JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

The laboratories have already made it clear that HIV was
first transmitted into China in the early 1980s and is
spreading quickly in some regions.

According to Dai, there has been close cooperation
between China and the World Health Organization
(WHO) in the prevention of AIDS.

In 1988, WHO allocated over $300,000 to China for
AIDS prevention purposes. It has also sent experts to
give lectures in China on the subject and has invited
many Chinese experts to attend international confer-
ences on AIDS and to take part in technical training and
to conduct investigations abroad.

The symposium is sponsored by the Chinese Medical
Association and the People to People International Cit-
izen Ambassador Programme of the United States.

Government Strengthens Programs Against AIDS

0W0811200090 Beijing XINHUA in English
1534 GMT 8 Nov 90

{Text] Since the first AIDS case was reported in China in
June 1985, the Chinese Government has strengthened
comprehensive prevention measures which place
emphasis on controlling sexual transmission of the dis-
ease, given publicity to the danger of the disease, banned
prostitution, and strengthened monitoring, research and
technical training in the fight against the disease.

He Jiesheng, Chinese vice-minister of public health, said
at a Sino-American symposium on AIDS, which opened
here today that counter-measures against AIDS adopted
by Chinese Government have achieved initial success.

She said that AIDS has been listed since 1986 as a major
infectious disease which must be reported. The Ministry
of Public Health has set up monitoring stations in almost
all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipali-
ties, she added.

Three laboratories to diagnose positive antibodies of the
HIV virus have been set up, she noted.

According to incomplete statistics, from 1985 to Sep-
tember this year, the Ministry of Public Health con-
ducted HIV blood serum tests on 300,000 people of the
risk population in the country, and 446 people were
found to be HIV antibody positive, 68 of whom were
from overseas. Five of them were diagnosed to be AIDS
patients.

She said that one of the successes of the past few years
has been in publicity and education in public health.
Since there is no cure for AIDS yet, publicity plays an
important role in the fight against the disease, she added.

The vice-minister said that in recent years the Chinese
Government has promulgated a series of regulations
concerning the monitoring and control of AIDS.

CHINA 15

She said that China had strengthened its efforts to clamp
down on drug trafficking and taking in order to prevent
the spread of the HIV virus via intravenous injection.

She said that venereal diseases have been making a
comeback recently in a number of coastal cities and
China’s public health departments have been trying to
prevent the spread of AIDS via sexual contact.

Healthy Lifestyles ‘Only Way To Control AIDS’

OW1011021590 Beijing XINHUA in English
1627 GMT 9 Nov 90

[Text] The cause of the rampant AIDS threat is sexual
promiscuity, according to Dr. Zhu Qi’s paper presented
to the ongoing Sino-American HIV Symposium in Bei-
jing.

Zhu Qi, a professor at the National Health Education
Institute of China, pointed out that the root cause of the
swift spread of AIDS is unhealthy life styles, such as
homosexuality, drug addiction, and non-marital sexual
relations. “Only through a healthy lifestyle can humanity
survive the AIDS epidemic”, he said.

Wang Xiaodao, a professor at the Beijing Medical Uni-
versity and a committee member of the Chinese Sexual
Science Committee, told the symposium that promis-
cuous sexual relations destroy the ecological balance of
normal microbes, and pathogenic micro-organisms grow
and spread, then the ecological balance in the process of
human sexual activity as well as the psychological and
social balance of sexual relations will be destroyed.

He described venereal diseases and AIDS as double
punishment inflicted by nature on human society.

The Chinese specialists agreed that establishing healthy
lifestyles is the only way to control AIDS.

They asserted that it is impossible to try to control AIDS
with special medicines and condoms, not only because
there is little chance of discovering a cure for AIDS
within this century but also because HIV becomes part of
the genes of the affected cell as soon as it enters the body.
Thus it is difficult to treat patients with anti-AIDS drugs.

Meanwhile, Chinese specialists pointed out here that
simply using the mass media to provide people with
medical knowledge and information on AIDS preven-
tion is not enough; administrative measures are vital in
this battle.

Sino-American AIDS Symposium Stresses
Prevention Only Cure

OW1611095990 Beijing XINHUA in English
0931 GMT 16 Nov 90

[Text] As a cure for AIDS is not likely to be found in the
near future, prevention is the most important way to
stop its spread.

This is a common view held by Chinese and American
deputies who attended the Sino-American Symposium



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32 WEST EUROPE

With respect to treatments, ACT UP is demanding the
marketing of certain products not always available on
the Belgian market.

The organization wonders why such medications,
already on sale in other countries, are being rejected.
When the situation is somewhat urgent, are not all
possible solutions worth trying?

As for social and legal support of patients and seroposi-
tives, ACT UP deems it virtually nonexistent. “The
mandatory testing performed in certain Belgian compa-
nies is contrary to human rights,” says Antoine Pickles.
“Yet [employment] contracts are still being refused
based on their results...”

As for the resources the organization will have for
communicating its ideas, it receives no subsidies. To
start with, ACT UP members will have nothing but odds
and ends for filling their brand new piggy bank. Yet they
consider that unimportant. With their meager savings,
they have already established a whole program of edu-
cational and informational activities.

Starting 6 October, they will distribute tracts and bro-
chures in the streets, in schools, and in nightclubs. “If we
don’t have the money to enclose a condom, we will throw
in a small balloon,!” finishes Antoine Pickles. “Isn’t it
the symbol that’s important?”

DENMARK

Study Examines Regional Sex Mores, AIDS Tie

91WE0031A Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
in Danish 17 Sep 90 p 5

[Article by Kirsten Sorrig: “Major Difference on Sex in
North and South”—first paragraph is BERLINGSKE
TIDENDE introduction]

[Text] There is a major difference in women’s sexual
mores simply based on where they live, according to a
new study of women from Nykobing Falster, Copen-
hagen, and Nuuk in Greenland.

Women from Nykobing Falster, Copenhagen, and Nuuk
in Greenland have had their sexual mores studied and
compared in a new study published today in
UGESKRIFT FOR LAEGER.

Among other things, the researchers who carried out the
study looked at when the women, all of whom are
between the ages of 20 and 39, had had their first sexual
experience and how many men they have had as their
sexual partners. Among other things, the results will be
used to track changes in behavioral patterns, which are
significant when dealing with sexually transmitted dis-
eases, both the traditional ones and the HIV infection
and AIDS,

There is a major difference in the sexual mores in
Denmark and Greenland, the study shows. But there is

SIPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

also a major difference in the sexual mores among
women in a major Danish city and a Danish provincial
town.

Women in Greenland have their first sexual experience
earlier than Danish women. And they have more part-
ners. Between 70 and 80 percent of the women in Nuuk
had had their first sexual experience before their six-
teenth birthday. The same was true for between 50 and
60 percent of the women in Copenhagen, while the figure
for the women in Nykobing Falster was between 30 and
58 percent. Among the youngest women in the study
there was no difference in the age at which the first
sexual experience occurred among those in the two
Danish towns, and in general it has gone down in all
three places during the past 20 to 30 years.

There are also major differences in the number of
partners. In Nykobing Falster, 20.4 percent of the
women had had just one partner. The same thing was
true of 10.7 percent of the women in Copenhagen and
1.7 percent of the women in Nuuk. And now, on the
reverse side: In Nuuk, 22.4 percent had had over 40
partners. The same was true of 3.5 percent of the
Copenhagen residents as contrasted with 0.3 percent of
the women in Nykobing Falster.

Greenland AIDS, Venereal Disease Statistics

91WE0031B Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
in Danish 20 Sep 90 p 6

(Unattributed article: “Nineteen HIV Positives in
Greenland”]

[Text] In 1990, three cases of HIV infection were
reported in Greenland. One of these was a woman.
Altogether 19 HIV positive individuals have been dis-
covered in Greenland. Three individuals have developed
AIDS, two of whom have died. In 1990, fewer cases of
sexual diseases were reported than in the previous year.
Thus, in the first three quarters [of 1990], there were 137
cases of syphilis—12 percent fewer than in 1989—and
1,532 cases of gonorrhea—eight percent fewer than for
the same period in 1989.

Authorities Offer Explanation for Drop in AIDS
Cases

91WE0054A Stockholm DAGENS NYHETER

in Swedish 17 Oct 90 p 8

[Article by Christian Palme: “Fewer New AIDS Cases:
Unique Methods Alter Trend in Denmark”—first para-
graph is DAGENS NYHETER introduction]

[Text] Denmark boasts fewer new AIDS cases this year
than last year. This is the first time since the beginning of
the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980’s that the curve
showing new AIDS cases has gone down just a little.

The small-scale drop in AIDS figures was reported by the
AIDS secretariat at the Danish Board of Health. Com-
pared with 171 new AIDS cases last year, it can now be



SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Earlier, Mr. Museveni addressed members of Mpigi RC
at Kasangati, whom he advised to approach develop-
mental projects in the district systematically. Later, he
toured Kakiri orphanage center.

ZAIRE

AIDS Conference in Kinshasa

Gloomy Prediction

AB1310131690 Paris AFP in English 1304 GMT
13 Oct 90

[Text] Kinshasa—A three-day congress on AIDS in
Africa ended here late Friday with the gloomy prediction
that the disease will leave 10 million orphans by the end
of the decade. The symposium, which brought together
nearly 1,000 specialists, also heard Ben Nkowane of the
World Health Organization (WHO) report that one
African out of 40 has the AIDS virus, against one in 300
in Europe. A study made in Zaire, involving interviews
with 2,000 persons with an average age of 25, showed
that 85 percent have cut the number of their partners
because of the threat of AIDS—but only four percent
used condoms, the most effective means of avoiding it.

