other major reasons for the spread of AIDS. The
blood meant for transfusion is being tested only at Lady
Reading Hospital and Hayat Shaheed Teaching Hospital
Peshawar and if any AIDS case was detected there they
said, they send it to NIH, Islamabad for confirmation.

The first AIDS patient, they said was detected in
America in 1981 but keeping in view the ratio of such
patients, NWFP was at the top of the list of AIDS
patients.

So the Physicians Forum for Family Planning has
decided to organise 20 workshops to educate the people
about this disease. The association would give training to
the people in this connection.

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

The dean of Faculty of Family Medicine, Saeedul
Majeed said that they had also organised “walk for
population” tomorrow (Thursday). They would start
march from Peshawar Stadium at 2.15 pm which culmi-
nate near Deans Hotel.

To curb the disease, they said the general practitioners
could not be ignored but the government was not con-
sulting them on this vital issue. They asked the govern-
ment to provide free plots and help them for the estab-
lishment of clinics. They deplored that the government
had imposed 15 percent interest on their loans and
termed it injustice.

Saeedul Majeed asked the government to privatise all the
BHUs and hand over the same to general practitioners
for the successful running of these BHUs. He observed
that quackery had further worsened the situation and
asked the government to curb this menace.

Such unqualified people, he said, were playing with the
health of people. They had also organised a national
conference on Family Medicine at Peshawar on
Thursday and Friday, he added.

Regional AIDS Statistics Reviewed
93WE0198B Karachi DAWN in English 13 Dec 92 p 7

[Article by Mirza Naqi Zafar: “AIDS Prevention in
Pakistan”)

[Excerpt] The Pakistan Association of Pathologists is
holding its XVI Annual Conference in Karachi from
December 12-14, 1992. The theme of this conference is
“AIDS Prevention in Pakistan.” The world recently
observed the World AIDS Day on December |. This is a
day of action designed to raise public awareness of AIDS
and to catalyse new and greater commitment against this
dreaded disease.

Globally half a million people suffer from AIDS and 10
to 15 million people are infected by the HIV virus. In the
Asia Pacific region 2,000 individuals are infected each
and every day and for a number of countries a serious
epidemic is already evident. In our near neighbouring
region where Pakistanis are frequent travellers, the
number of HIV infected and AIDS cases is rising steadly
(Table I)

Table I, HIV Infections 1992

Country Official Estimate
Bangladesh 7,000
India 300,000
Nepal 2,000
Sri Lanka 1,500
Thailand 300,000

In Pakistan no nationwide survey for HIV infection has
been conducted to find the prevalence of HIV infection
or AIDS patients. However, scattered surveys from some
centres clearly indicate the presence of HIV infection in



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

TB Patients Given Secret AIDS Tests

93WE0219A London THE DAILY TELEGRAPH in
English 27 Dec 92 p 2

[Article by Victoria Macdonald: “TB Patients Given
Secret AIDS Tests”]

[Text] With an epidemic of tuberculosis affecting several
parts of the country, the Government has ordered doc-
tors to test TB patients anonymously for AIDS.

Health ministers have issued the controversial instruc-
tions for blood samples to be taken from all TB suffer-
ers—and anyone they may have infected—after being
told that the disease was spreading rapidly.

Until now anonymous screening for the HIV virus,
which can lead to AIDS, has been allowed only on
pregnant women under strict ethical guidelines.

But ministers issued the order for a second anonymous
screening programme amid fears that HIV may be
responsible for the unprecedented incidence of TB.

The concern is being fuelled by an epidemic in New
York which began in patients with the AIDS virus and
spread to the general population.

Earlier this year the World Health Organisation’s tuber-
culosis unit began a global TB programme after figures
showed that worldwide one in three adults has been
infected with the tubercle bacillus, with 10 million
people a year going on to develop the disease and three
million a year dying.

So far tests on AIDS patients here have found that only
about six percent have TB. But experts say that, without
a screening programme, they cannot rule out AIDS as a
cause for the explosion of the disease.

WEST EUROPE 43

At the same time doctors are being told to look for
connections with poverty and immigration.

GPs and hospitals will have to fill in new forms when
notifying the Public Health Laboratory Service of new
cases, listing the TB patient’s ethnic origin, occupation
and social circumstances, including whether they are
single mothers.

Dr. Peter Davies, consultant chest physician at Sefton
General Hospital in Liverpool, said the anonymous
screening had to be carried out if the causes for the
outbreak were to be determined.

Until the mid-80s, TB, a largely forgotten disease asso-
ciated with Victorian England, was steadily declining.
But in 1987 this inexplicably changed. By the end of this
year there are expected to be 5,700 new cases reported,
although this is likely to be only one third of the true
figures because doctors are under-reporting cases.

Dr. Davies also believes that there is a correlation
between TB and social deprivation.

He said: “A recent report from Edinburgh cites the case
of a 21-year-old, who tested positive with TB, living in a
two-bedroomed council house with his mother and six
siblings. ’The entire family was infected and three of
them developed the disease.‘

Dr. Christopher Sheldon, a senior registrar at the
London Chest Hospital, said there was a general public
perception that TB was a disease of the past.

The British Thoracic Society has issued doctors with a
list of TB symptoms because it was going unrecognised.
But Dr. Sheldon said there should be better notification
procedures established, with everyone from the microbi-
ologists to the pharmacists issuing the drugs involved.

“It is a treatable, and eradicable disease,” he said. “But
when people lose their vigilance it re-emerges.””



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Center. However, the newspaper SALAM reports in its
telephone column “Allo SALAM” (Sunday 17 January,
27 Dey) that a man who died of AIDS in Rasht had
received contaminated blood brought from France.

A reader called this newspaper and gave the information
that his brother-in-law, who was a “very pure and
religious human being...became infected by the transfu-
sion of blood that had been brought from France, and
finally passed away.”

This reader adds that the members of the family of the
man who died, whose name was not mentioned, became
quite disturbed psychologically. In his death file it says
that he “became infected and died...as the result of the
transfusion of blood in Rasht.”

Health-care and nonhealth-care officials in the Islamic
Republic have been silent for years about the spread of
AIDS in Iran, whether through blood transfusions or
sexual relations. Finally, after several years, they have
broken the silence and, admitting the spread of the
devastating AIDS disease, they have begun to alert the
public and teach ways to prevent it.

For various reasons, including the impossibility for all
physicians to make a bedside diagnosis, the unavail-
ability of the test, fear of “loss of reputation,” fear of
prosecution and religious punishment, and also fear of
isolation, the real number of people with AIDS or of
those who are infected with the virus but are not sick is
not known in Iran.

The minister of health care and treatment has
announced that the number of people with AIDS is 211,
but other sources have given the number 413.

However, physicians and experts believe that for the
reasons given above it is almost impossible to determine
the number of people who are sick or infected with this
disease, but in any case the number is much higher than
officials have announced.

Several physicians who did not want their names given
told KEYHAN that those who contracted AIDS in Iran
in the years 1985-1986 were identified and placed in
treatment. They noted that the hospitals in the southern
part of the country themselves witnessed the deaths of
several patients infected with AIDS, all of whom were
infected through blood transfusions.

In the heat of the Iran-Iraq war, in order to infuse blood
to the wounded from the war fronts who were in need of
surgical operations, the Islamic Republic imported blood
from everywhere in the world, including the nations of
Africa, which has the highest amount of contamination.

The aforementioned physicians say that at the same time
in Tehran’s hospitals the number of AIDS patients was
alarmingly high, although in the casualty statistics AIDS
deaths were not mentioned for two major reasons, first
that many physicians were still unable to make a bedside
AIDS diagnosis, and a patient’s death was said to be the
result of pneumonia, cancer, ..... Second, the Islamic

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 25

Tegime was very afraid of officially announcing the
extensive spread of this disease in Iran.

So far travelers returning to Iran from trips to Hong
Kong, Bangkok, and Turkey who became infected with
AIDS there through sexual intercourse were said to be
the main source of the spread of AIDS in Iran, and
although officials sometimes spoke of the spread of
AIDS via blood transfusions, this is the first time France
has been mentioned in the media as the sender of
contaminated blood. Officials have not yet reacted offi-
cially to this alarming report.

Dr. Michel [?Garetta], who was chief of the Blood
Transfusion Center in France in 1985, is now in prison
serving a four-year term for carelessly selling contami-
nated blood to other countries and for giving it to
hemophiliacs in France.

In addition to this, [?7Lauren Fabius], prime minister of
France and two of his ministers are also involved in this
incident and the case on the scandal is not yet closed.

Health Official Reports 219 People Affected With
AIDS Virus

LD2501185393 Tehran IRNA in English 1753 GMT 25
Jan 93

[Text] Tehran, Jan. 25, IRNA—About 219 persons have
been affected with HIV, the virus that causes the dreaded
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), while
45 AIDS victims have already died, said head of the
Committee for the Campaign Against AIDS Dr. Emami
here today.

He told a one-day seminar on AIDS that if the public
were not educated about preventive methods and pro-
tection devices the problem would be much greater in
the future.

Emami said that restricting sex to its religiously estab-
lished forms would offer the surest way for harnessing
the epidemic in Iran.

He said AIDS is not now confined to any specific
geographical area of the world and that the epidemic has
long since found its way to new countries due to the
irresponsible attitude of officials in those countries.

Emami commented that in 1992 AIDS victims in India
were one million that is twice as many as they were in
1991. In Thailand, he said, one million people are
affected with the HIV virus every year.

He said in Iran the Ministry of Health is not able to
control and curb the epidemic all by itself, but that the
media, too, have a role to play by offering systematic
information to the public on preventive devices.

ISRAEL

AIDS Rate in Israel Said ’One of the Lowest’
TA2611122292 Jerusalem Qol Yisra’el in Hebrew 1100
GMT 26 Nov 92

[Text] There are 2,000 AIDS carriers in Israel. This year,
18 new patients were discovered, 10 less than last year.



2 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Ghanzi District has seven full-time and two part-time
local professionals supported by four international staff
members who have been engaged to carry out the pro-
gram. It says four United Nations volunteers are to join
the program and will be responsible for home- based care
and social behavior.

