16 EAST EUROPE

of cases of hepatitis B, one of the highest in Europe, did
not drop. However, there is hope that the continuation
of the inoculations begun in 1988 of those health service
employees most exposed to HBV infection, and children
of mothers who are HBS-antigen carriers, will bring
about a reduction in the sick rate.

In terms of the health of its people, Poland ranks 28th
among 32 European countries.

Current Numbers of HIV-Infected, AIDS Patients
Listed

90WE0170C Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA in Polish
No 11, 18 Mar 90 p 5

[Prepared by Dr. Wanda Szata, Epidemiological Com-
mission of the Council on AIDS, and Epidemiological
Institute of the State Institute of Hygienc]

[Text] During the period 1-14 February 1990, HIV
infections were discovered in 21 Polish citizens, of
whom 20 are intravenous-drug users, and during the
period 15-18 February 1990, in 51 Polish citizens,
including 41 intravenous-drug users.

In February 1990, one AIDS case was reported—a
27-year-old drug addict.

From the time studies were begun in 1985 to 28 Feb-
ruary 1990, HIV infections were discovered in 772
Polish citizens, of whom 521 were intravenous-drug
users,

A total of 33 people were ill with AIDS, of whom 19 died
(temporary figures as of 28 February 1990).

As of 31 January 1990, a total of 215,144 cases of AIDS
in the world were reported, of which 40,519 were in
Africa, 142,065 in both Americas, 511 in Asia, 29,727 in
Europe, 1,782 in the South Sea Islands. In Europe, most
of the cases were recorded in France (8,025), Italy
(5,307), the FRG (4,306), and Spain (3,965). (Weekly
Epidemiological Record, 1990-02-02, No. 5).

Need for AIDS Public Education, Treatment
Facilities

90WE0170D Warsaw TYGODNIK
DEMOKRATYCZNY in Polish

No 12, 25 Mar 90 pp 4-5

{Interview with Wiktor Osiatynski, journalist, by Liliana
Olchowik: “The Right To Be Afraid”]

[Excerpt] [passage omitted] Osiatynski: I will be so bold
as to say that in Poland there is no program for the
treatment of drug addicts.

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: And the movement
formed by Marek Kotanski is simply a spectacular
partisan war?

Osiatynski: This is an excellent and useful thing, but it is
not a treatment program. Kotanski allows addicts to

IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

leave the outside world and live in a kind of ghetto,
without drugs. It provides a certain comfort to people
who are emotionally ill and cannot cope with normal life,
and it is from among these kinds of people that drug
addicts come. Yet throughout the world, addiction treat-
ment programs are designed so that after detoxification
and, for example, a 28-day stay in a treatment center, a
person has learned how to conduct himself. He leaves the
center and begins to deal with normal problems. Because
these are not people doomed to another kind of life, but
only people who need help in rebuilding a system of
reacting and thinking, which is almost impossible
without professional therapy. Unfortunately, there is no
way to do this in Poland. To say nothing of the fact that
in the case of juvenile drug addicts, 100 percent of the
cases of addiction are connected with a dysfunctional
family. And after all, MONAR [Young Peoples Move-
ment To Combat Drug Addiction] is not able to provide
family therapy.

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: Since AIDS brings
with it so many problems, in what order, in your
opinion, should the funds be divided?

Osiatynski: It would be ridiculous in our conditions to
spend money on scientific research. In the Ministry of
Health there is an AIDS council comprised of scientists.
They will certainly want to designate part of the funds
for scientific research on AIDS. We are too poor for that.
The United States and the European Community have
not yet been able to achieve any practical success in this
field. If they are successful it will be in their best interest
to share this knowledge with us. At the most, we could
allocate a minimum amount of money to send a couple
of Polish scientists to participate in Western studies. Let
us not cheat socicty.

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: What, then, should
we spend money on?

Osiatynski: On prevention and education. To have avail-
able in every hospital disposable gloves, syringes and
means of protection. For treatment, naturally, but also to
free narcotics addicts from their addiction. Because it is
not a matter of indifference as to whether a person dies
with dignity or in squalor. To say nothing of the fact that
every person sick with AIDS who is no longer a drug
addict will be a very convincing example for those who
are still addicts but are not yet infected.

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: And also to say
nothing of the fact that a sick person or an HIV-carrier
who remains addicted is most often an irresponsible
individual, and therefore, especially threatening to the
surroundings...

Osiatynski: During the Open Studio program devoted to
AIDS I answered a telephone call asking what is the
responsibility of HIV-infected people for their way of life
after they learned of their illness. During the program
there was no time at all to take up this issue. Everyone
tried to be high-minded and understanding as regards
one of the fears of the sick people—ostracism by the


10 EAST ASIA

BURMA

324 People Infected With AIDS Virus

0W3005091090 Beijing XINHUA in English
0665 GMT 30 May 90

[Text] Yangon—A senior Myanmar Health Ministry
official said that 324 people have been found infected
with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
virus in the country.

This is the first time that figures on AIDS were revealed
in Myanmar.

An official seminar on AIDS held here last week also
disclosed that a few people have been infected with the
disease in the country.

Dr. Tin Tun-oo, a director in the Ministry of Health, said
in his article in the official WORKING PEOPLE’S
DAILY that between 1985 and end of 1989 blood test
was conducted for 25,701 pople and 1.26 percent of
them were found to have contracted AIDS.

The blood-tested people were drug addicts, prostitutes,
venereal disease patients, male homosexuals, blood
doners and pregnant women, and the people infected
with AIDS virus were mainly drug-addicts, the official
said.

He said the spreading of the disease can be put under
control at present, but he warned people to be aware of
the deadly disease.

HONG KONG

AIDS Cases Rise Among Heterosexuals

540040684 Hong Kong HONG KONG STANDARD
in English 28 Mar 90 p 5

[Article by Stephen Wright: “AIDS Cases Rise Among
Heterosexuals”]

[Text] A stern warning went out yesterday about the
dangers of having sex with local prostitutes.

This followed new AIDS statistics showing an increasing
incidence of the deadly virus among Hongkong’s male
heterosexual community.

Only two or three Hongkong men are reported to have
contracted the HIV virus through exclusive contact with
local prostitutes, but AIDs experts, including consultant
physician Dr E. K. Yeoh, believe the figure is far higher.

“We are extremely concerned about the increasing inci-
dence of AIDS in the heterosexual community,” said Dr
Yeoh. “We hope that men will take that having sex with
Hongkong prostitutes is potentially very dangerous.”

So far, 36 people have contracted fully-blown AIDS in
Hongkong, including five heterosexual men, 23 homo-
sexuals and four haemophiliacs.

IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

But more worrying for AIDS experts is the fact that 20 of
the territory’s 140 registered HIV-infected patients are
heterosexual.

“That means about a third of the 71 patients who have
acquired the infection sexually, are heterosexual,” said
Dr Yeoh.

Patients acquire the HIV virus before they possibly
develop fully-blown AIDS virus.

“AIDS now seems to be spreading steadily among the
heterosexual population,” said Dr Yeoh, a Government
consultant for the AIDS Counselling and Health Educa-
tion Service.

“Many patients who have come to us recently have had
contact with prostitutes in the South-East Asian region.

“It is not just the expatriate community, it is the locals
too. We all know about the sex tours of Thailand and the
Philippines, sometimes organised for business purposes,
where men are more uninhibited and come into contact
with prostitutes.

“It is these men we want to warn, because their activities
are risky, especially if they don’t take precautions.”

Dr Patrick Li, a senior medical and health officer, also
warned of the dangers of having sex with prostitutes.

“The majority of the 25 heterosexuals have acquired
either HIV or AIDS have had sexual contact with a
prostitute,” he said.

“Most of them have had multiple contact with prosti-
tutes inside and outside of Hongkong. But two or three
have definitely developed the virus through prostitutes
in Hongkong...simply because they have never left the
territory.”

So far, no prostitutes have been found to have HIV or
AIDs when screened at Government-run clinics.

“But they could have been checked at private clinics, or
they could have already left Hongkong,” said Dr Li.

Meanwhile, Dr Li yesterday announced that three more
men were now confirmed to be suffering from AIDS.

Two of the last victims acquired the disease sexually,
while the other is a haemophiliac, Dr Li said, when
revealing the monthly statistics on AIDs for February.

One of the AIDS patients has died. Dr Li refused to give
any details about the victim.



20 LATIN AMERICA

Tlaxcala Cases

90WE0168D Mexico City EXCELSIOR in Spanish
17 Mar 90 STATES section pp 1, 4

[Article by correspondent Jose Ponce Roldan]

{Text] Apizaco, Tlaxcala—Twenty-nine persons have
died of AIDS in this state since 1987, the head of the
state’s Health Secretariat, Carlos Cruz Nava, reported
yesterday. Most of the victims, he noted, were migrant
workers who lived in the United States for long periods.

The secretariat, he said, has a file on the cases that have
been detected. The number of people with AIDS in
Tlaxcala has been on the rise since 1987.

According to this information, Cruz Nava stated, two
people died of AIDS in 1987. These were the first reported
cases of the disease. The next year 11 infected people died,
and in 1989 the number rose to 14. So far this year two
people have died of AIDS.

Of the 29 deaths, 27 were between 20 and 49 years of
age; 1 was an infant that had not reached its first
birthday, and one was a 65-year-old man. This means, he
explained, that the great majority of the deaths were
young people or at least people in their productive years.

The sex of the AIDS victims is also revealed in the statistics
furnished by the state Health Secretariat. Twenty were
males, and nine were females, he said in conclusion.

21 New Puebla Cases

90WEOI68E Mexico City EXCELSIOR in Spanish
19 Mar 90 STATES section pp 1, 2

[Article by correspondent Jose I. Tellez]

[Text] Puebla, Puebla—The Epidemiology Department
of the Coordinated Health Services in this state has
detected 21 cases of AIDS from January to 18 March, its
head, Carlos Galindo Rodriguez, reported today.

He indicated that a total of 181 cases have been reported
in Puebla, 86 of which have already died.

Seventy percent, he added, are men, and the rest are
women, infected mainly through bisexual relations,
which have become “a bridge between the two sexes.”

He remarked that the patients who contracted AIDS
from blood transfusions received the tainted blood
before 1986, because a program to monitor blood banks
began that year, “fully guaranteeing its safety.”

Galindo Rodriguez asserted that all of the patients have
received timely medical care, because when the cases are
detected, “they are immediately referred to the Information
Center to prevent the disease from spreading and are then
sent to local hospitals, where they receive treatment.”

Most of the infected persons are in this capital; he said,
however, that “there are others elsewhere in the state.”

IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

He announced that the AIDS information and preven-
tion programs in the state would continue without inter-
ruption; a series of lectures is currently under way in
Angelopolis secondary schools as part of these programs.

He went on to say that free screening is available to
determine whether an individual is in one of the risk
groups and to detect the virus before symptoms appear.

108 Coahuila Cases

90WEO168F Mexico City EXCELSIOR in Spanish
19 Mar 90 STATES section pp 1, 4

[Article by correspondent Hector Tamez]

[Text] Monclova, Coahuila—The health care authorities in
this state, in which 108 AIDS cases have been officially
recorded, have done nothing to prevent and combat the
disease; evidence of this is the absence of a state council to
control the disease, local congresswoman Yolanda Elizondo
Maltos said today.

Coahuila, she added, is the state with the sixth highest
incidence of AIDS, with a rate of 59.7 per one million
inhabitants.

For this reason, she remarked, a state council to prevent
the disease ought to be established in order to conduct
sex-education campaigns among young people and
workers so that they take precautions.

According to her analysis, she indicated, the state has a
sexually active population of 905,077, 10 percent of whom
are susceptible to contracting the plague of the 20th century.

She commented that last Wednesday she submitted a bill
in the State Congress to establish a Coesida [expansion
unknown], which would conduct research and, above all,
combat the disease through preventive measures.

PANAMA

Health Ministry Reports Increase in Cases of AIDS

PA2705202090 Panama City EL PANAMA AMERICA
in Spanish 20 May 90 p 28-A

[Article by Carlos Vargas]

[Summary] The Health Ministry has reported a slight
increase in the incidence of AIDS cases in the country for
the first quarter of 1990. There were 20 new cases for that
three-month period.

The Health Ministry reports that since 1984, 118 people, or
56 percent of the reported cases, have died of the disease,
and there are presently some 196 reported cases, 143 of
them being individuals between 20 and 44 years of age. The
report states that 67 cases have been attributed to homo-
sexual relations, 13 cases to bisexual contact, and 48 cases
to heterosexual contact. It adds that 72 percent of the cases
were transmitted sexually, 14 percent resulted from blood
transfusions, 13 percent were from unknown causes, and |
percent had perinatal causes.


IJPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

CAMEROON

155 Registered AIDS Patients

AB2305084490 Yaounde Domestic Service in English
1800 GMT 22 May 90

[Text] The minister of public health, Prof. Joseph Mbede
has revealed here in Yaounde that Cameroon has a total
155 cases of registered AIDS patients. This represents a
100 percent increase over the 1988 figures. Minister
Mbede made the revelation while opening a fund raising
meeting to support the fight against the Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS.

Bilateral and multilateral donors helping the Cameroon
Government in the fight include the World Health
Organization, the European Economic Community, the
Aid and Cooperation Fund, and the United States
Agency for International Development.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Efforts to Combat AIDS Proving Futile

90WE0182A Paris L'EXPRESS in French
27 Apr 90 pp 47-48

[Article by special correspondent Annie Kouchner:
“AIDS, Plague of the Poor”)

[Text] It is a vile beast, half-vampire, half bird of prey,
drawn in heavy black strokes except for its hooked beak,
from which a few red drops of blood fall. The patients
waiting in the ochre dust hardly dare lift their eyes to the
terrifying poster tacked onto the door of the medical
center. It says: “AIDS kills.” Here in Sibut, a large
Central African village of 4,000 households 100 km from
the capital Bangui, the illness has just claimed a
“matron,” or bush midwife, and a polygamous
policeman with 40 children. AIDS is in the rusted metal
beds, in the emaciated bodies slowly wasting away. It is
also called “bloody diarrhea” and “pneumopathy.”
Naming it would require the Elisa and Western blot
diagnostic tests. They are unavailable. “Everything
depends on donations,” admits a disillusioned Pierre
Doutifei, a health technician who officiates at medical
consultations. And what good is diagnosis when doctors
cannot treat—for lack of antibiotics, antiparasite thera-
pies, or simple disposible syringes? There are no more
bandaids, and surgical gloves are reused until they are in
tatters. In Sibut as in Bangui, in the Central African
Republic as everywhere in black Africa, people are dying
of malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and sleeping sickness.
The life expectancy here does not exceed 45 years. And
now AIDS...

