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16 CENTRAL EURASIA

Belarus Health Minister Interview

93WE0190Z Minsk ZDRAVOOKHRANENIYE
BELORUSSII in Russian No 1, Jan 92 pp 4-7

[Interview with Belarus Republic Minister of Health
Vasiliy Stepanovich Kazakov by correspondent Roman
Shevko; date and place not given: “People First”)

[Excerpt] [Passage omitted] |

Shevko: People are getting more and more frightened
about the spread of the “plague of the 20th century”—
AIDS. Specialists predict that in just 3 years the number
of persons infected with AIDS in Belarus will exceed
10,000. And by the year 2000, there could be 140,000-
160,000 such people. What does the ministry intend to
do in order to prevent this lethal illness more effectively?

Kazakov: This is a matter not only for public health
organs but for all society as well. Only in this way can we
be successful. The main thing is to elevate the popula-
tion’s general culture.

As far as the role of medical institutions is concerned,
timely detection of HIV infection in the so-called risk
group is most important. We will continue expanding the
network of HIV diagnosis laboratories, and we plan to
build a republic AIDS contro! center. It will include a
polyclinic, a hospital and a boarding hotel for temporary
residents of HIV carriers.

We have a very great need for constant, unintrusive but
at the same time effective public health propaganda, and
for raising the competency of medical workers when it
comes to diagnosing HIV carriers and AIDS patients.

We already have oblast AIDS control centers and a
republic center. However, their material base is still
unsatisfactory. [Passage omitted]

Copyright: ““Zdravookhraneniye Belorussii”, 1992

Survey of Population’s Knowledge of AIDS Facts

93WEO145F Kazan SOVETSKAYA TATARIYA
in Russian 2 Jun 92 p 3

[Article by L. Biochinskaya, public health education
physician of the Republic Center for AIDS Prevention
and Control: “Precautionary Tactics: Doctors Against
AIDS”}

[Excerpts] A survey in which 1,576 people were inter-
viewed was conducted in order to study the population’s
awareness of the problems of controlling the spread of
HIV infection. Analysis of the responses shows that most
people are informed about the pathways by which AIDS
spreads and the means of its prevention. However, this
information is often incomplete, not entirely accurate,
and simply contradictory. For example a significant
proportion of the respondents do not know that infecting
a partner is a criminal offense, and significant numbers
of respondents did not change their sexual behavior even
in cases where it presented a clear threat to health. A

SJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

large number of the respondents did not know that
casual contacts with HIV carriers are not dangerous.
Therefore I believe that there is a need for once again
recalling the basic features of the virus’s behavior in the
context of different situations. [passage omitted]

[Translator’s note: The article goes on to discuss the
practical impossibility of HIV infection through casual
contact, particularly through handshakes and hugging,
utensils, household objects, bedding, underwear, money,
food and children’s toys and writing implements, in
public gatherings, by telephone, public toilets, hair
salons, hotel rooms, swimming pools or saunas, through
contact sports, mosquitoes and other insects, and
through blood transfusions when disposable instruments
are used and donors undergo HIV testing.]

Not all of the respondents were aware that a person who
becomes infected with AIDS can be unaware of this for
a long time, and that you can’t protect yourself from HIV
infection by immunizations. Thus, protection against a
disease that can be transmitted only by sexual means,
through medical instruments and through intrauterine
contact between a mother and her future child reduces to
observing rather simple and well known precautions.
The effectiveness of such protection depends on each
citizen’s personal competency and responsibility.

In 1991 our country adopted the law “On Prevention of
AIDS Infection,” which established the procedure for
certifying detection of AIDS infection and the liability of
a person who creates the danger of infection when he is
aware that it exists, and liability for transmission itself of
the virus. Such actions are punishable by imprisonment
for a term of from 5 to 8 years.

Uzbek AIDS Center

93WEO145E Tashkent MOLODEZH UZBEKISTANA
in Russian 6 Jun 92 p 2

[Article: “The Republic’s 94 Shields”)

[Text] First of all, may God grant health to all of you, and
to your children and parents, and everyone around you.

Now a brief explanation of the photograph [photograph
not reproduced]. This is the Republic Center for AIDS
Prevention and Control, where patients are diagnosed,
revealed and subjected to clinical treatment. In the
words of the center’s chief physician, Ya. Yakubov, the
center’s specialists, 20 of whom are highly qualified
physicians, coordinate the work of 13 such centers and
81 laboratories in the republic’s oblasts and rayons. In
addition blood may be provided for anonymous testing
in more than 100 confidential offices, where medical
consultation can also be obtained. The center is
equipped with modern diagnostic apparatus and a per-
sonal computer, and many hundreds of blood samples
are tested here daily.



10

than 20 HIV-positive individuals have asked for indem-
nity from the Hungarian Government since they claim
they acquired the disease in state-owned institutions.

Even though the department responsible for public
affairs did not deny the validity of the claims, it
should be noted that at the beginning they were not
considering any possible settlement without court
proceedings (i.e., lawsuits). This was not merely due
to stubbornness, but, since they were in the presence
of a truly new situation, there was not any possible
comparison basis to calculate the amounts of com-
pensation. However, after the first lawsuits were
completed, the state became more interested in
reaching an agreement and, for this reason, the point
was reached where there are no court proceedings
currently going on.

EAST EUROPE

IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

Based on current health regulations, with or without
lawsuits, individuals who otherwise would not have
gotten any indemnity have succeeded in receiving
either a one-time compensation of between 2 and 5
million forints and/or monthly compensations of
between 5,000 and 10,000 forints. The particular
situation of each HIV-infected individual was taken
into consideration, such as age (there are some chil-
dren among the infected ones), in order to agree on a
specific amount.

Although it has been less than two years since the first
lawsuits began, presently not all of those seeking AIDS
indemnification will be receiving any part of the forfeit
compensation money.

Virus Expansion Data for Hungary
HIV-Positive Full-Blown AIDS Dead
Year Men ‘Women Total ‘Men ‘Women Total Men ‘Women Total
1985 1 = 1 = — = = = =
1986 4 = 4 1 = 1 1 = 1
1987 112 7 119 7 1 8 4 1 5
1988 32 7 39 9 - 9 8 - 8
1989 31 2 33 14 = 14 i S u
1990 37 = 37 15 2 17 1 1 2
1991 50 5 55 29 1 30 15 2 17
1992! 24 4 28 29 2 31 14 = 14

TMid-year data.



20 CENTRAL EURASIA

Ivasyuk’s line of reasoning seemed to raise no doubts,
because it was based on documents; however, his oppo-
nents had a few things to say as well, and when they were
finished talking, within the context of the situation
“Esmarch’s irrigators” were not all that simple a
problem either. But in the eyes of the man in the street,
the conflict assumed the form of an ordinary fight
concerning the chair of the Chairman of the National
AIDS Control Committee, which was just being formed
at that time. Only a small circle of specialists dealing
with the problems of AIDS realized that this chair could
not be handed over to a representative from corrupted
circles, because the fate of the country was at stake. So it
was said that in selecting the chairman of the committee,
the president was selecting the fate of Ukraine.

Then it finally became known: The national committee
was to be headed by Academician Gennadiy Matsuka.
And you can understand the sort of feelings I was
experiencing as I made my way to his office for an
interview.

Dyatlova: Gennadiy Kharlampiyevich, the question I
would like to ask you is perhaps not a very tactful one in
light of the events that preceded your appointment to the
position of Chairman of the National AIDS Control
Committee: How did the chair become yours, one that
had been fought over not only by patriots but also by
people hungering for power and money? After all, you
already have enough worries as it is, as the head of the
Academy of Sciences Institute of Molecular Biology and
Genetics.

Matsuka: As for the events that preceded my appoint-
ment, I didn’t care anything about them. I know a little
from private conversations, but officially—nothing. And
I don’t want to know. There is so much work ahead! And
it is work that must be done.

As for how I got the chair, it was to a certain extent an
accident. When they were looking for candidates for the
position, they queried various departments having a
relationship to AIDS problems. Our institute is doing
extensive work in this area, and it submitted my name as
acandidate as an alternate to the nominations of Sergey
Komissarenko and Valeriy Smirnov. I perceived this to
be just a necessary formality. But when they telephoned
me and said that I had been chosen, I became frightened:
“No way!” But in the end, I gave my consent. And now
I am not interested in any of the intrigues. There are
things that have to be done.

Dyatlova: What is the AIDS situation in Ukraine today?

Matsuka: As of 1 October there were 289 infected
individuals, including 109 Ukrainian inhabitants, the
rest being foreigners. There were 12 persons with AIDS,
five of them children. Five of the adults and four of the
children have died. In comparison with last year the
number of infected individuals doubled. Geographically
speaking, we have 43 infected individuals in Odessa, 19
in Kiev, 10 in Donetsk, and 5 each in Dnepropetrovsk,
Kharkov and Zaporozhye. Vinnitsa, Volyn, Ternopol

IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

and Khmelnitskiy oblasts are officially clean. But this
doesn’t mean that they are clean in fact. Theoretically, a
zero should be added to all of the figures I cited.

Dyatlova: In what directions does the committee intend
to act?

Matsuka: In the diagnostic direction first of all. Since
1987 around 24 million persons have been tested, but we
found ourselves to be dependent upon Russia. The fact is
that there are simple diagnosticums used for screening,
and there are precise test systems used to confirm or
reject data indicating presence of the virus in a given
person. These precise test systems were manufactured in
Moscow. But now this is no longer advantageous to
Moscow because the ingredients have to be purchased
abroad, and we do not pay hard currency. Ukraine is in
a dead end. Together with the Ministry of Health we will
resolve the matter of what company we should contract
to organize production of diagnosticums in Ukraine.
There are several aspects to this problem—scientific,
financial... Finally, while all firms are interested in
having a permanent market in which to sell their prod-
ucts, we want to organize a production operation that
will make it possible with time to do away with our
dependent status. For now, the proposals of the firms
will be examined this week by the committee’s board,
and then an expert council will analyze them, and we will
begin work!

The second direction is preventive. We have had some
success here. The Ministry of Health organized produc-
tion of condoms. Were we to satisfy the need for this
product, the threat of fast spread of AIDS could be
significantly decreased. But analysis of information on
the means of infection of today’s patients indicates that
67 of them were infected by the sexual pathway, while
the rest were infected during various medical proce-
dures, as well as through a mother. As we can see, AIDS
prevention is comprised of a broad spectrum of prob-
lems. That’s if we base ourselves just on the commonly
accepted views on the pathways of the virus’s spread. But
if we take into account the new hypotheses... In the
meantime there isn’t enough money even to conduct
educational work—for example to publish a journal and
to make regular television broadcasts. We are planning a
gala concert on television in the immediate future,
during which we will try to shed some light on the AIDS
problem. But people being the way they are, if you want
to put something into their minds, you have to keep
repeating it over and over again.

Treatment is the next direction. Here, I believe, the
Ministry of Health is acting within the bounds of today’s
possibilities.

With diagnosis, prevention and treatment, AIDS could
be controlled. But we also have Chernobyl to think
about. And this means that we have no idea which
variant of the virus is operating in our territory. We are
seeking variants known throughout the world, but it may
be that ours is an unknown one. The AIDS virus mutates



SIPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

BOTSWANA

HIV Carriers Estimated at 60,000

93WE0175A Gaborone BOTSWANA DAILY NEWS
in English 16 Oct 92 p 5

[Article by Reginald Richardson: “Help Prevent AIDS -
Batswana Urged”]

{Excerpt] The councillor for Tsamaya village in the
North East District, Mr. Timon Mongwa, has urged
Botswana to contribute to the security of their country
by participating in AIDS prevention activities.

Mr. Mongwa said this at Zwenshambe on October 10,
when officiating at an AIDS drama competition for all
community junior secondary schools in the North East
District.

He said the estimated cases of HIV carriers amounts to
60,000 people in Botswana, 2,638 of which have already
been identified.

Mr. Mongwa called on the teenagers to be cautious not to
contract this deadly disease, as they fall within the
sexually active age group.

When speaking at the competition, the Senior District
Medical Officer for North East, Mr. Vitalis Chifakacha,
said that the competition was organized in order to
evaluate whether the message they were conveying about
ay was getting through to their target group (teenag-
ers).

He said that teenagers were prone to contracting the
disease because they were in the sexually active group
which was on the high risk level.

He said the department saw it necessary to organize the
competition, so that students could understand it better
by conveying the message practically.

All the ten community secondary schools in the district
entered the competition. [Passage omitted listing win-
ners]

Twenty-Two Percent Francistown Mothers HIV
Positive

93WE0175B Gaborone BOTSWANA DAILY NEWS
in English 20 Oct 92 p 5

[Article by Desmond Montshiwa: “Councillors Briefed
About AIDS”]

[Text] Kweneng District Health officials on October 15,
briefed councillors about the AIDS epidemic and asked
for their participation in the anti-AIDS campaign.

District Medical officers, Dr. Tore Steen and Salim-
Hahim Rajah challenged councillors in their function as
community leaders to learn all they can about AIDS and
its related implications.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1

The two officers urged every corner of development
sectors in government and private sector to cooperate in
the war against the incurable disease in Kweneng.

AIDS has no barriers, wipes out mainly the sexually
active age group, they observed.

According to Dr. Steen, by 1997, about 20,000 people
will be infected with HIV virus, with between 150 and
300 deaths occurring from AIDS disease.

“The situation is getting worse than most of you realize”,
he cautioned.

He said 22 percent of tested pregnant mothers in Fran-
cistown were HIV positive, which placed this northern
town into the same appalling situation as hard hit
countries of Uganda and others.

Dr. Rajah urged councillors as community leaders to
practice what they preach and not allow AIDS into the
bedroom or to their neighborhood if it already exists.

He said councillors should assist in spreading the AIDS
health education drive, condom promotion, counselling
of HIV-AIDS patients, home base care for AIDS patient,
and further help strengthen the district coordinating
committees.