The report says the Ministries of the Office of the
President, Education, Labor and Home Affairs; and
Local Government Lands and Housing have been iden-
tified as focal points for AIDS preventative activity. The
four ministries are in the process of developing AIDS
plans for the year. The report says the ministry intends to
buy billboards to be posted in each village and town to
disseminate information. They will also be set up along
main roads and border posts. It says the counselling
program will continue to focus on strengthening capacity
in skills and manpower for support and presenting of
counselling.

The report says the HIV surveillance will expand to
Chobe, Kasane, Lobatse, Kweneng, Serowe, Phalapye,
and Ghanzi. Currently it is in Gaborone and Francis-
town.

Ministry Says All Districts Now Reporting AIDS
Cases

MB2401183093 Gaborone Radio Botswana Network in
English 1110 GMT 24 Jan 93

{Text] A report from the Ministry of Health says all
districts are now reporting AIDS cases, but because of
under-reporting and delay in reporting from the districts,
the real number of AIDS cases is believed to be much
higher. According to the report, by early 1992 50,000
people in Botswana were believed to be infected, 353
AIDS cases had been reported and 116 deaths.

An HIV survey showed that in Gaborone 14.9 percent of
pregnant women were HIV positive, in Francistown 23.7
percent tested positive, while in Maun 12.7 percent of
pregnant women were found HIV positive. Most women
affected by AIDS are in the 25 to 29 age group. The pitch
for men is between 30 and 34 years. It is believed women
are more infected with HIV as they are more susceptible
to infection both biologically and socially.

BURUNDI

AIDS Prevention Director Comments on Extent of
Disease

EA1911115292 Bujumbura Radio-Television Nationale
du Burundi Radio in French 1100 GMT 18 Nov 92

[Excerpts] The media plays a vital role in the fight
against AIDS. They were invited to take part in a media
and health workshop which was held today at the World
Health Organization office in Bujumbura in order to
make the campaign against AIDS over the next five years
a success. Marie-Jose Niyonzima reports:

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Niyonzima: [passage omitted] The director of the
national program for the fight against AIDS and sexually
transmitted diseases tells us the extent of the AIDS
epidemic in Burundi.

Begin unidentified director recording: At present in
Burundi we have 7,000 AIDS patients, 92,000 HIV-
positive cases, and 11,000 orphans, because of AIDS. If
there is [words indistinct] and new contamination during
the next five years, the number of patients will increase,
the number of HIV-positive cases would increase to
141,000, and the number of orphans would be around
47,000. [passage omitted] [end recording]

IVORY COAST

Report on AIDS Seminar
AB2111122592 Abidjan FRATERNITE MATIN in
French 17 Nov 92 p 2

[Report by Leon Francis Lebry on opening of the AIDS
seminar in Abidjan on 16 November—passages within
slantlines published in boldface}

[Excerpts] [passage omitted] The first national days on
AIDS, which is being given intense publicity, opened
yesterday at the auditorium of the National Assembly. It
is attended by high-ranking figures from the political,
economic, health, social, and religious sectors. Above all,
it was opened and is being chaired by the second in
command in the country, National Assembly Speaker
Henri Konan Bedie. All this goes to show that the
country has now departed from its policy of burying its
head in the sand and moved on to the stage of national
mobilization. This great mobilization shows that since
the National Committee Against AIDS was established
five years ago—in 1987—our country has strengthened
its determination to wage war against AIDS. [passage
omitted]

At present, the decentralization of the fight has been
taken up in parliament because the Ministry of Health
and the national committee have called for a greater
involvement of parliamentarians in the national
struggle. As new partners, they are expected /“‘to make
concrete decisions and even pass adequate laws to pro-
tect AIDS patients as well as all those who test positive in
general.”/ [passage omitted]

Concerning the protection of AIDS victims, the promo-
tion of human rights and the dignity of individuals—in
which much more is being expected of the lawmakers—
Henri Konan Bedie promised that parliament will take
action; he even deemed it worth considering the possi-
bility of /“proposing a law on therapeutic abortion for
pregnant AIDS victim, or abortion for women made
pregnant by seropositive men....”/ In other words, par-
liamentarians could legalize the termination of preg-
nancy if a woman has AIDS. This is a very important
political stance which will certainly be translated into
action very soon. [passage omitted]



IPRS-TEP-93-004
16 EAST EUROPE 22 February 1993

ROMANIA

Health Ministry Releases Data on AIDS Cases

AU0102181493 Bucharest ROMPRES in English
1628 GMT 1 Feb 93

[Text] Bucharest ROMPRES, 1/2/1993—2,235 grown-
ups (1,300 men and 935 women) and 2,056 children
were HIV-carriers according to the 31 December 1992
data from the General Direction for Preventive Care and
Health Promotion of the Health Ministry. 1,585 of the
children are aged between one and four, and 471
between 0 and I! months.



SPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

to be planted in local gardens. The procurer of this
narcotic was caught red handed by police and, during a
routine check for drug use, the symptoms of the dan-
gerous virus were identified in this individual.

Lack of Funding Threatens AIDS Program,
Research

93WE0048A Moscow ROSSIYSKIYE VESTI in
Russian 21 Oct 92 p 4

[Article by Roza Sergaziyeva: “AIDS Is Readying Itself
for a Leap”]

[Text] A new domestic highly effective AIDS drug has
been synthesized. Is the victory over the “plague of the
20th century” really close?

“We have not one but a dozen drugs undergoing test-
ing,” Doctor of Medical Sciences Vadim Pokrovskiy,
director of the Russian Scientific Methodological Center
for AIDS Prevention and Control, doused my optimism.
“The only thing is that we could hardly count on putting
them through complete clinical testing anytime soon
because of the present confusion.”

Our attitude toward the AIDS problem has been under
constant change. At first we observed from afar what was
going on “over there.” The world, in the meantime, in
the early 1980’s, was recoiling in fear: During the time
that they were revealing new patients, and arguing about
what brings on the disease, tens of millions of people
were discovering themselves to be among the “unclean.”
We were unspeakably lucky—we were able to squeak
through this first “outbreak” unscathed. The country
was relatively closed, and few foreigners visited.

But then lightning struck. First they diagnosed HIV
infection in foreign visitors, and then in our own. It was
at this moment that, upon assessing the danger, the state
machinery cranked into full steam. A diagnostic service
came into being.

Since 1987, 150 million analyses have been conducted
and millions of people have been subjected to testing—
donors, pregnant women, and practically every seriously
ill patient.

“Testing was often conducted even in the absence of
signs of AIDS—doctors didn’t ask for permission to
examine patients. No thought was given to the expense,
since no one had gotten used to counting the money
when it came to public health. Even today, for some
reason patients being readied for surgery are being
compelled to undergo AIDS testing without legal
grounds for this,” is how Vadim Pokrovskiy character-
izes the shortcomings of this stage.

But it seems to me that there was good reason for the
“great hunt”: We were able to reveal most of the carriers
and patients with the help of such a dense network. But
testing was not the only thing that played a role: The
press went on the attack, and posters plastered the walls
of the Metro. Today, however, everything has once again

CENTRAL EURASIA 33

died down. Unfortunate as it may be, our tradition of
approaching every problem like a campaign is still alive
here.

This break has come at a menacing time. While in the
USA, after a decade of close to an annual doubling of the
number of HIV carriers, a sorry sort of equilibrium has
set in—the number of people dying from AIDS is equal
to the number newly infected, in Russia and in the CIS as
a whole, we are at the very beginning of a new, great leap
in the number of HIV carriers. By fall of this year the
number of virus carriers we recorded was as many as had
been registered throughout all of last year. The increase
is obvious. Consequently in another 10 years—such is
the period from the moment of infection to the develop-
ment of disease—we will find ourselves facing a large
number of AIDS patients.

Why are we at the threshold of a leap? Vadim Pokrovskiy
offers a few reasons. The influx of foreign visitors,
among whom there are significant numbers of virus
carriers and even AIDS patients. And the “butterflies of
the night” are quite eager for hard-currency clients. The
number of prostitutes is increasing in connection with
the deteriorating economic situation.

Homosexuality and drug addiction are almost back to
being respectable. By the way, it was not that long ago
that HIV infection was discovered here for the first time
(in Russia and Belarus), precisely among drug addicts.
Disposable syringes aren’t going to save them.

Another factor influencing the rate of growth of the
number of infected individuals that Doctor Pokrovskiy
names is the population’s increasing interest in erotic
films, which provoke behavior that can be dangerous
from the standpoint of infection.

“We will come face to face with the results of our present
indifference to the AIDS problem in 10 years. Today,
everyone’s living a day at a time, and no one wants to
look a decade into the future,” complains Vadim Pok-
rovskiy. “This is perhaps why the Russian AIDS pro-
gram we have developed is loitering somewhere between
the government and the Supreme Soviet, wandering
through the Ministry of Finances and the Ministry of
Economics in search of coordination. And since the
program has not been approved, the money is flowing at
a reduced rate, and it is being spent mainly on testing.
Even though it is much more important to allocate it to
education. The question, after all, is not whether or not
the virus will spread. Of course it will. Mankind is
presently powerless to do anything about it. But as for
whether we will be able to reduce the number of infected
individuals, that’s another matter. This could be
achieved through a system of sex education.”

This has been a blind spot in our country for many years.
Many justifications could of course be found for it—
there are certain national and cultural traditions that
stand in the way of such education, after all. However,
the threat of losing an enormous quantity of the popu-
lation could perhaps cause a break in the wall of these
traditions.



34 CENTRAL EURASIA

Characteristically, state education was the first to take
on this challenge, though with some internal resistance.
A course on the ethics and psychology of family life was
introduced, but it contained a great deal more psy-
chology than physiology, and it was intended only for
senior students, to whom it would be too late to explain
anything anyway.

Then the problem was transferred to the shoulders of the
Ministry of Health—a beautiful plan for establishing
youth health centers in just about every microdistrict
was developed. In these centers, youngsters could obtain
the necessary advice from specialists in sexual pathology,
and from gynecologists and andrologists.

But the idea died out when the ministry was reorganized.
And those numerous brochures and newspapers that are
available in such large numbers in pedestrian subways
have little at all in common with education.