For a long time political authorities of the Central
African Republic denied the existence of the disease. It
was a matter of pride. But the time for soul-searching is
past. The situation must be faced squarely. The extent of
the damage must be assessed, to start with. The chief
architect of this task is the Bangui Pasteur Institute. In

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1

its lush green setting opposite the capital’s university
hospital, it is an oasis of technology in the African
barrenness. The jewel in its crown: the P3-P4 high-
security laboratory where scientists encased in boots,
head coverings, and gloves handle the dangerous retro-
viruses. Under the authority of its director Dr Alain
Georges, an affable blond giant with an iron hand, the
Pasteur Institute, which is dedicated to vaccination
programs (an AIDS vaccine is being worked on here), is
also conducting epidemiological studies backed by the
Central African Government’s “AIDS project,” ubiqui-
tous French aid, and WHO. The report, blunt and
unindulgent, comes with a warning: “Despite their will-
ingness to be strict, some control centers did not always
keep accurate accounts.” The conclusion: Figures are
underestimated.

Yet the tally is already onerous: In Bangui (400,000
inhabitants) the number of AIDS patients has tripled in
3 years; 1.4 people per 1,000 is afflicted. In the recovery
room and two pilot medical wards of the hospital, 20
percent of the bedridden patients are suffering from
AIDS. The illness strikes men in their prime, between
the ages of 30 and 39. They are often the country’s
management corps. Relative affluence allows them to
keep a third or fourth “office” (official mistress), or they
are polygamous. Both are practices which encourage
spread of the virus.

Women are hit at a younger age: starting at 20. They are
women down on their luck, “unattached girls” free to sell
their bodies for a pack of cigarettes or a basin of manioc.
In Africa, AIDS strikes them as often as men. The reason
is the impressive frequency of sexually transmitted dis-
eases (STD), superb breeding grounds for AIDS. Genital
ulcers are treatable—in rich countries. “But here
patients resort to self-medication and their infections
become resistent,” acknowledges Dr Gerard Gresenquet.
The hospital can no longer distribute free of charge
antibiotics for treating blennorrhagia. Patients fend for
themselves. They get hold of tetracycline tablets from
street vendors—unit by unit. Result: 30 percent of
women with STDs are infected by the HIV virus.

The seropositivity rate is hair-raising. Officially, 7.3
percent of hospitalized patients “of all kinds” in Bangui
are seropositive. Eight percent of pregnant women are
infected and the number of newborns infected tends to
match the number of mothers. Among the city’s young
malnourished children (they are legion), 12.2 percent are
seropositive; 10.8 percent of tiny tuberculosis patients
are also. “Overall, the seropositivity rate is between 8
and 12 percent,” says Dr Georges. And the virus is not
confined to the city: It is moving out into the bush. Only
the Peul peoples now seem spared. But the tables could
turn: The Pygmies were thought to be safe and the first
case of AIDS has just appeared among them too.

True, infection with AIDS, which was skyrocketing,
seems, as in Europe, to be on hold. According to one
hypothesis, this is because the “high-risk” groups are
saturated. But unless the Central African Republic wants



IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

healthy. And yet the question was important. Personally,
l am in favor of moral condemnation for irresponsible
behavior, even if it concerns a dying person. I also
understand the other fear—the fear of the healthy. I
remember that while I was in the United States at an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting (attended also by drug
addicts), standing next to me was a very frail individual,
covered with spots. I had a cut on my hand at the time.
I discreetly moved a few feet away so as not to have to
shake hands with him, which is traditional at the end of
such meetings. Later I was ashamed of this, but that is
how it was.

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: In other words, we
should not be outraged at the “Kaweczyn [Warsaw
suburb] philistinism,” because first, this is an under-
standable phenomenon, and second, it is a passing one.

Osiatynski: I am not so conceited as to say that others
are philistines. Fear is the most natural human emotion.
I do not believe anyone who says he is unafraid. Maxi-
millian Kolbe was also afraid, but nevertheless he went
to his death. Let us give people the right to be afraid and
to express this fear. Naturally, we cannot kill out of fear,
or do harm, or throw stones at others. Feelings are the
most honest part of us: they come and go without
control. The problem arises when we distort them.
However, human nature is based first on valuing our
own feelings and second on not reacting to some of them.
And here we have to educate—help to conquer this fear.
Returning to the Kaweczyn matter, I think that if we
were to talk to these people today, without labeling them
but respecting their fear, it would turn out that there are
among them many who can already tomorrow be tol-
erant. More so than in the communities which did not
show this fear and anger. After all, when the deputy

EAST EUROPE 17

minister of health went there after these events, they
said: “We will take care of our own who are sick.”

TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY: I think that this is a
good closing for our conversation. Thank you.

YUGOSLAVIA

AIDS Statistics Updated

LD2505174190 Belgrade TANJUG in English
0906 GMT 25 May 90

[Text] Belgrade—So far, 129 cases of AIDS have been
Tegistered in Yugoslavia, of which 76 have died.

Although Yugoslavia is at the bottom of the European
list in the number of AIDS cases, it is evident that the
AIDS virus is spreading rapidly, representatives of the
Federal Health Institute in Oelgrade have said.

Since 1985, when only two AIDS cases where registered,
the number has progressively been increasing every
year—six in 1986, 19 in 1987, 39 in 1988, and 44 last
year. Twenty new cases have been registered since the
beginning of this year to May 17.

As far as it is known, about 2,000 persons are infected by
the AIDS virus in Yugoslavia. Experts believe, however,
that the number is at least twice as high.

Most of the infected are drug addicts—38 percent,
homosexuals and bisexuals—34 percent, while 20 per-
cent of the infected persons are hemophiliacs.

In the world, 240,000 persons have acquired the disease
so far, and more than half of that number have died.



JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

makes clear the obligation of medical personnel and
other employees to keep information about AIDS testing
and the results of such tests confidential. The draft law
secures the right of infected persons :to medical and
social assistance and guarantees the inviolability of the
individual. More than 600 laboratories have been set up
in the country that check donor blood and the blood of
those persons whom physicians have classified as mem-
bers of the risk groups. More. than 40 million blood
samples have been tested. A system has been -worked out
for epidemiological inspection, and its effectiveness has
been proven in practice.

Approximately 20,000 persons were examined in Elista
after the hospital outbreak of the infection. While shud-
dering at our medical ineptitude, one must state that
violations of procedures involving the injection of drugs
have also taken place at a number of other medical
institutions, as a result of which intrahospital HIV
infections have originated in them, too. And this
occurred even after the tragedy at Elista was widely
reported in the press! I am convinced that this, route of
infection has occurred in.other. countries as well. The
proposed law “On Measures for the Prevention of
AIDS” must not fail to include a provision for the
liability to criminal prosecution on the part of medical
personnel who cause HIV infections through negligence
and carelessness. :

There is, unfortunately, little hope at the moment that
preventive vaccines or miracle drugs that would cure
AIDS will be developed in the near future. The leading
scientists throughout the world do not believe that a
vaccine will be produced in this century.

AIDS researchers ata number of institutes of the
Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences,
the USSR Ministry of Health, and the country’s VUZes
have begun research to synthesize anti-AIDS drugs. A
group of new, highly active compounds that were found
in our country and which have no analogs elsewhere in
the world are now being patented abroad. Four labora-
tory methods have been developed to synthesize azido-
thimidine, the only drug in the world approved for the
treatment of AIDS. However, it is not being produced in
sufficient quantities for the treatment of the ever-
increasing number of infected persons.

In the absence of a vaccine, the only way to keep the
epidemic of HIV. infection in check is by changing
people’s sexual behavior, but this is extraordinarily dif-
ficult. Experience abroad has shown that wide dissemi-
nation of information on the. routes of transmission of
the infection and on who ‘its victims are increases the
public’s knowledge of the subject, as a rule, but does not
significantly alter behavior. The:most important task at
hand is to devise methods of health education aimed at
specific social, ethnic, and age groups in the population.
That education must include information about type of
sexual behavior and attitudes toward these problems in
specific age groups. Any effective method is good: Sanc-
timoniousness and puritanism are out of place in the

SOVIET UNION ; B

struggle to save human lives. And those attitudes are still
strong in our country, where all such topics have been
“taboo” for many decades.

The social protection of HIV-infected persons and the
legal safeguards in the struggle against the infection
warrant special attention. Currently in effect in the
USSR is the August 25, 1987, ukase of the. USSR
Supreme Soviet, “On Measures for the Prevention of
AIDS Virus Infection,” which sets a punishment of up to
five ‘years in prison for any person who knowingly
exposes another person to the danger of AIDS infection
and a punishment of up to eight years for an AIDS virus
carrier who knowingly infects another person. That
ukaze, to a considerable extent, is in conflict with Article
222 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, “Violation of Regu-
lations Established for the Control of Epidemics.” Still
unresolved are problems related to the compensation for
material losses suffered by persons who become ill as a
result of having been infected at a medical institution.
No liability to criminal prosecution has been established
for infection as a result of blood transfusions. There is
nothing about the prosecution under criminal law of
persons who violate medical confidentiality or who
refuse to render assistance to HIV-infected persons or
persons who show symptoms. In addition, the USSR has
a number of legal features that can adversely affect the
development of the epidemic: liability to criminal pros-
ecution for homosexuality and the imprecise definition
of “prostitution.”

Persons who are infected with the HIV virus are ‘fre-
quently subject to discrimination, persecution, and
threats of physical violence.

At the present time, the country has 10 commissions and
committees that have been entrusted with the task of
coordinating research on AIDS and preventing its
spread. But as we all know, too many cooks spoil the
broth.

AIDS is a state problem. It must be dealt with by a
governmental body that has broad authority. Besides
including specialists, it should include supervisors of
those departments the fruits of whose inactivity we are
now reaping. That body should be headed by one of the
deputies of the chairman of the USSR Council of Min-
isters. And now is the time to take emergency, extraor-
dinary measures.

First Ever AIDS Conference Opens in Leningrad

Current Incidences, Forecast Given

LD2905102690 Moscow TASS International Service in
Russian 1641 GMT 28 May 90

[By TASS Correspondent Nikolay Krupenik]

[Summary] Leningrad—A ‘conference on countering
AIDS, organized by the USSR Ministry of Health and
the Pasteur Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology
in Leningrad, opened here today. It was opened by



IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Minutes before the ceremony, which was also attended
by state authorities, Soledad Cordoba announced that
hemotherapy centers would be set up in 31 states. So far
they are found in only 18 states of the Republic.

She explained that these centers would standardize the
handling of blood, the sale of which is already prohibited
by law. They will not undercut the activity of existing
blood centers; rather, they will see to it that they comply
with the regulations governing their operations,

She began by saying that 15 percent of the AIDS cases in
the country are due to contaminated blood, since the
appropriate tests are not conducted in a timely fashion.
Hence the importance of the hemotherapy centers.

She contended that the state hemotherapy centers would
be set up to aid in the analysis of plasma throughout the
country and to provide thoroughly tested blood to who-
ever needs it. The blood that will thus be administered
will have been properly tested and found not to contain
the AIDS virus or the virus of others diseases such as
hepatitis.

She explained that the population still needs to be
educated not to accept blood that has not been previ-
ously tested and not to donate blood if they belong to a
high-risk group or suffer from some contagious disease.

The necessary funds have already been budgeted, and
specialists are being trained to run the hemotherapy
centers. Appropriate training is necessary because they
will have to operate specially designed equipment.

She indicated that these centers are not being set up to
displace the transfusion centers that the Red’ Cross,
ISSSTE [Institute of Social Security and Services for
Government Workers], or any other institution runs, but
rather to make sure that whatever center receives
donated blood has appropriate personnel, facilities, and
above all equipment. Otherwise, authorization will be
given “to no one to receive plasma.” [passage omitted]

Red Cross Comment

90WE0168B Mexico City LA JORNADA in Spanish
21 Mar 90 p 14

{Article by Salvador Guerrero Chipres]

[Excerpts] The president of the Mexican Red Cross, Jose
Barroso Chavez, denied any responsibility in the trans-
mission of the AIDS virus by blood transfusion, saying
that “in no way” are any of the cases attributable to the
work of the 22 Altruistic Donation Centers that in 1989
took in 32,198 units of the vital fluid. “In the 8 years that
we have had the program there has not been a single case.
The Health Secretariat authorities no doubt have infor-
mation that we do not.” According to statements by a
woman Official of the secretariat, 15 percent of AIDS
cases are due to transfusions of tainted blood. [passage
omitted]

LATIN AMERICA 19

Barroso, an industrialist who owns the La Central match
factory and other firms, reported that his organization
takes in 20 percent of the blood, and “the virus has in no
way been transmitted through the blood that we collect.”

Yucatan, Coahuila Statistics

90WE0168C Mexico City EXCELSIOR in Spanish
15 Mar 90 STATES section pp 1, 3

[Article by correspondent Atilano Gonzalez]

[Text] Valladolid, Yucatan—The State Hemotherapy
Center detected 58 cases of AIDS last year in conducting
400 tests.

The patients are still in the early stages of the disease, the
chief of the Coordinated Public Health Services, Miguel
Dominguez Reyes, reported today.

He said that only one of the patients contracted the
disease from a transfusion, “thanks to the prevention

‘campaigns for this purpose.”