Councillors in their comments vowed to work coopera-
tively with other sectors of the society, especially
teachers in the AIDS campaign.

On October 14, the Kweneng District AIDS cooperating
committee mounted a successful seminar at Mafenyat-
lala Hotel for representatives from various institutions.

GHANA

Clinical Management of AIDS Criticized

93WE0177A Accra PEOPLE'S DAILY GRAPHIC
in English 6 Nov 92 p 1

[Article by George Sydney Abugri and Ibrahim Awal:
“Clinical Management of AIDS Inadequate”)

[Text] Dr. Christopher Tetteh, Senior Medical Officer in
the Upper West Region, has said whilst the National
AIDS Control Programme has done well informing and
educating the public on AIDS, the same cannot be said
for its clinical management.

Dr. Tetteh said the clinical management of AIDS since
the inception of the AIDS control programme in 1991
had been inadequate and tended to vary from doctor to
doctor with a debate still raging on among doctors as to
whether or not AIDS cases should be isolated.

The medical officer was addressing the opening session
of an intensive four-day workshop for doctors and other
senior health personnel from the Upper East and Upper
West regions on the clinical management of AIDS at Wa
on Tuesday.



IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

In Uzbekistan, seven infected citizens of the republic
have been registered. The virus has also been detected in
16 foreign citizens who came to Tashkent to study.

We will maintain our faith in the strength of our shields.

Twenty-One HIV Cases Registered in Estonia

93WE0054A Riga THE BALTIC OBSERVER
in English 27 Aug-2 Sep 92 p 9

[Text] As of this month, 21 people have been diagnosed
with the HIV virus in Estonia, according to Estonian
Ministry of Health counselor Jaan Martin. None have
shown symptoms of AIDS, and thus no AIDS patients
have been registered in the country.

According to Martin, the first HIV-positive person was
registered in Estonia four years ago, in 1988, Three more
have been diagnosed so far this year.

Of the 21 carriers, only two are women and none have
been isolated. Clinical examinations have shown that
their condition has not deteriorated, according to
Martin.

Professor Claims AIDS Fears Exaggerated

93WE0054B Moscow MOSCOW NEWS in English
No 35, 30 Aug-6 Sep 92 p 13

[Article by Sergei Rumyantsev: “AIDS: Fears Are Exag-
gerated”]

[Text] Like everywhere in the world, the last ten years
have seen the publication in our country of many articles
warning people of the impending threat of mass diseases
caused by the AIDS virus. According to forecasts, there
was expected about one million infected patients in the
ex-Soviet Union by 1991. This ominous forecast gave
rise to a network of special institutions whose task was to
prevent the spread of the “20th century plague.” The
Academy of Medical Sciences declared this problem to
be crucial and a new item of many millions of roubles
appeared in the public health budget.

What was the actual scope of the disaster? Although 50
million people have been examined for AIDS, but only
627 had AIDS virus antibodies (for comparison: among
the urban population of Kenya antibodies were found
among 50% of examined patients). Over 5 million people
were examined in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Vologda,
Pskov and Novgorod, with spending for this over 14
million roubles. Only 14 people had antibodies.

In official reports and newspaper items these persons are
mentioned as “infected,” that is carriers of the virus,
which is not quite right. In fact the presence of anti-
bodies in an organism only shows that it has possibly
“met” with this virus. But whether or not there is a virus
in his or her body cannot be stated with absolute
certainty.

CENTRAL EURASIA 7

There were about 70 AIDS patients, including 40 dead,
in the CIS countries by the middle of 1992. In St.
Petersburg, with its population of five million, AIDS
caused death to three patients, whereas oncological dis-
eases proved lethal for 300,000 people. The situation is
almost the same in East European countries. The cases of
AIDS registered in China and Japan are still fewer. So,
the problem of the AIDS epidemic was highly exagger-
ated for many countries. At the same time, AIDS was a
very serious problem for the aboriginals of Central
Africa, for a part of those residing in North and Latin
America, especially the USA where the number of the
infected and dead runs into the tens of thousands. Is this
situation typical for this disease only? Not at all. We can
trace here a certain law-governed process which is not
new for epidemiology.

People differ genetically and also by their predisposition
to infections, Some are prone to it, others reveal immu-
nity. Many of our contemporaries do not suffer from
tuberculosis although in crowded big cities they inevi-
tably run into TB bacilli. Acute tuberculosis that can kill
a patient in two or three weeks has practically been done
away with. Meanwhile, such a galloping form of TB
prevailed among Red Indians and Negroes when Euro-
peans first brought in this infection during the coloniza-
tion of America and Africa.

There are many other well-known examples from the
history of epidemics. During his travels to New Guinea
N.N. Miklukho-Maklai pointed out that resistance to
malaria was characteristic of aboriginals from this trop-
ical areas. On the contrary, most newcomers from
northern regions, coming to the tropics suffer cruelly
from this disease. Their ancestors, natives of the planet’s
northern regions, were not subjected to such strict selec-
tion, and therefore they don’t have natural immunity to
malaria.

The existence of ethnic differences in predisposition to
AIDS gives every reason to believe that this infection is
not new to humanity as a biological species. The descrip-
tion of the disease’s history shows that AIDS caused the
death of Erazm Rotterdamsky, one of the great thinkers
of the medieval period. The traces of the AIDS agent
were discovered in the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs.
Everything seems to indicate that as far as one can go in
history, the population of Europe and Asia have experi-
enced the disastrous force of this disease which was just
as dangerous as any plague. The greatest chances to
survive were given to the descendants of the people who,
asa result of mutation, developed certain peculiarities of
the molecular structure of cells, thanks to which their
bodies became “unfit” for the habitation of AIDS
viruses. It is safe to say that the majority of Eurasia’s
population today including Russia, is protected with
such beneficial mutation.

On the contrary, the aboriginals of tropical Africa,
separated from Indo-European populations by the
impassable Sahara desert, were not affected by the
epidemic and, therefore, could not be adapted to the



SIPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

In any case the sources of disagreement lie more in the
financial than in the medical area. Adoption of a
national state AIDS control program financed as a
separate budget item could resolve the disagreements.
Such a program was developed and approved in July
1991 by the Union government, but following the
USSR’s disappearance its fulfillment was suspended.
The new Russian program “Anti-AIDS,” which is
intended for a four-year period, will be examined in the
near future by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
However, many specialists already have doubts that
even if it is adopted, it would be difficult to implement in
its entirety. Just in 1993, R25 billion will be required to
fulfill all of the measures foreseen by the program, and it
is hardly realistic to count on obtaining such assets in the
present economic situation.

AIDS Statistics for Russia, Belarus

93WE0149A Moscow LESNAYA GAZETA in Russian
14 Nov 92 p 3

[Article: “AIDS Doesn’t Sleep”]

{Text] How many people with AIDS are there in Russia?
This week a press conference was held in the Moscow
International Center for Public Health Improvement on
the occasion of the arrival of American AIDS specialists
at the capital. They will conduct a cycle of educational
seminars on different aspects of preventing and control-
ling HIV infection and AIDS. It was noted in particular at
the press conference that Russia is now one of the few
countries of the world in which AIDS prevention can stilt
produce a large impact, since the number of patients in
Russia—558 persons—is significantly lower than in other
countries.

Still, an ITAR-TASS correspondent from the close fron-
tier had this to say on the same topic:

As of 1 November there were 87 carriers of the AIDS
virus in Belarus, including six children. Three persons
have died.

Of the total number of AIDS-infected patients, most of
them—68 percent—are in Minsk. The fewest are in the
border zone of Brest Oblast—3.5 percent. Not a single
carrier was discovered in Grodno Oblast. Five drug
addicts were revealed in Belarus among AIDS-infected
patients as of today.

There are twice as many men as women in the total
number of patients and HIV carriers in the republic. One
case is anonymous. Seven hundred eighty-nine persons
were placed on record as being suspected of having
AIDS.

CENTRAL EURASIA 23

Arriving Foreigners Must Produce AIDS Certificate

0W2711225492 Moscow INTERFAX in English
1908 GMT 27 Nov 92

TEXT The head of the Tashkent administration Atkham
Fazylbekov signed a resolution saying that every for-
eigner entering Uzbekistan should show to customs
officers a certificate that he/she has passed an HIV test.
If he/she does not have this certificate, the test would be
made right at the airport at his/her expense.

In order to leave for abroad Tashkent residents should
present a certificate that they have been registered in the
city center on prophylaxis and treatment of AIDS with
the purpose of their examination upon return. In case
they refuse to present it, they can be forced to do that.

So far, 31 AIDS virus carriers have been registered in
Uzbekistan. Of them 22 are foreigners deported abroad.
Apart from Tashkent, cases of AIDS were registered in
Bukhara and Fergana

World AIDS Day Activity in Belarus

93WE0147I Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA
in Russian 1 Dec 92 p 1

[Article by correspondent O. Yegorova: “Belarus: One
Physician for Every Oblast”’]

{Text] Medical personnel and patrons of culture and the
arts are conducting a fund-raiser in Minsk dedicated to
the fight against AIDS. The goal of the fund-raiser is to
attract attention to a “dangerous” topic, to finally make
people realize that the problems of HIV infection are not
only medical but also social, ethical and even ecological.
This is especially important to Belarus, if we consider
that the immune system of a quarter of the republic’s
population has been weakened by the Chernobyl catas-
trophe.

Only 30 persons are involved in AIDS prevention in
Minsk, including orderlies and janitors. The number is
even smaller in other oblasts. And when it comes to
Vitebsk Oblast (this is even impossible to believe!), just
a single doctor is fighting AIDS!

In the meantime 87 persons are infected in Belarus,
including six children. Thirteen persons are ill, and three
have died.

How are these people to live? How are they to be treated?
Not only highly scarce medicine but even the reagents by
means of which a diagnosis is established are in short
supply.



SJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

German Firm Sponsors AIDS Education Event

93WE0053A Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
in Russian 2 Oct 92 p 6

[Article by Lidiya Ivchenko: “AIDS Benefit: Business
People Are Still Holding Back”)

[Text] Although the World Health Organization’s pre-
diction prophesying thousands of infected individuals in
Russia this year has luckily not come true, nonetheless
576 human immunodeficiency virus carriers have been
registered in our country, including 85 with AIDS.

While the government is examining and coordinating on
a national AIDS prevention and control program, public
organizations that have dedicated themselves to this task
have decided not to let the time slip away.

Thus, recently a benefit evening devoted to AIDS prob-
lems in our country was recently held in the concert hall
of the Izmaylovo tourist complex. There were a variety
show, motion pictures, speeches by medical authorities,
distribution of special literature and the possibility of
obtaining advice from medical sexologists. It was orga-
nized by the AIDS Control Association. And inasmuch
as all of this was free to all who were invited (primarily
youngsters), the benefit worked in the opposite direction:
Instead of money being collected, money already col-
lected was being used in part for good purpose. To be
sure, an informed public and its competency in all
aspects of the problem is one of the conditions of
prevention.

The EKO STAL Joint-Stock Company (Germany)—the
main sponsor of the AIDS Control Association and its
honorary member—helped to pay for the 1,000-seat hall,
the theatrical troupe and other expenses. In short, this
company was the first to reply to an appeal to contribute
to the work of the association by transferring around
750,000 rubles to its account. Of Russian millionaires—
exchange, bank, joint venture and company executives,
only four responded with donations despite an appeal
from the capital’s Mayor Yu. Luzhkov and the 500
letters sent to them. Nonetheless the association still
hopes to get some help from our business people—after
all, the money is needed not only for public health
education and for measures that would prevent the
onslaught of HIV, but also to provide concrete material
support to the most needy and unprotected group of
Russian citizens—HIV carriers and patients with the
terrible diseases.

AIDS Statistics

0W0810130892B Moscow INTERFAX in English
1101 GMT 8 Oct 92

[Following item transmitted via KYODO]

[Excerpt] [Pasaage omitted] By May 1, 1992 Russia had
registered 558 AIDS-carriers, 81 of them diagnosed
patients. Fifty-one persons died of the fatal disease—31
percent of the sick are children.

CENTRAL EURASIA 19

Interview With New Head of Ukrainian AIDS
Committee

93WEOI45L Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY in Russian
31 Oct 92 p 13

[Interview with Academician Gennadiy Matsuka by
Marina Dyatlova, reviewer in public health issues:
“AIDS: For a Long While We Retreated Silently”]

[Text] Serve your cause to the degree to which it serves
you: That’s long been the rule in our circles of leadership.
Consequently when in the spring of last year Deputy
Valeriy Ivasyuk of the Supreme Soviet described the
inactivity of structures called upon to deal with AIDS
problems on the pages of GOLOS UKRAINY (No 57, 28
March), the public at large did not perceive this as
anything out of the ordinary. The only thing that raised
eyebrows was a report that the Republic AIDS Control
Center, headed by Infectious Diseases Institute director
A. Frolov, organized a system for pumping state assets
into the pockets of private individuals under the
patronage of the Ministry of Health. This is despite the
fact that Deputy Minister V. Mariyevskiy assured us that
the center “created a substantial network of laboratories,
virologists were undergoing state-of-the-art personnel
training, and production of promising diagnostic test
systems had been organized at a small enterprise...” V.
Ivasyuk argued that the center’s above-mentioned activ-
ities were an absolute fiction. The truth was that the
money—the R65 million allocated by the Government
for the first half of 1992 specifically for AIDS control,
“was being used by the Ministry of Health and the
Center to establish an influential protege in higher sci-
entific circles.” A graphical example of this was the
financing of production of those test systems. Speaking
ata plenary meeting of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet on
31 October of last year, the public health minister
assured the parliament that the matter of AIDS diagnosis
could be considered to be resolved, owing to the fact that
a high quality AIDS diagnosticum had been produced:
“A small enterprise has been established under the
Institute of Infectious Diseases. A million doses will be
manufactured by as early as the end of this year, and
before the end of the next, around 6 million...” Analysis
of documents pertaining to the activities of the enter-
prise Diaprof to which Spizhenko referred allowed
Ivasyuk to pronounce the ministry’s assertion as untrue:
Diaprof is the wholesale distributing base of Moscow’s
Ded Mazay concern, and the only relationship it has to
production of the test systems is that it sticks the labels
on the packages. As far as the enterprise’s scientific
activity is concerned, in Ivasyuk’s words it boiled down
to studying questions such as “the toxic influence of
materials used to make ‘Esmarch irrigators”’—that is,
enema administering devices that the whole world has
been using for almost a century—upon the human body.
If we consider that Center chairman Frolov was one of
the co-founders of Diaprof and the ministry leadership
gave permission to finance his scientific activity, certain
questions and suppositions naturally arise.