Here is the result: Among doctors, who have a relation-
ship to AIDS and who are supposed to explain the
methods of safe sex to others, only 10 percent know the
correct uses of particular articles. These “goods” are
lying unwanted in the pharmacies. Why? Because young
people haven’t all gotten used to going there. These
articles have now appeared in commercial stalls. But no
one can guarantee their quality and sterility. Perhaps the
example of the West, where such goods are available in
every store, at the check-out counter, or still better, in the
machines from which they used to sell cigarettes, could
help. It is easier for many to buy such articles from a
machine.

But let’s get back to education. Sex culture is a delicate
matter. It should be handled by professionals. It is not
something that can be taught to an entire class simulta-
neously. And even in secondary school, it would hardly
be of any benefit to conduct such discussion so openly.
In former Yugoslavia, for example, children received
video cassettes containing tapes of the necessary lessons
to complete as homework. They watched these tapes in
private. In Moscow there are two centers for adolescent
sex education, where lessons are conducted in private as
well. But this is clearly not enough!

However, the AIDS problem has lost the attention of not
just the state alone. Those who had been gathering to
storm this fortress are leaving. For example the staff of
the Russian center is only at half strength. You can
understand the doctors, because their success depends
on the health of patients. And when you treat a patient
forever and he still dies, it’s hard to keep on. Others are
unable to participate because the financing is too miserly
to offer the kind of treatment they would like to provide.
And so they leave the country.

The only bright spot that I can see in this problem is the
work of the scientists. Their research is continuing rather
successfully—at least we won’t drop below the world
level, and in some places we might even rise above it.
Research is financed competitively, on the basis of a
system of grants. Around 300 projects were selected for
grants in the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

the Russian Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, how-
ever, these projects never received the promised hard-
currency support. It is for this reason that most of the
research ground to a halt by the end of the year.

Today, on the territory of the former USSR, statistics are
also being maintained in the Baltic republics, where 783
are infected with the virus, including 297 children. One
hundred four persons are already sick with AIDS. But
according to Doctor Pokrovskiy’s estimates the actual
number of carriers in Russia is 3,000-5,000, which
people don’t even suspect. And it is from them that the
“plague of the 20th century” will begin to spread over
the entire country like rings over water, unless its path is
blocked. This is why specialists are waiting so impa-
tiently for the Russian AIDS program to finish its
wanderings through the bureaucracy.

Obstacles to AIDS Prevention Education in
Lithuania

93WE0148A Tallinn THE BALTIC INDEPENDENT
in English 4-10 Dec 92 p 9

[Text] Free condoms, explicit instructions on their use
and videos showing “actual homosexual love” brought
thousands of young people to last year’s “Condom
Fiesta,” organised by the Lithuanian AIDS Prevention
Centre, writes Matthias Lufkens in Vilnius.

This year, outraged Catholic morality ensured that the
Fiesta was a more staid affair. Consequently, only hun-
dreds attended while a 250 talonas (US $1) entrance fee
left more outside. With no free condom distribution
participants had to buy the red, green or chocolate-
tasting German-made latex for between 30-100 talonas.
Conservative pressure ensured that the information
about safe sex was toned down.

But AIDS workers are fighting much more than vocal
Catholic moralists. Public awareness of the disease is
poor. “I’m here because there is nothing else to do in
town,” said 23-year-old Jura, who claimed not to be
concerned about AIDS: “We are not in Africa,” he said.

Ignorance, fear and bureaucracy are the obstacles con-
fronting Saulius Chaplinskas, the head of the Lithuanian
AIDS Prevention Centre. Schools do not undertake
AIDS education and the authorities in Lithuania and
Estonia have still not changed the Soviet laws on AIDS
and homosexuality.

The Vilnius centre does assure absolute confidentiality.
“People are still afraid to go to venereal clinics and
doctors pocket hefty bribes from their patients,” said
Mr. Chaplinskas. In Latvia two people infected with the
HIV virus committed suicide after being publicly
exposed.

Mr. Chaplinskas now has twenty employees, and the
centre has multiplied its advertising campaigns. “We
have to work with prostitutes and drug users and we have
to start counselling. We have so much to do we don’t



2 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

Between 3,000 and 7,000 persons have been infected
with HIV through blood transfusions.

About 1,150 persons suffering from AIDS contracted the
disease from blood transfusions.

In Algeria

In Algeria the statistics are still not fully available, and
HIV positive persons are wandering around the country.

EGYPT

Health Minister Denies AIDS Spreading, Gives
Figures

NC2011091992 Cairo MENA in Arabic 0712 GMT 20
Nov 92

[Text] Cairo, 20 Nov (MENA)—Health Minister Dr.
Raghib Duwaydar stressed that recent reports about an
increase in the number of AIDS cases and a cover-up by
Officials are completely baseless.

In a statement to AL-AHRAM published today, the
minister said that the annual number of AIDS infections
in Egypt do not exceed 20 cases among Egyptians and 25
among foreigners, who are deported as soon as they are
found to be affected by the disease.

Dr. Duwaydar added that no more than 180 Egyptians
and 150 foreigners have been infected with the AIDS
virus in the past five years, explaining that the Egyptians
were infected through operations and blood transfusions
they had abroad.

The health minister affirmed that the preventive mea-
sures against AIDS in Egypt are sound and efficient. He
noted the availability of imported blood-testing equip-
ment at all blood banks and that blood is not imported
until after being screened for infection. He added that
the widespread use of disposable syringes and an
expanded information campaign on sexual relations are
part of the preventive plans.

Health Official Reports AIDS Cases, Plan To
Combat Spread

NC0502153493 Cairo AL-MUSAWWAR in Arabic 5
Feb 93 p 59

[Excerpt] Dr. Sayyid Sharqawi, director general of the
Health Ministry’s infectious diseases department, has
stated that 188 people have tested positive for AIDS in
Egypt. They include 128 carriers of the virus and 60 who
have shown symptoms of the disease. Ninety-five per-
sons have died from AIDS.

The cases began to appear in 1986. The affected persons
had received contaminated blood in Arab states. The
virus is sometimes transmitted through sexual inter-
course.

The plan now to prevent the disease is to monitor the
most susceptible groups, such as drug users, prisoners,
and prostitutes, and test foreigners who come to work,
train, or study. So far, 168 foreigners have been found to
carry the AIDS virus and have been deported. Random

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

tests have been carried out on groups not considered at
risk, such as persons with chest diseases and pregnant
women, to form an idea about society in general. Not a
single positive case has been discovered among these
groups. [passage omitted]

INDIA

Estimated 10,000 Infected With HIV Virus in
Delhi

BK2008064192 Delhi INDIAN EXPRESS in English 9
Aug 92p 5

[Text] New Delhi—There are an estimated 10,000
people in the Capital infected with HIV, the deadly virus
causing AIDS. Of these, 22 have already developed full
blown AIDS.

This was disclosed at a Symposium on AIDS threat in
Delhi, organised by the Indian Medical Association’s
East Delhi branch on Saturday. The Association also
apprehended a spurt in the number of HIV infected to
ten times the present, in the next five to eight years.

After prostitutes, professional blood donors comprise
the worst high risk group, with at least 1.5 percent of the
city’s professional blood donors being found to be HIV
carriers. It was however pointed out that since their
number contributed to just about 2 percent of the
affected populace, merely amending the Drugs and Cos-
metics Act to ensure a safer blood transfusion system will
not do to contain the growing threat.

It was suggested that mandatory testing of prostitutes for
HIV infections and other high risk groups should be
initiated along with counselling and rehabilitative ser-
vices, apart from screening of all tubercular patients and
those afflicted by other diseases caused by a low immu-
nity staus, for AIDS.

Other suggestions include initiating AIDS awareness
among school and college students, as well as health
workers. It was pointed out that a ban on professional
blood donation by enacting appropriate legislation might
also help in checking the spread of the virus.

The participants included Dr. A.N.Malaviya, head of the
department of Medicine at the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Dr. Vasishta of the Direc-
torate of Health Services, among others.

The organisation’s president Dr. Naresh Goel delivered
tbe welcome address, and its secretary Dr. P.K.Bhargava
delivered the vote of thanks.

Further Reportage on Fight Against AIDS

Northeastern States
93WE0200A Calcutta THE TELEGRAPH in English
30 Nov 92 p 6
[Article by Sekhar Datta]

[Text] Agartala, Nov 29—At least one-fourth of the HIV
carriers in the country live in the northeastern states.



SJPRS-TEP-93-004

22 February 1993 3 AIDS

EAST EUROPE
ROMANIA

Health Ministry Releases Data on AIDS Cases Bucharest ROMPRES, | Feb 93] ...
LATIN AMERICA
REGIONAL AFFAIRS

Carec Expects 1,000 New AIDS Cases by Year End (Bridgetown CANA, 18 Nov 92]
CUBA

Health Minister Terry Speaks on AIDS {Havana Cuba Vision Network, 20 Jan 93] .....
HONDURAS

AIDS Cases Total 1,124 Nationwide /San Pedro Sula TIEMPO, 12 Oct 92]
JAMAICA

Health Minister Discusses AIDS Situation in Country /Bonaire Trans World Radio, 12 Feb 93] ..
PANAMA

High Incidence of AIDS Related Deaths
[Cesar Gomez Marin; Panama City LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMA, 25 Nov 92]

ST. LUCIA

Survey Shows Inadequate Understanding of AIDS Bridgetown CANA, 16 Feb 93] .
Health Ministry Reports 41 Cases of AIDS [Bridgetown CANA, 19 Jan 93]

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA
ALGERIA

Investigation To Check Blood Supply Launched (Algiers EL WATAN, 8 Nov 92) .....
Uncertainty Over Safety of Blood Supply Algiers LE SOIR D’ALGERIE, 21 Dec 92]

EGYPT

Health Minister Denies AIDS Spreading, Gives Figures {Cairo MENA, 20 Nov 92) .....
Health Official Reports AIDS Cases, Plan To Combat Spread
[Cairo AL-MUSAWWAR, 5 Feb 93] 4...