The infected individuals do not yet exhibit the symp-
toms that characterize the syndrome, he added.

Moreover, he remarked that last year.the State Hemo-
therapy Center, located in the city of Merida, processed
1,617 liters of blood from government and private
health-care institutions.

The center oversees and monitors all of the establish-
ments that provide health-care services in the state.

The institution was created in 1988, and the one in this
city was set up the following year. Moreover, a new
branch was opened in Tizimin last 22 February, and two
others are scheduled to open soon in the municipalities
of Progreso and Picul. ‘

The secretary of health in Coahuila, Raymundo Ver-
duzco Rosan, reported that next Friday an office of
Conasida [expansion unknown] would open ‘in Santillo
to coordinate the efforts to combat Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome.

He also indicated that the disease is on the wane in
Coahuila, because whereas there were 50 patients in
1988, in 1989 there were just 30, and so far this year.only
4 cases have been detected.

He denied that there are children who have AIDS but he
did reveal that a baby was recently born with the virus.
Nevertheless, he added that “the consequences cannot
be determined until the baby is 5 years old.”

Verduzco Rosan commented that’ his secretariat has
proposed amendments to the General Health Law and to
the Health Regulations and has called for penalties ‘for
those who, knowing that they have the disease, “con-
tinue to have sexual relations and thus to infect others.”

He urged citizens in general to take every precaution to
prevent the spread of this deadly disease.



4 EAST EUROPE

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Health Ministry on AIDS, Combat Measures

LD2905153490 Prague CTK in English 1240 GMT
29 May 90

[Text] Prague —The Czech Ministry of Health and
Social Affairs has established a commission for the
prevention of AIDS in the Czech Republic in coopera-
tion with the institutions concerned, chaired by chief
hygienist of the Czech Republic Jaroslav Kriz.

In consequence of the ever rising number of anti-HIV
Positive citizens in the republic, the commission will
adopt, but above all implement, effective medical,
social, economic, legal and other measures for the pre-
vention of this fatal disease.

There were a total of 144 anti-HIV infected persons in
the Czech Republic by April 30, 1990, according to
statistics—49 of them were foreigners. Nineteen persons
have fallen ill, another twenty have died already.

POLAND

AIDS Council: Interdepartmental Specialists,
More Public Education

90WE0170A Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA in Polish
No 10, 11 Mar 90 p6

[Article by Iona Dziewiecka: “AIDS—Telling It Like It
Is”]

{Text] The first stage of the struggle with AIDS in Poland
will come to an end this year. We ended the decade of the
1980's as one of the 120 countries in the world which
admits to the presence of the HIV virus. After examining
3.5 million people, 721 carriers were detected, 32 who
were ill, and 18 people died. It is possible that we will
remain in the No. 3 epidemiological group (low risk
level).

In March 1990 the present AIDS Council will be
replaced by a new structure, a team of interdepartmental
specialists. AIDS is a sickness from which the health
service cannot isolate itself. The sickness gives rise to
problems in the most diverse areas of life. They must be
solved through the cooperation of several departments
(including justice, national education, internal affairs).
This means that the Chambers of Physicians must par-
ticipate. The battle with the HIV virus should be every-
one’s concern. Prof. Tadeusz Chrusciel, president of the
Chief Medical Council, asked the premier and the pri-
mate for help in creating a National AIDS Prevention
Plan,

Throughout the world studies are being conducted on 11
anti-virus preparations, but none of them has extended
the life of a sick person by more than 6-12 months. The
most effective method for battling the 20th-century
sickness is infection-prevention and its spread. In 1990

IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

there will be no shortage of money for essential expen-
ditures connected with the prevention of AIDS in
Poland, said Andrzej Kosiniak-Kamysz, minister of
health. Of the 15 trillion zlotys allocated to the ministry
(this does not include wage reserves), 30 billion will be
designated for the purchase and conduct of additional
tests to detect the presence of the virus, and 10 billion
zlotys will be designated for lump-sum payments to
health service employees who come in contact with HIV
patients and carriers. The amount of the payment,
determined individually by managers, may be 84 percent
of the lowest salary (now 120,000 zlotys). In addition to
the money from the Ministry of Health budget, 70 billion
zlotys will remain for additional, unanticipated expen-
ditures connected with AIDS.

In the opinion of the ministry, already last year it was
possible to meet 100 percent of the requirements for
disposable equipment and protective clothing (80 per-
cent came from the budget, the rest from foreign dona-
tions). Unfortunately, sometimes the voivodship doctors
decided to allocate these funds for other purposes.

Lack of awareness of the danger and of methods for
preventing infection, plus low interest on the part of the
community in lectures and publications on AIDS, are
unfortunately a fact. Dentists do not have personal-
protection means. Fortunately, soon a large transport of
donations from the EEC will arrive in Poland: aprons,
face masks and shields used by dentists throughout the
world.

This year the number of facilities available for treating
the sick and the carriers should increase. More and more
infectious-diseases departments are declaring their will-
ingness and ability to accept them. Prof. Lidia Babiuch is
finalizing the opening in Warsaw of the Chronic Immu-
nological Deficiencies Clinic (20 hospital beds). Right
now what is needed most is the formation of a network of
diagnostic clinics, because most of the infected persons
do not require hospitalization but regular examinations.
It is the task of the ministry (deputy minister Krystyna
Sienkiewicz is taking care of this personally) to also set
up several hostels in which the carriers and the sick, who
cannot find places for themselves in family homes, could
stay (during the period of the examination). But the
Cuban model—the creation of closed ghettos—will not
be applied in Poland.

Nor is it envisaged that a law or an order will be enacted
to require compulsory examination of patients admitted
to hospitals to detect the HIV virus. Such practices in
effect in some hospitals are a violation of human rights
and the result of lack of knowledge about the risk. Only
the following categories of persons are subject to com-
pulsory examination: Blood donors, hemophiliacs, sex
partners, infected persons, and foreigners coming to
study in Poland. Testing of the following persons is
encouraged: Venereal-disease clinic patients, homosex-
uals, and drug addicts during the course of their treat-
ment to overcome the addiction.


6 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

A total of 386 cases with 196 deaths and a case fatality
rate of 51 percent. Of these, 109 were in the age group
30-39, and 95 were male. In the age group 20-29, 49 were
male and 26 female.

Referring to the geographical distribution of AIDS cases,
the department said 105 out of 173 AIDS victims had
died in Johannesburg, 34 out of 61 in Cape Town, 18 out
of 54 in Durban and five out of 10 in Bloemfontein.

In the case of transmission by ethnic groups and sex, 211
homo/bisexual males contracted AIDS, while 46 hetero-
sexual Black men and 56 Black women also contracted
the disease in the eight years of the study.

Only three cases among homo/bisexual Asian males were
reported during this period.

AIDS: ‘Greatest Threat To Public Health’

540000654 Cape Town CAPE TIMES in English
18 Apr 90 p 6

[Editorial by Anthony Johnson]

[Text] AIDS could turn much of the thinking about the
political and economic problems facing the southern
African subcontinent on its head if its exponential
spread continues unabated.

And yet the different arms of the South African Govern-
ment do not appear to have a co-ordinated or consistent
approach for dealing with the killer virus and its future
implications.

Some sections of government—most notably those
involved with trade and foreign relations—appear more
sensitised to the complex and multiple problems posed
by an AIDS epidemic and officials in these departments
are gearing themselves to a possibility of a drastically
transformed politico-economic landscape in the decades
ahead.

Educate Public

Ironically, the government health authorities appear less
willing or able to address head-on what independent
experts have dubbed “‘the greatest threat to public health
in South Africa this century.”

The release to Parliament last month of grossly under-
stated figures on the extent of the AIDS problem by
Health Minister Dr Rina Venter was certainly not
helpful to medical authorities trying to educate the
public about the real extent of the problem.

The paltry amount the state is spending on education to
combat AIDS is a sick joke when one considers the
economic havoc it could wreak if even the conservative
Projections regarding its spread are correct.

Statisticians of the Medical Research Council estimate
that by the end of next year there will be almost 500,000

IJPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

South Africans infected with HIV, the virus which
precedes full-blown AIDS. The doubling time in South
Africa is 8.5 months.

Research

The cost of treating a single patient who has developed
AIDS is an estimated R80,000-R 100,000 until the time
of death—commonly about a year after the patient
shows symptoms.

A more hopeful sign from within government circles is
that the Department of Foreign Affairs considered the
extent of the AIDS problem sufficiently serious to brief
all its foreign heads of mission about the dangers it posed
for the subcontinent earlier this year.

Also, a special government task force has been doing
research for the South African Government on the
implications of an AIDS catastrophe in Southern Africa
on issues like economic development, trade and land
hunger.

If the AIDS scourge multiplies at the rate that some
experts predict, the burning question of land reform
could take on an entirely different complexion in many
parts of the subcontinent.

Alarming Implications

Government plans to build a viable economic commu-
nity encompassing most of the countries in the region
will simply evaporate if anything approaching the worst-
case scenario for the spread of AIDS is reached this
decade.

Even if South Africa manages to escape the extent of
AIDS-created devastation currently stalking its neigh-
bours, the cost for the South African economy will still
be huge.

While an AIDS epidemic is seen in some less enlightened
circles as a possible counter to the population explosion,
its impact on skewing the demographic profiles of over-
populated countries in the region carries alarming impli-
cations for economic growth and development generally.
One of the reasons for this is that the sexually most
active section of the population also tends to be the
economically most active.

The virus could wipe out a large section of the most
productive section of the economy, leaving a vastly
disproportionate number of children and elderly people
in society.

The government should stop pussy-footing about and
develop a comprehensive response to the AIDS threat.



26 WEST EUROPE

CANADA

AIDS National Strategy ‘Long Overdue’ says
TORONTO STAR

54200037A Toronto THE TORONTO STAR in English
30 Mar 90 A28

{Editorial: “Canada Lags Badly in the AIDS Fight”)

[Text] The fact that Canada continues to muddle along
without a coherent strategy to combat AIDS is a national
disgrace.

The first case of AIDS was reported here more than 10
years ago. Since then, 3,604 Canadians, including 51
children, have contracted the fatal disease. As of this
week, 2,169 had died.

In two years, the numbers have doubled. But they represent
only the tip of the iceberg. It’s estimated that as many as
50,000 Canadians have the HIV virus which leads to AIDS.

But still there is no national strategy to combat the
disease, despite the estimate by the prestigious Royal
Society of Canada that it takes $100,000 in direct
medical costs to treat each AIDS patient.

In 1986, Ottawa committed $39 million to fight AIDS. Two
years later, it added another $129 million to be spent over
five years, but in small amounts each succeeding year. In
1988, the Royal Society recommended $115 million be
spent every year to combat the epidemic.

Ottawa plans to invest in research, public education and
community projects, but it doesn’t say how, where the
money has been allocated, or, indeed, how it’s being spent.

As the Canadian AIDS Society recently told MPs: “We
don’t know what the priorities are. We don’t know what
plans are in the works. We don’t see any master plan. We
don’t see any co-ordination between federal departments or
even within departments.”

Health Minister Perrin Beatty promises the long-delayed
announcement likely before the end of June. But the
word is that Ottawa and the provinces are no closer to
reaching agreement on this issue than on any other.

Asa result, all that can be expected is less than is needed.
And that is more, not less funding, as the number of
people with AIDS grows.

Certainly more should go to prevention and education,
and to community AIDS organizations that have done
more than the provinces and Ottawa combined. As
delays and lame excuses, a national strategy is long
overdue. It had better be a good one.

IJPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

International AIDS Conference Surplus Funds
Allocated

54200041 Ottawa THE OTTAWA CITIZEN in English
14 Mar 90 p B3

[Text] An Ottawa-based group will be getting almost a
quarter of the $684,000 surplus from an international
AIDS conference held last June.

The Canadian AIDS Society, a lobby group representing
40 organizations from across Canada, will get $167,000.

Society executive director Richard Buizynski said the
group has not decided how to spend the money, but it
may use the funds to send AIDS victims and community
representatives to conferences.

Another $250,000 will go to AIDS research in devel-
oping countries and $67,000 will be used to boost young
Canadian AIDS researchers. The rest of the surplus will
be spent on travel assistance for Third World delegates
to future conferences.

The AIDS conference was organized by the International
Development Research Centre and attracted 12,000
participants to Montreal last June.

The conference’s executive director, Claude Paul Boivin,
said the surplus was a surprise.

Organizers pared down the conference budget and only
expected to break even when delegates were slow to sign up.

But about 1,000 delegates registered at the last minute,
and their registration fees helped to create a surplus, said
Boivin.

AIDS Antibody Positive Tests in BC Reach 3,500

54200044 Vancouver THE SUN in English
19 Apr 90 p B4

[Text] Victoria—More than 3,500 people have tested
positive for the AIDS antibody over the past four years,
the B.C. Centre for Disease Control said Wednesday.

The centre tested more than 102,000 people considered to
be in the high-risk category for acquired immune deficiency
syndrome from September 1985 to December 1989.

Of those who tested positive, 2,600 were homosexuals or
bisexuals, 79 were intravenous drug users and 55 were
hemophiliacs.

Another 136 people were heterosexuals and 12 were
prostitutes.

More than 590 people tested were not in a specified risk
category.

The statistics also show there were 97 positive tests on
people under 20 years of age while 156 women had the
AIDS antibody.


JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Comrade Dr Hailu reported that there has been a
growing trend in the spread of AIDS in Ethiopia, with
the number of known victims rising from 2 in 1986 to 17
in 1987, 85 in 1988, 188 in 1989 and 63 during the last
three months alone.

Although the killer disease is suspected to have reached
the country as early as 1983-84, the first known case was
detected only in 1986. The virus has now spread to all
major towns and cities, according to Comrade Dr Meng-
istu Meherci, head of the surveillance and research main
office in the AIDS control and coordination bureau.

He pointed out that according to a survey conducted in
24 urban centres in 1988, the AIDS virus had spread to
an average 17 percent of the areas covered. The highest
rate of incidence was reported to be 40 percent and the
lowest 5 percent.