14 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

According to our correspondent, before the speech of
this minister of health, Dr. Namaki, the educational
deputy of this ministry, while presenting statistics on
AIDS in the world and in Iran, said:

Following the establishment of the National Committee
on Fighting AIDS, recently the society to support AIDS
patients has been established in Iran.

Emphasizing that at the present this disease is not a
problem in the country but not being informed about it
can cause numerous problems for the country, he asked
all related organizations to cooperate with the Ministry
of Health in this regard.

Minister on Death of 40 AIDS-Infected
93AS0342C London KEYHAN in Persian 17 Dec 92 p 2

[Text] To mark International AIDS Day, Dr. Malekza-
deh, minister of health, health care and medical educa-
tion, announced in Tehran: Of the 211 people afflicted
with AIDS or carrying the AIDS virus in Iran, 40 have
died so far.

Dr. Malekzadeh said: Of these people, 161 caught the
disease by using the blood of others. Two children were
born to mothers carrying the AIDS virus, and four
addicts got AIDS by making injections using contami-
nated needles. Dr. Malekzadeh said that the cause of the
disease’s transmission to the other patients is unknown.

Several months ago an official from the Blood Transfu-
sion Organization, which today supervises tests for the
AIDS virus, announced that there are close to 600 people
infected with AIDS, and said that more than 200 of those
carrying the AIDS virus were infected through sexual
contact. One of the professors at Shiraz University
Medical College also said to KEYHAN outside Iran:
During the war with Iraq a large number of wounded
people were infected with AIDS by receiving contami-
nated blood.

MOROCCO

Midwives Instruct Prisoners in STD, AIDS

93WE0170C Rabat L’OPINION in French
6 Dec 92 pp 1,3

[Article by Dr. Mohammed A. Cherkaoui: “Behind Bars:
Midwives in Jail; Laws Unchanged Since 1960”]

[Text] “Educating female inmates.” This is the challenge
just issued by the Moroccan Midwives Association, their
way to celebrate World’s AIDS Day.

Putting aside their white coats, obstetric stethoscopes,
and vacuum extractors, and after making sure that some
of their colleagues would remain on duty at all times in
labor rooms (where expectant mothers wait for delivery)
and maternity wards, on 2 to 3 December 1992 mid-
wives headed for the Sale detention center and the
Ouakacha penitentiary in Casablanca in order to educate

IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

female inmates. The Moroccan midwives’ courageous
and commendable initiative is of paramount importance
inasmuch as the inmates will be given texts written in
Arabic vernacular (those who can read will explain them
to the others) and dealing with syphilis, gonorrhea,
Jeukorrhea, chancroid, and AIDS.

This meeting of midwives and inmates also takes on a
scientific epidemiologic character, as inmates will be
given a questionnaire designed to assess their knowledge,
attitudes, and practices with respect to sexually transmis-
sible diseases (STD) including AIDS.

Midwives are full-fledged health professionals whose
status is governed by six texts, including two royal
decrees and one vizierial and three ministerial orders.

Yet, the time has come to take a close look at the texts
regulating this profession, as even the most recent
(dating back to 1960) are now obsolete.

It is also urgent to consider midwives attributions; they
should be more clearly defined and restricted by com-
parison with the attributions of gynecologists, obstetri-
cians, and obstetric nurses.

In conclusion, as an indication, we shall mention that
WHO standards recommend a proportion of one mid-
wife for 250 births, and while France has one midwife for
78 births, Algeria has only one for 800 births.

As for Morocco, it beats all records of inadequacy: one
midwife for 5,000 births, i.e., roughly one midwife for
40,000 women of childbearing age.

PAKISTAN

New AIDS Cases Said Rapidly Being Discovered

93WE0198A Islamabad THE MUSLIM in English
16 Dec 92 p3

[Text] Islamabad, Dec 15—Although AIDS is spreading
fast there is no need to feel depressed as Islamic values
have given us the guidelines to follow. It is easy to appeal
to the good sense of our people through the message of
the Holy Quran and saying of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
These were the views of Dr. Ayub Ghayyur, the Execu-
tive Director of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences,
in his address here on Tuesday at the concluding cere-
mony of the seminar AIDS awareness.

Dr. Ayub Ghayyur said that AIDS is on the rise in
Pakistan and it is imperative to tackle it from the front.
He said it should be handled before it is too late. He
revealed that the latest reports indicate that there are 25
cases of AIDS reported every hundred days. He cau-
tioned that if people did not learn to fight the deadly
virus it would spread more rapidly.

Addressing the seminar, the Health Minister Syed Tas-
neem Nawaz Gardezi said the government is doing



6 EAST ASIA

JAPAN

Software Developer Involved in AIDS Scandal To
Restructure

0W0312110892 Tokyo KYODO in English 1059 GMT
3 Dec 92

[Text] Tokyo, Dec. 3 KYODO—A software developer
embroiled in an AIDS vaccine scandal reported
Thursday a sharp half-year loss and a streamlining plan,
including work force and fixed-expense cutbacks.

Tokyo-based T.S.D. Co., listed on the over-the-counter
market, made headlines earlier in the year on disclosure
of its development of an AIDS vaccine. The company
announced in August the vaccine had been clinically
tested in Thailand, but retracted the statement in
November.

The company reported an unconsolidated pretax loss of
887 million yen for the first fiscal half year ended
September 30, following a 184 million profit a year ago.
Sales dropped 17.8 percent from the previous year to
12.31 billion yen.

T.S.D. said it will embark on cost-cutting programs such
as liquidating unprofitable operations, reducing its work
force by about 400 employees to around 1,200, and
cutting executives’ salaries by 10 to 40 percent for six
months from January.

Development of the AIDS vaccine will be continued, it
said.

SOUTH KOREA

Ten Test HIV Positive in December

$K0101012593 Seoul THE KOREA TIMES in English
1 Jan 93 p 3

[Text] Ten more Koreans were found to have tested
positive for HIV in December bringing to 217 the
number of those under special care for AIDS infection,
the Ministry of Health and Social affairs reported
Wednesday.

The ten persons newly affected were all men. Of them,
one got the fatal virus through homosexuality and
three—employees of entertainment concerns—through
sexual contacts with Korean women. The source of
contamination by the six remainders was yet to be
determined.

The ministry said a Thai and a Nepalese, both staying in
Korea beyond their visa periods, were found to have
been AIDS victims and subsequently deported.

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

MALAYSIA

Minister Discloses Funds for Anti-AIDS
Campaign

BK1101130493 Kuala Lumpur NEW STRAITS TIMES
in English 10 Jan 93 p 8

[Article by M. Sahibullah]

[Excerpts] Teluk Intan, Sat—The Govermnent has allo-
cated about 24 million ringgit this year to step up its
campaign against AIDS, especially among youths and
children.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Mohamed Farid Ariffin
said this was essential as the majority of AIDS sufferers
and HIV carriers in the country were between 16 and 30
years of age.

Of the 68 AIDS cases and 4,667 HIV carriers detected in
the country up to last November, about 90 percent of
AIDS cases and 98 percent of HIV carriers were from the
age group.

He said the latest case involved a 16-year-old lorry
attendant who was tested positive for HIV.

Although to date the ministry has only identified three
AIDS cases and six HIV carriers among children,
including two deaths involving infants who contacted.
AIDS during pregnancy, Farid said the number of cases
was expected to increase if nothing was done about it.

“Tf we do not step up the campaign now or if the present
trend is not checked, the number of HIV carriers in the
country might increase tenfold or to 40,000 by 1995,” he
told reporters after launching the Hilir Perak AIDS/
Dadah [drug] Exhibition at the town hall here today.
[passage omitted]

On foreign workers, he said the ministry has so far
detected two cases of AIDS and 163 HIV cases, most of
whom are from Thailand. This excludes 76 foreign
prostitutes, the majority of whom are from Thailand
who have been tested positive for HIV.

However, he said that to date out of 31,344 foreigners
who have sought treatment at government hospitals and
clinics, only 19.3 percent of them, including 2,500 reg-
istered foreign workers have been found to be infected
with diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

He also warned foreign workers with permits but who
had escaped going for medical tests earlier that they
would be deported should medical tests on renewing
their permits revealed that they suffered from diseases.

However, he said, the government would give due con-
sideration to those who voluntarily inform the ministry
about their illnesses before they are due for the tests.



IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

France Donates AIDS Contaminated Blood to
Tunisia

93WE0150A Moscow RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA

in Russian 20 Nov 92 p 1

[Article: “French Health Ministry Gives No Warning”)

[Text] An investigation into delivery of 50 containers of
donated blood infected with AIDS virus from France has
been concluded in Tunisia. Tunisian Public Health Min-
ister Hedi Milhenni reported that the blood had been
transfused to 12 patients. Six persons were infected by
AIDS, and three of them died.

INTERNATIONAL 29

The investigation showed that the infected blood was
sold in November 1985 by France’s Merye [translit-
eration] Institute and intended for hemophilia
patients.

Hedi Milhenni strongly criticized the French Ministry of
Health and Humanitarian Action. In his words, the
containers of blood were exported to Tunisia, as well as
to a number of other Arabian and European countries,
several months after the ministry already had informa-
tion in its possession that the blood was contaminated,
and prohibited its use in France.



26 WEST EUROPE

FINLAND

Physician Views AIDS Situation

93WEO156A Helsinki HUFVUDSTADSBLADET
in Swedish 1 Dec 92 p 5

[Article by Mardy Strom: “Increasing Numbers Become
HIV Infected Through Heterosexual Partners”)

[Text] Some 75 percent of all adults infected with HIV in
1992 were infected by a heterosexual partner.

This is one of the things about AIDS that the World
Health Organization (WHO) hopes will gain general
recognition today—World AIDS Day.

When medical specialist Jukka Suni, of Aurora hospital,
spoke yesterday about the situation in Finland at the
public health seminar, “AIDS—We Are All Responsi-
ble,” he indicated that this was a tendency which is
beginning to be seen in Finland as well.

It takes on average six weeks for a person exposed to HIV
to become HIV-positive; after that, it takes up to 15
years before AIDS appears.

Suni said a significant factor in how quickly the disease
develops is how the disease was acquired. If you receive
half a kilo of infected blood through a blood transfusion,
it can go quickly. If you are a needle user or a homo-
sexual, it will take five to 10 years before you will be
diagnosed with AIDS. On the other hand, it can take up
to 10 to 15 years for the disease to take the same course
in a person who has had a single heterosexual contact.

It should be pointed out that all blood used in Finland
has for many years been HIV tested.

Clear New Trend

The source of infection for 80 percent of AIDS patients
is homosexual contact. Only 13 percent are infected by a
heterosexual, according to Suni, who discussed the
sources of infection in Helsinki yesterday.

But these statistics give an outdated picture of the
situation. If one takes a look at the statistics for HIV-
positives, which better reflect the current situation, it
appears as though the size of the heterosexual group is
about to assume totally new proportions.

Of all HIV-positive individuals, 53 percent gave the
source of infection as homosexual, while 28 percent said
the infection was the result of a heterosexual contact.

“AIDS infection resulting from needle-sharing is rising a
little in Finland, but not to the same extent as in central
Europe. The number infected by contaminated blood is
tending to drop because all blood is tested. There will not
be any new cases,” Suni said.

“The greatest change in our laboratory is due to the share
of heterosexually infected,” said Suni. “This group con-
sists of two-thirds men and one-third women.”

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

Women are infected almost exclusively through hetero-
sexual contact.

More Types Vaccine

Today there are at least seven different strains of the
HIV virus in the world and Suni thinks it may be
necessary to develop different types of vaccine to combat
each of them.

He expects that a preventive type of vaccine will be in
general use around the turn of the century.

It is well-known that efforts to manufacture various
vaccines is already in progress.

Curative Vaccine Next Year?

“A curative vaccine administered to HIV-infected indi-
viduals has been tested in the United States and certain
countries in Europe and has functioned very well. But it
is necessary that the immune defenses of the patient be
still operating,” he said.

The results have been relatively good. This type of
vaccine does not cure the disease, rather lengthens life by
one or two years and is regarded as improving the quality
of life. The goal in the United States is to go futher along
these lines.

“We hope to begin using this vaccine in Finland next
year,” said Suni.

The thought is to do a joint Nordic evaluation, to begin
a type of experimental program on a broad scale.

At the same time, a developmental program to manufac-
ture a preventive vaccine is in progress. This work
consists of two parts, the first which involves animal
experiments and a second which consists of testing on
various experimental populations of humans.

HIV, which stands for human immunodeficiency virus,
a virus that causes a lack of immunity in humans, cannot
be tested on just any animal. Only the chimpanzee and
the gibbon can become infected and they do not develop
a strong HIV illness, so that it is not certain that
experimentation with animals can indicate whether a
vaccine is really able to prevent AIDS, Suni said.

Development of the preventive vaccine is in the second
phase, human testing. It has been possible to test how a
vaccine functions and see how a human body develops
antibodies. More has been learned about the vaccine’s
immunological characteristics, and the question of
dosage, quantity, and vaccination timetables has begun
to be discussed. Today it is known that booster doses
must be frequently administered, as much as two times a
year.