Michael Merson, one of the managers of WHO’s global
AIDS campaign, said he believed that a vaccine would be
found within five years. During the conference, officials
announced the creation of an organiztion that will be
charged with coordinating the fight against AIDS
throughout the continent. The organization, which was
not named, will be based in Nairobi and will organize the
next conferences on AIDS in Africa. These will take
place in Dakar next year, in Yaounde, Cameroon, in
1992, and in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1993. The three-day
session here was the fifth such conference on AIDS in
Africa.

Prevention Discussed

91WE0039A Paris LE MONDE in French
13 Oct 90 p 10

[Article by special correspondent Jean-Yves Nau:
“Africa’s Unequal Fight Against AIDS”; first paragraph
is LE MONDE introduction]

[Text] Several hundred specialists are taking part in the
fifth international conference on AIDS in Africa from 10
to 13 October in Kinshasa. The massive spread of the
disease is causing acute concern and signals some very
bleak socio-economic prospects.

In black Africa, from Dakar to Nairobi, the AIDS
epidemic is already a catastrophe. Yet the worst is still to
come. That is the dramatic conclusion reached by par-
ticipants in the fifth international conference on the
disease, who have been meeting since Wednesday 10
October in the “people’s hall” of the Zairian capital. It is
an “African-style” meeting, where the virtues of new

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 9

scientific laboratory-diagnostic techniques, for instance,
are compared to those of the various ways of using male
condoms.

Unlike the previous annual conferences on AIDS orga-
nized in Brussels, Naples, Arusha (Tanzania), and
Marseille, the Kinshasa conference is devoting a great
deal of time to prevention of the epidemic and to its
predictable socio-economic consequences. How could it
be otherwise? Therapeutic progress is as desperately slow
as ever and, as Professor Luc Montagnier (Paris Pasteur
Institute) pointed out, not only is there unlikely to be any
vaccine for several years, but virological data from the
African continent as a whole confirm the virus’s extraor-
dinary variability. That suggests that the “European” or
“American” vaccines now being studied may well prove
to be ineffective against the many African virus strains.

What is more, the only molecule shown to be relatively
effective in fighting AIDS—the multinational Well-
come’s AZT—is still totally inaccessible to the hundreds
of thousands of patients in Africa, for pure and simple
economic reasons.

The only hope lies in changing the sexual behaviors,
known to carry a high risk of infection, of hundreds of
thousands of people. It is obviously an immense chal-
lenge, for which available technical and intellectual
resources seem pathetically small. It is also a challenge
that political authorities, who logically should consider
themselves among those most concerned, and who per-
sist in their denial, prefer not to hear about.

10 Million People Infected in 1991

In any case, epidemiological field studies conducted in
Africa and presented in Kinshasa are no longer ques-
tioned. The World Health Organization estimates the
number of infected individuals in Africa at five million.
WHO specialists predict that number will double in
1992. The number of African orphans continues to soar,
a direct consequence of heterosexual transmission
among adults and in utero mother-to-child infection.
There are 30,000 of them in Uganda, for instance.
According to Doctor Christine Obbo, these children are
increasingly looked at askance in Africa, and their adop-
tion is made difficult by AIDS’s very negative social
image on the continent.

According to Dr. Antonia Novello, United States sur-
geon general, it can be predicted that over 10 million
African children under the age of 10 will be orphaned
before the year 2000. Moreover, Mrs. Novello says,
AIDS-related child mortality will soon totally cancel out
all the progress made in preventing the disease in Africa.
Yet child mortality is still nearly 10 times greater than in
most industrialized countries.

Certainly it is true, for example, that the average serop-
ositive rate among adults in Kinshasa (between 7 and 8
percent), seems to have leveled off, without anyone
really being able to explain why. But, explains Dr.
Eustace Luhondwa (Tanzania), “in that country, the



IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Official on AIDS Figures; Curb on Burmese
Fishermen

BKO0711070790 Bangkok BANGKOK POST in English
7 Nov 90 p3

[Text] Public Health Minister Marut Bunnak yesterday
opened a training seminar to give Thai doctors addi-
tional knowledge on how to treat and care for AIDS
patients.

The seminar, which will end on Friday, was organised by
the Communicable Disease Control Department. Amer-
ican AIDS experts will train 62 Thai doctors during the
short course at Bamratnaradun Hospital in Nonthaburi
province.

The seminar was organised because the disease is on an
increasing trend while the absolute number of cases is
still relatively low and few doctors have experience in
dealing with such patients.

Satistics up to October 30 showed that Thailand has so
far had 69 AIDS patients of which only 17 are still alive.
There are another 200 AIDS Related Complication
(ARC) cases, and 23,279 people with HIV positive.

Communicable Disease Control Department director-
general Dr Thira Ramasut said Ranong province had the
highest rate of AIDS infection in the country at 119 per

EAST ASIA 19

every 100,000 people. The lowest rate is eight per
100,000 persons in Kamphaengphet province. AIDS and
related cases have been reported in every province of the
country.

Dr Thira said that the AIDS problem in Ranong was
particularly worrying as 50 percent of the high-risk
group—fishermen—are Burmese who spend a month at
sea and go ashore for seven days before returning to sea
again. During this seven-day rest period, fishermen often
go to brothels and risk contracting the disease. Many of
the prostitutes in the province are also Burmese and they
have a high rate of AIDS infection, Dr Thira said.

In an effort to control the disease in the province the
department is consulting the Ranong Province Com-
mittee on AIDS—comprising the governor, the district
officers and other senior provincial offcials—to establish
urgent prevention and control measures.

Dr Thira said that at a meeting with the provincial
committee today he would propose that the Immigration
Department set up facilities to conduct AIDS tests on
people crossing the border between Ranong and Victoria
Point in Burma.

He said he had contacted the Burmese government
through the Medical Association of Burma and UNICEF
to cooperate in AIDS prevention.



IPRS-TEP-90-018
28 NOVEMBER 1990 4 AIDS

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA
INDIA

Papers Continue To Report Spread of AIDS ....
Future Growth Predicted {New Delhi PATRIOT, 2 Sep 90]
First Case in Assam /Madras THE HINDU, 22 Sep 90) .
Further Reportage on Spread of, Battle Against AIDS ....
Epidemic in Northeast /Diptosh Majumdar; THE STATESMAN, 9 Aug 90] .
Patients’ Arrest Contemplated [Vidyadhar Date; THE TIMES OF INDIA, 17 Aug

ISRAEL
Drop in Number of ‘New’ AIDS Cases in 1990 [Dalya Mazori; Tel Aviv MA ‘ARIV, 18 Oct 90] .... 30
WEST EUROPE
BELGIUM

10 Million AIDS Babies Expected by Millenium [Brussels LE SOIR, 26 Sep 90]...
Anti-AIDS Group Founded on ACT UP Model /Jo. M.; Brussels LE SOIR, 21 Sep 90)

DENMARK

Study Examines Regional Sex Mores, AIDS Tie

[Kirsten Sorrig; Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, 17 Sep 90]...
Greenland AIDS, Venereal Disease Statistics [BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, 20 Sep 90]
Authorities Offer Explanation for Drop in AIDS Cases

[Christian Palme; Stockholm DAGENS NYHETER, 17 Oct 90] .. . 32
FINLAND
Number of HIV-Infected Shows Upturn [Helsinki HELSINGIN SANOMAT, 13 Sep 90) .... 33

SWEDEN

Minister Defends AIDS Policies {Stockholm DAGENS NYHETER, 4 Sep 90]



30 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

Dr Hiray, an Indira Gandhi loyalist, was in near political
wilderness after being denied an assembly ticket in 1985.
He was rehabilitated earlier this year by being nomi-
nated to the council. He had also figured prominently in
the Lentin commission inquiry.

He was education minister in Mr A.R. Antulay’s min-
istry and health minister in the next cabinet headed by
Mr Babasaheb Bhosale. At one time, Mr Hiray was in the
running for the chief minister’s post.

ISRAEL

Drop in Number of ‘New’ AIDS Cases in 1990

TA1810132190 Tel Aviv MA’ARIV in Hebrew 18 Oct 90
pAl2

[Report by Dalya Mazori]

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

[Excerpts] The life expectancy of AIDS victims in Israel
is higher than the world average, Dr. Moshe Mashiah,
the director- general of the Health Ministry, told
MA’ARIV, asserting that this new phenomenon, which
was only recently observed, is being investigated by the
Health Ministry. [passage omitted on AIDS characteris-
tics]

The Health Ministry’s director-general reported another
recent phenomenon: A drop in the number of new AIDS
cases discovered in 1990 as compared to previous years.
Over the last decade, 125 cases of AIDS were discovered
in Israel, and there were 70 fatalities. In 1989, 27 new
cases were discovered and seven people died. This year
(until October) 15 new cases were diagnosed and four
people died. The number of AIDS carriers located in
Israel since the discovery of the virus is 526.



16 CHINA

on the Management of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency
Virus) Disease here last week.

Deputies from the Beijing Municipal Health Education
Institute (BMHEI) said that the dissemination of knowl-
edge about healthy sexual behaviour is important in
preventing HIV.