INDIA

Estimated 10,000 Infected With HIV Virus in Delhi {Delhi INDIAN EXPRESS, 9 Aug 92]
Further Reportage on Fight Against AIDS
Northeastern States /Sekhar Datta; Calcutta THE TELEGRAPH, 30 Nov 92]
Cases in Bombay {Bombay THE TIMES OF INDIA, 4 Dec 92]
Africans Deported {Madras THE HINDU, 2 Dec 92]

IRAN

Total of 211 AIDS Cases /Tehran IRIB Television First Program Network, 22 Nov 92) ...
Imported Blood Cause of AIDS in Iran [Tehran KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL, 12 Dec 92]
Foreign Blood Products Main Cause of AIDS /Tehran ABRAR, 20 Dec 92] ...
Ads To Warn Public Against Threat of AIDS /London KEYHAN, 14 Jan 92]

19

19

: 20



SIPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

and helplessness. It is understandable that people doubt
that current laws and disease classifications are sufficient
to protect them against a fatal infection. And society
must defend against the murderous disease with the best
possible means.

Briefly considered, it might seem feasible to think that
the peril is removed by changing the classification of
AIDS from a contagious disease that must be reported,
to a threat to the general public. This new classification
would, theoretically, make it possible to quarantine
irresponsible bearers of the virus, and to order reluctant
patients to undergo compulsory treatment. Then again,
AIDS does not meet the legally stipulated contagiousness
criteria as do tuberculosis and polio, and, furthermore,
no present cure will heal an infected person.

Must a patient spend the rest of his life in quarantine
because there is no cure? Can the health boards of
communities determine who is responsible and who is
not? Those who have strict moral standards feel that
merely being infected is already a sign of irresponsibility,
and in intolerant communities this could lead to the
butchering of one’s rights. Who will pay for the cost if
HIV-positives who would be capable of working for
many years if they were to be locked up in some
institution?

Threatening with reports to the police and coercion
would quickly destroy Finland’s defense strategy against
the disease; a strategy built on voluntariness, responsi-
bility and compassion, and a strategy that has been
effective. Due to education, AIDS has spread slower
than was predicted. That is why it is unnecessary to
deviate from a policy that was wisely chosen initially,
and that is being used by other Western countries as well.
Even Sweden, which has quarantined drug addicts and
Prostitutes, is not satisfied with the results of forced
treatment.

Likewise the WHO and EC recommend procedures that
are based on education and voluntarism but the system
must be improved further. In our country as well as
elsewhere the insufficient training of health care per-
sonnel weakens the results. Even the current disease
classification and legal code obligates the patient to
report his/her observations regarding the advancement
of the disease and a doctor to monitor and find care for
anyone that has been infected.

The right to be a practicing doctor also includes an
obligation to fulfill difficult and bothersome responsibil-
ities, but it seems that not all professionals in this field
are clear on the statutes of the law regarding contagious
diseases. Doctors share the same human feelings and
attitudes that the general public has. AIDS frightens
surgeons as much as any other citizen unless sufficient
training can remove emotion from being in the way of
professional skillfulness.

The only way AIDS statistics will improve is by training
doctors to take care of their duties properly so that they
do not have to try to sidestep their responsibility by

WEST EUROPE 41

protracted hiding behind the patient’s right to confiden-
tiality. In addition to medical science, social and psycho-
logical skills are needed in caring for the infected person
and protecting those being exposed to risk of infection.

Despite the good results, we cannot afford to decrease
AIDS education. It is wise to avoid risk of infection even
though the justice system would place all culpability on
the infector. The courts can sentence irresponsible HIV
spreaders to incarceration as a threat to society, just like
it now does to badly demented, violent criminals. It must
be made possible to order testing of persons suspected of
infecting others. The disease is not a crime but infecting
others is.

FRANCE

Judiciary Panel Views Limitation in Tainted
Blood Scandal

AU2201193093 Paris AFP in English 1922 GMT 22
Jan 93

[Text] Paris, Jan 22 (AFP)—A French judiciary panel
looking into accusations that three French top govern-
ment officials were involved in a tainted blood scandal
met Friday [22 January] to decide whether a statute of
limitation applies.

Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, Social Affairs
Minister Georgina Dufoix and Health Minister Edmond
Herve have been accused of having caused the infection
with the AIDS virus in 1985, by lax supervision, igno-
Trance or incompetence, of hundreds of haemophiliacs.

Nearly 300 of them have died so far.

Both houses of the French parliament last month voted
that the three should stand trial before a special court
“for failure to give assistance.”

The offence is normally subject to the statute of limita-
tions after three years.

Fabius has said he wants to be cleared by a court and that
he is not seeking clearance under the statute of limitation
but the judiciary commission sitting at the former royal
chateau in Versailles could rule that proceedings should
have been opened in 1988 at the latest.

Critics of the three officials have said that the govern-
ment failed to order an automatic screening of all blood
from blood donors as of mid-1985, years after the AIDS
epidemic broke out and as tests were being introduced.

Fabius was prime minister from 1984 to 1986.

Should the commission rule that the accusations have
come under the statute of limitation, the case would be
resubmitted to parliament.

Parliament could then adopt a resolution accusing the
three of involuntary manslaughter. The three-year
statute of limitation would not be applied in this case as
no haemophiliac has been dead for more than three
years,

A commission ruling was expected for next week.



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Personnel at one hospital cannot pass information on a
Patient’s status to another hospital unless personnel face
an occupational risk of infection.

The hospital cannot provide a patient’s physician with

test results and vice versa, unless the patient consents.

A physician cannot administer an HIV test without
asking the patient. This is true even if it is likely that the
patient is infected.

Consequently, the Aarhus physician who said last spring
that he tests his patients if he thinks they are homosexual
is on thin ice. Also, the HIV-infected individual who
finds a large yellow mark on his record indicating
infection has the right to have it removed. Hospitals are
also not permitted to place distinguishing marks on
rooms housing HIV-infected persons. They were per-
mitted to do so only up until the summer of 1988. After
that time they began to show reservations toward all
patients, partly to improve hygiene in general and partly
not to brand and isolate HIV-patients.

This is how the situation is in Denmark—for now. AIDS
policy is under pressure, with Palle Juul Jensen as the
most prominent and influential critic. His criticism soon
brought Liberal Party politician Jorgen Winther over to
his side, despite the resistance of the Health Minister.
She is also a Liberal Party member. Other critics include
Deputy Police Director and Liberal Party politician
Gudrun Laub who, along with numerous other police, is
outraged because prostitutes may be infecting their cli-
ents if they do not use condoms. Laub and others want to
register prostitutes and have the legal authority to step in
and forbid HIV-positive individuals from having sexual
contact with other people. This is why they want to
resurrect the law on sexually transmitted diseases. It was
repealed in 1988. Gudrun Laub’s idea caused Michael
von Magnus of the Board of Health to say, “AIDS can be
avoided by using condoms and that is the essence of the
entire matter. The men pay for doing it without a
condom. Why should the prostitutes be punished for
that? That is like jumping in the water near a shark and
then scolding the shark when it starts to eat you.”

Call To Register HIV-Positive

At its convention last year, the Danish Housewives’
Associations agreed to demand a central registry of
everyone who tested HIV-positive, ostensibly to be able
to help them immediately if a better form of treatment or
a vaccine is discovered—but also to control the paths of
infection. The Housewives’ Associations also want to
have the law on sexually transmitted diseases reinstated,
in order to force HIV-infected people to tell their part-
ners that they are sick.

“A law of that kind would be meaningless because we
could not control what individuals say and do,” Health
Minister Ester Larsen told the Housewives’ Association
newsletter. “I do not want to live in a police state that
keeps an eye on what the individual citizen does. What
we can do is to advise prostitutes and their clients about
safe sex. It is always the duty and the responsibility of the

WEST EUROPE 39

individual to protect himself. Neither legislation nor
registration had much impact on sexually transmitted
diseases. The Folketing abolished the law because it was
not effective.”

Dr. Hugh Zachariae of Marselisborg Hospital is an
active advocate of the Swedish model.

In Sweden AIDS has been placed under the law on
infectious diseases. If a person thinks he may be infected,
he must go to a doctor and be tested. HIV-positive
individuals are registered. Afterwards, the person must
follow the doctor’s precautions, such as telling his
Partner or partners that he is infected, having sex only
while using a condom, not sharing needles with other
drug users, and no prostitution. He must also say who his
Partners have been and who may be carrying the virus. If
the individual fails to meet these requirements, he can be
forcibly isolated for an undetermined time. People he
has been with will be picked up by the police if they fail
to appear voluntarily.

Zachariae believes it is easier to track down the infection
if there is a law on infectious diseases stating that the
patient must help. The obvious counterargument is that,
law or no law, it is impossible to force a person to say
something he does not want to say. Anyone can “forget.”
Moreover, the disadvantages of such a law are greater
than the advantages, since it would frighten people from
ever being tested.

On one point Zachariae is on the same wavelength as
those who support the present system, including AIDS
Secretariat chief Michael von Magnus. This point
involves tracking down the infection by probing the
individual’s sex life and contacting his partners. If they
are infected, have they infected others? We have not
done this well enough in Denmark and this may have
cost lives. The apparatus simply has not been steady on
its feet, even though the guidelines from the Health
Board state that the physician should work actively to
motivate the patient to inform his partners or get help to
do it. Ultimately, however, the patient’s decision must
be respected, our guidelines state, while the Swedish
model says that the patient must do it.

Zachariae also defends the Swedish model in this way:
Relatively speaking, Sweden has given the greatest
number of HIV tests in Europe and the number of those
infected is lower than in Denmark.

Else Smith of the Serum Institute responds: “The critics
here in this country say that there are fewer cases of HIV
in Sweden, but that has been true from the start. All
along, Denmark has had more cases than Sweden and
Norway, but that presumably has more to do with
cultural phenomena, such as which country has more
homosexuals. The countries are not the same, so it is
extremely difficult to compare the number of infected
individuals.

“Nor is it a point in favor of their laws that they have
administered more tests. We could give just as many
here if we routinely offered them to large groups, such as



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

so as to prevent the proliferation of the deadly disease.
The AIDS situation in Indonesia shows the vulnerability
of the high-risk group, as evidenced by the increasing
number of patients from this group.

Trian Jaya Official Discloses AIDS Infection
Figures

BK0802144993 Jakarta ANTARA in English 1114 GMT
8 Feb 93

[Text] Jayapura, Irian Jaya, Feb 8 (OANA/
ANTARA)—Four Thai fishermen working at a fishing
boat owned by a national company in Merauke, Irian
Jaya, and two local prostitutes are assumed to have
contracted the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus),
which causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syn-
drome).