The third and final phase of the test involves at least
15,000 to 30,000 test subjects and will take place in
various parts of the world. WHO has recommended that
the test be carried out in Uganda, Ruanda, Brazil, and



IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

Only workers involved in first aid or health care require
to take extra precautions. Where workers are motivated
by fear or ignorance to act against another worker,
adequate education and explanation must be made
available to the workforce to prevent discrimination
against an individual worker who may have the AIDS
virus.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality around the knowledge whether a worker
has the AIDS virus should be treated in the same manner
as confidentiality around other illnesses, and should
follow the same ethical norms. The information as to
who has the AIDS virus is purely a matter for the patient
concerned and his/her doctor. Should the patient with
AIDS virus consent, then other health personnel may be
informed because they will be responsible for the health
of the person suffering from AIDS.

The worker who has the AIDS virus, is under no obliga-
tion to tell his/her employer. Similarly, the doctor of a
patient with the AIDS virus is under no obligation to
inform the worker’s employer, and is ethically prohib-
ited from doing so without the worker’s consent.

Testing for AIDS (HIV Testing)

All testing for HIV should be voluntary. No worker
should be forced to have an HIV test, whether for
pre-employment screening or during the course of his/
her employment.

Eligibility for a pension scheme should not be used to
enforce pre-employment testing for HIV. The question
of fitness for work should be judged separately from
conditions attached to employment.

Medical and Counselling Care for HIV Positive
Workers

Workers who are found to have the AIDS virus are
entitled to adequate treatment for their health problems.
They should have appropriate access to service both
within and outside the workplace. Counselling should
also be made available to the workers and their families.
A worker with AIDS needs support at this tragic period
in their life.

AIDS Education

Education is the only effective way to prevent the spread
of AIDS and must be made the priority of AIDS pro-
grammes at the factory floor.

Workers should be allowed paid time off to receive
appropriate AIDS education. Workers should them-
selves have control over the content, form and source of
AIDS education at the workplace. AIDS education
should be coupled with a programme of condom supply
to those who want to use condoms. The state should be
responsible for the supply of condoms free of charge and
should act against the sale of condoms for a profit.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 3

AIDS education should seriously address the stigma
attached to the use of condoms, and should counteract
the sensationalism created by misleading advertising in
relation to condoms.

Implementation of the AIDS Education Programmes

The education programme must take place at the work-
place, local, regional and national levels. The focus of the
AIDS education programmes must explain what AIDS
is, how one can get it, how one cannot get it, how it can
be prevented, what the socio-economic implications are
for workers and the fact that there is no cure. COSATU
see the role of employers and the government as that of
providing resources. The role of unions and other mass
organisations must be to control the content and direc-
tion of the education around AIDS.

Workers who have the AIDS virus should not be sub-
jected to discrimination in the community. The fact that
a workers may have the AIDS virus should not be
allowed to affect their social lives and support systems.

Doctors Receive Guidelines on AIDS Patient
Rights

93WE0183A Durban THE DAILY NEWS in English
8 Dec 92 p 8

[Article by Asha Singh]

[TEXT] The Medical Association of South Africa
(MASA) has drawn up guidelines for doctors and health
care workers on managing HIV and AIDS, and on the
rights of AIDS patients.

This follows much controversy over the rights of AIDS
patients and health workers dealing with HIV infected
patients, which has been extensively debated.

Dr. Edoo Barker, chairman of MASA’s science and
education committee, said the recommendations were
based on scientific fact, reasonable assumptions and
medical, legal, social and ethical principles as a contri-
bution to AIDS awareness campaigns.

Earlier this year, guidelines drawn up by the South
African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC), stated it
was unethical for doctors who knew they had the AIDS
virus to continue practicing without seeking and acting
on specialist advice.

This statement was supported by MASA’s guidelines,
which also stated that a doctor who found he was HIV
Positive should seek counseling from an appropriate
source.

An infected doctor can continue to practice after having
sought and implemented advice on what extent to limit
or adjust his professional practice to protect patients.



2 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The workshop was held under the guidance of resource
personnel from the Ministry of Health and the National
AIDS Control Programme Secretariat.

Dr. Tetteh said it was against the background of inade-
quate and varying methods of clinical management of
AIDS that the workshop was held and stressed that
clinical management of AIDS should begin with caring
for individuals infected with HIV.

Apart from caring for individuals infected with HIV, an

adequate programme for the clinical management of

AIDS would also provide channels for preventing the

spread of AIDS through counselling people with AIDS,

their families as well as community groups on sexual

behavior necessary to prevent the spread of the disease,
e said.

Dr. Tetteh expressed some concern over the increase in
the number of HIV infections and AIDS cases in the
country and said in 1986, there were only 26 cases but
this rose to a cummulative total of 3,947 reported cases
of AIDS and 7,065 reported cases of HIV infection as of
July 31, 1992.

Dr. Tetteh took the opportunity to call for an incorpo-
ration of the control of sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs) into the AIDS control programme, saying people
with STD were at greater risk of HIV infection.

He noted that although there were about 20 STDs and
some of these have been reported at health institutions,
Ministry of Health “form CD-One” which is completed
and submitted monthly by district health offices of the
Ministry of Health mentions only gonorrhoea and there-
fore, called for an inclusion of the other STDs on the
form.

SOUTH AFRICA

COSATU States Aims of AIDS Program

MBO112131892 Johannesburg SAPA in English
0739 GMT I Dec 92

[SAPA PR Wire Service issued by Jeanne Bestbier
Public Relations Consultancy]

[Text]
COSATU [Congress of South African Trade Unions]
AIDS Programme

Aims of COSATU AIDS Programme

—To create awarness and eradicate ignorance around
the issue of AIDS.

—To make workers aware that HIV/AIDS is not casually
transmitted.

—To fight victimisation of workers with HIV/AIDS.

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

—To integrate AIDS issues into health and safety organ-
isation and struggles.

An AIDS Policy at the Workplace

The Need for an AIDS Policy

It is in the interests of all parties at the workplace to
negotiate a clear, unambiguous policy on AIDS at the
factory floor, which is easy to apply and clear to all
workers at the factory. Such a policy must have as its
primary aim the combatting of prejudice, fear and uncer-
tainty concerning AIDS and the securing of an effective
programme to assist the prevention of AIDS and to
provide care for those employees with AIDS.

It should be implemented pro-actively (i.e. before any
cases of industrial conflict begin to emerge around this
issue).

AIDS should not be seen as a health issue isolated from
other health problems at work, but must be integrated in
a comprehensive programme that covers health and
safety at work.

It is in the interests of the community at large that
COSATU play an active role in the struggle to combat
the spread of AIDS in South Africa, both at the work-
place and in the community.

Discrimination at the Workplace

There can be no grounds for dismissal of workers simply
on the basis of being infected with the AIDS virus.
Fitness for ongoing employment should be assessed
purely on the basis of the workers’ state of health and
they should be treated in the same manner as any other
worker with a chronic terminal illness (such as cancer).
Similarly, workers should not be transferred to another
post simply because of having the AIDS virus unless
there is a medical reason to do so or, it is the worker’s
own interests to do so.

Benefits to which a worker is entitled, such as pension,
provident fund or medical scheme benefits should not be
affected by them having the AIDS virus. Workers must
exert control over the trustees of such schemes to ensure
that workers with AIDS are not discriminated against by
these schemes.

An AIDS policy at the workplace should apply equally to
all categories of employees, whether they are weekly paid
or monthly paid, manual labourers or managerial staff,
male or female. This must be demonstrated in the
practical application of the policy.

There is no reason for employees to discriminate against
another employee who may have the AIDS virus. The
AIDS virus is not spread by casual contact at the
workplace. There is no risk to workers of getting AIDS
from another worker who is infected with the AIDS virus
during the normal course of work.



JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

everything possible to stop the spread of the disease in
the country. He said the government has taken various
measures in this regard.

These include the establishment of 16 new screening
centres. In these centres 14 cases of AIDS and 100 cases
of HIV were detected. These centres have been estab-
lished in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Hydera-
bad, Larkana and Muzaffarabad.

They also include launching of National AIDS Preven-
tion Programme and a collaborating centre in Pakistan
for the EMRO countries by the WHO. Around 1,000
medical professionals have been trained for laboratory

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 15

diagnosis. National AIDS Programme has been suc-
cessful to disseminate AIDS information to the masses
with the help of mass media.

The three-day seminar ended with some recommenda-
tions for the authorities to implement. The recommen-
dations stress that all efforts should be mobilised to
create awareness of AIDS in the country. They said that
blood transfusion should be made more scientific as 75
percent of blood for patients come from professional
donors who might carry the virus. The recommendations
say that proper monitoring of blood in hospitals is very
important.



IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

CAMBODIA

New Post To Deal With Community Complaints
About UNTAC

BK0910101092 Hong Kong AFP in English 0902 GMT
9 Oct 92

[Text] Phnom Penh, Oct 9 (AFP}—The U.N. peace-
keeping operation in Cambodia said Friday it would
create a new position in response to a petition signed by
167 people protesting sexual harassment and misbe-
havior by U.N. troops.

The new community liaison officer will be appointed
immediately, acting chief of the U.N. forces Behrooz
Sadry said at a press conference held to present the
petition to the United Nations.

“This is a problem we take very seriously,” Sadry said.
“We have been aware of a number of these problems ...
but obviously with over 20,000 people coming from over
100 countries, we’re not in a position to foresee every
difficulty that would arise.”

The new community liaison officer would investigate
complaints about sexual harassment and socially unac-
ceptable conduct, and report directly to the heads of the
mission about the findings, Sadry said.

The petition was printed as an open letter to the United
Nations in the local PHNOM PENH POST and was
signed by 167 people, including male and female expa-
triates, Cambodians and U.N. personnel.

It recounted incidents of sexual harassment by U.N.
personnel serving n Cambodia, pointed to high levels of
sexually transmitted diseases among U.N. troops, and
noted the lack of women at the top levels of the U.N.
mission.

It said U.N. troops were engaging in “frontier behavior,
that is, a kind of ‘no-rules, anything-goes’ attitude.”

It called for the appointment of an ombudsman, as well
as cultural and sex education for all members of the U.N.
Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC),
including increased distribution of condoms.

Forty-five people have been confirmed as carriers of the
human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) that causes
AIDS in Cambodia, and 14 percent of prostitutes in a
district frequented by U.N. soldiers have been found
with the virus, according to the World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO).

The WHO also found that HIV-positive rates reached
0.75 percent among voluntary blood donors at Phnom
Penh’s blood transfusion center, a rate comparable to
that in neighboring Thailand.

“At the moment, Cambodian women are unsafe because
they have to put up with UNTAC men or they wouldn’t

EAST ASIA 5

have a job,” said Theaney, a Cambodian UNTAC
employee who has experienced sexual harassment at
work.

“They make Cambodian women into very cheap
objects,” she said. “They feel themselves superior
because they’ve got more money and more priority.”

She said an African man in civil administration had
repeatedly tried to kiss her in his office, a serious cultural
faux pas in conservative Cambodia, where even engaged
couples are not allowed to go out at night unchaperoned.

While Cambodian men are traditionally allowed to have
more than one wife, a woman can be considered contam-
inated and thus ineligible for marriage by being seen
alone with a foreign man.

“TI pushed him very hard, and said ’I’m not that kind of
person that you think I am,” she said. “I said, ‘ Not me.
Ihave my husband at home. I am Cambodian.’ For us
this is like adultery in your (Western) country.”

Linda Hartke, a development worker who was among
the drafters of the letter, said public support had been
overwhelming, even within the UNTAC administration.

“Some, and I stress the word some, male UNTAC
personnel are involved in acts of misconduct, especially
towards women, on a daily basis,” she said. “This should
not be tolerated by Cambodians, by expatriates, and by
the majority of UNTAC personnel who set a good
example.”

INDONESIA

Official Discloses Total Number of AIDS Carriers

BKO0701101793 Jakarta Radio Republik Indonesia
Network in Indonesian 1500 GMT 6 Jan 93

[Text] The number of persons inflicted by the HIV virus
in the last three months stands at 13, bringing to 83 the
total number of HIV virus carriers in this country.
Speaking in Jakarta today, Gandung Hartono, director
general of eradication of contagious disease of the Health
Department, said the figures are not yet official because
a laboratory examination is still needed to ensure more
accurate results.

The director general said the increased number of AIDS
carriers when compared to the earlier three-month
period showed that the disease had spread quite fast. For
this reason, he called on members of the public to remain
vigilant and avoid a lifestyle conducive to AIDS infec-
tion,



IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

a million times faster than any DNA-containing virus.
Consequently we cannot develop a vaccine. You make a
vaccine against one variant, but before you know it, it is
something entirely different. But HIV does have a tiny
constant particle that does not change. This raises hopes.
And scientists are trying to “snag” this particle.

Dyatlova: Are you satisfied with the legal base upon
which the committee will have to rest? There have been
so many debates around the law, and it isn’t to the liking
of all specialists.

Matsuka: What I like about our law is that it doesn’t
allow a double interpretation. That not all aspects of the
problem are accounted for is another matter. For
example the question of persons serving prison sentences
isn’t answered by it. Understandably, infected individ-
uals should be isolated. But how? Where? The same with
addicts. And even the same with normal people who are
rejected by their relatives because of the fear of contact.
Somewhere in Kiev there are five young people wan-
dering around after leaving the hospital for nowhere in
particular, because everyone has rejected them. One
young girl was found when she picked up a different
infection—by this time she had already had a hundred
contacts.

Such “inconsistencies” between the law and life are
abundant. And we have to deal with all of them. This is
why the committee includes representatives of different
departments involved in the solution of AIDS problems.

Dyatlova: This brings us to relations with administrative
departments. The national committee is under the pres-
ident of the Ukraine, and its responsibilities include
state administration of the AIDS control program. But
our administrative departments also have their own
ambitions. Is there a means of influencing them?