Comrade Dr Mengistu said 1,100 of the 6,500 people
tested carried the AIDS virus, which spread rapidly the
following year. A study conducted in 40 kebeles in Addis
Ababa meanwhile revealed that the disease had affected
an average of 24 percent of residents, with the highest
rate of incidence being 50 percent. The spread of the
virus is known to be particularly high in localities where
there is considerable traffic circulation.

Past experience has demonstrated that AIDS affects
equally both men and women and extreme care should
be taken in indulging in sexual practices on the part of
both sexes, Comrade Dr Mengistu said. He pointed out
that limiting sexual contacts between single couples is
the surest guarantee against contracting the virus, with
the use of condoms being the next best alternative.

Arrangements are reported to have been made to make
condoms easily available to the public and at reasonable
cost. [passage omitted]

GHANA

1,200 AIDS Cases Reported

AB1006095090 London BBC World Service in English
1709 GMT 6 Jun 90

[Excerpt] The World Health Organization recently
received a report that there are 1,200 cases of full-blown
AIDS in Ghana. Seventy-five percent of the victims are
from Eastern Region and have been diagnosed in Cath-
olic mission hospitals. It seems that prostitutes are
among the principal victims. [passage omitted]

MAURITIUS

New Program To Intensify AIDS Education Begins

90WEOI8IA Port Louis LE MAURICIEN in French
14 Apr 90 pp 1, 12

{Article by Dharmanand Dhooharika]

[Text] The national office of the AIDS Program
announced during a press conference yesterday that 14

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 3

seropositive cases, 5 of them full-blown cases of AIDS,
had been detected by the Candos Virology Laboratory.
Of the 14 cases, 7 are Mauritians. Three of the 5 AIDS
patients, moreover, have died.

According to the bulletin put out by the Health Ministry,
four Mauritians have contracted AIDS abroad, in coun-
tries with high rates of the disease.

Flanked by World Health Organization representative,
Sir Djamil Fareed, the permanent secretary, Mr Ranjit
Goordyal, and Dr Chan Kam, coordinator of the
National AIDS Committee, the minister of health yes-
terday stressed the need to further educate the Mauritian
people about AIDS problems.

According to the latest WHO figures, as of 1 January,
1990, the cumulative total of AIDS cases officially
reported by 152 countries to WHO’s World AIDS Pro-
gram was 203,599. The world program estimates that the
real cumulative total of AIDS cases to date is over
600,000, or three times the number of officially reported
cases.

The minister of health, Mr Jugdish Goburdhun, said
yesterday that the government’s primary objective was
to strictly monitor high-risk groups. Medical authorities
are thus collaborating closely with other ministries and
fields to raise the people’s awareness of this serious
problem.

In this context, the AIDS program office has already
launched a pilot project in seven secondary schools in
collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNESCO,
and WHO.

A delegation made up of doctors, virologists, and
UNICEF representatives will leave for Rodrigues next
May.

An AIDS seminar will be organized by the AIDS Unit
and WHO at the University of Mauritius from 5 to 8
June. Some 60 participants, including doctors, nurses,
reporters, religious heads, members of Parliament, and
other scientists, will take part.

The ministry of health plans to present a video in Creole,
pamphlets on sexually transmitted diseases, a comic
strip, and brochures by young people and women.

The AIDS program office also holds work sessions with
representatives from a dozen sugar factories as part of its
preventive program.

New AIDS Victim Heightens Concern

90WE0203A Port Louis THE SUN in French
4 May 90p 1

[Article: “A New Case of AIDS Seropositivy Detected in
Port Louis”; first paragraph is THE SUN introduction;
passages within slantlines published in English]



2 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

to see its population decimated (only 2.7 million inhab-
itants on 620,000 square km), it is vital that the spread of
the virus be halted. With its AIDS project, the Health
Ministry is working on just that: radio spots hammering
home the message, posters, group information sessions
in the “neighborhoods,” and prevention in the schools.
No French student is as well-informed as the children of
Bangui. A teachers’ guide suggests the disease be brought
up as soon as children learn to read, using, as a starting
point, a key sentence: “AIDS kills.” Health lessons warn,
against dirty objects such as needles, knives, and razor
blades. Well-informed children have invented a new
game: AIDS-tag, I touch you, you fall. Dead.

A million condoms were distributed free of charge. They
can still be found in pharmacies, but at prohibitive
prices: from 150 to 200 CFA francs apiece (the base
salary is 20,000 CFA francs a month). And yet here,
condoms are the only remedy against AIDS. For once the
disease has set in, it is futile to hope for treatment.
Patients wait to die in hospitals with, occasionally, an IV
to rehydrate them stuck in their arm. Pathetic. In all of
Bangui, only one patient has an inhaler allowing treat-
ment of pneumocystosis, a widespread illness in AIDS
cases. The number of AIDS patients receiving AZT can
be counted on one hand. The future is horrific: “Suppos-
ing that the treatment for AIDS is discovered one day, it
would cost 3 cents for Africans to get it,” cautions Dr
Georges. Pessimistic, but realistic.

With AIDS as with all other illnesses, poverty is an
insurmountable handicap. Take malaria. We know how
to cure it, but that does not stop it from wreaking havoc:
here as in most other tropical countries, it is still the
foremost cause of death. For lack of adequate quinine
supplies, 100 percent of the population suffer from
chronic malaria. It has proved impossible, too, to check
tuberculosis. There are no antibiotics. And when there
are any, they are too expensive. So naturally the illness
spreads—over | percent of the population is already
affected. “We are going to equal the infection rate of East
Africa: 5 to 6 percent of the population with tubercu-
losis. And 33 percent of them will develop AIDS,”
indignantly exclaims Dr Sarda, foreign aid doctor
working with the Office of Large-Scale Endemic Dis-
eases. Sleeping sickness—fatal if not treated—is making
a comeback, again, for lack of resources. One thousand
five hundred people are already affected; 120,000 poten-
tial patients live in areas menaced by the tsetse fly,
responsible for the illness. Controlling leprosy depends
on the generosity of nongovernmental organizations.
Doctors are also awaiting from the Carter Center in the
United States medications to cure “river blindness.”
Appeals are made to pharmaceutical laboratories for the
iodine needed for the many cases of goiter...

The inappropriateness of supplies adds to this enormous
misery. Take, for instance, the story of disposible
syringes. A large number of them were shipped to the
Central African Republic. But refill supplies did not
follow. These single-use syringes were therefore

JIPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

employed several times, after brief plunges in near-
boiling water (the plastic deteriorates). Consequently, all
risk of contamination is not being avoided. It would be
better to supply good-old glass syringes, which can be
boiled and reboiled. More serious is the failure of brand
new care centers such as the Chinese hospital, luxurious
but empty, for lack of equipment. The hospital funded
by the European Community, built by Bouygues, oper-
ates at very low capacity and has a deficit of 100 million
francs.

Vaccination drives are the only glimmer of hope here.
UNICEF's goal is to vaccinate 80 percent of children in
1990. This has been a failure in many countries, but a
success in Bangui at least. The DTWP (diphtheria-
tetanus-whooping cough-polio), measles, yellow fever,
and BCG [Bacillus Calmette-Guerin—TB vaccine] were
widely administered. Effects are already being felt in
Bangui: The measles wing (large numbers of children
were dying of the illness) at the pediatric hospital was
closed and new cases of poliomyelitis are very rare. But
the situation is more precarious in rural areas where the
vaccination rate falls to 25 percent, despite the efforts of
charitable associations.

France’s foreign aid program, the biggest moneylender in
the Central African Republic, has had a policy of
training hospital management personnel. The first trial
tun is the new pediatric center, built with aid funds at the
request of Danielle Mitterand. Consultations must be
paid, but medications are free. The French would also
like to move away from practicing medicine to leave
room for the country’s practitioners, and shifi their focus
to prevention and teaching. It will take time to assess the
effectiveness of this treatment. For now, the patient is
doing poorly.

ETHIOPIA

355 AIDS Cases, 88 Deaths

54000064 Addis Abaha THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD
in English 19 Apr 980 pp 1, 3

[Excerpt] The AIDS control and prevention department
of the Ministry of Health disclosed yesterday that 355
people have so far contracted the AIDS virus in Ethi-
opia, 88 of whom are known to have died.

The figure is based on statistics compiled in the various
hospitals across the country, according to which 247 of
the infected people were men and 108 women. The list
also includes six children below the age of four years,
indicating that the scourge of AIDS affects all age and
social groups.

Comrade Dr Hailu Negasa, head of the main clinical
section of the AIDS control and prevention department,
said 206 of the people known to have contracted the
AIDS virus were in Addis Ababa. He said that 212 of the
reported cases arc still alive while nothing is known of 55
victims.



JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

The struggle with the irrational reactions of the public to the
dangers of AIDS is no less a problem than the creation of the
material conditions to fight it. The universal lack of knowl-
edge on this illness is a fact. Because the tests are not
100-percent certain, awareness of the risk and danger is even
more important. The latest studies have shown that the
so-called “serologic window” (the time from the infection to
appearance of the first antibodies detected in the test) can last
not, as previously believed, from 2 to 6 weeks, but from 4 to
6 months or even longer. This increases the risk of infection
during blood transfusions. This risk can be minimized by
using equipment, soon to be imported, which will make it
possible to safely draw and process blood. Minimization can
also be achieved by making the public aware that persons in
the so-called “risk group” should not donate blood.

The HIV virus came to Poland late as compared with the
Western Europe countries. This makes it possible to utilize
the experience of the West in the battle with AIDS. Great
Britain has already offered to assist Poland in this matter.
Already this year, 2-week trips will be arranged for 10
teams made up of one doctor and two nurses each. These
teams will be trained in British hospitals.

Everyone knows that the threat of AIDS and the growing
number of infected persons has created new tasks, par-
ticularly for the health service. Above all, although AIDS
is frightening, the Hippocratic oath and the standards of
professional ethics must not be forgotten. The Chambers
of Physicians will oppose all cases of refusal of assistance
to the sick and infected and the frequent lack of obser-
vance of professional confidentiality.

Fewer and fewer doctors and nurses are becoming pan-
icky and refusing assistance, and more and more seldom
are we treating virus carriers like “lepers.” But there are
still too many signs of intolerance. Intolerance can only
be fought with knowledge. We should be reminded at
this point that objects used by the infected which do not
have traces of blood on them can be treated just like any
other soiled objects. And blood ceases to be an infection
carrier after 70 hours.

The Ministry of Health will not cease to disseminate
knowledge about AIDS, the least infectious of the infec-
tious diseases, and about the HIV virus, which is not
very dangerous in contact and tragically dangerous after
infection. Millions of pamphlets are being published on
this subject, press conferences are being arranged (the
above information was taken from the last one which
was held on 26 February), and a series of weekly reports
on AIDS for the TV “News” are being prepared.

Health Care Practitioners Discuss Fear of AIDS
Patients

90WE0170B Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA in Polish
No 11, 18 Mar 90 p 5

[Article: “Stop AIDS—To Battle... Without Weapons?”]

[Text] The Sejm’s Health Commission meeting held on
28 February was devoted to the epidemiological situa-

EAST EUROPE 15

tion in the country. The optimistic report by Minister
Andrzej Kosiniak-Kamysz, speaking about the low
danger of AIDS in Poland and on the great chances for a
successful battle with the HIV virus, aroused many
doubts.

Attention was called to the fact that filling the “Cezal”
warehouses to the walls with disposable equipment and
protective devices does not give the right to be satisfied
and to say that all requirements for these items have
been filled. It makes no difference to the medical per-
sonnel who are in direct contact with the sick or infected
whether the lack of protective means in the health
service centers was caused by import shortcomings or
lack of money to purchase them.

One of the deputies cited an interesting statistic con-
cerning the exposure of the medical community to
infection. Most of the infections occur as a result of a cut
by an instrument or a needle prick—injury to the skin.
The group most at risk are nurses, followed by laboratory
employees and doctors. Cases of on-the-job infection
with the HIV virus are rare. Nevertheless, half of them
could be avoided if disposable gloves (including long
gloves for obstetricians), eye-glasses, face masks, dispos-
able aprons and disinfectant agents, were available, and
if people knew more about the infection and how to
proceed with AIDS patients.

Mentioned over and over again by the deputies was the
lack of any kind of pamphlets or publications dealing
with diagnosis and rules of behavior in cases of contact
with the sick or infected, and the lack of basic disinfec-
tants (lysol), and chemical indicators of the sterilization
process, the so-called “strips,” large quantities of which
were promised as far back as 1988. The medical com-
munity, especially workers in health centers far removed
from the capital, look upon the actions of the ministry
dealing with infection-prevention and treatment of the
sick and infected as improvised and incoherent. There is
no consistent system or an effectively implemented
program. To this day, the basic treatment personnel do
not really know what to do with an infected patient, how
to treat him, where to send him, and to which depart-
ment to admit him.

And although no one questions the correctness of the
position of the Chief Medical Council (published in the
No. 8 issue dated 25 February), the question arose: Who
will be responsible for sending thousands of health
service employees to battle with the HIV virus without
weapons? The material shortages are not a trivial argu-
ment for all of those who are afraid of infection and
refuse to work around the sick and the carriers.

The subject of AIDS dominated the discussion, Other
data concerning other infections, published in the report
of the Main Health Inspectorate, was largely ignored.
Yet an increased number of cases of measles, bacterial
dysentery and food poisoning was recorded. The number



JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

reached its high point in the conference hall of the
Ziguinchor Chamber of Commerce which, it should be
emphasized, turned out to be too small to hold the large
crowd that came to attend the lecture early in the
afternoon of 4 April.

The theme of the lecture was, “AIDS and Islam.” The
subject was covered jointly by Abdoul Latif Gueye,
president of Djamra; El Hadj Mactar Drame, an Islamic
scholar, El Hadj Ousmane Mboup, vice president of
Djamra; and Dr. Ibra Ndoye, coordinator of the
National Committee for the Struggle Against AIDS.