After visiting an exhibition on sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs) held by BMHEI earlier this year, most of
the nearly 200,000 attendants said that their knowledge
of STDs had increased remarkably and many reported
having decided to change their misguided attitutes
towards sex, they said.

“The best defense against AIDS is information. Only
after people fully understand the seriousness of the
disease can they do their utmost to protect themselves
and others”, said Shan Guangnai, a deputy research
fellow with the Sociological Institute of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

China’s incidence of STDs increased more than three-
fold from 1982 to 1987. And the total number of
reported cases of STDs had surpassed 220,000 by the
end of last year, statistics from the Chinese Ministry of
Public Health showed.

Shan stressed the training of medical personnel and
urged increasing the investment in medical facilities at
the grassroots level. He said many medical workers at or
below county level are virtually ignorant of AIDS and
they lack necessary facilities to test for AIDS.

Shan said since feudal ideas die hard, the Chinese feel
reluctant to talk about sex in public. Because they
consider veneral diseases a loss of face, many VD
patients even do not dare to receive treatment for fear of
being discriminated against.

To prevent VD from spreading, Shan suggested that the
public be more tolerant of VD patients so that they could
receive timely treatment.



22 EAST EUROPE

sought in the rivalry of the two drug manufacturing
companies. Dr. Nicolae Beldescu, director of the Depart-
ment of Infectious Diseases in the Ministry of Health
considers as ill-willing the assertions in “THE EURO-
PEAN” magazine, according to which the children on
which FLV-23-a tests are made are guinea-pigs.

948 AIDS cases are reported in Romania, 884 of which
are children, according to an August statistics.

Commission Invited to Assess AIDS Treatment
AU2710144790 Bucharest ROMPRES in English
1126 GMT 27 Oct 90

[Text] In a release sent to the ROMPRES news agency,
the Romanian Ministry of Health of Romania

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

announces it has decided to stop the clinical trial of FLV
23/a in the treatment of AIDS patients, adults and
children, at Colentina Hospital in Bucharest.

The Ministry of Health, the release shows, invited a
commission of the World Health Organization to eval-
uate the conduct and the trial of FLV 23/a and to analyze
the data from the clinical trial as designed and conducted
on 83 children in Romania, which was not sufficient to
determine the safety or the efficacy of FLV 23/a. Besides,
the manufacturer could not provide data as to the
chemical structure, manufacturing method, convincing
scientific evidence of antiviral or any other clinical effect
of the substance.



18 EAST ASIA

He said that the less blood left inside a syringe, and the
longer it was outside the human body, the less the chance
of the virus staying alive.

A 54-year-old hawker, who was in the line queuing for
his ticket to attend out-patient services, said he had no
choice but to come to the health centre although he was
frightened by the loitering drug addicts.

“T have high blood pressure and have to see the doctor at
least once every month. I can’t afford to see private
doctors,” he said.

Mrs Kwok, another patient in the line, became aware of
the warning notices only when they were pointed out: “I
seldom come to this clinic. But I would certainly be more
cautious in future ... and no more sandals next time.”

SOUTH KOREA

12 AIDS Patients in Pusan

SK0611010790 Seoul THE KOREA HERALD
in English 6 Nov 90 p 3

[Text] The number of AIDS patients is increasing year
by year, and the deadly disease is spreading to various
classes of people in Pusan, the nation’s biggest port city.

So far this year a total of 12 AIDS patients have been
reported, the highest figure reported in a single year.

The number of AIDS patients in the city has risen to 35
since the first AIDS victim was reported in 1986. Last
year 10 AIDS cases were reported.

THAILAND

200 Test Positive for AIDS Virus in Northern
Province

BK1611025590 Bangkok THE NATION in English
16 Nov 90 p AS

[By Khamphon Khotsema]

[Text] More than 200 people in Mae Hong Son have
been tested positive for AIDS, a situation considered
serious, the provincial public health chief official said on
Wednesday.

Dr Somphat Khotchasi told THE NATION that 208
people both hilltribes and low-land residents of the
northern province had been found to be infected with the
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Among the AIDS carriers, 68 of them were prostitutes,
64 of them men who used to frequent brothels and 52
intravenous drug users, Somphat said.

One of them was a eight-month boy who contracted the
virus from his mother during her pregnancy and died
from full-blown AIDS, Somphat said.

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

The doctor said the infected prostitutes are likely to
spread the virus to more men in the neighbouring
provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang and
Lamphun as well as to tourists. Men then passed on the
virus to their families.

Somphat said Mae Hong Son public health officials have
found that only 29 of 68 HIV-positive (human immun-
odeficiency virus) prostitutes remained in the province
now.

He said most of the prostitutes in the five northern
provinces were likely to be transients, shuttling among
the provinces. They are likely to spend about 2-3 months
in each province before moving on, he added.

He said most of the women, now working in the sex
business in Mae Hong Son, are not natives to the
province. Some of them are illegal Shan immigrants
from Burma and many of them came from the other four
provinces, Somphat said.

He said while the prostitutes are likely to spread AIDS to
local residents in the five northern province, tourists
from other part of the country can also spread the virus
to the women.

To prove that sex business servicing tourists also influ-
enced the spread of the disease in Mae Hong Son, the
doctor said 32 of the 68 infected prostitutes were
detected by the health officials while they were working
in Pai district. The district is a wellknown tourist resort
both for domestic and foreign visitors who enjoy trek-
king in the forest.

Somphat said the public health officials were trying to
slow down the spread of the deadly disease by giving free
condoms to prostitutes so that they would encourage
their customers to use them.

Survey Shows 4,000 Prostitutes Carry AIDS Virus

BK1611025390 Bangkok THE NATION in English
16 Nov 90 p A2

[Text] A Public Health Ministry survey showed that
4,000 prostitutes are carrying the AIDS virus and con-
tinue to have sex with customers. Each prostitute, esti-
mated to have four customer men per night, is expected
to infect one out of ten customers. If the trend continues,
about 1,600 men are likely to be infected with the AIDS
virus each night, said Deputy Public Health Minister
Suthat Ngoenmun. He added that his ministry will
launch a campaign to discourage customers from visiting
prostitutes.



IPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

BELGIUM

10 Million AIDS Babies Expected by Millenium

91WE0044A Brussels LE SOIR in French 26 Sep 90
p20

[Unattributed article—first paragraph is LE SOIR intro-
duction]

[Text] Children of the year 2000, children of AIDS? Ten
million babies will be afflicted with the virus by that
date...along with their mothers.

If AIDS still knows no boundaries, it also knows no age,
and its spread remains greatest in the most vulnerable
populations and parts of the world. Ten million children
will be infected by the HIV virus between now and the
year 2000, Dr. Michael Merson, director of WHO’s
program to combat the disease, has just announced. He
also stated that estimates of world virus-carriers have
now reached 10 million, 700,000 of whom are newborns
who inherited the infection from their mothers and of
whom nearly a third (half in sub-Saharan Africa) will die
before the age of five.

These are dramatic prospects which have sparked new
concern among physicians about what is already called
“pediatric AIDS.” WHO's latest report is a cruel
reminder: “The problem of perinatal transmission is
worsening in both developed and developing countries
as the number of infected women rises... In East Africa
today, one adult in four is a virus-carrier.”

These mothers increasingly afflicted with the disease will
be the focus of discussions during the next World AIDS
Day 1990. It is a special mark of attention that demon-
strates the tragic consequences of certain discriminatory
behaviors and of ignorance perpetuated at times with the
complicity of local authorities. WHO estimates that 10
million people have been infected to date by the virus
since the disease appeared. Three million of them are
women, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, in countries
where they are the permanent victims of low social status
and of arbitrary negation of their most basic rights. Some
200,000 women (or about 45 percent of the new cases)
will be infected by AIDS next year and the figure should
triple in 1992. In all, from 25 to 30 million people may
be afflicted with AIDS between now and the end of the
decade, the majority of them in Black Africa.

There is one slim hope, however: Studies made of
mothers who did not transmit the disease to their chil-
dren have detected substances in the blood that prevent
contamination.

Dr. Montagnier, for his part, mentioned during a recent
press conference in Mexico that AIDS was spreading
very rapidly in Africa and especially in Asia, notably in
India and Thailand, as well as in two South American
countries, Brazil and French Guyana. The French dis-
coverer of the virus stated that the rapid expansion of the

WEST EUROPE 31

disease might be favored in Africa’s case by the existence
of infectious “cofactors” causing the most serious
aspects of the illness.

“We are currently working on a group of small bacte-
ria—microplasms,” said Dr. Montagnier, “and we have
laboratory evidence suggesting that they are possible
AIDS cofactors.” Moreover, WHO predictions seem to
confirm his dramatic evocation of the situation: There
are expected to be 1.5 million seropositives before the
end of the decade in Asia alone.

In Switzerland, 31 Deaths in August

In Europe, one country symbolizes by itself all the
devastating weight of the disease’s rapid spread. Thirty-
one people died of AIDS in Switzerland during August
alone. The national death toll has thus risen to 834
patients, while 1,462 people, including 26 under 15 years
of age, are now infected with HIV.

There is a single, meager consolation in this dramatic
picture: According to the National Agency for AIDS
Research (ANRS), the French national calculations
made so far of 100,000 to 500,000 cases are thought to be
slight overestimates. Based on the 12,000 cases declared
in France since the virus appeared (of whom 6,000 are
still living) and assuming an estimated incubation period
of between nine and eleven years, the ANRS calculates
there cannot be more than 200,000 cases in the country.