A team of the local health office responsible for the
curbing of the deadly disease made such a report fol-
lowing a blood test on 300 Merauke residents belonging
to the high-risk group.

Merauke Regent R. Sukarjo said Monday that the local
health office had carried out a blood test on those
suspected to have contracted the virus, especially the
Thai fishermen.

According to the head of the team, Slamet Sumarno,
there were now 1,600 Thais working as fishermen in
Merauke and blood samples derived from them at
random had been sent to Jakarta for further observation.

The result of the test has not been known, but there is a
big possibility that there are four Thais fishermen and
two local prostitutes who have positively contracted the
HIV. Slamet said a similar test in Irian Jaya last year
showed that there were 27 people believed to have been
infected by the virus but a more thorough test in Jakarta
later proved they were free from it.

JAPAN
Number of People With AIDS Or HIV Doubles in

0W2601092793 Tokyo KYODO in English 0910 GMT
26 Jan 93

[Text] Tokyo, Jan. 26 KYODO—The number of newly
identified people in Japan with AIDS or infected with
the HIV virus in 1992 more than doubled from the
previous year to 493, the Health and Welfare Ministry’s
AIDS Surveillance Committee said Tuesday [26 Jan-
uary]. The figure brings the total number of AIDS and
HIV cases in Japan to 1,046, the committee said.

Clinton, Watanabe Agree To Put AIDS on
Summit Agenda

OW 1202024493 Tokyo KYODO in English 0219 GMT
12 Feb 93

[Text] Washington, Feb. 11 KYODO—President Bill
Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Michio
Watanabe agreed Thursday [11 February] that AIDS is a

EAST ASIA 9

major international problem that should be on the
agenda for Tokyo summit in July.

The AIDS issue came up during bilateral talks with
Clinton. Watanabe said the group of seven major indus-
trial nations must cooperate in coping with the disease.

Clinton agreed to make AIDS a priority during his
administration over the next four years, and said the
disease must be confronted in concert by the United
States and Japan.

It would be the first time that AIDS went on the agenda
at the summit of leaders from the world’s leading indus-
trial democracies.

Watanabe Proposes Japan-U.S. Fight Against
AIDS in Asia

OW 1602102193 Tokyo KYODO in English 1002 GMT
16 Feb 93

[Text] Tokyo, Feb 16 KYODO—Foreign Minister
Michio Watanabe proposed during his recent visit to
Washington that Japan and the United States cooperate
to fight the AIDS epidemic in Southeast Asia, Foreign
Ministry sources revealed Tuesday [16 February].

The sources said the suggestion was made in an inter-
view with a U.S. newspaper, but was never published.

They said Watanabe proposed that a joint Japan-U.S.
project concerning AIDS be implemented in Southeast
Asia, but did not say what countries would be targeted or
the specific kind of project he had in mind.

A Japanese AID official is expected to visit Washington
in the near future and will likely discuss the subject in
more detail with U.S. counterparts.

In his talks with President Bill Clinton last Thursday
Watanabe was quoted as saying it was his personal view
that AIDS should be placed on the agenda of seven
industrialized nations’ summit in Tokyo in July.

Officials said Clinton concurred, saying the AIDS
problem should be a subject for consultation among
concerned countries.

Commenting on the discussion, one of the sources said,
“what we can do is help developing countries in basic
research and analysis of this disease and help in PR
activities to give the public more information and
knowledge about AIDS and its dangers.”

“We all know this could be a very good area in which
Japan and United States could cooperate in the future,”
he said.

The source said Japan has a plan to implement a
technical cooperation project on its own in Thailand, but
no concrete proposals are presently under active consid-
eration with regard to joint Japan-U.S. cooperation.

Thailand has by far the severest AIDS problem among
Southeast Asian countries and is reportedly already
estimating a loss of 10 billion dollars in productivity by
the year 2000 due to the disease.



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Lee said that RM 53 million more would be used for the
treatment of AIDS patients and this might include
setting up special wards and special training for doctors
and nurses.

He said it cost RM 25,000 per year to treat an AIDS
patient without the use of the AZT drug. The cost is
double when using the drug.

Lee added that laboratories at hospitals and the Institute
of Medical Research would also be upgraded at a cost of
RM 13.6 million.

Up to the end of last month, there were 5,068 HIV carriers
and 72 AIDS cases, out of which 43 persons had died.

PHILIPPINES

Foreigners To Need AIDS-Free Certification for
21-Day Stay

HK1202035893 Quezon City MALAYA in English

12 Feb 93 p 2

[Report by Butch Franco and Regina Bengco]

[Excerpt] Immigration chief Zafiro Respicio has
required all aliens staying in the country beyond 21 days
to present medical certificates at the bureau attesting
that they are not afflicted with the AIDS virus and other
sexually transmitted diseases.

In his Memorandum No. 009-92 signed last Dec. 2,
1992, Respicio said that aliens must also submit chest
X-ray and physical examination reports, including neu-
rological and psychological evaluation.

“This move is aimed to further prevent the proliferation
of AIDS virus in the country,” Respicio said.

The Department of Health [DOH], meanwhile, reacted
to such a memorandum, asking why it was not consulted
by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation {BID]
regarding the matter.

In his letter to Respicio dated Dec. 11, 1992, Health
Secretary Juan Flavier requested for a consultative
meeting between the BID and the DOH and that imple-
mentation of the Memo be temporarily withheld
pending consultations.

“We regret that the DOH was not consulted regarding
the matter,” Flavier said. He added that the DOH must
be consulted about health- related policies.

But Respicio stressed that the DOH has no jurisdiction
over the aliens, citing Sec. 29 (Par A) of the Immigration
Act which provides that “persons affected with a loath-
some or dangerous and contagious disease shall be
subject to exclusion.”

“The Memorandum was issued pursuant to my authority
granted by the said Act to issue rules pertaining to the
admission of aliens,” he said in a letter to Flavier dated
Feb. 4, 1993.

Respicio said the medical certificates and other clear-
ances required of the aliens may be obtained from any of

EAST ASIA 1

the following medical centers: “Intramuros Medical
Clinic, Makati Medical Center, Manila Doctors’ Hos-
pital, St. Luke’s Hospital, Physicians’ Diagnostic Center
and Cebu Doctors’ Hospital.

He said the aliens must shoulder the expenses, and
warned that the BID will not renew the permits of those
who violate this rule.

[passage omitted]
THAILAND

AIDS Study Focus by Risk Group

93WE0127A Bangkok PHU YING NAEO NA in Thai
2 Nov 92 p3

[Excerpts] AIDS is a major public health problem in
Thailand. This is because the AIDS virus is spreading
rapidly in Thailand. In just the past four years, it is
estimated that the number of people with the AIDS virus
has reached the same number as in the United States,
which has been fighting this problem for 10 years and
which has a population four times larger than Thailand.
[passage omitted]

Realizing the importance of this problem, The Duang
Prathip Foundation, through its Project to Control AIDS.
in the Khlong Toei Slum Area, conducted a study
entitled “The Spread of AIDS in Slums.” People from
the Khlong Toei slum area served as the sample group.

The purpose of this study was to obtain data about those
who are at risk of contracting the AIDS virus in order to
find a way to stop the spread of this disease. The people
chosen to participate in this study can be divided into
three groups: drug addicts, prostitutes, and those who
drive motorcycles for hire.

The foundation disclosed the following details about
each of these groups:

Drug addicts: In the Khlong Toei slum, this is the group that
is at greatest risk of contracting the AIDS virus. Blood tests
given to 170 drug addicts showed that 60 percent of the drug
addicts had the AIDS virus. Drug addicts below the age of 20
had the highest incidence of AIDS, that is, 80 percent of the
drug addicts in this age group had the AIDS virus. That is a
very alarming figure. It is assumed that the reason why so
many young drug addicts have the AIDS virus is that they do
not have enough money to buy their own needles. Thus, they
often share needles with friends. Also, drug addicts in this
age group are young and strong and so they aren’t worried
about dying. Because of this, they aren’t interested in pro-
tecting themselves against the AIDS virus. Besides this,
young drug addicts frequently engage in sexual activities that
put them at risk of contracting the AIDS virus.

As for the second group, that is, prostitutes, the Duang
Prathip Foundation recently held a seminar for approx-
imately 72 prostitutes. This seminar was not open to the



JPRS-TEP-93-004

22 February 1993 2 AIDS
Cabinet Discusses AIDS; Economist Warns of Threat to Reform [Hong Kong AFP, 8 Feb 93] 6
EAST ASIA
BURMA
Health Minister Returns From India AIDS Conference /Rangoon Radio Burma, 14 Nov 92] ........ 8
CAMBODIA
Writer Discusses AIDS Awareness [Phnom Penh PRACHEACHON, 6 Sep 92] ........ 8
National Anti-AIDS Committee Set Up; 45 Positive Cases {Phnom Penh SPK, 26 Nov 8
INDONESIA
Minister Discloses Anti-AIDS Budget Allocation
[Jakarta Radio Republik Indonesia Network, 2 Feb 93] ...... 8
Irian Jaya Official Discloses AIDS Infection Figures /Jakarta 9

JAPAN
Number of People With AIDS Or HIV Doubles in 1992 [Tokyo KYODO, 26 Jan 93} ...
Clinton, Watanabe Agree To Put AIDS on Summit Agenda /Tokyo KYODO, 12 Feb 93] ..
Watanabe Proposes Japan-U.S. Fight Against AIDS in Asia /Tokyo KYODO, 16 Feb 93] ..
SOUTH KOREA

Health Ministry Reports AIDS Cases in 1992 (Seoul YONHAP, 30 Nov 92]
Seven New Cases of AIDS in January /Seoul YONHAP, 30 Jan 93]

MALAYSIA

Cabinet Approves Additional Funds for AIDS Prevention
[Chan Cheng Tuan and S. Kumaraguru; Kuala Lumpur NEW STRAITS TIMES, 11 Feb 93] 10

PHILIPPINES

Foreigners To Need AIDS-Free Certification for 21-Day Stay
[Butch Franco and Regina Bengco; Quezon City MALAYA, 12 Feb 93] ....