This rather broad theme was debated for five hours by
both the lecturers and those attending the meeting.
Throughout the discussion those attending the lecture
pointed an accusing finger at adultery as the source
primarily responsible for this illness of the century.
However, according to the lecturers, AIDS was not
imported into Africa from somewhere else but rather was
a divine curse to punish unbelievers. In the course of the
lecture different evils of society were denounced,
including homosexuality, adultery, infidelity, and pros-
titution.

In any case, the danger of AIDS is there to see and quite
visible in Senegal with 307 declared cases and 115 people
dead. Discovered in Senegal in 1986, AIDS is continuing
its inexorable march across the country. The border
areas such as the Ziguinchor region, are the most
exposed. And one immediately thinks of tourists and
other travellers in that connection.

In the view of the lecturers, it is necessary to recognize
now that the struggle against AIDS is a long-distance race
and not a sprint against time. One of the lecturers said:
“Even if we find a vaccine and a course of treatment in
the next five years, we who live in the developing
countries should consider AIDS as a high priority health
problem for at least the next 20 years.”

In mentioning the matter of protective devices in the
fight against AIDS, the lecturers emphasized that the use
of such devices would primarily favor adultery and
infidelity. And family planning? There also the lecturers
stated that Islam only permits the use of such practices to
married couples, to space out births, but not to the
unmarried. According to them, the only real alternative
to be used against AIDS is a “moral preservative,” that
is, marriage and conjugal fidelity.

Social Mobilization

They stated: ‘We must stop arousing false hopes. The
best way of eradicating this scourge is to change our
sexual behavior. The most reliable vaccine against AIDS
turns out to be marital fidelity.”

The struggle against AIDS emphasizes the struggle
against infidelity, adultery, and frequent sexual relations
with different partners. All of those actions are prohib-
ited by Islam and the Catholic religion. The lecturers
considered that social mobilization involving religious

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 5

leaders is one of the best courses of action which could
bring with it a change in sexual behavior.

SOUTH AFRICA

Health Department Explains AIDS Projections

54000066 Johannesburg THE CITIZEN in English
10 May 90 p3

[Text] The SA Department of National Health and
Population Development estimates that 55,000 people
in South Africa would have been infected by the deadly
HIV virus by the end of 1989.

Ina statement in Pretoria yesterday, the department said
this was only an estimate as no concrete evidence
existed.

“Projections should only be seen as an indication of the
possible order of magnitude of the problem.”

The department said it and the government were still
being accused of under-reporting AIDS and HIV-
positive cases.

The current conception was that the department was not
overtly regarding the incidence of the problem—that it
was secretive about facts and statistics.

It clarified the following basic misconceptions:

—AIDS cases: These were diseases resulting from HIV
infection. The “Centres of Disease Control” in
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., stipulated certain criteria
which were accepted worldwide. Only when patients
complied with these criteria, could they be regarded as
an AIDS case.

—HIV-positive person: This was a person who had
contracted the virus was confirmed/tested to have
antibodies to the virus. Such a finding could not be
made on the basis of a single test—a confirmation test
had to be done.

“Test results made available without confirmation tests
lead to incorrect information being disseminated, cre-
ating a situation which does not, in fact, exist. This
should be avoided.”

—Carriers of the virus who had not yet been tested: The
incidence of HIV carriers was not available in “hard”
confirmed data format. However, reliable, or less
reliable, projections regarding the extent of this cate-
gory could be made, but should not be confused with
the above two categories where confirmed data did
exist.

“The department's projection of approximately 55,000
infected persons by the end of 1989 is regarded as fair,”
the department said.

The department gave the following statistics for AIDS
from 1982 to April 24, 1990.



IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

ISRAEL

Data of AIDS Victims

TA2005121090 Tel Aviv HADASHOT in Hebrew
20 May 90 p 14

[Report by Gila Razin]

[Excerpt] Today the Israeli Committee Against AIDS is
staging a protest demonstration in front of the Prime
Minister’s Office in Jerusalem to mark the international

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 2

memorial day for AIDS vicitims. This year the memorial
day will be marked in 180 cities throughout the world
today.

Shlomi Patya [name as published], the committee’s
spokesman, reported that in the past seven years, 130
AIDS patients have been uncovered; 72 of them have
died. An additional 520 carriers of the disease, 15
percent of them women, were found. The total numbers
of carriers in Israel is estimated at some 5,000. [passage
omitted]



JPRS-TEP-90-007
15 JUNE 1990
Foreicn
Broapcast
INFORMATION
Service

PRS Report—

Epidemiology

AIDS

REPRODUCED BY
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE
SPRINGFIELD, VA. 22161

160 Lbeb86o4

DEG Quits Lity SisrEcrep 3



8 CHINA

Guangzhou Issues Anti-AIDS Regulations

HK1005021590 Hong Kong SOUTH CHINA
MORNING POST in English 10 May 90 p 10

[Text] Guangzhou city has passed tough regulations to
curb the spread of venereal diseases, including AIDS.

The Provisional Regulations for the Management and
Prevention of Venereal Disease, published in yesterday's
GUANGZHOU DAILY, said that “prostitutes, their
customers and anyone else found involved in illegal
sexual activities who are caught will be made to undergo
an examination”.

“Those found to be suffering from VD will be treated
and detained for reeducation.”

The regulations apply also to Hong Kong and forcign
tourists.

“Those (foreigners) found to be suffering from VD will
be compelled to undergo treatment and will have a
record,” the regulations said. “They will subsequently be
given 48 hours to leave the country”.

People intending to marry must undergo examination
for VD and AIDS before they are allowed to register. The
regulations further specify that “all employees working
in the tourism industry, food and drink trade, at places
of entertainment and in the transport industry, must also
undergo a VD examination when they are employed”.

Yunnan Strengthens Efforts To Fight AIDS

Three-Year Plan in Operation

0W2905113990 Beijing XINHUA in English
0949 GMT 29 May 90

[Text] Kunming—Yunnan Province in southwest China,
where AIDS virus carriers account for 95.4 percent of the
total on the mainland of China, is strengthening efforts
for prevention and control of the killer disease.

After 146 people in the province were found late last year
to have been infected by the AIDS virus—though none
of them has any obvious symptoms—Governor He Zhi-
qiang convened several special meetings on the problem.

The provincial government soon established a special
committee in charge of prevention and treatment of
AIDS with Deputy Governor Chen Liying as the head
and Wu Kunyi, director of the department of public
health, as the deputy head.

With the help of the World Health Organization, a
three-year plan to combat AIDS has been worked out
and put into operation.

All the diagnosed AIDS virus carriers in the province
have been put under loca! quarantine for medical care.

A large-scale campaign on combating AIDS has been
launched throughout the province. Various training
classes are being held and all the mass media are being

IJPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

used to popularize knowledge about prevention and
control of AIDS. More and more local people have
plunged into the struggle against unhealthy activities
which lead to the spread of AIDS, such as drug addic-
tion, prostitution, etc.

The departments in charge of public health and epidemic
prevention have started to examine more high-risk
groups of people in a larger area, including Kunming,
capital of the province, and the prefectures of Dali,
Baoshan and Lincang.

So far, they have collected serum samples from more
than 7,000 people and some new suspected carriers have
been discovered. Work is underway to determine
whether these suspects are actually infected by the AIDS
virus.

Fortunately, these suspects’ location is still limited to the
Sino-Burmese border counties and cities, where the
AIDS-virus carriers discovered last year live.

The departments in charge of public health and epidemic
prevention in the province issue individual registration
cards for these AIDS-virus carriers to trace their move-
ments.

Meanwhile, they have completed a survey on epidemi-
ology and actiology in Ruili, a border county which was
found to have most of the AIDS-virus carriers in China,
thus paving the way for further research on the epidemic
pattern and factors as well as infection rates in the border
area.

The provincial government has allocated 1.6 million
yuan (333,000 U.S. dollars) for the work on prevention
and control of AIDS. Besides, the State Council and the
Ministry of Public Health have provided the province
with some relevant equipment.

After three years’ efforts, the coordinated research group
for the development of medicines to prevent and control
AIDS, consisting of scientists from various research
institutes and universities in the province, have found a
dozen Chinese traditional herbs to be effective for
treating the AIDS virus.

Besides, the research group has also established animal
matrices for the research of AIDS, thus paving the way
for trial use of anti- AIDS medicines on animals.

At present, Director Wu Kunyi said, the most important
and most difficult thing is to take good care of the
AIDS-virus carriers to control the further spread of the
diseases.

Director Wu noted that all the AIDS virus carriers in
Yunnan are still in the premorbid stage and they all live
in a limited border area.


IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Government Estimates 1991 Black HIV Figures

54000065B Cape Town CAPE TIMES in English
5 Apr 90 p3

[Text] By the end of 1991 an estimated 446,000 blacks in
South Africa will be infected by the human immuno-
deficient virus (HIV).

These figures were released by the Department of
National Health and Population Development yes-
terday, in response to recent media reports which alleged
that the department was withholding information
regarding AIDS from the public.

At the end of last year about 55,000 South Africans were
infected with the virus, while 3,431 of these cases had
been reported to the department on a voluntary and
anonymous basis by early last month.

The statement stressed that researchers involved in the
survey emphasised the lack of representative data and
the preliminary nature of their findings.

“The first South African cases were diagnosed in 1982,
indicating that infection could have occurred 10 years
earlier and that HIV has been present in the country
since 1972,” the statement said.

“In the light of these projections it cannot be over-
emphasised how serious and enormous the threat is. At
present there is no cure for AIDS and no vaccine exists to
safeguard healthy people against contamination.”

The statement stressed that knowledge about how AIDS
is spread and appropriate precautions are the only effi-
cient means to prevent the disease.

SWAZILAND

Health Minister Warns of ‘Disastrous’ AIDS
Spread

MB1206071890 Mbabane THE TIMES OF
SWAZILAND in English 12 Jun 90 pp 1, 28

{Article by Gordon Mbuli]

[Text] The Minister for Health, Dr Fanny Friedman has
seriously warned the Swazi nation of the disastrous
consequences of the spread of AIDS in the country.

She stated that until members of the public take this
issue seriously, the entire population will suffer.

There are now 207 HIV positive cases in the kingdom,
which represent an increase of over 40 percent since last
December.

At least 30 of these people are already full blown AIDS
sufferers waiting to die any day.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 7

Dr Friedman observed that in Swaziland, the majority of
infected people do not yet show the symptoms of the
disease.

“This is therefore the reason why the Swazi public still
doubt the reality of the AIDS crisis. Other countries are
ahead of us in that they are already dealing with behav-
iour changes while we are still dealing with convincing
our public about realities of AIDS,” she said.

Dr Friedman was speaking yesterday when she
addressed a one week AIDS Counsellor Training work-
shop held in Mbabane. The workshop has been orga-
nised by the Family Life Association of Swaziland
(FLAS). Project Hope and the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID).

The minister told the participants that in Swaziland,
AIDS has continued to be a major concern. She said,
since the first case was diagnosed in 1986, four years
later more than 200 people have been confirmed infected
while up to 30 are believed to have progressed to full
blown AIDS.

“Jt would appear that the infection was introduced in
Swaziland later than in other parts of Africa so that while
other African countries are seeing a lot of AIDS cases, in
Swaziland the majority of infected people are still at the
asymptomatic stage.

“This is therefore the reason why the Swazi public still
doubts the reality of the AIDS crisis. Other countries are
ahead of us in that they are already dealing with the
behaviour changes while we are still dealing with con-
vincing our public about the realities of AIDS.

“It would also appear that intervention programmes in
Swaziland started in good time to avert the catastrophic
experiences which other African states are going
through.

“But because the Swazi public does not seem to take the
outcry seriously and urgently, Swaziland will eventually
experience the same disastrous effects of AIDS.”

ZAIRE

261 AIDS Cases in Bandundu in 1989

B0606110690 Kinshasa AZAP in French
1110 GMT 2 Jun 90

[Excerpt] A total of 261 AIDS cases were recorded in
1989 in 13 of the 38 health zones of Bandundu Region.
The most affected zone was Vanga in Kwilu, where 14
clinical cases were reported and 120 persons tested
positive. Dr. Kabega Buda, the regional officer of the
National Program to Fight AIDS (PNLS), announced
this recently at a working session with doctors at Band-
undu General Hospital. He did not, however, specify
whether any of the patients died. [passage omitted]


28 WEST EUROPE

connection with the presentation yesterday of a new
video about AIDS by the National Association Against
AIDS yesterday. This association works together with
Denmark’s Student Organization, the HK’s [Retail and
Clerical Worker’s Union] Youth Divisions, and the
Business School Students of Denmark to provide infor-
mation about AIDS, and the new video is only one of the
tools used to tell young people about the risk of AIDS.
Not only the risk among homosexuals and drug abusers,
but also the risk to all other young people, according to
script writer and educator Jytte Bjerring.

The Chairman of the National Association Against
AIDS, Erik Mads Lihme, added that the video has
received support from numerous professional organiza-
tions, housewife organizations, etc., and that they intend
to distribute it via professional organizations, youth
organizations and the State Film Center, which was
invited to yesterday’s presentation at the HK’s local
headquarters in Copenhagen.

JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

NORWAY

100 Dead From AIDS Virus

90WE0197A Oslo AFTENPOSTEN in Norwegian
11 May 90 p 4

[Article by NTB [Norwegian Wire Service}: “100 People
Dead from AIDS in Norway”)

[Text] According to the latest figures from the National
Institute of Health (SIFF), 100 people have died from
AIDS in Norway so far. Since the beginning of this year,
six people have died from AIDS.

According to senior physician Arve Lystad at SIFF, HIV
infection is somewhat under control in Norway today.
However, each month about 10 new HIV-positive people
are identified.

Since registration began, a total of 917 HIV-positive persons
were reported to SIFF. Of these, 154 have come down with
AIDS. A survey by SIFF shows that all AIDS patients who
were diagnosed in 1985 or earlier are dead today.


IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

AIDS Testing in Ontario Confidential

54200042 Toronto THE TORONTO STAR in English
17 Apr 90 pp Al, A22

[Article by Kelly Toughill]

[Excerpts] Ontario Health Minister Elinor Caplan has
reversed a controversial AIDS policy and approved a
plan to let people get tested for the AIDS virus without
revealing their names.

AIDS activists lauded the move, saying that anonymous
testing will encourage people to come forward and find
out if they are infected.

The plan approved by Caplan calls for a study of limited
anonymous testing in selected sites around Ontario.

Under the current law, public health officials can
demand the name of anyone who tests positive for the
AIDS virus in Ontario. The law was designed to stop the
spread of communicable diseases by helping public
health officials track down anyone who might have been
exposed to such an infection.

But supporters of anonymous testing said the law didn’t
work.

Not only did public health officials rarely track down
those who were exposed, they charged, the law discour-
aged many people from getting tested for fear their
names might be made public.

That, in turn, prevented them from getting early treat-
ment for the infection, something that is believed to be
crucial to long-term survival with the disease.

“It’s a difficult issue, with strongly held opinions on both
sides,” said Marnie Paikin, head of the Ontario AIDS
Advisory Committee.

Paikin’s committee recommended to Caplan in Feb-
tuary that the province approve a study of limited
anonymous testing.

Caplan wrote to Paikin earlier this month pledging to
follow the committee’s advice and to “move expedi-
tiously to establish the anonymous testing protocols and
test sites.”

Paikin said she doesn’t know how long it will take to set
up the clinics for anonymous testing, how many there
will be or how long the study will run.

Caplan couldn’t be reached for comment.

More than 1,500 people in Ontario have been diagnosed
with fully developed AIDS, but no one knows how many
are infected with the virus that causes the disease.

In the City of Toronto alone, more than 4,000 people are
known to be carrying the virus.

WEST EUROPE 27

DENMARK

AIDS Spreading Faster Among Women

Change From Earlier Pattern

90WE0169A Copenhagen INFORMATION in Danish
28 Mar 90 p 2

[Article from Ritzau Bureau: “More Women Get
AIDS”

[Text] The AIDS disease broke away from its familiar
pattern in 1989. Far more women were found to have the
disease, as the percentage of drug abusers with AIDS
rose, while homosexuals and bisexuals comprised a
lower percentage, according to the State Serum Insti-
tute’s newsletter, Epi-Nyt.

In 1989, a total of 168 new cases of AIDS were discov-
ered, raising the total number of AIDS cases in Denmark
to 533. Whereas there was only one woman with AIDS
for every 20 men with the disease during the period from
1980-88, the ratio changed drastically in 1989 to one
woman for every 11 men.

Some 70 percent of the AIDS patients are found in
greater Copenhagen.

Transmission of AIDS from Mother to Child

90WE0169B Copenhagen BERLINGSKE SONDAG in
Danish 4 Feb 90 p 20

[Article by Henning Ziebe: “Only Few Danish Babies
Born With AIDS Virus”)

[Text] Danish researchers are trying to determine why
“only” 40 percent of those women who are HIV-positive
pass on the virus to their children. A better under-
standing of this could help to decrease the risk of
transmission of the AIDS virus from mother to child.

Fortunately, there are presently very few children here in
Denmark who have been born with HIV and, conse-
quently, the still fatal disease. It is known that some
mothers have terminated their pregnancies if they are
HIV-positive. Even though only 40 percent of the chil-
dren will get AIDS, many mothers dare not run the risk
by completing their pregnancy.

In Arhus, Chief Physician Peter Ebbesen, M.D. is
studying the mechanism of transmission from the pla-
centa to the fetus, and many of the ways in which the
disease can be transmitted have already been deter-
mined.

Ebbesen complains that media interest in AIDS has
decreased greatly, even though more and more people
are getting the disease. This complaint was voiced in



4 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

[Text] A new case of AIDS seropositivity was reported
last week by medical authorities. The victim is a 30-
year-old /handyman/ living in the capital.

The Ministry of Health informs us that the /handyman/,
who has never traveled abroad, shared a syringe four
years ago with a friend who [now] lives in Australia. The
/handyman/ is married and the father of two children,
ages five and one. The spouse of the Port Louis resident
does not yet know that her husband is seropositive.
Officers of the Ministry of Health are in fact trying to
find a way to break the bad news to the /handyman’s/
wife.

Medical authorities very much doubt that the woman in
question is also infected. However, they do not want to
traumatize her by abruptly announcing the news. It is
only after she has been informed that Ministry of Health
officers will administer the necessary treatment. The
couple’s children may also be medically examined.
Given the delicate nature of the task, the doctors want to
approach the matter cautiously.

The Health Ministry is currently concerned about the
harmful effect AIDS could have on society. That is why
the ministry has launched a sweeping educational drive
aimed at students and high-risk individuals and society
in general. In addition, the Ministry of Health is offering
continuous health care to already infected individuals.

Mauritius has had 13 seropositive cases to date, two of
which were /full-blown cases/. However, the two /
full-blown/ cases as well as two other seropositive indi-
viduals have already died. Mauritius does not have a
/full-blown case/ for now.

MOZAMBIQUE

Cabo Delgado Reports 12 AIDS Cases
MB0606092190 Maputo Domestic Service in Portuguese
0500 GMT 6 Jun 90

[Text] Our Pemba correspondent reports that 12 AIDS
cases have been diagnosed in Cabo Delgado Province.
This was disclosed at a recent session of Cabo Delgado’s
Provincial Assembly held in Pemba city.

Official statistics say 96 AIDS cases have been reported
in Mozambique.

SENEGAL

France Grants 60 Million Francs for AIDS

90WE0200B Dakar LE SOLEIL in French
14-16 Apr 90 p 4

[Article by Pape Sedikh Mbodje: “Fight Against AIDS:
French Grant of 60 Million CFA Francs”]

[Text] On 13 April the program for the fight against
AIDS received a grant of 60 million CFA [African

JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Financial Community] francs from the French Aid and
Cooperation Fund [FAC]. The agreement providing the
aid was signed by Assane Diop, Senegalese minister of
health and social action, and Francois Chappellet, chief
of the French Cooperation and Cultural Action Mission.
This contribution is in addition to the assistance already
provided under the French aid program since 1986. This
assistance has made it possible to equip the blood banks
in Dakar (at Principal Hospital and the National Blood
Transfusion Center), Ziguinchor and Saint Louis with
equipment for the serological identification of AIDS.

This new grant will be used in particular to equip the
blood bank in the Tambacounda Hospital and to install
at the National Blood Transfusion Center in Dakar data
Processing equipment to make it possible to set up a
central file of blood donors. The implementation of the
project will be handled by Dr. Bernard Brethes who,
since September 1989, has been coordinator of the
program for the struggle against AIDS.

The minister of health and social action emphasized that
this agreement will help our country to carry out its
medium-term struggle against AIDS, including a signif-
icant reduction in the transmission of the AIDS virus
through blood transfusions and setting up a data base to
make it possible for health professionals to have access
to basic documentation on AIDS. In the name of the
chief of state, Minister of Health and Social Action
Assane Diop thanked France for the continuing assis-
tance that it is providing to Senegal.

Francois Chappellet, the chief of the French Coopera-
tion and Cultural Action Mission, commented that
during the past three years France has spent more than
2.5 billion CFA [African Financial Community] francs
in Africa on the struggle against AIDS. He also stated
that, since 1987, nearly 30 laboratories for identifying
the AIDS virus have been established in Africa. Further-
more, intensive programs for the training of personnel in
this field have been conducted in blood transfusion
centers to reduce the risks of contracting the disease
through transfusions, Chappellet said that, in terms of
Senegal, French assistance has continued to respond to
the appeal made in 1986 by President Abdou Diouf.
Since 1986 France has participated actively in the
ongoing war against AIDS.

307 Reported AIDS Cases; 115 Deaths

90WE0200A Dakar LE SOLEIL in French
5 Apr 90 p 13

[Article by Cheikh F. Keita: “The Medicine of Fidelity”}

[Text] The national tour of the Djamra, a nongovern-
mental organization, in the framework of a series of
lectures and meetings based on sensitizing the public
regarding the fight against AIDS has just ended in the
Ziguinchor area.

This campaign, carricd on in cooperation with the
National Committee for the Struggle Against AIDS,



18 LATIN AMERICA

BRAZIL

Rise in AIDS Cases Since 1980

90WE0194A Sao Paulo FOLHA DE SAO PAULO
in Portuguese 24 Apr 90 p C5

[Text] Exactly 10 years ago, about April 1980, a profes-
sional: photographer then age 34, single, with unknown
sexual habits, became unexpectedly emaciated, showing
signs of weakness. He would die at 0845 hours on 18
March 1981. His bulky clinical records at the Sao Paulo
Hospital in Vila Mariana, in the southern zone, ended
with an autopsy report indicating pulmonary interstitial
fibrosis, as the “causa mortis”, “to be clarified.”

The clarification did not come until five years later,
when the physician Antonio Luiz de Arruda Mattos, ina
monograph for a master’s degree submitted at the Sao
Paulo School of Medicine, stated that acquired immuno-
deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was involved. This dis-
covery, reported to the Health Ministry, has since
become designated as “case one” of the 10,510 reported
as of the beginning of last March.

This was most likely not the real first victim of the
epidemic. Just last week, in Juiz de Fora (MG [Minas
Gerais]), the dermatologist Carlos Adolfo Pereira, 52,
claimed to suspect that a patient of his, a 22-year old
homosexual sailor, treated in 1973, may have been an
even earlier victim. The case is being investigated, and
there should be findings within six months.

Meanwhile, “case one” is still an example, owing to the
doubts that it aroused and the clinical efforts mobilized
to identify the presence of a virus, HIV [human
immuno-deficiency virus], with which Brazilian labora-
tories would not be equipped to deal for another two
years.

The first victim (the family did not know until last
Friday that the diagnosis was AIDS, and requested not to
be identified by name) was a prototype of the successful
Sao Paulo middle-class professional. Employed in adver-
tising photography, he had been working in Alcantara
Machado, and had just set up a studio. He was born in
Maceio, Alagoas, but when he was brought to Sao Paulo,
shortly before his first birthday, he had three sisters and
three brothers, and lived with his widowed mother in a
two-story house in Tatuape, in the eastern zone. He
engaged in swimming and playing soccer. He did not
smoke, and drank moderately.

Since 1971 he had attended the Messianic Church, and
was considered religious. So much so that, in late 1980,
already debilitated, he spent a month in Japan to make a
retreat at the world headquarters of his church. Before
that trip, at age 25, he had spent vacations in Europe.

His oldest sister recounts some other details: He was not
a hemophiliac, and had never had a blood transfusion,

IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

although he was a frequent donor. He did not consume
drugs. Relatives were unaware of his amorous adven-
tures.

Upon his return from Japan he began to feel “out of
breath.” He was treated by two general physicians and a
specialist in respiratory diseases. He was eventually
confined in the Sao Luis and Higienopolis Hospitals
before his stay in the Sao Paulo Hospital during the two
weeks preceding his death. He was treated as a carrier of
an unknown type of lung infection.

AIDS in Brazil (No. of Cases of the Disease by Sex, Year
of Diagnosis, and Ratio of Male/Female Cases, Between
1980 and 1990*)

Year No. of Cases MIF Ratio
Male Female
1980 1 - vi
1981 = =- -
1982 7 oad m”
1983 26 1 26/1
1984 120 1 120/1
1985 455 15 30/1
1986 870 50 1A
1987 1,864 189 10/1
1988 2,864 409 m
1989 3,110 378 8/1
1990 142 8 19/1
Total 9,459 1,051 oN

* 1989/90: Preliminary data as of 3/3/90

MEXICO

National, State Aspects of AIDS Cases

Infected Blood Cited

90WEOI68A Mexico City EXCELSIOR in Spanish
18 Mar 90 pp 4-A, 21-A

[Article by correspondent Juan Gerardo Reyes)

{Excerpt] Leon, Guanajuato—Fifteen percent of the
country’s 3,500 recorded cases of AIDS are due to
transfusions of contaminated blood plasma, said Dr
Soledad Cordoba, the director of the National Blood
Transfusion Center. She also came out in favor of
conducting a wide-ranging “consciousness-raising pro-
gram among the population on the need to receive blood
only if it has previously been proved to be safe.”

Representing the health secretary, Jesus Kumate Rod-
riguez, Soledad Cordoba officially inaugurated the Leon
branch of the Blood Center of the Mexican Red Cross.
The ceremony was attended by the president of the
distinguished organization, Jose Barroso Chavez.



24 SOVIET UNION

Professor Mikhail Narkevich, head of the Main Epide-
miological, Directorate, who recalled that the first AIDS
case was registered three years ago. The number of cases
now stands at 317, and forecasts indicate that, if the
current trend continues, the figure by the year 2000
could be over | million.

There are some 800 specialized laboratories in the
country at present, with plans for a further 2,000. In
recent years 50 million people, half of them regular
blood donors, have been screened. As of 1989, a unified
anti-AIDS service has been in existence, with republican
and regional screening centers. The conference will also
consider the psychological, ethical, juridical, and social
aspects of AIDS, and ways of educating the population
about it.

Appeal for National Program

LD0106132790 Moscow Domestic Service in Russian
1800 GMT 31 Jun 90

[Summary] “An all-union scientific and practical confer-
ence on the state and prospects of the improvement of
the prevention and combatting of AIDS in the USSR has
ended in Leningrad. Our correspondent Matvey Frolov
asked the head of the department of highly dangerous
infections of the city public health and epidemological
station, Galina Vladimirovna Volkova, about its
results.”