Anti-AIDS Group Founded on ACT UP Model

91WE0044B Brussels LE SOIR in French 21 Sep 90
pl

[Article by Jo. M.: “Combatting AIDS in Belgium; A
New Alternative Group”]

[Text] The fight against AIDS in Belgium? A drop of
water in an ocean of things to be done! That, at least, is
the opinion of ACT UP, still another action group that
has just been created in Brussels on the model of
organizations already existing in New York, London,
and Paris.

Spurring this initiative by a score of young people close
to AIDS circles is a single observation: the failure of
official anti-AIDS policies. A failure in the realms of
prevention, treatment, social support, and legal provi-
sions.

“It’s not enough to provide a budget for educational
drives,” explains Antoine Pickles, one of the founding
members of the group.

“The drives have got to be targeted.” For example, while
epidemiological figures show a clear African connection,
nothing is being done, according to ACT UP, to reach
that population. “Matonge, the black quarter of Brussels,
is teeming with seropositives. And they don’t always use
condoms! Mustn’t we urgently break down the cultural
barriers that stop them from doing so?”



IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Due to the lack of scientific knowledge about AIDS, HIV
patients are difficult to care for. Many people discrimi-
nate against the patients and those who look after them.
This problem is compounded by the five to six year
incubation period associated with the AIDS virus.

Noting that these patients are a part of the society and
need a family life, Dai said “it is impossible for us to
insulate the AIDS patients as we did the lepers before
them.”

AIDS Treatment with Chinese Medicine Practiced
in Africa

90WE0258C Beijing ZHONGGUO YIXUE LUNTAN
BAO [CHINESE MEDICAL TRIBUNE] in Chinese

25 May 90p 1

{Article by Huang Hongchang [7806 1347 2490]: “Thirty
Cases of AIDS Provisionally Treated with Traditional
Chinese Medicine”’]

[Text] From September 1987 to October 1988, an AIDS-
treatment team of the Academy of Chinese Traditional
Medicine experimentally treated 30 cases of AIDS in an
African country. Some patients subsequently showed
symptoms alleviated and signs of improvement. Of the
30 cases, 6 were diagnosed as AIDS-related complex
(ARC) and 24 cases as AIDS. With the agreement of
these patients, western medicine was suspended and they
were dialectically treated with four types of Chinese
medicine: 11 cases of yin-void type in the spleen and the
stomach with oral administration of powdered ginseng,
poria and bighead Atractylodes, as well as lily deduction
for strengthening the lung in different concentrations; 7
cases of void-damage type in the spleen and the stomach
with oral administration of herbal water infusion for
enhancing body vigor, minor decoction of Bupleurum
and different concentrations of decoction for clearing
away gallbladder-heat; 10 cases of weak spleen and
kidney with oral administration of decoction of four
noble drugs and pills of four miraculous drugs in dif-
ferent strengths; and 2 cases of mental confusion due to
excessive heat-phlegm with oral administration of
Bezoar Bolus for resurrection and different strengths of
Uncaria stem decoction. Patients were dialectically
treated, or were orally administered a compound for
enhancing body resistance (major constituents are gin-
seng, Astragalus root, and Licorice root) in different
strengths as appropriate to the disease, or were orally
administered a dissipating compound mainly for elimi-
nating the pathogens (major constituents are Bupleurum
root, batryticated silkworm, and ledebouriella root). The
compound was orally administered one dose a day, with
half a dose given in the morning and half a dose in the
afternoon. Clinical observations indicated that after the
treatment, some patients showed night sweats, dyspnea,
dizziness, headache, abdominal pain, pruritus, and
swollen lymph nodes. The symptoms disappeared or
improved along with increased body weight, higher
white blood cell count, and lowered the blood sedimen-
tation test to normal

CHINA 13

According to the therapists treatment of patients at the
early and intermediate stages should be sought, because
the late-stage patients’ immune functions are nearly
exhausted, and it is unwise to give them aggressive
therapy by strengthening internal organs with tonic that
often causes death to the patients.

During the treatment, diarrhea and coughing are symp-
toms most difficult to control. Infection is a frequent
cause of death. Upon treatment with Chinese traditional
medicine, some symptoms can be relieved or improved;
however, further observations are required on whether
the patients’ life can be prolonged.

Use of Herbs to Treat AIDS Subject of On-Going
Study

91WE0051 Beijing CHINA DAILY in English

24 Oct 90 p 5

[Article by Zhou Jie]

[Text] AIDS has claimed more than 40,000 lives since
1981 and there are currently an estimated 8 million
carriers of the AIDS virus worldwide. As the search
continues for a successful treatment, Chinese doctors are
trying to use their centuries-old herbal treatments in the
international war against AIDS.

The research started in 1985 in the cities of Beijing and
Shanghai, and in Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces.
So far, herbal medicines have shown “good results” on
AIDS patients in Africa and the United States, said Dr
Wang Jie, vice-secretary general of the Association of
Traditional Chinese Medical Research on AIDS.

Doctors in the association said that although traditional
herbal treatment is somewhat a “grey box,”—that is,
often the effective part of a herb and how it cures a
disease are unknown—for centuries herbal treatment has
proven effective in curing many diseases. And Western
doctors have become increasingly accepting of tradi-
tional herbal treatment.

These doctors explained that, unlike Western medicines
which try to cure the specific organ or disfunction,
Chinese traditional medicines try to improve the body’s
ability to cure the disease by regulating the patient’s
inner order.

“We believe that when a part of a patient goes wrong, it
is because the patient’s inner order has been broken and
the immune system has gone wrong. The patient’s body
must have lost something necessary for its proper func-
tioning. So herbal drugs are used to regain the balance,”
said Dr Wang.

Though in traditional Chinese medical history no cases
of AIDS or HIV infection were reported, Chinese doc-
tors believe that the disease can be grouped into the
so-called “Yidu” (infectious poisonous diseases) cate-

gory.



‘JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

that there is little chance that is based on [words indis-
tinct] on effective [word indistinct] to protect people not
yet affected by the virus would be available for global use
until the middle of this decade. Therefore, it is up to
individuals to ensure by conscious efforts that they do
not contract AIDS.

SOUTH AFRICA

Survey—Blacks Feel Family Planning
‘Government Plot’

MB1910125590 Johannesburg SAPA in English
1247 GMT 19 Oct 90

[Text] Forty-five percent of blacks in South Africa’s
major metropolitan areas are of the opinion that family
planning is a plot by the government to reduce the black
population.

This is one of the findings of a recent survey undertaken
by Decision Surveys International (DSI) among blacks
living in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and
released in Johannesburg on Friday.

DSI said in a statement that in spite of a realisation that
smaller families were economically desirable and that
families should often be planned, traditional norms and
practices still exerted a considerable influence on blacks
living in South Africa’s major metropolitan areas.

According to the survey, 47 percent of those questioned
agreed that a man without children would be poor in his
old age, 43 percent that a man who had fathered many
children commanded more respect, and 45 percent were
still of the opinion that family planning was a plot by the
government to reduce the black population.

Over half (59 percent) of women felt, however, that even
if her man was against it, she should practise birth
control, while only 23 percent of men were in agreement.

Over half of those spoken to said they would never stop
using sangomas or inyangas (‘‘witchdoctors”). This was
also true of younger people and was more often said by
men than by women.

The survey found that in spite of the adherence to
traditional values, 41 percent of city blacks had at some
or other attended a family planning or youth health
centre and a quarter of them had done so in the past year.
They were mostly women in their child-bearing years.

Only 16 percent of those questioned claimed to belong to
a medical aid scheme. They were almost exclusively in a
higher income bracket.

DSI said it would appear that education on AIDS was
reaching the urban black adult. Only 17 percent could
not offer a description of how the disease was caught and
tended to be those aged over 50 years.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 5

What the survey found encouraging was recognition of
how to avoid catching the disease: 69 percent said they
should keep to one sexual partner and 35 percent said
condoms should be used.

Health Survey Shows 10,000 AIDS Cases in
Johannesburg Area

MBI1611144290 Johannesburg SAPA in English
1626 GMT 16 Nov 90

[Text] About 100,000 people in South Africa are infected
with the deadly AIDS virus, of whom 10,000 live in the
Johannesburg - Soweto area, a survey conducted by
Johannesburg’s city Health Department has revealed.

The survey, released to SAPA on Friday by the City
Council, further noted that since 1982, when monitoring
of the deadly disease began, the average number of AIDS
cases has doubled every year.

The Transvaal has the largest number of affected people,
followed by Natal, the Cape and the [Orange] Free State.
The survey says men account for 80 percent of all
reported cases.

Among the white population group, males outnumber
women by 36 to one, among “coloureds” by three to one
and among Africans the proportion is equal.

The survey points out that although up to the end of
1989 two-thirds of the country’s reported AIDS cases
were transmitted by homosexuals, since the beginning of
this year, more than half the reported cases have been
transmitted by heterosexuals, mainly blacks.

The city Health Department also said by the year 2010,
between 10 and 40 percent of the total black population
may be infected by the AIDS virus, depending on the
availability of an effective vaccine and the scope of
preventative health education programmes.

Half of 1990 AIDS Cases in Transvaal

MBI510095190 Johannesburg THE STAR in English
15 Oct 90 p 3

[Report by Shehnaaz Bulbilia: “Half of This Year’s
AIDS cases in TVL”]

[Text] Transvaal is the AIDS centre of South Africa with
nearly half of this year’s 455 reported cases located in the
region, according to the Development Bank of Southern
Africa.