Matsuka: I sense a certain amount of apprehension on
their part. But I would like these departments to under-
stand that we have no intention of interfering in their
“personal life,” or taking their place; we don’t have
enough physical strength as it is. We need to try to work
together to untie the knots that life ties for us. Consider
at least the example of the test systems. Everyone is now
involved in this issue. The minister said, take the money,
only tell me which test system you really need. This is
one question we will try to resolve.

Dyatlova: You said that you lack physical strength. The
president’s edict states that the committee will have up
to 90 members on its staff and over 4 million with which
to fund its maintenance.

Matsuka: Later on it was said that we would get 12
persons, but we compromised on 30. And the question of
the millions is in limbo.

Dyatlova: But the edict spells it out.... Does this mean
that even in establishing such an important body after so
many serious debates, everything still wasn’t thought out
completely?

CENTRAL EURASIA a

Matsuka: [no comment]

Dyatlova: How are you going to get things done? You
have so many subdivisions—scientific, medical, social
problems, international...

Matsuka: Everything will be ironed out in time.

Dyatlova: But so much time has already been wasted that
there can be no absolution.

Matsuka: Unfortunately this is the way things are with
us. Were we Germans, we would have proceeded differ-
ently. But we are what we are. And our life is the way it
is. However, we will be optimistic. Come visit our board,
which is engaged in objective discussion.

rd

Thanking him, I promised to visit the board. And I did.
But it is with regret that I must report that the antici-
pated objective discussion on the status of examining the
population for AIDS never materialized. (Also, I’m sad
to say that I have doubts about the figure cited by
Gennadiy Kharlampiyevich, that supposedly 24 million
persons have been tested. If one out of every two
Ukrainians had undergone such testing, it would be the
topic of conversation on every street corner). Nor were
the members of the board ready to discuss the proposals
of firms producing test systems. It became obvious that
it will still be some time before the National Committee
becomes a full-fledged warrior. In the meantime AIDS is
advancing along the entire front.

AIDS Explosion Predicted

93WE0147C Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
in Russian 5 Nov 92 p 6

[Article by Andrey Bayduzhiy: “Russian AIDS Has a
Child’s Face: Everything Is Ready in the Country for the
Start of the Epidemic”]

[Text] On the occasion of the fifth World AIDS Day,
which was observed this week, Moscow theaters and
palaces of culture conducted money-raising evenings
benefitting HIV carriers, several broadcasts on this sub-
ject were prepared on television, and the capital’s homo-
sexuals conducted another demonstration protesting dis-
crimination against sexual minorities.

In the opinion of specialists Russia is now possibly at the
threshold of a major explosion of AIDS morbidity. They
believe that the situation that recently evolved in India,
Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and other coun-
tries of South and Southeast Asia could become a lesson
for the country. AIDS came to these countries rather
late, but in terms of scale and the swiftness of its spread,
it quickly assumed the proportions of a national disaster.
Some experts feel that Russia owes its relative epidemi-
ological well-being to a far-reaching system of medical
examination of the population. Although it is expensive
and not irreproachable from the standpoint of human
tights, it is well organized. Just in 1991 25 million



JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

PRS Report—

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8 EAST ASIA

Toei slum as a result of the spread of AIDS and the
number is likely to increase, she says.

Mrs. Prathip says she still does not know how to solve
AIDS-related problems and is concerned about the situ-
ation in other slums where the living conditions are
poorer than in Klong Toei. AIDSCAP is campaigning for
women to protect themselves from AIDS by asking their
husbands to use condoms and to stop visiting prosti-
tutes.

As most HIV-infected people are of working age, Mrs.
Prateep says the Government should be more serious in
tackling the problem by supporting organisations cam-
paigning against AIDS. The Government should not be
so concerned about keeping power that it forgets to look
at the AIDS problem as it may soon become the most
important issue, she says.

VIETNAM

Decree Issued on Dealing With HIV-AIDS Infection
BK0301140293 Hanoi Voice of Vietnam Network
in Vietnamese 1100 GMT 26 Dec 93

[Text] The government has just issued Decree 16 on
combating and preventing HIV-AIDS infection. The

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

decree says that Vietnamese citizens and foreigners in
Vietnam are obliged to comply with government laws on
combating and preventing HIV-AIDS infection. The
government encourages organizations, groups, and indi-
viduals to conduct research to discover medication and
measures to prevent and fight HIV-AIDS infection.

The decree outlines some regulations on the discovery,
management, and care of HIV-AIDS carriers; concrete
regulations for HIV-AIDS carriers; and responsibilities
of government organs and individuals in combating and
preventing HIV-AIDS infection. It emphasizes the
duties of the National Committee for Combating and
Preventing AIDS; the Ministry of Public Health; the
Ministry of Culture and Information; the Ministry of
Commerce; the Ministry of Education and Training; the
Ministry of Interior; the Ministry of Labor, War Inva-
lids, and Social Welfare; and related groups to coordi-
nate with mass organizations in providing education on
fighting and preventing HIV-AIDS infection. They are to
do this via the mass media; by preventing, limiting, and
controling prostitution and drug addiction; by providing
guidance for combating and preventing HIV-AIDS
infection; and by issuing regulations and checking on the
implementation of regulations on dealing with HIV-
AIDS infection.



IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

SINGAPORE

AIDS Testing for Foreigners

93WE0150C Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA
in Russian 1 Dec 92 p 1

[Text] All foreigners entering Singapore for work without
a university diploma will henceforth be subjected to
mandatory testing for human immunodeficiency virus,
announced the public health minister of Singapore.

THAILAND

AIDS Victims’ TB Infections

93WE0182A Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English
13 Nov 92 p6

[Article by Wasant Techawongtham in New Delhi:
“Expert: Battle Against TB, AIDS Should Be Inte-
grated”)

[Excerpts] [Passage omitted]

Speaking at the Second International Congress on AIDS
in Asia and the Pacific held in New Delhi, India, Prof.
Lars O. Kallings from Switzerland said the prevention
and treatment of opportunistic infections play an impor-
tant role in improving the quality of life and prolonging
survival of people infected with HIV.

“Usually, opportunistic infections are the immediate
cause of death, particularly tuberculosis in developing
countries. It is also more feasible to treat tuberculosis in
developing country’s settings than to treat HIV with
anti-retroviral drugs as drugs against tuberculosis are
generally available,” said Prof. Kallings, who is also an
adviser on policy and scientific affairs of the Global
Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organisation.
[Passage omitted]

According to a Thai health official attending the confer-
ence, as high as 40 percent of the Thai population have
been found to be infected with TB.

Consistent with the trend in the general population,
studies done at various hospitals in Thailand found high
incidence of TB among HIV-infected persons.

A Thai physician said a recent study at Bamrasnaradura
Hospital found 27 percent of HIV patients suffering
from the lung disease. A non-governmental organisation
source said two studies done at a hospital in Bangkok
and another in Chiang Mai found 70 percent of HIV-
infected persons with TB.

Currently, most newborns are vaccinated against TB, the
health official said. He added, however, that the vaccine
is not a life-long protection, generally lasting from 10 to
18 years. Besides, follow-up vaccination is not univer-
sally done.

[Passage omitted]

EAST ASIA 7

Worsening AIDS Situation in 1992 Noted

BKO0701054393 Bangkok Radio Thailand Network
in English 0000 GMT 7 Jan 93

[Text] Situation of AIDS in Thailand during 1992 has
gone worse. Deputy Minister of Public Health Anek
Thapsuwan says that in 1992, AIDS situtation in Thai-
land has worsened. According to the report, there are
1,105 AIDS patients and 1,395 AIDS-related cases at the
moment. It is estimated that the number of HIV-infected
persons is about 300,000-500,000 [as heard]. The gov-
ernment has expressed its concern by allocating 317
million baht for the AIDS prevention and control for
1993,

According to the plan, the ministry will set up commu-
nity-based relief centers for HIV-infected individuals
both physically and orally [as heard]. Hospitals will also
improve their services so that they are equipped to take
care of AIDS patients. A budget of 87 million baht is
allocated for medication, treatment of AIDS and AIDS-
infected patients as well as for the acquisition of preven-
tive equipment. Another 64 million baht will be given to
research and development of AIDS vaccine with the
support of the World Health Organization. The pur-
chasing of 52 million condoms is also included in the
budget.

Number of AIDS Cases Among Slumdwellers
Rising

BK1001031893 Bangkok THE SUNDAY POST
in English 10 Jan 93 p 3

[Text] ANTI-AIDS activists say there appears no way to
reverse the worsening AIDS problem in slum areas and
urge the Government to pay more attention to the issue
before there is “no one left to govern”.

Mrs. Prathip Ungsongtham-Hata, secretary-general of
the Duang Prathip Foundation, and Mrs. Nittaya Pom-
pochuenbun, head of the AIDS Control and Prevention
Project (AIDSCAP), say the number of slum-dwellers
contracting HIV is increasing almost every week as
confirmed by hospital reports. They say the number of
HIV cases in the Klong Toei slum has risen from 100 to
300 in the past two years.

More women and children are being infected than
before, when intravenous drug users were the main cases.
The two activists say pregnant women are contracting
the virus from their husbands. This shows that many
men are not changing their attitudes towards sex and are
failing to use condoms with prostitutes.

Mrs. Nittaya says the death rate among Klong Toei
slum-dwellers is higher than before AIDS spread to the
area. In 1992 alone, 19 people died compared with 15 in
all during 1990 and 1991. Children are suffering most.
Some contract the virus from their parents and some,
after their parents die of AIDS, become a burden on
other families. About 35 to 40 orphans live in the Klong



2B WEST EUROPE

[Box, p 15]
The Suspicious Slowness of Spanish Justice

Barcelona—The slowness of Spanish justice is exempli-
fied in the settlement of complaints filed by persons who
contracted the HIV virus through blood transfusions.
According to the president of the Association for Con-
sumer Health Integration (AISU), Matilde Oceja, the

SJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

complaints brought by them have been “deliberately”
stalled.

In Barcelona, the most obvious example of judicial
delay is that of Apolonia Pasamontes Rubio, who
died in August of last year. She had brought a
criminal suit against the Valle de Hebron health
residence in the Catalonian capital, based on the
contaminated blood transfusion that she had
received in May 1986.



SIPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

Thailand, but these countries have yet to indicate
whether they will participate in the field study.

Here one runs up against a large ethical problem. Is it
Proper to involve unaware people in a large research
project and hope that they will regain their former lives,
when new information and new habits could help them
to avoid the risks all together?

The preventive vaccine currently being manufactured
builds on one of a number of potential approaches to
development.

The major factor is a so-called recombinant, which is a
protein piece of the virus genome. The one currently
being used goes under the name gp160, Suni explained.

For us, the debate goes further to consider whether HIV
should be classified as a dangerous disease such as
tuberculosis, syphilis, and polio, or as a disease subject to
compulsory registration, such as AIDS is today.

Riksdag member Margareta Pietikainen said yesterday
that the impression given from motions, proposals, and
questions in the Riksdag is that there is a disposition to
change the law if the need can be demonstrated.

Pietekainen has herself written a motion to the effect
that AIDS should be classed as a dangerous disease,
which would make it possible for doctors to order testing
in suspected cases. This is also the case in Sweden.

“But, more than anything, discussion along broad lines is
needed on these issues,” she said.

FRANCE

Party Leaders Support Former Ministers in Blood
Scandal

AUI511194692 Paris AFP in English 1843 GMT

15 Nov 92

[Text] Paris, Nov 15 (AFP)—Leaders of the French
Socialist Party on Sunday [15 November] declared their
support for three of the party’s former ministers under
fire because they were in office when people were given
HIV-contaminated blood transfusions.

The party’s executive committee voted unanimously to
express its “solidarity” and its “support” for First Party
Secretary and former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius,
and for former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix
and former Health Secretary Edmond Herve.

The three have been summoned in a Senate motion
prompted by the contaminated blood scandal to appear
before the High Court, which could consider their
responsibility for the negligent infection of patients such
as haemophiliacs with the AIDS-causing virus.

The ruling party leaders’ resolution referred to the need
of party MPs to ensure there is truth and justice and

WEST EUROPE 2

urged that they act to ensure the “scrupulous respect of
the presumption of innocence” of accused persons.

SPAIN

Highest Number of HIV Newborns in Europe
93WE0157A Madrid DIARIO 16 in Spanish 2 Dec 92
pls

[Unattributed article: “Spain: European Country With
Most Newborns Infected by AIDS Virus”]

[Text] Spain is the European country showing the largest
number of seropositive newborns. This (alarming) infor-
mation was provided yesterday by the Spanish Pediatrics
Association, coinciding with the observance of World
AIDS Day.

It notes that, in our country, the principal means of
transmission among adults is still drug addiction. This,
combined with a considerable increase in heterosexual
transmission, has caused the number of mothers carrying
the disease and, consequently, the number of children
infected, to continue rising above the anticipated figures.

The Union of Consumers and Clients, for its part, has
demanded that the administration enact emergency
plans aimed at preventing the social rejection of AIDS-
carrying children in schools.

Yesterday, Health Minister Jose Antonio Grinan issued
an appeal for solidarity toward AIDS victims. He
claimed that one of the greatest obstacles to the preven-
tion of the disease has been its association with partic-
ular risk groups, because the others not in those groups
“Jet down their guard and are more vulnerable.”

Grinan admitted that the number of cases in our country
has risen appreciably, but stressed that the cases
appearing now “are due to behavior dating back eight or
10 years. Hence, it is not exactly true that a greater
incidence of AIDS is present now, but rather that more
cases are being reported.”

Of the 15,678 AIDS victims recorded in Spain since
1981, 7.2 percent contracted the disease through hetero-
sexual contact, according to the latest data furnished by
the WHO adviser, Rafael Najera. The health experts
warn against the spread of the disease through this
contact which, six months ago, was believed to have
caused only 5 percent of the infections.