THAILAND

AIDS Study Focus by Risk Group /Bangkok PHU YING NAEO NA, 2 Nov 92] ....
Thai Red Cross Urged To Screen Blood for New ‘Deadly’ Virus
[Bangkok THE NATION, 24 Nov 92] ......

Chiang Mai Hospital Treating AIDS-Infected Babies /Bangkol 13
Medical Official Views AIDS Problem; Provides Statistics
[Bangkok BANGKOK POST, 26 Jan 93] ..... 13

‘Conflict? Over AIDS Testing Continues Between Agencies
[Bangkok THE NATION, 27 Jan 93]
Doctor Addresses ‘Guinea Pig’ Issue on AIDS Test
[Bangkok Army Television Channel 5, 29 Jan 93] ...
Confusion Persists Over Testing AIDS Vaccine /Bangkok BANGKOK POST, 2 Feb 93]
Ministry Notes Over 100 Percent Rise in AIDS Sufferers
[Bangkok BANGKOK POST, 11 Feb 93} .....

VIETNAM

Government Issues Decree on Compulsory AIDS Testing /Hong Kong AFP, 18 Jan 93]



32 CENTRAL EURASIA

the territory. I would say, the situation is tense, although
there are concrete pre-conditions for successful action
against HIV infection.

1 believe that everything that is happening could best be
expressed by numbers reflecting the dynamics of AIDS
in Ukraine. The first infection cases were noted here in
1987. Towards the end of last July, 102 cases of infected
countrymen were registered, among them 15 children.
Some of the newborn were infected intrauterine by their
mothers. Nine individuals succumbed to AIDS, 8 died, 4
among them children. From 1987 to this date, 188
foreigners were found to be infected. All of them were
deported outside our borders.

The infected individuals were found in 19 Oblasts of
Ukraine, in the Crimean Republic and in the cities of
Kiev and Sevastopil. During this year, three more
Oblasts were added to the epidemic process: Dnipro-
petrovska O., Luhanska O, and Ivano-Frankivska O. The
most unfortunate in respect to increased numbers of
HIV infected individuals is the Odeska O. (43 cases)
followed by Donetska O. (9 cases), Zakarpatska O. (4
cases) and the city Kiev (18 cases).

The epidemic process runs quite intensively: during
1991, 21 HIV infected cases were identified, while in the
seven months of 1992 - already there are 19. The
principal infections occurred via the sexual route (62
cases). The number of HIV infected men and women is
about the same.

And yet, it is necessary to discuss the first victims of
AIDS in Ukraine - women - separately. Almost all of
them became infected through their sexual partners -
local or foreign. Some of these women belong to the risk
group comprised of prostitutes and dope addicts. It has
been shown that 36 of the HIV infected men in Ukraine
were found among individuals leading a disorderly sex
life. Unfortunately, quite a few women are also in this
group.

As horrible as it is, there are cases of intrauterine
infection with AIDS. Could there be a greater misfor-
tune? Therefore, protection of women from this infec-
tion becomes the key issue.

The following is also noteworthy: 46% of AIDS infec-
tions occurred through contact with local HIV infected
carriers. In other words, it is not right any more to blame
only the foreign “AIDS-spies”. This calls for a wide,
intensive prophylaxis program.

The heterosexual variant of AIDS infection dominates in
Ukraine; 60% of all cases were infected this way. I will
not discover anything new by stressing: the principal
protective barrier is the constant use of prophylactic
agents. Obviously, in any case the disorderly sexual
partners should be avoided. This advise is important to
the very life itself and I am obliged to appeal again to
human intellect. None of the prophylactic means will
protect us if we will not remember this danger and will
not work to avoid it.

JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

The World Health Organization deemed it necessary to
organize post- haste scientific workshop-conference in
Minsk. AIDS did not disappear with liquidation of the
Soviet Union. On the contrary, the question became
more complex - the CIS countries very often act in
disorganized fashion. Therefore, each delegation (repre-
sentatives or observers of all countries that once were
part of the USSR participated in this conference with
exception of Georgia, Moldava and Estonia) provided
the regional WHO offices with official reports citing
exhaustive data on the dynamics of HIV infection in
concrete epidemiological terms.

Ihave been designated to give such a report for Ukraine.
Several of its positions attracted close attention at this
conference. Ukraine is the only country in CIS in which
a national AIDS prophylactic program has been set up
and is being implemented. Our prophylactic concepts
providing for laboratory control of all blood donors and
examinations of all pregnant women have been
approved. A total of 136 laboratories are involved in this
operation in Ukraine, there are regional and oblast
centers for the control of AIDS and separate units in
sanitary epidemiological stations. Ukraine was the first
among the CIS countries to abolish criminal responsi-
bility for homosexuality. This gave the medical profes-
sion a chance to cover this risk group on a individual
prophylactic basis. In contrast to other countries where
only those already with AIDS are registered, we have
organized an effective system of identifying the HIV
infected individuals. This obviously is an important
barrier to the spread of the disease.

Times demand from us aggressive actions against AIDS.
Recently in Odesa, a branch of the Ukrainian Center for
Prevention and Control of AIDS was established. Its aim
is to provide a strong laboratory support for this complex
operation in five of the southern Oblasts of Ukraine
where our international ports are located and where the
situation is extremely serious.

Unfortunately, the demand for latex products (i.e. pro-
phylactics) is satisfied only to the extent of 40%. The
need for ultrasound sterilization equipment for multiple
use medical instruments is great and so is the need for
using disposable needles. In other words, we are talking
about massive scientific, organizational, educational and
technical measures. The funds required for this are large
but the stakes are just as great - life or death of the
nation.

AIDS in Bukovina

93WE0151B Kiev DEMOKRATYCHNA UKRAYINA in
Ukrainian 24 Sep 92 p 1

[Article by S. Petryk]

[Text] Bukovina residents were shaken up by the news
that on its territory a carrier of AIDS virus was identi-
fied, reports the correspondent of Ukrinform service.
This carrier is a citizen of one of transcaucasian repub-
lics who arrived in the Oblast to grow rich on poppy
seeds which, after a prolonged ban were again permitted



20 LATIN AMERICA

Health Ministry Reports 41 Cases of AIDS

FL1901195393 Bridgetown CANA in English 1549
GMT 19 Jan 93

[Text] Castries, St. Lucia, Jan 19, CANA—One new
AIDS case and two HIV positive identifications have
been reported by St. Lucia’s Ministry of Health, in
revised statistics for the last quarter of 1992. Statistics up
to December 31 last year also show that five suspected
HIV cases are still to be confirmed.

The latest figures bring to 41, the total number of cases of
AIDS reported so far on the island, while there are 86
cases of HIV positive-tested individuals, director of the
AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s) and HIV
Prevention Programme of the Ministry of Health,
Doctor Michele Ohms told CANA. She said during the
last quarter of 1992, there were no HIV-related deaths.

“Total HIV-related deaths remained at 39,” OHMS
reported. She also said during the last year, 1,294 blood

SPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

donors were tested for the HIV virus that causes AIDS,
with all found to be free of the disease.

“That means that since 1988, our blood bank has been
very safe,” she said. 691 persons were tested for insur-
ance purposes during 1992, with no positive identifica-
tions, Ohms added. She told CANA that during last year,
the number of people visiting sexually transmitted dis-
cases tinies for tests almost doubled to 2,219 from 1,220
in 1991.

“The number of new HIV positives in 1991 was 18, and
in 1992 was 12,” Ohms remarked. She also told CANA
the number of new AIDS cases in 1991 was seven, and
eight last year.

“That means that apparently, the situation is quite
stable, but it does not mean that it will not suddenly be
rising in the future,” the physician said. “This means
that all of us must be careful,” she warned.



Epidemiology
AIDS

JPRS-TEP-93-004 CONTENTS 22 February 1993
[This EPIDEMIOLOGY report contains only material on AIDS. Other epidemiology topics are covered in a later
issue.)
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
ANGOLA
AIDS Researcher Discusses Trend in Country /Luanda JORNAL DE ANGOLA, 14 Oct 92]... 1
BOTSWANA
Estimates Indicate 60,000 Infected With HIV Virus

[Gaborone Radio Botswana Network, 22 Jan 93]
Ministry Says All Districts Now Reporting AIDS Cases

[Gaborone Radio Botswana Network, 24 Jan 93] 2
BURUNDI
AIDS Prevention Director Comments on Extent of Disease
[Bujumbura Radio-Television Nationale du Burundi Radio, 18 Nov 92] ... 2
IVORY COAST
Report on AIDS Seminar /Leon Francis; Abidjan FRATERNITE MATIN, 17 Nov 92] 2
SOUTH AFRICA
Health Department To Make AIDS, Tuberculosis Priorities Johannesburg SAPA, 2 Feb 93]... 3
SWAZILAND
Nine AIDS Deaths last Quarter of 1992 (Mbabane Swazi Television, 4 Jan 93] .. 3
UGANDA
Over 20,000 Registered AIDS Cases /Alma-Ata KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA, 29 Aug 92] ...... 3
ZAMBIA
AIDS Cases Fill 50-70 Percent of Hospital /Lusaka TIMES OF ZAMBIA, 2 Oct 92] .... 3
ZIMBABWE
AIDS Awareness Not Altering Behavior fHarare THE SUNDAY MAIL, 18 Oct 92] 4

Government Releases ‘Alarming’ AIDS Statistics (Johannesburg SUNDAY TIMES, 29 Nov 92] a4
Army Contests Statement on HIV Infection Rate Among Troops
[Johannesburg SAPA, 25 Jan 93] ....

CHINA

WHO Official: Time Running Out for China To fight AIDS [Hong Kong AFP, I Dec 92] ..
Worker Contracts AIDS Virus While Overseas

[Shenyang Liaoning People’s Radio Network, 1 Feb 93] 6
Ability To Control AIDS Said Inadequate /Hong Kong ZHON(



44 INTERNATIONAL .

Minsk AIDS Conference
93WEOOSIA St. Petersburg NEVSKOYE VREMYA in
Russian 22 Jul 92 p 3

[Article by Anton Gubankov: “Russian AIDS: Epi-
demics Can Begin at Any Moment”)

[Text] The latest data on development of AIDS in the
world, Europe and Russia were presented at an AIDS
conference recently concluded in Minsk. Representa-
tives of all CIS republics, directors of the Lithuanian and
Latvian AIDS centers, and delegations from the Euro-
pean and central bureaus of the World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO) participated in the conference.