Alan Whiteside, a researcher for Natal’s University
Economic Research Unit, said in a recent paper for the
bank that the killer disease would be a major drain on the
South African economy with minimum cost predictions
in five years estimated at R[rand]160 million—or as high
as R3 billion.

Mr. Whiteside points out that two-thirds of AIDS cases
reported in South Africa this year were white homo-
sexual males.



28 NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA

INDIA

Papers Continue To Report Spread of AIDS

Future Growth Predicted

91WD0065 New Delhi PATRIOT in English
2 Sep 90 p2

[Excerpt] World authorities have made the alarming
prediction that India is close to a major AIDS epidemic.

Till date, there are 49 cases of full-blown AIDS on
government records, as against the world figure of
231,000 as on 30 June 1990, In addition there are 3000
HIV carriers in the country out of the estimated eight
million in the world. Besides, about 2900 HIV carriers
have been identified through the HIV screening pro-
gramme adopted in the blood banks of the five major
cities of India.

The HIV screening result is yet to be confirmed by the
Western Blot test, and the cases of full-blown AIDS cases
in the world context is lower than many other developed
nations. But studies conducted by the Indian Health
Organisation (IHO) have revealed an alarming,
increasing trend of HIV prevalence.

The disturbing reports of high HIV numbers have been
recorded from Bombay (prostitutes, their clients, profes-
sional blood donors) with almost 40 percent of the total
cases studied.

According to the studies, Bombay has obviously become
the AIDS capital of India. Prevalence of HIV in the
prostitutes of Bombay which was lower than 0.5 percent
in 1986 when the IHO started its studies, has gone up to
20 percent. Similarly, the prevalence in professional
blood donors, which was nil in 1986 has reached 0.3
percent within just four years.

Madras has also registered an increasing number of HIV
cases among prostitutes and their clients. So is the case
in Surat (professional blood donors) and Manipur (intra-
venous drug addicts). Cases have also been reported
from the countryside.

Giving this information at a press conference in the
Capital on Saturday, Dr I. S. Gilada, honorary secretary
of the IHO (which is jointly organising the World Con-
gress on AIDS with the Miami Medical School, U.S.A.,
in Bombay from 7-9 December 1990), said that what is
being recorded is just a tip of the iceberg.

By 1991, India with a vast population of 800 million,
will be hard hit with the prevalence of HIV expected to
record a 10 time increase, touching a figure (world) of 50
to 100 million. Not only is AIDS the costliest disease (in
the United States which has 60 percent of the total world
AIDS cases, management of a single AIDS patient cost as
high as 94,000 dollars), but it is also a three-fold crisis.
[passage omitted]

IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

First Case in Assam

91WDO0065 Madras THE HINDU in English
22 Sep 90 p7

[Text] Guwahati, 21 Sep (PTI)—Assam’s first case of
AIDS has been discovered in the Guwahati Medical
College Hospital’s psychiatry department early this
week, hospital sources said here on Thursday.

A youth, aged 21, from Assam, residing in Nagaland, was
admitted to the hospital for treatment against drug
addiction and for suffering from high fever, nasal
bleeding, loose motion, emaciation, aversion to food and
vomiting. Suspecting symptoms of Acquired Immuno
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) the doctors sent his blood
sample for detection to the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences in Delhi, where the test proved positive, the
sources said.

The patient had, meanwhile, been shifted to the infec-
tious disease hospital here for quarantine, the sources
said, adding so far 900 AIDS cases had been detected in
Manipur.

Further Reportage on Spread of, Battle Against
AIDS

Epidemic in Northeast

90WD0770 Calcutta THE STATESMAN in English
9 Aug 90 p 12

[Article by Diptosh Majumdar]

[Text] An AIDS epidemic stalking Manipur and
affecting its youth population has now reached Nagaland
and has probably also entered Mizoram. The killer virus
as yet traced in the bloodstream of 679 drug addicts in
Manipur has been found in blood samples collected from
11 heroin-users in Nagaland. The figure is probably
much higher as Elisa tests have been conducted in a
random and haphazard manner at Kohima. The team of
experts from the National Institute of Cholera and
Enteric Diseases, which has returned to Calcutta after
studying the situation in Nagaland is preparing to leave
for Mizoram which is reportedly in the grip of a similar
crisis.

The Centre has taken stock of the alarming situation in
the three north-eastern States since the number of virus
carriers is mounting daily. Till now, the actual disease
has not yet struck since it takes at least three to five years
for the dreaded virus to break down the body’s immu-
nological system. Union Health officials are keeping in
close touch with the NICED authorities in Calcutta. This
institute has recently been upgraded and accorded the
status of an AIDS referral centre.

Both the Manipur and Nagaland administrations have
been advised to carry out the preliminary Elisa tests on a
war-footing. The reports are to be sent regularly to the
NICED laboratory in Calcutta. Since the Elisa test



SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Jose Aristodemo Pinotti, state secretary of health,
believes the trend toward increasing numbers of cases
among drug users will continue. According to the secre-
tary, for other means of contamination, such as blood
transfusions and even homosexual contact, the growth
rates have been lower. “With regard to AIDS, the big
problem in Sao Paulo today is infection among drug
users,” he said.

The secretariat has followed the progress of about 10,000
[HIV- positive) patients who have not yet contracted the
disease. In this group, 70 percent are intravenous drug
users. To combat the disease among addicts, Penotti
feels there must be a change in the Brazilian mentality
and the laws so that addicts will not be considered
criminals. “The only way to control the disease is to
develop personal contact with the patients,” said
Penotti, “and we cannot do this because of the repres-
sion to which they are subjected because they use drugs.”

Claude Olievenstein, of the Marmottan Medical Center,
in France, is of the same opinion. He advocates the sale
of disposable needles at low prices or even free distribu-
tion to users. He suggests that the addicts bring in used
syringes to exchange for new ones. According to Olieven-
stein, this practice has been successful in such countries
as France and the Netherlands.

In France, the spread of AIDS has led to concessions to
addicts. Previously, syringes could be sold only on pre-
sentation of a doctor’s prescription. Today, anyone may
acquire them in pharmacies. Among the French, the
major incidence of infection is still among homosexuals.
Nonetheless, according to Dominique Charvet, of the
AFLS [French Agency for AIDS Combat], the number of
infected drug users has grown significantly.

In Sao Paulo, this trend has been confirmed in recent
years. In 1984, homosexuals accounted for 64.6 percent
of the cases. At that time, there were no reported cases of
transmission by contaminated needles. From January to
August of this year, 31.72 percent of the cases reported in
Sao Paulo were among homosexuals, while 31.78 percent
were among intravenous drug users. Since AIDS first
appeared, 8,766 cases have been reported in Sao Paulo
State.

$130 Million To Be Spent Fighting AIDS
91WE0057C Rio de Janeiro O GLOBO in Portuguese
24 Oct 90 p7

[Text] Brasilia—Every 80 minutes, another case of AIDS
appears in Brazil. Throughout the country, from 1980 to
July of this year, 13,011 cases of AIDS have been
identified. Half the victims have already died. It is
predicted that in 1991 the number of cases will reach
20,000. To treat the 6,000 surviving patients, starting in
1991 the Health Ministry will guarantee the purchase
and distribution of medicines, at a cost of $130 million,
half of which will be used to purchase AZT, Health
Minister Alceni Guerra announced yesterday.

LATIN AMERICA 25

For the first time, the Brazilian Government is investing
heavily in the purchase of AZT, Pentamidina, Ganciclo-
vir, and dozens of other medicines used in the treatment
of AIDS carriers. The AZT will be distributed only
among public hospitals, which, in turn, may offer it only
to diagnosed patients.

Eduardo Cortes, director of the AIDS Division of the
Ministry of Health, explained that use of the drug will be
monitored. There is an explanation for this precaution.
Patients taking AZT could present problems with resis-
tance after six to 12 months of continuous use; in
addition, the drug is expensive: each 600-mg dose of
AZT costs $8.00. Bids will be solicited from interna-
tional suppliers for the purchase of these medicines.

Of the 13,011 identified AIDS cases, 7,831 were trans-
mitted through sexual intercourse, 2,760 through intra-
venous drug use, and 982 through transfusions of con-
taminated blood; 225 are perinatal cases (infants
infected by the mother during pregnancy or at birth).
The number of AIDS cases in Brazil is doubling every
eight months, Eduardo Cortes explained, adding that
this potential for progression implies a shocking statistic:
from 300,000 to 500,000 Brazilians are infected.

CHILE

Health Minister Stresses Need To Fight AIDS

PY0910222990 Santiago Radio Chilena Network
in Spanish 1600 GMT 9 Oct 90

[Text] Health Minister Jorge Jimenez de la Jara has
stated that the lack of conscientiousness by educated
people and the failure of governments to adopted mea-
sures are the main problems affecting the struggle by
Latin American countries to combat AIDS.

Minister Jimenez added that we must support all initia-
tives by the experts to control this evil, which is also
called the Invisible Threat.

The health minister dedicated the regional conference on
AIDS, human rights, and ethics at the ECLA [Economic
Commission for Latin America] office in Santiago. Pro-
fessionals from several Latin American countries are
attending this conference which is sponsored by the
Panamerican Health Organization.

In his speech, the minister said that there is little known
about AIDS and the way it is transmitted among people,
and also among doctors.

According to official figures there were 381 confirmed
cases in the country in January 1990, 80 percent of them
in the metropolitan area.