The red bows symbolizing rejection for the exclusion of
those infected with the AIDS virus were especially abun-
dant yesterday. Moreover, in Madrid a human chain was
formed, in pairs, carrying the sculptor, Pepe Espaliu,
from the Congress of Deputies to the Queen Sophia
Museum. Espaliu, an AIDS victim, was presented as a
live statue, in a symbolic act called “carrying” [preceding
word in English], meaning “to transport.”



4 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

All doctors in the public service had to be informed of
their right of being provided with facilities and equip-
ment necessary for the implementation of precautions in
all public hospitals.

MASA will liaise with the Department of national health
and the various employers to clarify compensation and
job security in the event of occupationally acquired HIV
infection by a health care worker in their employ.

No doctor could ethically refuse to treat a patient
because he was or could be HIV positive. Normal
standards of treatment could not be withheld from a
patient solely because he was HIV positive, unless the
variation of treatment was in the patient’s interest.

On the issue of whether the doctor had a right to know
the HIV status of all his patients, Masa’s stance was the
only effective way of increasing the protection of health
care workers against the risk of occupationally acquired
HIV infection by applying internationally recognized
and approved precautions in all clinical situations and
by all institutions.

HIV testing should be undertaken only with free and
informed consent and full pre-test counselling of the
patient.

If the patient could not give consent—for example, if he
was unconscious—proxy should be sought. If this was
impossible, the doctor could decide what was best for the
patient.

If the patient was unwilling to agree to an investigation
necessary for an accurate diagnosis, the doctor was free
to terminate the relationship.

If the patient was unwilling to agree to HIV testing, and
an inoculation or accident had occurred in which infec-
tion was possible, the doctor could test the patient
against his wishes, but with his knowledge.

IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

ZIMBABWE

Four Cases of AIDS at Kaitano Clinic

93WE0100Z Harare THE HERALD in English
21 Oct 92p1

[Article by Charles Kabera]

[Excerpts] [Passage omitted] To date, four cases of AIDS
had been diagnosed at the Kaitano Clinic and the
patients were referred to Mount Darwin Hospital. Sev-
eral people with tuberculosis were also referred to the
hospital. [Passage omitted]

Sixty-Five AIDS Deaths in September

93WE0173C Harare THE HERALD in English
17 Nov 92 p 6

[Article: “AIDS Kills 65 in September”]

[Text] AIDS claimed 65 lives in September, Bulawayo’s
director of health services, Dr. Barnett Nyathi, has
reported.

In a report contained in the latest council minutes, Dr.
Nyathi said 41 deaths were among males and 24 were
females.

Twenty of the deaths were in children under the age of
four, two in the 15 to 19 age group, 13 in the 20 to 29 age
group and the 30 to 39 age group registered 12 deaths.

He said six of the dead were in the 40 to 49 age group and
12 deaths were recorded in people above 50 years.

The AIDS-related deaths, Dr. Nyathi said, were 15
percent of the total deaths recorded in September.



18 CENTRAL EURASIA

virus. The descendants of emigrants, brought from
Africa, make a significant part of the population of
North America. Many of them even do not suspect that
they are the offsprings of the Africans from whom they
have inherited great predisposition to diseases. Charac-
teristic of most of the aboriginals from the Eurasian
continent is the natural, genetically predetermined
immunity to AIDS.

The problem of AIDS exists undoubtedly. Just like all
other diseases, this infection must occupy a fitting place
in corresponding scientific, medical and social pro-
grammes and the stress must be laid on revealing indi-
vidual predisposition to AIDS. The urgent development
of such methods, as well as medicines and equipment for
their use, is really a task of paramount importance for
medical science. But, in planning the expenses for
research and preventive measures, we must not give
preference to the AIDS campaign to the detriment of
other trends of our puny public health system. The ratio
of victims of AIDS and cancer in our country is one to
100,000. No comment is needed.

HIV Virus ‘Imported’ From Poland to Belarus

93WE0145J Moscow PATRIOT in Russian No 36,
3 Sep 92 p3

[Article by Yekaterina Vysotskaya: “Is Imported AIDS
Better?”]

[Text] Growth of the number of AIDS-infected patients
is observed in Belarus. Seventy-nine persons have been
infected, five of them children. This is the figure made
public by the Belarusian Republic Center for AIDS
Prevention and Control. While in all of the last year
there were 12 such patients, in as little as 7 months of
this year 10 cases of infection have been registered.

The center’s specialists report that growth of morbidity
is associated chiefly with drug addiction. As we know,
Belarus is the sole state of the CIS in which cases of HIV
infection have been revealed in this category of repre-
sentatives of the risk group.

In addition there apparently has been some “assistance”
in this from Polish neighbors with whom Belarusians
have established close commercial ties. Continual migra-
tion of Belarusian and Polish businessmen and simply of
people who like to travel is creating the danger of
territorial transfer of infection, since Poland has already
officially registered 2,000 HIV-infected patients.

Charity Leader Calls AIDS Statistics Understated

93WE0053B Moscow MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA
in Russian 9 Sep 92 p 1

[Article by G. Zaychenko: ““We and You’ Against ‘The
Plague”’]

IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

[Excerpts] Gennadiy Rashchupkin, a member of the board
of the new “We and You” charitable organization estab-
lished in support of the national anti-AIDS program,
asserts that our official statistics do not provide a true
picture of the number of HIV carriers: “Were we to
multiply this figure by 50, then the picture would come
closer to the truth.”

The problems of HIV carriers must be dealt with not
only by the healthy and the doctors but also by the
carriers themselves, since this is a social disease. Hence
the name “We and You”—patients and the healthy. By
the way, Gennadiy himself was infected in 1988. In his
words, the society now has a membership of around 800,
of whom around 50 are active members and 15 are HIV
carriers.

A person learns that he is infected with HIV. There are
some who then opt for the noose, or poison themselves,
or not knowing how to live any longer, fall into depres-
sion. [passage omitted].

The “We and You” society is in fact trying to deal with
social adaptation of HIV carriers. Though of course, as
with every other organization in our country, it does not
have any serious scientific data or sociological research
to work with. This makes the assistance given to the
society’s work by the carriers themselves, who know the
situation from the inside, as they say, all the more
valuable. Another objective is to provide help to patients
in establishing themselves socially. In our country, which
is especially harsh and implacable in relation to all things
in comparison with the West, and which also lacks the
necessary laws, patients and HIV carriers are driven out
of their jobs, they are forced to abandon their apart-
ments, and doctors refuse to treat them. The Russian
AIDS Control Center often becomes the last asylum and
shelter for these sick people. “We and You” also gives
patients free legal advice, the necessity of which is often
vitally important in the direct meaning of this word. By
the way, the society gives almost no money to its wards,
except in extreme situations—it itself is poor. For
example, Gennadiy Rashchupkin receives a wage of
R1,000 (the average wage in Moscow in August was
R5,600 according to official statistics). It is felt here that
it is much more important to teach the individual to earn
his livelihood on his own, and thus at least alleviate some
of the depression.

And now a few statistics. With no other sources of
information at hand, let me turn to official data from the
Russian Scientific-Methodological Center for AIDS Pre-
vention and Control. Here are its data for 8 September of
this year: In Russia, there are 576 infected citizens of the
Russian Federation (270 children) and in Moscow there
are 92 (4) HIV carriers. An AIDS diagnosis has been
made in relation to 85 Russians, including five Musko-
vites. Fifty-seven Russians with AIDS have died,
including 38 children. Of those that died, four were
residents of Moscow.



24 CENTRAL EURASIA

Pokrovskiy on Status of AIDS Prevention Measures

93WE0147J Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA
in Russian I Dec 92 p 1

[Article by O. Volkov: “Russia: It Could Be Even
Worse”’]

[Text] The country’s leading AIDS specialists unani-
mously declared yesterday at a press conference at the
State Committee for Public Health and Epidemiological
Inspection that the gloomy forecasts have not come true,
and we have been able to stop the spread of the disease.

The first case of infection by a human immunodefi-
ciency virus in the USSR occurred in 1987. Since that
time 591 Russian citizens have become HIV carriers,
including over 90 patients with AIDS. Moreover as
Vadim Pokrovskiy, director of the Scientific-
Methodological Center for AIDS Control, notes, these
figures are clearly understated: Around 40 million Rus-
sians have been tested for HIV as of today—that is, less
than a third of the country’s population. According to
Pokrovskiy’s estimates there are at least several thou-
sand virus carriers in the country, and by the year 2000
their number will approach the 100,000 mark.

For the moment, however, preventive measures in the
fight against AIDS are only given a grade of “satisfac-
tory.” One republic, six regional and 68 territorial cen-
ters, over 700 diagnostic laboratories and 130 anony-
mous AIDS testing offices have been established since
1987. However, despite the numerous high-level decrees
(from the CPSU Central Committee to the present
Cabinet of Ministers), a number of important problems
still remain unsolved—primarily those of disposable
instruments, and preparations for revealing the virus.
Work in the area of creating medicines for AIDS patients
also leaves something to be desired. In short, the prob-
Jems remain acute, and their solution requires large
capital investments. Thus, R25 billion will be needed
just in 1993 to implement the state “Anti-AIDS” pro-
gram. This is in the prices of late 1992.

Frolov: AIDS Program Not Yet Enacted

93WE0147H Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
in Russian 1 Dec 92 p 1

[Article by Dmitriy Frolov: “AIDS in Russia is 5 Years
Old: A National Program for Fighting This Disease Is
Still Nonexistent”]

[Text] Russia observes this year’s World AIDS Day
today, 1 December, with relatively low indicators, thank
God: Since registration began in 1987, 591 persons were
infected in our country, to include 91 who are presently
ill and 71 who died. By the way, these are the official
statistics. Estimates by independent experts look far
more threatening—in their opinion there may be 30,000-
33,000 infected individuals today.

IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

One way or another, AIDS is not yet being perceived in
Russia as a serious national problem. From all appear-
ances this is explained by the fact that a national
program has still not been adopted, even though a draft
was submitted back in spring. This troubles Vadim
Pokrovskiy, the director of the Russian AIDS Preven-
tion and Control Center. He feels that absence of a
program and of a national committee aggravates the
existing disorganization. Today the AIDS problem is
being dealt with by the State Committee for Public
Health and Epidemiological Inspection, the Ministry of
Health, the Academy of Medical Sciences and countless
numbers of state and private enterprises. By the way, the
latter often capitalize on this painful topic exclusively for
advertising and lobbying purposes. This pertains espe-
cially to organizations of the military-industrial com-
plex, which are desperately fighting for financing. Vadim
Pokrovskiy feels that a person of rank not less than vice
president or at least vice premier must be the official
coordinator of a national program.

In contrast to us, the AIDS problem is perceived in the
West as, besides everything else, a geopolitical one. The
occurrence of this disease in Africa requires a different
approach to evaluating the strategic prospects of this
region, and correspondingly the disposition of forces in
the world. It may be that this is valid in relation to
Russia as well.

Obviously research in the area of medicines and vaccines
against HIV infection is one of the priority directions of
scientific and technical espionage. Nonetheless,
according to estimates of specialists we could hardly
obtain an effective agent before the end of the millen-
nium.

Such that for the time being, the sole means of fighting
AIDS is prevention, in relation to which things continue
to be poor in Russia. This is the only European country
that is not conducting a systematic publicity program in
the press. This pertains not only to explaining the means
by which the infection is spread but also to the principles
of the attitude toward infected individuals and patients.
They continue to be victims of human rights violations,
of disrespect on the part of fellow citizens, and of the
self-interest of numerous healers.

Health Ministry Official Reports First AIDS
Victim

LDO0112180392 Tallinn Radio Tallinn Network

in Estonian 0700 GMT I Dec 92

[Excerpts]

Announcer: We have reason to talk about AIDS today.
Today is the international day for fighting AIDS. Jaan
Martin, adviser at the Health Ministry: Why is this day
being celebrated?

Martin: [Passage omitted: Background on AIDS] Cur-
rently we have 26 HIV virus carriers living in the
republic [words indistinct] and we also have our first



JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993 3 AIDS

Survey of Population’s Knowledge of AIDS Facts

[L. Biochinskaya; Kazan SOVETSKAYA TATARIYA, 2 Jun 92]
Uzbek AIDS Center {Tashkent MOLODEZH UZBEKISTANA, 6 Jun 92]
Twenty-One HIV Cases Registered in Estonia /Riga THE BALTIC OBSERVER, 27 Aug-2 Sep 92] ..
Professor Claims AIDS Fears Exaggerated

[Sergei Rumyantsev; Moscow MOSCOW NE! WS, 30 Aug-6 Sep 92]
HIV Virus ‘Imported’ From Poland to Belarus /Yekaterina Vysotskay¢
Charity Leader Calls AIDS Statistics Understated

{G. Zaychenko; Moscow MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA, 9 Sep 92] ....
German Firm Sponsors AIDS Education Event

[Lidiya Ivchenko; Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, 2 Oct 92]
AIDS Statistics [Moscow INTERFAX, 8 Oct 92] ....
Interview With New Head of Ukrainian AIDS Committee [Kiev GOLOS UKRAINY, 31 Oct 92]
AIDS Explosion Predicted Andrey Bayduzhiy; Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, 5 Nov 92]
AIDS Statistics for Russia, Belarus [Moscow LESNAYA GAZETA, 14 Nov 92] ...
Arriving Foreigners Must Produce AIDS Certificate /Moscow INTERFAX, 27 Nov 92]
World AIDS Day Activity in Belarus

[0. Yegorova; Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, 1 Dec 92] ....
Pokrovskiy on Status of AIDS Prevention Measures

[O. Volkov; Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, | Dec 92]
Frolov: AIDS Program Not Yet Enacted

[Dmitriy Frolov; Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, I Dec 92] aes
Health Ministry Official Reports First AIDS Victim Tallinn Radio Tallinn Network, 1 Dec 92]
St. Petersburg Hospitals Report Measures To Contain AIDS

PATRIOT, 3 Sep 92] . 18

[Nikolay Krupenik; Moscow ITAR-TASS, 1 Dec 92] 25
Anti-AIDS Day in St. Petersburg [Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA, 2 Dec 92] 25
AIDS Spreading in Chernivtsi [Vasyl Babukh; Kiev HOLOS UKRAYINY, 13 Jan 93] .. 25

WEST EUROPE
FINLAND
Physician Views AIDS Situation /Mardy Strom; Helsinki HUF} VUDSTADSBLADET, I Dec 92] .. 26
FRANCE
Party Leaders Support Former Ministers in Blood Scandal Paris AFP, 15 Nov 92)
SPAIN

Highest Number of HIV Newborns in Europe [Madrid DIARIO 16, 2 Dec 92] ....
INTERNATIONAL

France Donates AIDS Contaminated Blood to Tunisia
[Moscow RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA, 20 Nov 92]

. 29



JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

CUBA

Health Education Project Approved by UNDP

FL0411225592 Havana Radio Reloj Network
in Spanish 2033 GMT 4 Nov 92

[Text] A population and communications project was
signed today at the UN Development Program [UNDP]
offices in Havana. The project is geared toward sup-
Porting the National Health Education Center of the
Public Health Ministry.