According to a report by the Russian participants around
550 persons infected with AIDS have been recorded in
the republic (of them, 72 are AIDS patients). There are
150 infected individuals in the rest of the republics.
There are 46 carriers living in St. Petersburg; of seven
patients, four have already died. The first cases of HIV
infection among drug addicts were recorded within the

Sveyn Erik Ekeyd [transliteration], the director of the
European bureau for the global AIDS problem, empha-
sized that despite the “untroubling” morbidity figures,
an epidemic explosion comparable to the consequences
of the Second World War can be expected at any
moment in republics of the former USSR. In fact, as the
Geneva representative noted, a certain lack of concern
on the part of Indians for example in relation to AIDS
ended in tragedy: An enormous number of urban resi-
dents are now infected.

In the opinion of specialists, republics of the former
USSR are devoting inadequate attention to preventing
disease among the healthy population and to solving the
social problems of persons infected with the virus.

“St. Petersburg’s AIDS centers must be fortified. There
should be at least five of them in the city,” feels Aza
Rakhmanova. “But the AIDS Control Commission must
be headed either by the mayor or by his deputy—that is,
by a leader possessing real power over commissions and
committees, and capable of uniting the efforts of many
organizations and services.”

The need for drawing up special AIDS programs for
schoolchildren and youngsters on a multidisciplinary
basis, with the assistance of infection and drug addiction
specialists, venerologists and other specialists was noted
at the conference in Minsk. Not only doctors but also
psychologists and sociologists must work at city AIDS
centers. On its part, WHO assured those in attendance
that financial support will be given to the development
of national AIDS programs.

Nikolay Chayka, director of the information department
of the Pasteur Institute, reported that over half a million
patients and around 10 million HIV carriers and persons
in the initial stage of illness have been recorded in the
world.

SPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

AIDS Morbidity in Some European Countries (according
to WHO data from 24 June 1992)

Country Number of Cases
France 18,926
Spain 13,261
Italy 12,754
Germany 8,277
Great Britain 5,782
Romania 1,876
Denmark 972
Yugostavia 270
Finland 104
Hungary ”
The former USSR 2
Czechoslovakia 28
Bulgaria 13

Report on International AIDS Conference
93WEO0OSIC St. Petersburg NEVSKOYE VREMYA in
Russian 11 Aug 92 p 4

{Article by Anton Gubankov: “AIDS: No Vaccine for
Another Six Years”)

{Text] The regular international AIDS conference was to
be held in the USA's Harvard University. Because mea-
sures of this sort are conducted not only for scientific
purposes but also for information and coordination,
medical personnel, biologists, sociologists and HIV car-
riers—everyone interested one way or another in the
fastest possible solution to the “problem of the cen-
tury”—were to take part in it. Presence of infected
individuals at the forum demonstrates on the one hand
the position of the world intellectual elite in relation to
social adaptation of patients (conference chairman Dr.
Jonathan Mann exchanged handshakes with a represen-
tative of HIV carriers to the applause of the audience at
the meeting’s conclusion), and on the other hand, it
allows us to understand the problems of infected indi-
viduals better. However, a number of restrictions exist in
the USA regarding visits to the country by HIV carriers.
Despite the persistent appeals of the scientific commu-
nity, the Americans did not repeal their rigid laws. An
unprecedented decision was made: to move the Eighth
International Conference to Amsterdam, and not to
conduct such conferences in the USA until the discrim-
inatory restrictions are repealed.

And so, Amsterdam, 1992. Over 12,000 participants,
including from the former USSR. The diagrams show the
latest data on AIDS morbidity. Add 1 million children to
the 12 million infected adults. That makes 13—the
devil’s dozen. Patients have been recorded in 168 coun-
tries; moreover the geography of the virus’s occurrence is
changing, which promises nothing good. Two years ago
there was no AIDS at all in Asia for practical purposes,
but today it is credited with a fourth of the cases of


SJPRS-TEP-93-004

28 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 22 February 1993

be at risk. Although we are still a low prevalence country,
Dr. Jayakuru has warned that the position may well
change by the time World AIDS Day comes around
again this time next year.

The reasons for his fears are understandable. We had 36
recorded cases of HIV at the end of December 1991.

This had jumped to 61 this year. As Dr. Jayakuru has
pointed out, this sudden increase could, as in other
countries, be a critical point with 1992 being the year
when the exponential increase of HIV infection occurred
here.

[Passage omitted]



IPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

Guangdong, pioneer of China’s capitalist reforms, has
been hit hard by the AIDS scare with 53 carriers of the
virus reported by the end of last year, according to the
Digest Weekly newspaper.

Twenty of the carriers were natives of the province, 13
were from other provinces and the remaining 20 were
from outside China, it said.

Only nine virus carriers were found in the whole prov-
ince between 1986 and 1990, but 27 carriers were found
in the first 11 months of last year alone.

AIDS is also a menace in the southwestern province of
Yunnan, which borders the Golden Triangle drug-
producing region.

New Laser Blood Test Device Eliminates AIDS
sl

LD2801163193 Moscow ITAR-TASS in English 1442
GMT 28 Jan 93

[Article by ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Roma-
nenkova]

[Text] Moscow January 28 TASS—It is impossible to
catch the AIDS-related HIV virus and other diseases as a
result of having a blood test with the new laser perforator
“Ermed-303” which has been developed at the engi-
neering centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences’
Institute for Nuclear Research.

The device punctures the skin with the help of a narrow
laser beam thus making the subcutaneous water burst
and form a tiny opening in the skin. Such a contact-free
method guarantees both absolute sterility and minimal
damage to the fine tissues of the finger, making the
procedure practically painless.

Moreover, it is possible to regulate the power of the laser
beam on perforator “Ermed-303”. This also enables the
depth of the perforation to be altered as it should be
larger in an adult than a child.

The new device weighs only 3.5 kilogrammes and is
simple to use. It has already undergone clinical trials in
leading medical establishments in Russia and the results
have been positive. The Russian Ministry of Health has
approved of it being put into operation.

Government To Require All Foreigners To Pass
AIDS Test

£D0402151093 Tashkent Uzbekistan APN in Russian
1159 GMT 4 Feb 93

[Text] In the capital of Uzbekistan a program has been
developed to fight AIDS—the plague of the century.
Henceforth, by a decision of the Hokimiyat (Mayor’s
office) all foreigners arriving in Tashkent must produce a
certificate of an AIDS test. This rule will also apply to
local residents who have been abroad. Moreover, labo-
ratories will be opened in the city whose purpose is to
discover the HIV infection. All expenses will be paid by
the city budget.

CENTRAL EURASIA 37

Moscow, Oblast Have 27 AIDS Cases, 103

HIV-Positive

god 2153193 Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 4 Feb
pl

[RIA report: “Latest Figures on Incidence of AIDS in
Russia”’]

[Text] From the time that the first AIDS victim was
discovered in Russia in 1986 to early-February 1993,
there has been a total of 611 people registered HIV-
positive—92 people with AIDS, and 72 deaths. Moscow
holds first place in terms of the number of people
registered HIV-positive and people with AIDS (103 and
27 respectively in the oblast), then come Rostov and the
oblast (105), and Kalmykia (92).

Supreme Soviet to Discuss Bill on AIDS
Preventive Measures

LD0802173093 Moscow ITAR-TASS in English 1655
GMT 8 Feb 93

[By ITAR-TASS parliamentary correspondent Ivan
Novikov]

[Text] Moscow February 8 TASS—The Supreme Soviet
of the Russian Federation will consider a bill “‘on pre-
ventive measures against AIDS” in accordance with the
decision made by the presidium of the Russian parlia-
ment today.

Some figures concerning this disease, which began to
spread in Russia in 1987, have been given at a session of
the presidium. 581 AIDS cases, including 270 children,
have been registered so far. In addition, 393 foreign
citizens were found HIV-positive and deported from the
country. 70 HIV-carriers, including 53 children, died of
this disease. AIDS was diagnosed in 86 cases.

Another aspect of the problem also causes concern: This
infection has spread among the population of 47 subjects
of the Russian Federation, with the number of such cases
increased almost by one third over the last two years.
The number of HIV-positive and AIDS- infected cases
has been growing among teenagers and young people.
The unstable socio-economic situation in the country,
the strengthening of migration processes and a number
of other reasons, including the changed sexual behaviour
of the people, have become the factors intensifying the
situation regarding the spread of AIDS in Russia.

As is known, since the time when the registration of this
disease began in Russia, a number of standard acts have
been adopted which permitted to fight against the
approaching epidemic more efficiently. However, the
system of prophylactic and anti-epidemic measures and
social protection of HIV-positive people and AIDS-
carriers require legal enacting.

A bill on AIDS, directed to parliamentary committees
and commissions for the final elaboration, takes into
account the experience of the world community in this
sphere and relies upon the generally recognized interna-
tional and legal standards of human rights.



SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

This was revealed by a recent survey conducted by the
Indian Council for Medical Research.

According to the survey report, among the northeastern
states, Manipur tops the list in terms of having the
highest number of AIDS patients.

Of the 9,797 persons whose blood samples were tested in
Manipur, 1,554 were found HIV positive. Nagaland
which stands second in the region in this regard, reported
only 78 such cases. The other states which have been
minimally affected are Assam and Mizoram. So far only
12 AIDS cases have been traced in these two states,
according to the report.

The Union home ministry has decided to gear up secu-
rity along the Myanmur border to prevent widespread
smuggling of narcotics which is responsible for spreading
the disease, apart from irregular sexual behaviour.

The thickly-wooded areas of Myanmar bordering
Manipur and Nagaland have been major heroin produc-
tion and processing centres in the world. The ICMR
report also revealed that over 1,500 inhabitants of
Manipur were confirmed drug addicts, and as they
generally inject themselves they are more liable to con-
tract the disease.

Health department sources in Manipur fear that by 1994
the number of AIDS patients in the state will cross the
2,000 mark. The disease is also spreading due to the
tendency of the victims to conceal their ailment for fear
of adverse public reaction and social boycott. Recently,
two AIDS patients with fractures were refused admission
to a hospital.

The scenario in states like Tripura, Meghalaya and
Arunachal Pradesh which have so far remained free from
the disease may change unless the spread of AIDS is
checked.