2 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

ETHIOPIA

Over 500 AIDS Cases in Country

£A1711203290 Addis Ababa Domestic Service
in Amharic 1700 GMT 16 Nov 90

[Text] The number of cases since the outbreak of the
dreaded disease AIDS, has reached 532 in Ethiopia.
According to ETHIOPIAN NEWS AGENCY, this was
revealed yesterday 15 November in briefing on the
spread and control of AIDS to representatives of govern-
mental and popular organizations from Sidamo, Borena,
Northern Omo, and Southern Omo Administrative
Areas.

During the briefing in Awasa, the participants were
enlightened on AIDS by experts from the Ministry of
Health’s Control and Implementation Department.

GHANA

Health Secretary on Traditional AIDS Treatment

AB1I611124290 Accra Domestic Service in English
2000 GMT 11 Nov 90

(Text] The secretary for health, Nana Akuoko Sarpong,
has appealed to traditional healers to bear with the
government in its research work into traditional treat-
ments for the killer disease, AIDS. He said any pro-
nouncement by the government on AIDS treatment
without any scientific basis would bring it into disrepute.
Nana Akuoko Sarpong said this when he called on the
chief herbalist of the Drobo Memorial Herbal Treatment
Center, Nana Kofi Drobo, at Ewuasi, near Wenchi. The
visit by Nana Akuoko Sarpong was to enable him to
assess the needs of the center, especially AIDS patients.
At present, there are about 80 AIDS patients receiving
treatment at the center.

The secretary said the PNDC [Provisional National
Defense Council] is interested in the efforts of Nana
Drobo in the treatment of AIDS patients. He, however,
explained that results of research work on his treatment
will take time to enable the government to come out with
a scientific pronouncement. Nana Drobo, who is also the
chief fetish priest of the Kweku Freyie shrine, com-
plained about accommodation and feeding of patients of
the shrine, which he said had placed a burden on him.

IVORY COAST

Study Ranks Country No. 6 for AIDS in Africa
AB1011210590 Abidjan VOIX D’AFRIQUE in French
No. 14, November 90 Ivory Coast Supplement p XIIT

[Article by Abdoulaye Sangare: “AIDS—Ivory Coast
Ranks Sixth in Africa”’]

[Excerpts] “The AIDS pandemic has now become an
extraordinarily acute public health concern of extreme

SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

urgency in Ivory Coast...” This warning from the
National Committee for AIDS Control (CNLS) has the
alarming sound of a distress call at a time when the
anti-AIDS crusade seems to be grinding to a halt, both in
the education and sensitization fields.

“This modern plague” is relentlessly gaining ground in
the country, in spite of the drawing up of a program to
fight the transmission of the Human Immuno-deficiency
Virus (HIV) and to control the disease everywhere in the
country. In 1988 and 1989, a survey carried out showed
that 5 percent of adults living in rural areas and 7 percent
in urban centers outside Abidjan were seropositive. A
recent survey carried out last February shows that there
are 3,647 cases of AIDS in the country. These figures
place Ivory Coast as the sixth most affected country on
the African Continent, the worst-off of the Third World,
at least that part situated south of the Sahara. The same
study also shows that 85 percent of Ivorians suffering
from AIDS are 20-49 years old. The age groups most
affected are the group aged 30-39 among men and 20- 29
among women. It is within these age groups that the
highest rate of sexual activity is observed.

The results of a survey on the prevalence of the HIV
infection among selected groups in the Abidjan metro-
politan area allows for a clearer picture of the develop-
ment of the AIDS pandemic. Ten percent of blood
donors, 10 percent of children 15 to 71 months admitted
in hospital, 12 percent of pregnant women, and 58
percent of hospital patients in the infectious disease
ward have HIV. Another study conducted a year ago on
698 adult cadavers at the biggest mortuaries in Abidjan
showed a prevalence of HIV infection of 41 percent
among men and 32 percent among women.

It is now established that AIDS kills more men than all
the other diseases, including malaria. In Abidjan, 15
percent of male deaths, and 13 percent of female deaths
are caused by AIDS; among the latter, it ranks second to
maternity-related deaths. Beyond mere statistics, the
AIDS pandemic in Ivory Coast presents a highly
alarming peculiarity with the incidence of two forms of
virus: HIV- 1 and HIV-2, the former being the most
widespread. A study showed that 22 percent of a group of
patients was infected by both viruses. New complica-
tions both in the epidemiological and therapeutic
approaches will inevitably crop up. [passage omitted]

Infant mortality due to AIDS could increase to 50
percent in urban centers in Black Africa. The public
health concern brought about by AIDS is “extraordinar-
ily acute and extremely urgent.” Therefore, should one
not go beyond mere awareness campaigns and education
directed toward so-called risk groups, as envisaged by the
CNLS, when it is known that this strategy has the
weakness of leaving out sometimes hard to identify
intermediate groups? [passage omitted]

Is national solidarity not a precondition for appeals for
funds from abroad? Ivorians do not ask themselves all
these questions, Between the collective psychosis created



IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

BOTSWANA

Officer Reports 30 AIDS Cases in Lobatse
District

MB1411084890 Gaborone Domestic Service in English
0510 GMT 14 Nov 90

[Text] The Lobatse district medical officer, Dr. Ben-
jamin Ntsapong says close to 30 people have been found
to be infected with the AIDS virus in the Lobatse area.

Addressing a three-day AIDS workshop for school
teachers in the Lobatse area, Dr. Ntsapong said seven
people had already died of AIDS, two of whom had been
babies.

The workshop is intended to instill in the teachers an
understanding of (word indistinct) in order to integrate
health education into the school children.

Dr. Ntsapong said the number of people infected in the
country was probably five times higher than the official
figure of 765 given in August this year.

He said Francistown was the center with the highest
number of cases, partly because it is the focal point for
[word indistinct] in the country.

He said after a person is infected with the AIDS virus,
they become vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhea,
pneumonia, and the common cold.

A similar workshop for community leaders is to be
conducted in Lobatse at the end of the month.

BURKINA FASO

AIDS Seminar Cites Increase in Number of Cases

AB2211110690 Ouagadougou Domestic Service
in French 1900 GMT 19 Nov 90

[Excerpt] This morning in Ouagadougou, about 20 Burk-
inabe journalists and provincial correspondents began a
seminar on the contribution of the media in the fight
against AIDS. It is organized by the Burkinabe Associa-
tion for Family Welfare [ABBF] in cooperation with the
International Federation for Family Planning. Here are
the major topics discussed today by Jean- Baptiste
Ilboudo:

This training seminar on the content of educational
messages on AIDS is to allow media workers to take part
in the search for appropriate ways and means to fight
AIDS. It is a major medium for efforts made by the
Ministry of Health and all other parties involved in the
fight against the disease. Thus it is within this framework
of joint action that ABBF has chosen the media
approach to train and sensitize through educational
messages in order to concretely contribute to the fight
already initiated by the National Anti-AIDS Committee.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1

The need for this seminar was prompted by the fact that
the number of registered AIDS cases in the country has
risen from 10 in 1986 to 700 in 1989. In comparison to
other countries, the situation is not alaming for the time
being here; but it is of major concern when we know that
10 million people are infected worldwide, and no medi-
cine has yet been found in spite of all efforts so far. The
solution while waiting for [word indistinct] remains
sensitization, education, and training by the mass media,
which can help justify the current seminar. [passage
omitted]

CAMEROON

AIDS Breakdown by Province, Cause

91WE0012A Yaounde CAMEROON TRIBUNE
in French 8-9 Jul 90 p 20

[Excerpts of an article by Jeanne d’Arc Kom: “Bafous-
sam: Provincial AIDS Seminar’; CAMEROON TRI-
BUNE introduction is: “The provincial anti-AIDS com-
mittee that met in Bafoussam revealed 83 cases reported
in the West”]

[Excerpts] [passages omitted] Speaking to the seminar
attendees, Mr. Owono Ndi Bonaventure, the province’s
general secretary, said the fight against AIDS could not
be the sole prerogative of health facilities. Everyone—
the media, adminstrative authorities, politicians, and
educational and religious leaders—is therefore invited to
lend a hand.

To date, 155 cases have been reported in Cameroon,
including: 83 cases in the Western Province, 63 cases in
Mifi department, three cases in Noun, one case in
Menoua, 13 cases in Upper Nkam, and three cases in the
Bamboutos. As Nde has no laboratory, it made no
declaration.

Also reported were 18 imported cases, 12 cases involving
prostitutes, five cases resulting from blood transfusions,
and 16 cases of maternal-fetal transmission. Statistics
broken down by age show: seven boys and nine girls
among children between 0 and seven years; one case
among children seven to 14 years; two boys and seven
girls among 14 to 20 year olds; 15 men and 14 women
among adults between 20 and 29 years; 18 men and 30
women from 30 to 39 years; nine men and 13 women
between 40 and 49 years. As far as scheduling of pro-
grams for national anti-AIDS day is concerned, it will be
done by the provincial committee, department by
department.

The governor of the Western Province, Mr. Etame
Massoma, is president of the committee.



14 CHINA

Many symptoms of AIDS such as tiredness, fever and a
poor appetite also appear in some “Yidu” diseases.

Therefore, in fighting AIDS, doctors use traditional
prescriptions for “Yidu” diseases in addition to other
herbal medicines. The treatment has shown some posi-
tive results in tests on laboratory animals,

TACH, the Treatment of AIDS with Chinese Herbal
Medicine, is one of the most recent results of Chinese
doctors’ efforts.