[Begin Volkova recording] This was the first such con-
ference in the USSR. The health ministries of all the
union republics were represented, plus regional AIDS
centers. Work over the past three years was reviewed,
with “depressing results”. Infection in hospitals is higher
in the USSR than anywhere else in the world, and half
the victims are children. Poor equipment or poor
training of middle and junior staff are to blame. Steril-
ization equipment is scarce. Information on prevention
is not being read because it is boringly presented. It’s
everyone’s problem. The conference adopted an appeal
to the government and one to the people called for a
national program to combat AIDS before it is too late.
[end recording]

AIDS Infection Suspected in Moldavia

90WE0066B Kishinev SOVETSKAYA MOLDAVIYA in
Russian 20 Oct 89 p 3

[Article by ATEM correspondent O. Grabovskiy: “AIDS
in Moldavia?”’]

{Text] The population of Bendery is agitated by the
report that AIDS has been found in a 7-year-old boy, D.
The Moldavian SSR first deputy minister of health, N. I.
Dolgiy, comments on this fact:

Dolgiy: In fact, in the first ten days of this month, during
a battery of diagnostic tests, the disease was suspected in
the boy. The Moldavian Ministry of Health moved fast
to create a special integrated team from among the
leading specialists and the republic center created to

JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

fight AIDS. The team has begun conducting a multifac-
eted, in-depth epidemiological investigation, plus a lab-
oratory study and analysis.

SOVETSKAYA MOLDAVIYA: What are the first steps
taken by this team?

Dolgiy: It has thoroughly analyzed the situation, calcu-
lated prospects for the future, and has developed and is
implementing a concrete plan of measures. In particular,
possible contacts are being turned up for D. in his
everyday life, and also in the health care establishments
where he has undergone treatment. This work is also
being carried out with respect to his relatives. Samples
are being sent to the All-Union Center for the Prevention
and Control of Fight AIDS. Moscow specialists in this
field have been invited to Moldavia.

SOVETSKAYA MOLDAVIYA: The results of the mea-
sures being taken, perhaps, are causing concern and
uneasiness for many people?...

Dolgiy: Nothing is worse than ignorance. We are trying
to report the results of our work as quickly as possible, to
get the information to broad segments of the public.

Hematology Center Director Denies Export of
Whole Blood

90WE0066A Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian

28 Nov 89 Morning Edition p 3

[Article by F. Ivanov under rubric “Rumors and Facts”:
“Not Subject to Export”; first two paragraphs are source
introduction)

[Text] Recently reports have appeared in the mass media
that our country has begun exporting donor blood.

An IZVESTIYA correspondent asked A. Vorobyev, aca-
demician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and
director of the All-Union Hematological Scientific
Center, to comment on these reports.

Vorobyev: I’ll tell you frankly, these “revelations,” which
were heard, in particular, on the Leningrad television
program “600 Seconds,” deeply offended me as a repre-
sentative of medicine. I can state with complete
authority that we never have traded and never will trade
in donor blood.

IZVESTIYA: Then what is the basis for these reports?

Vorobyev: The fact is that, except in rare cases, doctors
throughout the world have stopped transfusing whole
blood in recent years. As a rule, a patient needs only
individual components of it: plasma, erythrocytes,
thrombocytes. But scientists are going even further. They
have discovered that plasma can also be separated into
components and that these can be used for various
diseases. It has become possible to be rid of certain
viruses which, before, could be transferred from the


JPRS-TEP-90-007
15 June 1990 3 AIDS

MEXICO

National, State Aspects of AIDS Cases. .....
Infected Blood Cited /Juan Gerardo Reyes; Mexico City EXCELSIOR, 18 Mar 90] ..
Red Cross Comment /Salvador Guerrero Chipres; Mexico City LA JORNADA, 21 Mar 90] . 19
Yucatan, Coahuila Statistics /Atilano Gonzalez; Mexico City EXCELSIOR, 15 Mar 90] ..
Tlaxcala Cases [Jose Ponce Roldan; Mexico City EXCELSIOR, 17 Mar 90]
21 New Puebla Cases [Jose I. Tellez; Mexico City EXCELSIOR, 19 Mar 90]
108 Coahuila Cases [Hector Tamez; Mexico City EXCELSIOR, 19 Mar 90]

PANAMA

Health Ministry Reports Increase in Cases of AIDS
[Carlos Vargas; Panama City EL PANAMA AMERICA, 20 May 90] ......

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA
ISRAEL

20

Data of AIDS Victims (Gila Razin; Tel Aviv HADASHOT, 20 May 90]
SOVIET UNION

Pokrovskiy Gives Prognosis of AIDS Epidemic in USSR [V. Pokrovskiy; IZVESTIYA, 5 Dec 89] ..
First Ever AIDS Conference Opens in Leningrad ...
Current Incidences, Forecast Given
[Nikolay Krupenik; Moscow TASS International Service, 28 May 90] ..
Appeal for National Program [Moscow Domestic Service, 31 Jun 90]
AIDS Infection Suspected in Moldavia /O. Grabovskiy; SOVETSKAYA MOLDAVIYA, 20 Oct 89
Hematology Center Director Denies Export of Whole Blood /F. Ivanov; IZVESTIYA, 28 Nov 89]

WEST EUROPE
CANADA

AIDS National Strategy ‘Long Overdue’ says TORONTO STAR
[Toronto THE TORONTO STAR, 30 Mar 90]
International AIDS Conference Surplus Funds Al
[Ottawa THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, 14 Mar 90] ....
AIDS Antibody Positive Tests in BC Reach 3,500 (Vancouver THE SUN, 19 Apr 90]
AIDS Testing in Ontario Confidential
[Kelly Toughill; Toronto THE TORONTO STAR, 17 Apr 90] ....

DENMARK

AIDS Spreading Faster Among Women .....
Change From Earlier Pattern {Copenhagen INFORMATION, 28 Mar 90]
Transmission of AIDS from Mother to Child

[Henning Ziebe; Copenhagen BERLINGSKE SONDAG, 4 Feb 90] ...

NORWAY

100 Dead From AIDS Virus {Oslo AFTENPOSTEN, 11 May 90] .....



IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

SOUTH KOREA

Foreigner Testing Positive for AIDS Deported

SK2605070890 Seoul YONHAP in English 0627 GMT
26 May 90

[Text] Seoul—A male dancer has been deported by
South Korea because he tested positive for AIDS in the
first expulsion since the government enacted AIDS reg-
ulations for foreign employees in March, an official of
the Health and Social Affairs Ministry said Saturday.

The 38-year-old dancer, identified as “D,” had worked
for a Korean hotel since mid-April, but did not have
sexual intercourse during that time, the official said.

The government ruled March | that foreigners seeking
work in Korea under long-term contracts must submit
certificates showing they are free of the AIDS virus
within one month of their entry into Korea.

MALAYSIA

177 AIDS Cases in 1990

90WEOI85A Kuala Lumpur UTUSAN MALAYSIA
in Malay 16 Apr 90 p 16

[Text] Ipoh—The Ministry of Health identified 177
cases of AIDS in the first 3 months of this year, almost
double the total number found last year, Chua Jui Meng,
the ministry’s parliamentary secretary, said here today.

Of those cases, 52 carriers were identified in the 9 days
from 21 to 29 March.

Speaking to reporters today at the City Auditorium after
launching an eye care campaign under the sponsorship of
the Perak Poor Students Welfare Association, Chua Jui
Meng declared that the AIDS epidemic in Malaysia is
not serious, however.

Nevertheless, he added, prevention efforts and vigilance
must be intensified by seeking the cooperation of
everyone.

He announced that 192 AIDS cases were identified in
the country in 1989 and that as of today the number has
reached 379 cases.

He said identification of the additional cases was a result
of tests made by the ministry on drug users.

Of these drug users, 96.8 percent are men, and only 3.2
percent are women.

When asked whether the AIDS cases were caused by
tourists, he said that according to his figures only 1.6
percent of the AIDS cases involved foreign tourists,
whereas 6 percent stemmed from prostitution.

Chua Jui Meng announced that investigations reveal
that 76 percent of the AIDS cases involve drug users.

EAST ASIA it

He said that so far nine people have died from AIDS in
Malaysia.

He said his ministry does not require tourists arriving in
the country to undergo AIDS testing.

What the ministry is doing, he said, is to encourage the
public to note how to avoid AIDS and to be aware of its
bad effects on those who get the disease.

He called on everyone to give serious attention to
eliminating AIDS and to cooperate with the ministry in
teaching the younger generation to be healthy and free of
all contagious diseases.

THAILAND

AIDS Figures Draw Prime Minister’s Office
Reaction

90WEO172A Bangkok THAI RAT in Thai 4 Apr 90
pp 1, 22

[Excerpt] [passage omitted] Figures showing an unprec-
edented increase in AIDS sufferers were revealed by
Assistant Professor Dr. Praphan Phanuphak of the Chu-
lalongkon University Medical Faculty yesterday after-
noon (3 April): in the last six months the rate at which
Thai people were infected by the AIDS virus increased
alarmingly. At the annual meeting of the Medical Fac-
ulty of Chulalongkon University on 20 March it was
disclosed that first-time male blood donors to the Thai
Red Cross in 1989 showed a steadily increasing inci-
dence of AIDS. There were approximately 140,000 who
donated blood. In the period from January to March, .12
percent of the donors were found to have AIDS in tests
given before donation; in the period from April to June,
.22 percent were found to have AIDS; in the period from
July to September, .38 percent were found to have AIDS;
and in the period from October to November, .69
percent were found to have AIDS or 69 in 10,000. In
1988 only .09 percent were found to have AIDS in tests
given before donation. This was an eight-fold increase.
“The same statistic in the United States was only .048
percent while here it was .69 percent, in other words here
it was 14 times greater.”

Dr. Praphan said that in addition the Ministry of Public
Health had discovered that the number of pregnant
women with the AIDS virus had increased greatly. There
were almost none in mid 1989, but by the end of the
same year 2 percent of the pregnant women were found
to be infected in 6 of the 31 provinces. Of the men who
came to be tested for venereal disease almost none were
found to be infected in mid 1989, but by the end of the
year 2 percent of the men coming for these examinations
were found to be infected in 12 of the 31 provinces. A
high incidence was found in some provinces, especially
in the north; the rate was 17.8 percent in Chiang Mai
Province, 14.8 percent in Phayao Province, and 13.8
percent in Chiang Rai.


IPRS-tep-90-007

15 June 1990 EAST ASIA 13

the drug clinic indicated that the incidence of AIDS had
increased from two percent two years ago to 40 percent
plus now. Documents from the Epidemiology Division
of the Ministry of Public Health indicated that as of 15
February 1990 there were 12 cases of youths, meaning

those aged 15 to 29, with complete AIDS symptoms.
There were 8,375 with the AIDS virus but without
symptoms. These cases resulted from both the sharing of
needles in drug use and from use of prostitutes. [passage
omitted]



JPRS-TEP-90-007
15 June 1990 2 AIDS

CHINA
Guangzhou Issues Anti-AIDS Regulations
[Hong Kong SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 10 May 90]
Yunnan Strengthens Efforts To Fight AIDS. ...
Three-Year Plan in Operation (Beijing XINHUA, 29 May 90]
Health Minister Comments {Hong Kong HSIN WAN PAO, 12 May 90]
EAST ASIA
BURMA
324 People Infected With AIDS Virus /Beijing XINHUA, 30 May 90]

HONG KONG

\© 00 00 00

AIDS Cases Rise Among Heterosexuals
[Stephen Wright; Hong Kong HONG KONG STANDARD, 28 Mar 90]

SOUTH KOREA

Foreigner Testing Positive for AIDS Deported /Seoul YONHAP, 26 May 90] ...
MALAYSIA

177 AIDS Cases in 1990 [Kuala Lumpur UTUSAN MALAYSIA, 16 Apr 90] ....

I

iat

THAILAND

AIDS Figures Draw Prime Minister’s Office Reaction /Bangkok THAI RAT, 4 Apr 90]
AIDS Infection in Chiang Rai District [Bangkok THE NATION, 12 May 90] ......

High HIV Rate Among Northern Conscripts {Bangkok BANGKOK POST, 5 May 90]
IV Drug User AIDS Incidence Up [Bangkok SIAM RAT, 22 Feb 90) ..

EAST EUROPE

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Health Ministry on AIDS, Combat Measures /Prague CTK, 29 May 90] 14
POLAND

AIDS Council: Interdepartmental Specialists, More Public Education 4

[Ilona Dziewiecka; Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA, 11 Mar 90] .
Health Care Practitioners Discuss Fear of AIDS Patients
[Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA, 18 Mar 90] .....
Current Numbers of HIV-Infected, AIDS Patients
[Warsaw SLUZBA ZDROWIA, 18 Mar 90] ....
Need for AIDS Public Education, Treatment Facilities
[Warsaw TYGODNIK DEMOKRATYCZNY, 25 Mar 90] ...

YUGOSLAVIA

AIDS Statistics Updated [Belgrade TANJUG, 25 May 90] ...
LATIN AMERICA
BRAZIL

Rise in AIDS Cases Since 1980 /Sao Paulo FOLHA DE SAO PAULO, 24 Apr 90) ...



2 SOVIET UNION

Pokrovskiy Gives Prognosis of AIDS Epidemic in
USSR

90WE0067 Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 05 Dec 89
Morning Editionp 4

[Article by USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Presi-
dent V. Pokrovskiy: “AIDS: The Price of Carelessnes”;
first paragraph is source introduction]

[Text] The AIDS epidemic is becoming more widespread.
Every month approximately 6,000 new cases are reported
throughout the world, and every month there is yet
another country in which cases of the clinically manifested
disease are detected.

As of November 27 of this year, 410 Soviet citizens have
been diagnosed as being infected with AIDS. Of that
number, 16 are ill and 11 have died.

At the present time, physicians are avoiding the term
“AIDS” for a number of reasons. The primary reason is
that acquired immune deficiency syndrome can be
caused not only by a virus, but also by other factors:
radiation, certain drugs, and poisons. The term “HIV
infection” allows us to include all infected persons,
regardless of their health at the time of their examina-
tion, and clearly establishes that it is an infectious
disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.