Cases in Bombay

93WE0200B Bombay THE TIMES OF INDIA in
English 4 Dec 92 p 5

[Text] Nagpur, Dec. 3 (PTI)—Bombay tops the list of
AIDS cases in Maharashtra with 68 of the 97 such cases
reported till October last, the minister of state for health,
Ms Shalini Borse, told the state legislative council here
today.

Africans Deported
93WE0200C Madras THE HINDU in English 2 Dec 92
p4

[Text] Coimbatore, Dec. 1—Two persons from Africa
who had come to attend a training programme in textile
technology here were deported to their countries after
they tested HIV positive.

According to sources at the zonal surveillance centre for
AIDS, functioning at the Coimbatore Medical College
Hospital, a Tanzanian who had come for the training a
few months ago developed symptoms of encephalitis and
was admitted to a private hospital here. The hospital

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 2B

authorities sent his blood sample to the surveillance
centre for screening and he tested HIV positive.

Later he was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical Col-
lege Hospital from where the Government ordered his
deportation.

Another trainee from Zambia, who reported sick during
the course of the programme, was also referred to the
same Hospital from a private hospital a few days ago,
after he tested HIV positive. On the orders of the Union
Government, he left for Bombay by flight this afternoon
en route to Zambia.

The sources said the Government had ordered the
screening of all foreigners, including students, who come
to the country, for AIDS, within a week of their arrival
and those who tested positive were ordered to leave the
country immediately.

So far 20 persons, including the two African nationals
and five women, tested positive during the last one year,
when more than 3,200 samples were tested at the sur-
veillance centre.

IRAN

Total of 211 AIDS Cases

£D2211202992 Tehran IRIB Television First Program
Network in Persian 1530 GMT 22 Nov 92

{Excerpts}] In an interview with journalists, Mr. Maleki,
deputy minister for health affairs at the Ministry of
Health, Treatment and Medical Training, explained
issues concerning AIDS in the world and said that the
best way of preventing this disease is to teach people
more about preventive measures. [passage omitted] He
cautioned people about scratches when using instru-
ments on the skin, such as for piercing the ears, tat-
tooing, venesection, and barbers’ razors.

He said in conclusion that 211 cases of AIDS have been
identified in Iran.

Imported Blood Cause of AIDS in Iran

93AS0359Z Tehran KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL in
English 12 Dec 92 p8&

[Text] Yazd, Dec. 11 IRNA)—Some 78 percent of AIDS
victims in Iran have developed the deadly disease
through transfusion of imported blood products, head of
the medical center of Yazd Dr. ‘Ali Najafi said here
Thursday.

Among other people with the AIDS virus, 17 percent
were infected through sexual contact, 2 percent got the
virus from their mothers at or before birth, | percent are
drug addicts sharing infected syringes and 2 percent
through other ways, he said.

Dr. Najafi added that most AIDS carriers infected either
through blood transfusion or sexual contacts are from
northern and southern provinces.



JPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

warned that the killer disease threatened to disrupt the
country’s economic reforms, a newspaper said Monday.

“AIDS is the big enemy of opening and reform (and) we
cannot tolerate AIDS obstructing opening and reform,”
prominent Chinese economist Ma Bin wrote, in a report
to the central authorities, the official Health News said.

Opening and reform must continue, Ma added, but not if
the price to pay was an explosion of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome.

Ma, an advisor to the cabinet’s Development Research
Center, suggested implementing a systematic program to
fight against AIDS, including stepping up measures
against drug abuse, prostitution and pornography.

CHINA 1

Premier Li Peng paid great attention to Ma’s report and
the cabinet met recently to specifically discuss ways to
combat AIDS, the newspaper said.

Details of the meeting were not disclosed.

About 1,000 people in China are known to be infected
with the AIDS virus, but the problem is expected to be
far more severe than reported as drugs and prostitution
rapidly spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in
December that the deadly disease would spread to other
parts of China along with economic development. China
has yet to implement a long-term AIDS control policy.



IPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

INTERNATIONAL

45

AIDS Morbidity (Data as of July 1992)

(1)-3APETACTPMPOBAHHBIE
CAYYAN: 501 272

OTHER
TM .
AMERICAS
1mm

2%

1%

Nanas

= USA,
a.

(3° Moxnosan CLUA

(2) NPEANONOXKUTENBHAR
SABONEBAEMOCTE: 1 700 000
aca

OTHER
%

AMERICAS *

EUROPE TM

« USA

10%

Key: 1. Registered cases: 501,272 2. Presumed morbidity: 1,700,000 3. Excluding the USA

coorHomeHne

Approximate Data on Numbers of Infected Individuals, by Region

OBWEE KOMMYECTBO® (2)
WHOULMPOBAHHDIX 10-12 MIIH

Key: 1. Sex ratio of infected individuals 2. Total number of infected individuals 10-12 million

infection. It was ascertained at the conference that
serious theories casting doubt upon the viral nature of
AIDS presently do not exist. It is as yet early to talk
about a “new” immunodeficiency virus, about which so
much is now being written. This is not yet a sensation,
but an object of research: Only a few patients with
progressive immunodeficiency in the absence of HIV
have been discovered.

According to the predictions of specialists, the first,
partially effective vaccines may appear only in 1998. The
wait is still long, but the best medical personnel and
biologists of the world—such as Jonas Salk, the patriarch
of the vaccine field (and the inventor of polio vaccine)—
are working on a cure.

The principal result of the conference was a certain
consensus on the general state of affairs in the AIDS
area, and demonstration of the resolve of the best

intellectual forces in fighting the disease. All in a sense
“synchronized their watches,” once again pointing out
that the problem is so deep that governments and
politicians need to think about it seriously. In the USA,
for example, the expenses of treating patients are grad-
ually transforming into a national problem.

Can we allow ourselves to spend money in this way?
Wouldn’t it be better to prepare the infrastructure for
AIDS prevention ahead of time? “Of course, it would be
better,” feels Andrey Kozlov, laboratory director at the
All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Especially
Pure Preparations. “We need to combine the laborato-
ries into a single research center capable of perceiving
new vaccines, a center that would finally promote an
overall rise in the level of Russian medicine.”

Andrey Kozlov heads Bruce Rappaport’s biomedical
center for the study of AIDS (Rappaport is a prominent



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10 EAST ASIA

Last December, an influential report to the government
by the Council on Japan-U.S. Economic Relations urged
that the two countries develop a “common strategy of
coordination” to fight AIDS and other such transna-
tional diseases.

A similar proposal was made in January in a published
article by Yukio Sato, chief of the Foreign Ministry’s
North American Affairs Bureau.

Last Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, a
member of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting
Tokyo told an audience at a Tokyo hotel that Japan and
the U.S. should join forces in the fight against AIDS.

SOUTH KOREA

Health Ministry Reports AIDS Cases in 1992

SK3011101992 Seoul YONHAP in English 0913 GMT
30 Nov 92

{Text] Seoul, Nov. 30 (YONHAP)—Sixty-six Koreans
have been affected by AIDS virus so far this year,
according to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Monday.

Of the total, 37 suffered the infection through sexual
contacts with fellow Koreans and 23 through contacts
abroad.

This means that those infected through contacts with
Koreans outpaced those affected abroad for the first time
since 1985 when AIDS victims were first reported in
Korea.

Of the six remainders, five were infected through blood
transfusion and another through sexual contact with a
foreigner in the country.

Last year, 16 were infected through contacts with
Koreans and 18 abroad, and in 1990 25 with Koreans
and 27 abroad.

Seven New Cases of AIDS in January

SK3001090093 Seoul YONHAP in English 0722 GMT
30 Jan 93

[Text] Seoul, Jan. 30 (YONHAP)}—Seven people were
confirmed to have contracted AIDS in January, while
one man died of it, the South Korean Health and Social
Affairs Ministry reported Saturday.

With the finding, a ministry source said, a total of 252
people proved to have contracted the incurable disease,
of whom 29 have died and one man has left the country.

Currently, 222 people, 201 men and 21 women, are
under government care, the source added.

SJPRS-TEP-93-004
22 February 1993

MALAYSIA

Cabinet Approves Additional Funds for AIDS
Prevention

BK1202124593 Kuala Lumpur NEW STRAITS TIMES
in English 11 Feb 93 p 4

[Article by Chan Cheng Tuan and S. Kumaraguru]

[Text] Kuala Lumpur, Wed.—The cabinet today
approved an additional RM [Malaysian ringgit] 218.1
million to strengthen the prevention programmes for
AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) between
now and 1995.

Health Minister Datuk Lee Kim Sai said the approval
was based on a 52-page report prepared by the Cabinet
Committee on AIDS which looked into current preven-
tion programmes and suggested further improvement.

He said the additional allocation would be used to
upgrade prevention and control activities, treatment
facilities, and laboratory services.

Previously there was no specific allocation for the pre-
vention of AIDS and STD.

Lee said that of the total allocation, RM 37 million had
been budgeted for this year, while an estimated RM 51
million and RM 128 million were for 1994 and 1995
respectively.

“With the additional allocation, the ministry is now
financially strong to carry out its activities. The huge
allocation also reflects the backing and commitment of
the Cabinet towards AIDS prevention,” he told a press
conference.

Lee said the huge allocation was necessary to curb the
spread of the deadly disease as the ministry estimated
there would be 2,500 AIDS cases and 32,000 HIV
carriers by the end of 1995.

“It is better for us to spend a huge sum now in preven-
tion and control programmes rather than'spending much
more in the future on treatment,” he added.

Out of the total allocation, RM 17 million would be used
to fulfil the needs for additional 459 workers to
strengthen the organisational structure of the AIDS/STD
unit at ministerial, state, and district levels, while RM
24.3 million would be for the implementation of AIDS
prevention and control programmes this year.

The rest of the allocation is for various programmes
from now until 1995, including RM 30.2 million to
upgrade the health education on AIDS prevention, RM
1.3 million to enhance the cooperation with non-
governmental organisations (NGOs), and RM 1.5 mil-
lion to expand the blood screening programme.

Others include RM 2.8 million to control the spread of
AIDS and STD by prostitutes, RM 3.9 million to
strengthen treatment of STD, and RM 0.7 million on
AIDS prevention in dental services.