Produced by the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medical
and Health Company. TACH incorporates seaweed,
Chinese violets, honeysuckle, wild chrysanthemum,
Creit, and Chinese Grownwell among other ingredients.

The medicine has been effectively used in some case
studies in the United States, according to Wang Xian-
min, chairman of the company.

TACH has four different prescriptions depending on the
different symptoms of the patient. Dr Wang said that the
cost of TACH therapy was around $1,000 per month.

Ata meeting this year, 200 medical scientists from China
agreed that TACH has the ability to suppress the HIV
virus, reduce symptoms and improve the function of the
immune system. And it has almost no side-effects,

However, it is too early to say that TACH or other
Chinese medicines can cure AIDS, Dr Wang said.

Professor Chen Keji, of the Academy of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, conceded, “Although we carried out
some studies in Africa and North America, no controlled
study has been done on the herbal treatment.

“There are only a few AIDS cases in China, which
doesn’t provide us with enough patients to carry out a
controlled study.”

Official publications reported recently that by Sep-
tember this year, there were 446 HIV carriers in China.
Five people reportedly were found to have AIDS, and
two of them have died.

More studies should be done before finally approving the
herbal medicine as a treatment for AIDS, Professor Chen
said.

He said an experimental animal laboratory has been set
up in China, where studies on anti-HIV drugs are
underway.

Research on the use of traditional Chinese medicines to
cure AIDS is also being carried out in other Asian
countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Korea,
Taiwan and Japan, according to Qian Xinzhong, presi-
dent of China’s Anti-AIDS Association and former Min-
ister of Health.

Doctors hope that with the oriental medical heritage
which combines Chinese medicines, acupuncture and

SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

moxibustion, fumigation, bath therapy, psychotherapy
and massage, mankind will eventually win the battle
against AIDS.

Active Steps Taken on AIDS Prevention

HKO0911032690 Beijing CHINA DAILY in English
9 Nov 90 p 1

[By staff reporter Huang Zhiling]

[Text] With the growth of international contacts, AIDS
has been transmitted into China and will probably
spread, an international symposium was told yesterday
in Beijing.

This situation has caused increasing concern in both
medical circles and the Chinese Government, said health
officials at the opening session of the Sino-American
Symposium on Management of HIV Disease, which
started yesterday afternoon and ends today.

According to Chen Minzhang, Chinese Minister of
Public Health, HIV blood serum tests were done on
300,000 people who were regarded as high risk in this
country from 1985 to the end of September this year.

Of these, 446 people were found to be HIV carries. Five
of them were AIDS patients, three of whom were for-
eigners and one each from Beijing and Southwest
China’s Yunnan Province.

Of the 446 HIV carriers, 68 were foreigners and 378 were
mainland Chinese.

In China, the HIV virus is mainly contracted through
blood or sexual contact. No case of mother-child infec-
tion has yet been found, said He Jiesheng, President of
China’s National Committee of AIDS Prevention and
Control.

He revealed that in the last few years the number of
drug-users has increased rapidly in some parts of China,
especially in the border regions in the southwest. Apart
from the traditional way of taking drugs orally, drug
users have recently been found to take drugs by intrave-
nous injection.

He said that these drug users represent the high risk
population for contracting the HIV virus.

He also revealed that venereal diseases could increase
the risk of contracting the HIV virus. So venereal disease
is also an indication of the spread of the HIV virus.

According to Dai Zhicheng, Vice-President of National
Committee of AIDS Prevention and Control, the gov-
ernment has listed AIDS as a major infectious disease.

Up to now, almost all Chinese provinces have set up
AIDS monitoring stations. Three laboratories to diag-
nose the HIV virus have been set up by the Ministry of
Public Health, Dai said.



Caprivi, in the north-east of the country, followed with
80 cases while 36 cases were reported in the populous
Ovambo region, also in the north.

Only two known cases of AIDS have been reported in the
south of the country since the beginning of the year.

AIDS Awareness ‘Urgent’ in Caprivi Strip

MBI1810125290 Johannesburg SAPA in English
1245 GMT 18 Oct 90

[Text] Windhoek—A total of 443 known cases of AIDS
had been registered at the Namibian Ministry of Health
and Social Services up to the end of September, NAMBC
[Namibian Broadcasting Corporation] radio news
Teports.

A spokesman for the AIDS Control Programme, Sustjie
Bumba, said the increase of 47 new cases since the last
figures were revealed, could be ascribed to the success of
the AIDS awareness week, held by the Ministry last
month.

Mrs. Bumba said since the start of the campaign, AIDS
Control Programme (ACP) workers had been inundated
with inquiries from both the urban and rural population.

The ACP was organising an AIDS workshop for health
workers in Caprivi next week.

Mrs. Bumba said the AIDS awareness programme in
Caprivi was particulraly urgent, as the region was expe-
Tiencing frequent border crossings from neighbouring
countries like Zambia and Botswana.

NIGERIA

Commentary Discusses AIDS in Country

AB1011090490 Lagos Domestic Service in English
1800 9 Nov 90

[Demini Aladjigaoun commentary]

[Text] [Words indistinct] the disease in the United States
of America in 1981. At that time, no one knew the
disease would become an [word indistinct] comment of
extraordinary dimensions. By December 1987, 128
countries had reported over 22,000 cases of AIDS, and
by the Ist of August 1988, more than 100,000 cases were
reported to the World Health Organization global pro-
gram on AIDS. The concern of the world community
today is not where AIDS originated from, but how the
spread of the disease can be prevented.

In certain people, the AIDS virus remains dormant and
they may remain infected for life. Such people may also
spread the disease to others while not developing symp-
tons of AIDS themselves. In others, after months and
years, the AIDS virus becomes active and multiplies
rapidly spreading through the body. It destroys the vital
elements of the immune system thereby rendering the
body susceptible to illness, infections, and cancer, AIDS

SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

cases occur mostly among young homosexuals, bisexuals,
and intravenous drug users. However, a number of cases
arising from man-woman relationships is now said to be
higher than cases among homosexuals, bisexuals, and
drug users.

In Africa, reports of AIDS have increased substantially
in the past three years. The major factors responsible for
its spread in the continent are sexual transmission,
transfusion of unclean blood, the use of unsterilized
syringes, and a mother-to-child transmission. It is a
matter that should arouse great concern as the disease
can spread in such an alarming degree in Nigeria. The
minister of health, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti,
recently disclosed that more than half a million Nige-
tians have contracted AIDS with Anambra State having
20 percent of the carriers while Lagos has 18 percent.

Speaking at the opening of a workshop on safe mother-
hood in Lagos, the minister expressed anxiety that the
number of people testing positive or having the disease
was rapidly growing daily. And he rightly observed that
the present figure could not even be an accurate repre-
sentation but an estimate, because the screening exercise
could not get to everyone. If anything, the figure of those
carrying the virus and those actually infected are likely to
be much higher than 500,000.

A pertinent question now is: What should be done to
wipe out this dreaded and usually terminal disease from
the country? The fight against AIDS in Nigeria has been
mainly in the area of prevention. There are special
screening equipment in centers in every state capital
where members of the public can go for screening. Also,
a national information network was put in place about
two years ago to educate the general public on the
dangers posed by AIDS, the way it is spread, and ways of
preventing it. The minister also mentioned efforts by the
mass media to sharpen public awareness of the disease.
These are why its continued spread is surprising.

It needs not [words indistinct] to get to the level that was
reached in some countries of the world while researchers
are still struggling to find a very elusive cure for AIDS.
We would wish to identify with the call by the minister
on individuals to ensure that they do not contract the
disease by all means. People should avoid indiscriminate
relations with the opposite sex and stick to the same
partners. People should also avoid accepting injections
from pharmacists or quack doctors. There is also the
need to intensify the screening of foreigners coming into
this country at the various entry points. Perhaps, it is
necessary to ensure that such persons are screened before
they obtain visas to enter the country in the first place.
The treatment of persons with AIDS is very complex and
intensive. It involves killing the virus itself, restoring
immune functions, and curing or suppressing any infec-
tions that attack victims.

Despite considerable research, effective treatment in all
these areas has still not been found, and a direct attack
on the virus itself remains difficult. Experts have said



20 EAST EUROPE

POLAND

AZT Treatment of AIDS Patients; Polish AZT
Production Foreseen

91WE0022A Warsaw POLITYKA in Polish No 38,
22 Sep 90 p 10

[Interview with Dr. Pawel Grieb, biochemist and presi-
dent of the board of directors of the Foundation for
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Development by Barbara
Pratzer; place and date not given: “Living With the
Disease”]

[Text] Pratzer: AIDS reached Poland with a certain delay
and the dimensions of the epidemic are not as extensive
as in other countries. However, in our country, the
number of HIV carriers is growing rapidly. The World
Health Organization recommends an informational
campaign which has brought specific results in other
countries. Can it also bring them about in our country
where there is a lack of tangible help for the ill?

Grieb: The number of carriers of the HIV virus will
undoubtedly continue to grow for a long time yet. It
would be a good thing if we were all aware of this. On the
one hand, there is social ostracism toward those who are
infected and on the other, there is the avoiding of tests
for HIV infection, the concealing of positive results, and
unsubstantiated resentment. This does not create an
atmosphere of solving the AIDS problem in Poland
rationally. However, I doubt whether these attitudes can
be overcome with ardent appeals. After all, why should
people act otherwise when we are persistently frightening
them with the “plague of the 20th century” whereas we
actually have only one thing to propose to carriers—to
register on the list of carriers at an institute that conducts
research,

Pratzer: Perhaps the press and television media have,
indeed, heated up the atmosphere surrounding AIDS
but, after all, the mood of pessimism as to the possibility
of treatment has come from the scientific community.
And without leaving room for expansion, AIDS was and
remains an incurable disease.