Joachin von Braunmuhl, the resident UNDP represen-
tative in Cuba, and Raul Taladrid, the vice president of
the State Committee for Economic Cooperation {CECE},
signed the document. This project is geared toward
supporting an extensive electoral campaign [as heard] to
increase the understanding of young people and teen-
agers of the ways and means to reduce the incidence of
unwanted pregnancies, venereal diseases, and AIDS. Dr.
Iselda Sanabria, the director of the National Health
Education Center, and Dr. Alba Aguirre of the UNDP,
briefed Cuban reporters extensively on the aims of this
plan.

LATIN AMERICA nN

DOMINICA

National Committee Chairperson on AIDS Cases

FLO0312132292 Bridgetown CANA in English
1232 GMT 3 Dec 92

ext] Roseau, Dominica, Dec 3, CANA—A senior
ealth official has warned that one out of every 300-400
persons in Dominica may be carrying the AIDS virus.
Out of a population of 71,000, 71 persons have to date
tested positive for the AIDS virus, according to chair-
person of the National AIDS (Acquired Immune Defi-
ciency Syndrome) Committee, Dr. Carissa Etienne.

“We must emphasize that this represents only a fraction
of what the true picture is,” Etienne said.

“In Dominica, for every 1,000 individuals, one has
tested positive. And we believe that the true picture is
that one in every 300 to 400 persons is already infected.”

She revealed that in just a two-month period, 10 persons
had tested positive with the Human Immuno-Deficiency
Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. Since 1987, 21 persons
have died from AIDS here.

The National AIDS Committee chairperson and other
health officials believe that the local situation gives cause
for alarm, especially with the number of infected women
and children on the increase. According to Etienne,
measure have been put in place by the Health Ministry of
ensure that every pint of blood is tested for the AIDS
virus before any transfusion is allowed to take place.



SJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

(CTS) of the University Hospital Center (CHU) in Oran,
which has a laboratory for identifying AIDS, analyzes all
contributions of blood and will handle requests for blood
analyses from the various health services in Oran and
Provinces in the area, as well as those from private
physicians.

In 1992 the CTS in Oran has carried out 5,300 tests on
its own and 1,300 others referred to it from external
sources. According to Doctor Hamadi, it has succeeded
in identifying 31 HIV positive cases. Still in the Province
of Oran, out of 74 hemophiliacs registered, 10 were
affected by AIDS, and three children died of the disease
in 1990.

He indicated that these persons were contaminated by
the “VIII factor,” a product essential to stop hemor-
thaging, both internal as well as external, to which these
hemophiliacs were exposed.

In view of this bitter fact, in the future all doctors, and
not only specialists, will have to be prepared to treat
persons infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS and to
make the necessary, medical decisions in a timely way,
based on analyses prepared by laboratories available at
the regional level.

Algeria is equally concerned by the continuous increase
throughout the world of the number of women infected
by HIV and AIDS. A center to care for pregnant women
infected with HIV has been set up.

According to Professor Bouguermouh, this phenomenon
reflects the increase in cases of heterosexual transmis-
sion. To prevent this kind of transmission in a country
where the average age of husbands is 27, a sex informa-
tion program is considered the most appropriate action
to take.

EGYPT

Minister: 180 Egyptians Have AIDS, 160
Foreigners Deported

NC1401143093 Cairo AL-WAFD in Arabic 11 Jan 93
p2

[Excerpt] Health Minister Dr. Muhammad Raghib
Duwaydar has denied reports of an AIDS outbreak in
Egypt. He said only 180 Egyptians and 160 foreigners are
infected. The foreigners have been deported. Duwaydar
said that blood used in Egypt is safe, explaining that
imported blood derivatives are used only after clearance
from Health Ministry laboratories. He said the hepatitis
vaccine is safe because it is mixed with chemical, not
microbic, material.

[passage omitted]

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 13

IRAN

Health Minister Speaks at AIDS Seminar

93AS0327X Tehran ABRAR in Persian 2 Dec 92
pp 1, 10

[Text] The minister of health treatment and medical
education said yesterday: The chapter on AIDS often is
not put in medical science books and goes unread.

Dr. Reza Malekzadeh, who was speaking at the three-day
seminar on retraining for AIDS that is held simulta-
neously with the World AIDS Day in Tehran added: The
lack of awareness of some physicians makes the recogni-
tion of AIDS in the society longer, and hence physicians
and others in this profession must become familiar with
the symptoms of this disease and teach them to the
medical science students as well.

Emphasizing that AIDS today has had more casualties
than World War I and World War II, not only because it
is deadly, but that it causes great problems socially for
the patients, the minister of health said: Today only 10
percent of those suffering from AIDS are homosexuals
and corrupt individuals, and the remaining 90 percent
are people who have acquired it due to lack of preven-
tative information.

He added: At the present time, 12 million people in the
world have the AIDS virus and 500,000 are suffering
from this disease.

Dr. Malekzadeh said: Every day, 5,000 Iranian passen-
gers travel to parts of the world that are infected by
AIDS. It is necessary for the airlines officials, with the
cooperation of the Ministry of Health, to provide them
with the necessary information and alert them about this
deadly disease.

The minister of health, by stating that at the present
some of the African countries allocate 80 percent of their
health and treatment budget to fighting AIDS, referred
to the spread of AIDS and said: In Iran, this disease was
observed for the first time in a child as a result of the use
of blood byproducts. He added that the period of this
disease in adults is eight to 10 years and in children two
to three years.

Considering the sensitivity of the subject, he asked the
airlines, the Voice and Vision, the Ministries of Culture
and Islamic Guidance and Education, and the press to
help the health officials of the country to fight AIDS with
public education.

In conclusion, Dr. Malekzadeh said: Our country is a
very young country, and 26 million of the population are
under 15 years old and are vulnerable to AIDS.

He added: Hence, educating these individuals and
making them aware of the danger and ways to prevent
this disease must be a priority in the health steps of the
concerned policy makers in the country.



IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993 2 AIDS

SINGAPORE

AIDS Testing for Foreigners [Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, 1 Dec 92]
THAILAND

AIDS Victims’ TB Infections /Wasant Techawongtham; Bangkok BANGKOK POST, 13 Nov 9p. 7

Worsening AIDS Situation in 1992 Noted {Bangkok Radio Thailand Network, 7 Jan G3] ssveesssnee 7

Number of AIDS Cases Among Slumdwellers Rising

[Bangkok THE SUNDAY POST, 10 Jan 93] .....

VIETNAM

Decree Issued on Dealing With HIV-AIDS Infection
[Hanoi Voice of Vietnam Network, 26 Dec 93} .....

EAST EUROPE
HUNGARY
AIDS Statistics “Very Favorable’ /Budapest KOZTARSASAG, 27 Nov 92]
LATIN AMERICA
CUBA
Health Education Project Approved by UNDP [Havana Radio Reloj Network, 4 Nov 92]
DOMINICA
National Committee Chairperson on AIDS Cases Bridgetown CANA, 3 Dec 92] ..
NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA
ALGERIA

Update on Quality of Blood Supply, Testing [Algiers EL WATAN, 2 Dec 92]
Over 50,000 AIDS Cases Expected by 2000 /Algiers LIBERTE, 2 Dec 92]

EGYPT
Minister: 180 Egyptians Have AIDS, 160 Foreigners Deported [Cairo AL-WAFD, 1] Jan 93]
IRAN

Health Minister Speaks at AIDS Seminar [Tehran ABRAR, 2 Dec 92] ....
Minister on Death of 40 AIDS-Infected London London KEYHAN, 17 Dec 92]

MOROCCO

Midwives Instruct Prisoners in STD, AIDS
[Mohammed A. Cherkaoui; Rabat L’OPINION, 6 Dec 92]

PAKISTAN
New AIDS Cases Said Rapidly Being Discovered Islamabad THE MUSLIM, 16 Dec 92]
CENTRAL EURASIA

11

Belarus Health Minister Interview
[Roman Shevko; Minsk ZDRAVOOKHRANENIYE BELORUSSII, Jan 92]



2 CENTRAL EURASIA

persons were examined in Russia—more than in all
European countries put together. In March 1987, when
the first AIDS case was revealed on USSR territory, it
was supposed that there would be around 3,000 infected
individuals in Russia by 1991. In fact, however, their
number turned out to be much lower. In late October of
this year there were 591 infected individuals in the 47
republics, krays and oblasts of the Russian Federation.
Of them, 91 had AIDS. Another 71 persons have already
died as a result of illness. By the way, not all scientists
feel that the pessimistic predictions for Russia have not
proven true. In the opinion of Vadim Pokrovskiy,
director of the Russian Scientific Methodological Center
for AIDS Prevention and Control, the real figure for HIV
carriers is several times greater than the official data—
tens of thousands of persons.

As we know, the sexual pathway is the principal means of
AIDS transmission today. Physicians unanimously
believe that the rate of spread of AIDS will increase
significantly in the immediate future due to open and
totally uncontrolled growth of prostitution. Moreover
while in the past the risk group consisted chiefly of
high-grade prostitutes who serviced foreigners, today
they have been decisively supplanted by mid-grade pros-
titutes who often forget about the existence of condoms:
The risk of being infected by them is much greater. This
year, incidence of AIDS among drug addicts was regis-
tered for the first time in Russia. This will also make its
contribution to hastening the infection’s spread.

Since 1987, 392 foreigners infected with the virus, dom-
inated by citizens of African states, were deported from
Russia. However, it was impossible to track down
everyone, and now American and African AIDS strains
are circulating over the republic’s territory. The Russian
Ministry of Health intends to continue the practice of
deporting carriers, but physicians feel that the moment
has been lost. Even if the borders were to be shut tight, it
would be impossible to halt growth of the incidence of
AIDS, since the number of infected individuals inside
the country is already fully sufficient to begin an epi-
demic even without importing it from abroad.

Owing to a rigorous system of testing all donors for
AIDS, spread of the disease through blood transfusions
has been halted: The last such case was registered in
1987. Infections transmitted within hospitals have not
been noted for several years. But it is still too early to say
that all is well with public health. Disposable syringes are
again becoming an acute problem. While in former times
their shortage was elicited by insufficient production,
now the medical warehouses are literally stuffed with
syringes, but the therapeutic institutions, which are
being financed to only 47 percent of their need, are
unable to buy them due to a shortage of money.

An entire block of problems is also associated with
providing public health with test systems necessary for
AIDS diagnosis. The kinds developed in our country are
in no way inferior to foreign analogues, and they are
often superior to them. However, all of their merits are

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

lost in the production stage. Not one of the six Russian
plants producing test systems has production conditions
satisfying universally accepted international standards.
Matters are even worse with storage and transportatio}
Due to the absence of special containers, highly perish-
able biological preparations lose considerably in quality
en route to their destination.

All of this has resulted in a situation where following the
peak of the virus’s spread in 1989-1990, when the
number of infected individuals increased by several
times as a result of mass infections in hospitals, followed
by a certain decrease in the number of infections last
year, in recent times their growth has resumed. In 10
months of 1992 as many as 83 infected individuals were
revealed, as compared to 66 cases in all of last year.

We can say with certainty today that AIDS in Russia has
a child’s face—due to the woefully notorious outbreaks
of infections in Elista, Volgograd and Rostov, where
over half of all infected individuals are children. The
overwhelming majority of them have not reached their
sixth birthday. Doctors in Moscow and St. Petersburg
hospitals that care for most of the infected individuals do
not conceal their anger: The society, which first dis-
played interest in the fate of the infected children, very
quickly forgot their existence. A large proportion of
AIDS patients in the pediatric department of the hos-
pital on Sokolinaya Hill in Moscow got there as refu-
gees—a fact as terrible as it is absolutely true. Infected
children are run out of their schools and nurseries, while
their parents are fired from their jobs, deprived of their
housing and forced to move to another city. Medical
personnel are powerless to do anything. It may be that
the problem will be alleviated by adoption of the law
“On Prevention of AIDS.” The draft, which foresees
liability for discriminating against individuals infected
with AIDS, has been submitted to the Supreme Soviet.
But it could hardly change the situation fundamentally.

Besides the moral problems, financial and material ones
are of increasing importance in the fight against AIDS.
Because of insufficient financing, the rather widespread
network of AIDS prevention institutions, including 68
territorial centers, over 700 laboratories and 130 anon-
ymous testing offices, is under the constant threat of
reduction. Scientific research on AIDS treatment has for
practical purposes been frozen. The situation is also
aggravated by the fact that even physicians themselves
are not unanimous on how dangerous they think AIDS
might be to Russia. Public Health Minister Andrey
Vorobyev publicly declared several times that the AIDS
threat is often exaggerated both by the mass media and
by specialists themselves. In the opinion of Mr. Voro-
byev, Russian public health, which is being forced to
economize in everything today, must concentrate its
attention on fighting the more widespread diseases.
However, many medical workers feel that the minister
himself is quite well aware of the entire danger of the
situation. But being responsible for the state of medicine
in general, he deliberately belittles the acuity of the
problem, so as not to inflame passions.