The greatest number of sexually transmitted HIV infec-
tions is noted in the major cities—primarily Moscow,
Leningrad, and Odessa. Among the infected persons are
children (the tragedies of Elista and Volgograd), married
women, and persons having casual sexual relations, and
persons having sexual relations for the first time. We can
now confirm that there is no population group for which
the possibility of infection can be completely excluded.

HIV infection is a special disease. It threatens the
existence of the human race itself as a biological species.
The disease is fatal and, 50 percent of the time, is
transmitted from an infected mother to her child during
pregnancy, childbirth, or sometimes even breast-feeding.
If we are not successful soon in finding effective means
and methods for its prevention, then all mankind will be
faced with the real threat of extinction.

Mathematical calculations of the HIV-infection epi-
demic in the USSR allow us to expect that in the year
2000 we will have more than 30,000 persons seriously ill
from the disease and 1-1.5 million persons infected with
the virus.

The disease primarily affects persons of reproductive age
and in their most physically productive years. The dis-
ease has a long course and results in physical disability
within a few years. This poses threats of destructive
consequences both in the economic and demographic
terms. Enormous amounts of moncy will go into medical
and social assistance for such patients (the cost of
treating one patient in the USA is $30,000-56,000 a
year).

JIPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Because of the later onset of the epidemic in our country,
we have the fortunate opportunity to retard the disease’s
development to some degree and prevent it from
reaching catastrophic proportions.

In analyzing the status of the problem in the Soviet
Union, we must regretfully admit that we have not yet
come out of hibernation.

Many of the decisions that have already been adopted
have not yet been implemented. Suffice it to mention the
widely publicized problem involving the production of
disposable medical instruments, condoms, and reliable
diagnostic tests. The USSR Council of Ministers
adopted a number of decisions to build specialized
laboratories. Not one of those decisions has been exe-
cuted. The extreme shortage of work space prevents us
from fully expanding scientific research in a way that
guarantees the safety of physicians, experimenters, and
service personnel.

Today’s miserly financing of the program, particularly in
foreign currency, will result in lost billions in a few years.

For the current year, the State Committee on Science
and Technology has allotted only 10 million rubles for
the AIDS research program, in which 32 topics pursued
by 60 scientific institutions were recommended for
financing. This does not compare favorably with level of
appropriations being made in the leading countries of
the world (approximately $1.6 billion in governmental
allocations alone in the USA). The recently organized
association for the control of AIDS has been experi-
encing great financial difficulties. For your information,
the association’s account numbers are No. 700470 in the
USSR Housing and Social Bank [Zhilsotsbank] and No.
70800005 In the USSR Foreign Economy Bank
[Vneshekonombank].

The scientific-research institutes of the Academy of
Medical Sciences and the USSR Ministry of Health do
not have the appropriate experimental-production base,
a fact that deprives scientists of the opportunity to bring
their research projects to production level. In addition,
successfully developed projects are rendered useless by
the low level of production technology and the shortage
of highly skilled production personnel. Consequently,
the manufacture of one diagnostic system has been
halted because of gross violations of manufacturing
technology. Another system is being criticized for
uneven quality. All of the virus cultures used in the
USSR for research are inferior to foreign cultures with
respect to productivity. The latter is due not only to the
fact that a’small number of HIV strains have been
isolated for justifiable reasons, but also to the fact that
we do not have domestically produced non-toxic ingre-
dients for those media.

Commissions of the USSR Supreme Soviet are currently
examining the law “On Measures for the Prevention of
AIDS,” which contains a number of new statues aimed
at protecting the population against the spread of HIV
and protecting the rights of infected persons. The law


Epidemiology
AIDS

JPRS-TEP-90-007 CONTENTS 15 June 1990

[This EPIDEMIOLOGY report contains only material on AIDS. Other epidemiology topics will be covered in a later
issue.]

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
CAMEROON

155 Registered AIDS Patients /Yaounde Domestic Service, 22 May 90] ....
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Efforts to Combat AIDS Proving Futile /Annie Kouchner; Paris L’EXPRESS, 27 Apr 90]

ETHIOPIA
355 AIDS Cases, 88 Deaths Addis Ababa THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD, 19 Apr 90] .... 2
GHANA
1,200 AIDS Cases Reported /London BBC World Service, 6 Jun 90] ..... 3
MAURITIUS
New Program To Intensify AIDS Education Begins
[Dharmanand Dhooharika; Port Louis LE MAURICIEN, 14 Apr 90)... 3
New AIDS Victim Heightens Concern Port Louis THE SUN, 4 May 90] 3
MOZAMBIQUE
Cabo Delgado Reports 12 AIDS Cases [Maputo Domestic Service, 6 Jun 90]. 4
SENEGAL
France Grants 60 Million Francs for AIDS
[Pape Sedikh Mbodje; Dakar LE SOLEIL, 14-16 Apr 90] 4
307 Reported AIDS Cases; 115 Deaths [Cheikh F. Keita; 4
SOUTH AFRICA
Health Department Explains AIDS Projections /Johannesburg THE CITIZEN, 10 May 90] ss... 5
AIDS: ‘Greatest Threat To Public Health’
[Anthony Johnson; Cape Town CAPE TIMES, 18 Apr 90] .... 6
Government Estimates 1991 Black HIV Figures /Cape Town 7
SWAZILAND
Health Minister Warns of ‘Disastrous’ AIDS Spread
[Gordon Mbuli; Mbabane THE TIMES OF SWAZILAND, 12 Jun 90) ..... 7
ZAIRE
261 AIDS Cases in Bandundu in 1989 Kinshasa AZAP, 2 Jun 90] 7



IJPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

donor to the patient during transfusion. This is espe-
cially important now, with the threat of an AIDS epi-
demic.

Extremely precise chemical technologies which make it
possible to separate plasma into components are being
developed in many countries. But these discoveries are
being kept very secret, and today not a single firm can
boast that it has the capacity to obtain all the compo-
nents of plasma. That is why a broad exchange and trade
in components is already in place in the world. Unfor-
tunately, until recently we were excluded from this
collaboration. But many categories of our patients are
suffering as a result of that—above all, hemophiliacs,
whose lives are in danger.

SOVIET UNION

25

Recently, several of our regional institutes started nego-
tiations concerning international exchange of blood
products. That is what served as the basis for reports
about the “blood trade.” But the matter has not pro-
ceeded beyond talking. Based on USSR Ministry of
Health prohibitions, customs does not permit the export
of blood components.

We recently appealed to the Ministry to remove this ban.
We hope that the issue will be resolved, and then we will
have a real possibility of obtaining these so very neces-
sary components. Currently we are conducting negotia-
tions with a French firm, and we hope to create a joint
enterprise for plasma processing.



IPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

Health Minister Comments

HK1305073290 Hong Kong HSIN WAN PAO
in Chinese 12 May 90 p 3

(“Special dispatch” from Beijing: “Yunnan Is Taking
Vigorous Measures To Prevent the Spread of AIDS”]

[Text] Beijing—According to the Ministry of Public
Health, there are now 146 AIDS carriers in Yunnan
province. Seriously menaced by AIDS, this border prov-
ince has adopted vigorous measures to prevent the
disease.

Invasion of Drugs

Yunnan had already realized some years ago the threat
of the “two brothers,” drugs and AIDS. Yunnan is
adjacent to the “golden triangle,” the world’s most
famous drug base. This base and the zone adjacent to
China’s border produce more than 3 million tons of
opium a year and scores of factories turn out over 40,000
kg of heroin. In recent years, the international drug
trafficking gang has attempted to use Yunnan as a
channel to traffic drug. Their infiltration into Yunnan
further intensified, resulting in a sharp increase in the
number of drug addicts, particularly those taking drugs
by means of intravenous injection, in the border region.
Those taking drug by means of intravenous injection
have become a group of dangerous people spreading
AIDS through blood.

The Burmese Border

Beginning from 1987, Yunnan’s sanitation and anti-
epidemic departments have conducted blood serum tests
for the group of people infected by AIDS (besides those
taking drugs through intravenous injection, they include
prostitutes, those visiting prostitutes, those indulging in
casual sex, and part of the floating population). By
September last year, they conducted tests among 1,800
people, but did not discover anyone who was infected.
By December, however, they found 79 AIDS carriers
from among a group of people from Ruili County. By the
end of last year, the figure rose sharply to 146.

According to an analysis, all the carriers were infected
through intravenous injection. None were infected

CHINA 9

through sex or prenatally. Most of the carriers were
peasants from Ruili county. There were also a few from
nearby cities and counties including Wanding,
Yingjiang, Luxi, and Longchuan.

Infection Through Injection

It has been reported that the serious epidemic situation
has attracted the great attention of the Yunnan provin-
cial government and the Ministry of Public Health. The
provincial government has set up an AIDS Prevention
Leading Group with vice governor Chen Liying as its
head. The person in charge of the Department of Health
and Epidemic Prevention under the Ministry of Public
Health and relevant experts went to Yunnan on
numerous occasions to help and to supervise prevention
work there. Experts from other parts of the country also
wrote letters and sent messages to relevant departments
in Yunnan, offering suggestions and expressing their
wish to help in Yunnan’s AIDS prevention work.

Yunnan’s epidemic situation has also attracted the atten-
tion of the World Health Organization. With the help of
experts sent by this organization, a mid-term prevention
plan for the next three years has been worked out.

Strengthen Management

Another preventive measure adopted was to extend the
scope of blood serum tests to discover AIDS carriers at
an early date and prevent the spread of the disease. To
this end, the provincial government allocated 700,000
yuan last year and another 900,000 yuan this year.

When the news of AIDS carriers discovered in Yunnan
spread, people from all walks of life stressed the need to
strengthen supervision over the carriers. Many proposed
that the carriers be collected and isolated. Some pro-
posed setting up special hospitals or farms for isolation
and medical treatment.

While discussing this issue recently, the Yunnan AIDS
Prevention Leading Group proposed strengthening man-
agement over AIDS carriers and restricting their activi-
ties to prevent the spread of the disease. The leading
group has decided to send a working group to consult the
leaders of the epidemic area on working out a feasible,
specific plan.



12 EAST ASIA

Dr. Praphan expressed the opinion that if the men
donating blood, the pregnant women and the men
coming to be tested for venereal disease were considered
to represent a cross section of the population, then the
Statistics arrived at for AIDS infection in these groups
indicated that the Thai people were experiencing a great
increase. He felt that this was a very serious situation
and that the statistics indicated that in the past 6 months
there had been an alarmingly rapid increase.

He also said that when Mr. Loe-son Thonsukanchan of
the prime minister’s [Advisory Council] from Phitsanu-
lok, who had come to the meeting as an observer, heard
the statistics given, he was very concerned and said that
even the prime minister did not know about them. He
said that this was dangerous and that it was important
that the prime minister be notified urgently. “The spe-
cialists have discussed this only in meetings. Other
people do not know about it. Officials from the various
provinces have not reported the actual data on those
infected to the Ministry of Public Health even though the
ministry considers it to be the policy that this data must
be reported so that it can be used to make plans to
correct the problem quickly. It is the duty of those
involved to report the facts to the people so that the
people will be prepared to protect themselves against
infection,” Dr. Praphan said.

AIDS Infection in Chiang Rai District

54004308A Bangkok THE NATION in English
12 May 90 p2

[Text}Mae Sal, Chiang Rai. Sixty four people have
contracted the AIDS virus here in the last three months,
raising the total number of the virus-infected people in
this district to 310, a senior district medical official said
on Thursday.

Dr Prapan Theekaxanit, director of Mac Sai Hospital,
said 246 people were tested AIDS positive from April
1989 to January 1990 with 165 being prostitutes.

The doctor said his hospital had carried out tests on high
risk groups in the district since 1988 following a report
that a resident of the district had died of full-blown
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The doctor was briefing Deputy Public Health Minister
Suthas Ngernmuen who visited Chiang Rai after having
received reports that 1,400 people were found to have
been infected with the virus in the province.

The minister said he was pleased with the way district
medical officials were going about curbing the spread of
AIDS.

Prapan said private sector and district officials have
cooperated in launching awareness campaigns to teach
the district residents how to protect themselves against
the fatal virus.

JPRS-tep-90-007
15 June 1990

The doctor said the campaigns included asking prosti-
tutes at 29 brothels in the district to urge their male
clients to use condoms.

However, he admitted that the campaigns to fight AIDS
have met with some obstacles.

He said some prostitutes who realized that they were
AIDS carriers would not give up working because they
did not know what to do after leaving the brothels.

And most of the prostitutes are Shan who rarely under-
stand Thai, so they may not be able to benefit from the
campaigns, the doctor said.

He said officials could not compel male clients to use
condom every time they frequent prostitutes.

Many doctors voiced concern that prostitutes had con-
tributed the most to the spread of AIDS even though
public health statistics showed that intravenous drug
users were the largest group of AIDS carriers.

AIDS can be transmitted through sexual contact, trans-
mission of contaminated blood and sharing of contami-
nated needles by drug abusers. The virus can also be
passed from mother to child at or before birth.

High HIV Rate Among Northern Conscripts

54004308B Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English
5 May 90 p 3

[Excerpt] An anti-AIDS campaign will be launched in
Phitsanulok province on May 18 because of an alarm-
ingly high rate of HIV infection among young military
conscripts, said Population and Community Develop-
ment secretary-general Mechai Viravaidya yesterday.

The Third Army Region recently found figures from
blood tests showed up to 5.6 percent of conscripts in the
upper northern region—Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai—
had been exposed to the HIV virus, compared with a
national average of 2.5 percent.

The average infection rate among male youths nation-
wide is 0.50 percent.

Most young men are believed to have contracted the
deadly disease from prostitutes.

Mr Mechai said the finding is very disturbing and
something should be done quickly to stop the disease
from spreading.

[Passage omitted]

IV Drug User AIDS Incidence Up

90WD0261Z Bangkok SIAM RAT
in Thai 22 Feb 90 pp 1,3

[Excerpt] [passage omitted] Dr. Somkhuan Champhung,
the head physician in the office of the Undersecretary of
Public Health said that the reports about IV drug users in
Bangkok under 25 years who had come for treatment at