Epidemiology
AIDS

JPRS-TEP-93-002 CONTENTS 27 January 1993

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

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
BOTSWANA
HIV Carriers Estimated at 60,000
[Reginald Richardson; Gaborone BOTSWANA DAILY NEWS, 16 Oct 92] ....

Twenty-Two Percent Francistown Mothers HIV Positive
[Desmond Montshiwa; Gaborone BOTSWANA DAILY NEWS, 20 Oct 92]

GHANA
Clinical Management of AIDS Criticized
[George Sydney Abugri and Ibrahim Awal; Accra PEOPLE'S DAILY GRAPHIC, 14 Nov 92]. 1
SOUTH AFRICA
COSATU States Aims of AIDS Program [Johannesburg SAPA, I Dec 92] 2
Doctors Receive Guidelines on AIDS Patient Rights
[Asha Singh; Durban THE DAILY NEWS, 8 Dec 92] ..... 3
ZIMBABWE
Four Cases of AIDS at Kaitano Clinic {Charles Kabera; Harare THE HERALD, 21 Oct 92] 4
Sixty-Five AIDS Deaths in September /Harare THE HERALD, 17 Nov 92] 4
EAST ASIA
CAMBODIA
New Post To Deal With Community Complaints About UNTAC [Hong Kong AFP, 9 Oct 92] ..... 5
INDONESIA
Official Discloses Total Number of AIDS Carriers
[Jakarta Radio Republik Indonesia Network, 6 Jan 93] 5
JAPAN
Software Developer Involved in AIDS Scandal To Restructure /Tokyo KYODO, 3 Dec D2] srsrsesree 6
SOUTH KOREA
Ten Test HIV Positive in December {Seoul THE KOREA TIMES, 1 Jan 93] 6
MALAYSIA
Minister Discloses Funds for Anti-AIDS Campaign 6

[M. Sahibullah; Kuala Lumpur NEW STRAITS TIMES, 10 Jan 93]



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IPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

victim of AIDS. Thank God, this happened 10 years
later than in other countries, but it has indeed reached us
and this is a very serious fact. All HIV virus carriers in
Estonia have been infected through sexual intercourse
only. [passage omitted] Once the HIV virus has been
found in a person it does not mean that the person is
ostricized. Definitely not. The person can live to the full
and work like all the other people, except for one
restriction: He must not enter into a sexual relationship
with people who are not carriers of the virus. [end
recording]

St. Petersburg Hospitals Report Measures To
Contain AID:

LD0112134392 ITAR-TASS in English 1238 GMT
1 Dec 92

[Article by ITAR-TASS correspondent Nikolay Kru-
penik

[Text] St. Petersburg December 1 TASS—There is vir-
tually no chance to be infected with AIDS at St. Peters-
burg hospitals, polyclinics and other medical establish-
ments, Andrey Kozlov, director of the Bryuss-Rappoport
Biomedical Centre, told ITAR-TASS on the eve of the
1992 World AIDS Day. According to Kozlov, all donor
blood deliveries are under strict control, and donors are
also regularly checked up. There are all conditions for
guaranteed treatment of syringes as well as the required
quantity of disposable instruments. Experts from the
World Health Organisation believe that the city has
relatively low figures of AIDS incidence. Medics
detected 55 HIV virus carriers, 46 of the total are St.
Petersburg residents. Four people died of AIDS, and six
are patients. However, these statistics do not reflect the
real state of affairs, as medics believe. The same thing

CENTRAL EURASIA 25

was with Americans who rested assured with low AIDS
incidence rates ten years ago and did not want to see the
danger. Therefore, U.S. medics who visited St. Peters-
burg, called on their Russian counterparts to take into
account their negative experience and do not repeat their
mistakes.

Anti-AIDS Day in St. Petersburg

93WE0147G Moscow NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
in Russian 2 Dec 92 p 6

[Article: “AIDS Day”]

[Text] AIDS Day is being observed today in St. Peters-
burg. Viktor Borisenko, chairman of the Extraordinary
AIDS Control Commission, reported that there are 55
persons infected with HIV in the city at the present time.
The AIDS Day program includes a round table devoted
to the problems of preventing and treating the disease,
discussions with youngsters and military servicemen,
and other measures.

AIDS Spreading in Chernivtsi

AU1401215093 Kiev HOLOS UKRAYINY in Ukrainian
13 Jan 93 p 4

[Report by Vasyl Babukh from Chernivtsi: “God’s Pun-
ishment”]

[Text] Last year, two carriers of AIDS were first recorded
in Chernivtsi. They were visiting drug addicts. At the
beginning of the new year, the sad record was contin-
ued—the physicians have revealed yet another carrier of
AIDS, this time a local citizen. The sufferer has been
isolated. Searches for persons who were in contact with
him are under way. If they are not found, the statistics
may become even more distressing.



IJPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

HUNGARY

AIDS Statistics ‘Very Favorable’

93CHO0189A Budapest KOZTARSASAG in Hungarian
27 Nov 92 p 17

(Unattributed article: “The Hungarian Situation Is Still
Favorable”}

[Text] “Do not induce a prompt catastrophic atmo-
sphere; there is no AIDS explosion in Hungary; we still
belong to the lightly affected European countries.” This
fact was brought to my attention initially by Dr. Adam
Vass, the AIDS expert of the Department of Welfare and
president of the Hungarian AIDS committee. Even the
director of the venereal and skin diseases hospital, Dr.
Attila Horvath, confirmed that this is not merely official
optimism. He indicated that the Hungarian AIDS situa-
tion is still very favorable, in spite of the fact that we
have become Europe’s main crossroad.

According to international experience, for every HIV-
infected person that is discovered, there is an average of
10 unknown people who are exposed to the virus. In
Hungary, as a consequence of the mandatory screening
test, this ratio is more favorable. We know of 316
HIV-virus infected individuals so far, and out of these
110 actually have the disease. Based on laboratory tests,
their immune systems are so damaged that they will
easily contract diseases that normally represent no
problem for the healthy part of the population. One
characteristic typical of Hungary’s domestic situation is
that the majority of the declared AIDS victims originates
from the already known HIV infected persons. As of now
we know of only one or two cases where someone became
ill outside this “circle.” It is interesting to note that even
the penitentiary institutions were screened and, out of
40,000 medical examinations performed, only two indi-
viduals proved to be HIV-positive. Although inside these
institutions the population is far more endangered, this
data clearly indicates that there is no serious problem
present at the moment. It seems also obvious that in
Hungary the ratio between disclosed and undisclosed
who are infected with the virus is fewer than 10. If this
were not true, we would have discovered among the
individuals who have AIDS several people who had not
been registered as HIV-infected.

Of course, certain aspects of the virus that have been
publicized in international papers apply to Hungary as
well: The HIV virus infects Hungarians exactly in the
same way as it has been infecting 12 million HIV-
Positive people presently living all over the world.

During the past 10 years, international research has
Proven that the AIDS virus is present and traceable in
certain human secretions, such as blood, semen, vaginal
fluid, saliva, spinal marrow, and mother’s milk. Never-
theless, hitherto the only proven way it can be contracted
is through blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and
mother’s milk. The most frequent way is through sexual
relations, with blood transfusions and blood products

EAST EUROPE 9

holding second place. Nowadays this type of contamina-
tion no longer occurs in the developed nations where all
blood products are strictly controlled. (In Hungary, since
1986, there is an obligatory HIV screening for all blood
collected or donated through transfusion.)

Naturally, among the intravenous drug users the expan-
sion of the infection through the blood has not been
stopped. Quite the contrary, it appears to be increasing
the world over with the collective usage of hypodermic
needles and syringes.

The third way for the expansion of AIDS is through the
mother-child relationship, since the virus may be trans-
mitted during pregnancy and even after birth during the
breast-feeding period. This is an important problem in
countries where the HIV-positive female population is
high, such as in Africa. Worldwide, HIV-positive women
are encouraged not to give birth. In Hungary one HIV-
Positive woman gave birth twice; however, the children
were not infected.

In the African nations experts have suggested that the
HIV-positive mothers should not stop breast feeding
their babies, as this represents a lesser hazard than the
babies starving to death. It is interesting to observe that
it has been proven scientifically that the AIDS virus does
not expand in the same manner as the rest of the
infectious diseases; thus, neither by hand shaking nor by
toys, eating utensils, working equipment, or mosquito
bites is it possible to get infected. In spite of these proven
facts, there are a great number of people who are
reluctant to come into contact with exposed and/or
infected individuals.

Very often, HIV-positive Hungarians or foreigners who
moved to Hungary from other places are molested at
their schools, day-care centers, or working places. We
have no reason to be afraid of this kind of contraction of
the disease, since protection against AIDS is a personal
responsibility. The prevention possibilities have been
well known for many years, namely: safe sex, cautious
partner selection, and continuous use of contraceptives.

[Box, p 17]

AIDS-Related Lawsuits

What can a person do if, while receiving medical treat-
ment, he or she gets infected with the AIDS virus? This
is not merely a poetic question, since several of these
cases have actually occurred in Hungary during the first
half of the 1980’s. (Blood transfusions ceased being
dangerous since blood samples are being screened for the
HIV virus.)

The recovery of health (unfortunately?) is not dependent
on whether somebody is directly responsible for having
acquired the disease or became infected by accident.
Nevertheless, the latter ones can count on diminishing
their economic disadvantages. According to information
received from the Department of Public Welfare, more



12 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

ALGERIA

Update on Quality of Blood Supply, Testing

93WEOI68A Algiers EL WATAN in French
2 Dec 92 p 25

[Unattributed article: “World’s AIDS Day; Oran: Two
Hemophiliacs Died”—first paragraph is EL WATAN
introduction]

[Excerpt] The National AIDS Control Committee was
set up in 1989; its main goal, in a first stage, was to
achieve 100-percent checking of the blood supply.

It was a difficult task considering our country’s limited
means. Professor Hamadi of the Oran Blood Transfu-
sion Center, who is also a member of the national
committee, told us: “From 1988 to 1990, 20 to 30
percent of the blood supply was checked; the problem
was the lack of information and the problem of reagent
and adequate equipment availability. Thanks to the
WHO, we received close to $200,000, which enabled us
to supply practically all blood-transfusion centers with
reagents, Elisa test kits, etc.; we can now say that, in large
cities, the blood supply is 100-percent checked.”

We should point out that an Elisa test costs $3, a
Wastern Blot test $93, and reagents about 600 French
francs [Fr]; therefore, as can be imagined, generalized
AIDS screening represents an investment that countries
undergoing a severe economic and financial crisis cannot
make on their own.

Available figures show a marked increase in the number
of AIDS cases in Oran this year. As of 20 November,
another 12 people had been infected with the virus. Still
according to data from the transfusion center, seroposi-
tive individuals (who carry the AIDS virus but have not
yet developed the disease) are usually people who have
had contacts with foreign countries, either for medical
reasons or through short-term or long-term stays. Of the
Oran hemophiliacs (about 10 in all) contaminated in
France, two have died so far. For them, the best is to
contact the Hemophiliacs Association and the National
Committee (Ministry of Health) in order to start class-
action suits and thus obtain damages.

Nevertheless, until a vaccine is discovered prevention
will remain the best treatment. Seropositive individuals
must become aware of their condition (the disease
develops only five to 10 years after contamination); what
is needed above all is information and education, as
AIDS victims are often younger people (usually under
40). Prevention, however, is considerably hindered by
the fact that sexuality is taboo in our society. [passage
omitted]

JPRS-TEP-93-002
27 January 1993

Over 50,000 AIDS Cases Expected by 2000
93WE0172A Algiers LIBERTE in French 2 Dec 92 p 5

[Text] Since 1986, when the first cases were discovered
[in Algeria], 121 full-blown AIDS cases have already
been recorded.

About 2 million cases of AIDS have been recorded
throughout the world since the beginning of the pan-
demic which, by the year 2000, will reach alarming
proportions. The WHO is predicting that there will be 12
to 18 million cases of AIDS throughout the world.

What is the situation in Algeria where, since 1986, the
year when the disease was first discovered, 21 full-blown
AIDS cases have been recorded?

Since 1987, in Oran alone, 71 HIV positive cases have
been identified, 55 of which were serum positive and 16
of which were full-blown AIDS cases.

In view of the figures made public, the number of those
suffering from AIDS is doubling almost every year in
Algeria, which is going to raise their number to more
than 50,000 by the year 2000.

To minimize the risk run, “early warning” centers have
been established in Algeria, as in other countries, to carry
out a confidential follow up of these cases, providing
information on the evolution of the HIV infection.

In the fight against this scourge the Ministry of Health
and Population has not stinted on providing the neces-
sary resources. Throughout the country it has established
107 centers for identifying cases of HIV infection, hep-
atitis B, and syphilis among blood donors. This has
required a considerable effort. Examinations of blood
donors for these diseases have been required since 7
December 1991.

Nevertheless, the operation of certain blood transfusion
centers has been hampered by shortages of the necessary
reagents as a result of the economic difficulties experi-
enced by the country.

However, action has recently been taken to deal with this
situation. In addition to transmission of HIV infection
through sexual relations and blood transfusions Pro-
fessor Bouguermouh has warned that there is a risk that
infections of this kind may be incurred during medical
treatment if preventive measures are not adopted.

In any case, he indicated, a system providing for the
medical, psychological, and social care of persons
affected with AIDS is being steadily established. This
provision of care is based on the fact that the number of
AIDS cases will inevitably increase during the next few
years. (The majority of the persons who will develop
clinical cases of AIDS are already infected.) Centers
located in the large cities will take care of clinical AIDS
cases and persons who are HIV infected.

To provide a check and an indication of how the
situation is developing, the Biood Transfusion Center