Grieb: Diabetes is also incurable as well as multiple
sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis.... I could go on for a long
time enumerating the diseases which are incurable in a
traditional sense. A diabetic must take insulin all his life
and is neither ashamed of this nor does anyone resent
him for this.

Pratzer: Risky comparisons. After all, one cannot
become ‘infected with diabetes and it is not a death
sentence such as AIDS.

Grieb: AIDS is certainly less contagious than the flu.
However, as far as the possibilities of treatment are
concerned, then indeed, four to five years ago
researchers felt that there was no way to control the HIV
virus. Moreover, the more thoroughly they studied the
life cycle of the virus, the more unrealistic the chances of

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

controlling the infection seemed. However, time does
not stand still. Being cured of AIDS means the perma-
nent “expulsion” of the virus from the body and cur-
rently this, indeed, is not possible which does not mean,
however, that we are just as helpless as several years ago.
The HIV infection is being transformed before our eyes
from an untreatable disease to a chronic one.

Pratzer: Thus, into a disease with which one can live. For
how long?

Grieb: It is a well-known fact that the development of
full-blown AIDS occurs from two to 10 years following
infection with the virus and, unfortunately, from that
moment on time progresses very quickly. Then, barely
two to three years separate those ill with the disease from
death. In the United States in March of 1987, a sub-
stance called AZT was officially admitted for use as a
medicinal drug and this was the first drug which made it
possible to slightly prolong the life of those suffering
from AIDS. However, genuinely optimistic news did not
come from research laboratories until last year. It turned
out that the administration of AZT already during the
asymptomatic carrier-state may delay the appearance of
AIDS symptoms for an estimated period of approxi-
mately 20 years. Since March of this year, a specialized
government agency in the United States, the Food and
Drug Administration, has recommended the use of AZT
by asymptomatic carriers of the virus and already today
the effects can be seen—statistics have noted a drop in
the number of new AIDS cases in relation to what had
been expected.

Pratzer: A postponement in the death sentence for 20
years?

Grieb: I would like to remind you that tuberculosis has
been eradicated even though nearly every one of us
carries its virus inside us. Simply put, we are able to
coexist with it. If a very young individual becomes
infected with the HIV virus, then the 20 years which he
has ahead of him is not a fully satisfying prospect.
However, for infected persons in their 40’s or 50’s, this is
without a doubt a prospect not to be spurned.

Pratzer: Do you feel that such news can change the
attitude toward HIV carriers and to the disease itself?

Grieb: In any case, the existence of this drug constitutes
a rational incentive to submitting to tests. Up to now, we
have been saying to people: “Get tested because...we
want to keep an eye on you.” Now, we can finally say:
“Get tested because we have a genuine offer of help for
you.” Availability of treatment, even expensive but in
many cases effective treatment, would be an important
element in the creation of rational social order indis-
pensable for the coexistence of healthy and infected
persons.

Pratzer: Should everyone who has a positive test result
receive the drug? How can you tell that treatment with



JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Foreign
Broapcast
INFORMATION
Senvice

—_______ IPRS Report—

Epidemiology

Reproduced From [DIIC QUALITY INEPECTED 8
Best Available Copy 7

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REPRODUCED BY cS
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE rv
NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE
SPRINGFIELD, VA. 22161
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JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

It is believed that more than one percent of the Natal/
KwaZulu black population (estimated to be at least
six-million people) are now HIV-infected, which means
that there are probably at least 100,000 HIV-infected
people living in the province. .

The head of the National AIDS Advisory Group and
South Africa’s recognised AIDS expert from the South
African Institute of Medical Research, Dr Ruben Sher,
said today that the AIDS situation in South Africa could
be even worse than the situation in AIDS-ravaged neigh-
bouring African states.

“I think the South African AIDS situation could be even
worse than in other African countries because of the
mobility of blacks in South Africa (black taxis), the
migration system, violence (which increases the inci-
dence of rape) and vast unemployment which leaves
people with nothing else to do other than have random
sex, the closure of black schools (which encourages sex
among teenagers) and other cultural factors”, said Dr
Sher.

Ignorance, denial and a resistance to changing people’s
sexual habits were also major contributing factors in the
spread of AIDS in this country. HIV-infection in the gay
community had “petered out almost completely because
of their co-operation and caution”, but the spread was
just beginning in the black heterosexual population, he
said.

The secretary for Health in KwaZulu, Dr Daryl Hack-
land, said: “We have reached the stage where the esca-
lation curve is almost vertical. The situation worsens by
the day.”

SWAZILAND

Medical Sources say Link Between TB-AIDS
Deaths

MB2211091890 Mbabane THE TIMES OF
SWAZILAND in English 22 Nov 90 pp 1, 24

{Report by Vusie Ginindza: “TB Deaths Linked to
AIDS”)

[Text] The silent killer..TB [Tuberculosis], has killed
seven more people within the past week.

The shock figure brings to 81 the number of TB victims
since the beginning of this year in this country.

But even more shocking...medical sources say there is a
direct linke between the TB deaths and AIDS.

Health workers are understood alarmed that among the
TB deaths, is a high prevalence of HIV positive cases.

TB specialist, Dr. Mabuza, said yesterday that it has
been discovered that some, if not most of the people who
suffered from AIDS, were actually killed by the TB
disease.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 7

“TB is a bacteria which attacks bodies that have low
resistance to diseases. As you know, AIDS is not a
disease as such, but a virus that kills through certain
diseases that take advantage of the body’s lack of resis-
tance,” she said.

AIDS worker, Dr. Frank Guinness, told THE TIMES
yesterday that it has been found in several countries in
Africa that AIDS and TB have a very close relationship.

He said in a report titled: Clinical Manifestations of
AIDS in Tropical Countries J.W. Carswell of France
reported that “The role of TB and HIV is unclear. In
some parts of Africa, both are common and sometimes
both are found together in the same person.

“Tt is unclear whether the acquisition of HIV allowed a
previously quiescent tuberculous focus to flare up or
whether in some way the presence of tuberculosis in a
person made him or her more susceptible to HIV infec-
tion. The answers may not be known for some time.

“There are several different presentations of TB in HIV
infected persons. A number of studies throughout Africa
have been carried out on patients with TB, who have
usually only been admitted after tubercle bacilli were
isolated from their sputum.

“The rates of HIV seropositivity in these patients has
unusually been much higher than the rates found in the
general population outside hospitals,” it read.

Dr. Guinness said a survey by a South African team is
still being conducted on TB patients in the country to
determine if AIDS is behind the deaths.

Increase of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

MB1110080790 Mbabane THE TIMES OF
SWAZILAND in English 11 Oct 90 p 1

[Report by Vusie Ginindza: “Hospital Fears a Syphilis
Epidemic”]

[Text] The increase of the incidence of sex diseases is so
alarming that health officials think there is going to be an
epidemic soon.

They said up until last year, the accepted average for
people treated for sex disease, was 80-90 people per
month.

But this year, the numbers continue to rise.... alarmingly.

In January, the cases more than tripled the average, at
over 300 cases.

In February, they more than quadrupled, hitting almost
500 cases.

The trend is so bad, that the last figure available, for
August, over 700 people were treated, mostly for syph-
ilis.



6 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The incidence of AIDS, while not recorded in the black
community until 1987, showed a rapid increase in the
numbers of heterosexually transmitted and paediatric
cases which had tested positive.

This pattern of heterosexually transmitted AIDS, Mr.
Whiteside warns, will be the main mechanism by which
the disease will spread in SA.

He predicts that if present trends continue, the total
number of AIDS cases in South Africa in five years will
stand at about 21,700.

Official statistics have shown that for the first time since
AIDS was reported in South Africa, the number of cases
among the heterosexual population exceeded those
reported in homosexual and others.

In 1982 the first two AIDS cases were reported. To date,
there have been 455 South African AIDS cases (13 per
million) recorded.

The number of foreigners who do not have permanent
residence but have sought treatment in this country have
been excluded from the official figures.

Mr. Whiteside presented a paper on “AIDS and Migrant
Workers” at the First Global Impact of AIDS Confer-
ence in London in 1988. Since then he has done exten-
sive research on the economic implications of the dis-
ease.

In South Africa, characterised by high levels of poverty,
unemployment and rapid urbanisation, the AIDS pan-
demic posed a serious threat to the future development
of the region, he said.

The bulk of the costs of AIDS to society would be
indirect, of which the greatest part would be time lost
because of illness and the years lost because of premature
death.

Mr. Whiteside pointed out (Aids in Aftica) tended to
have its initial, and most visible, impact among the
urban educated group, and this had serious implications
for urban development projects as well as for manpower
in the country.

AIDS would affect output and markets, he said.

The report, however, indicates that timeous reaction by
the Government and the private sector, through policies
and the application of available resources, could still
improve the bleak predictions.

Increase of AIDS Among Gold Miners

91WE0026A Cape Town WEEKEND ARGUS
in English 22 Sep 90 p 3

[Article by Tom Hood, business editor]

[Text] A new study of the incidence of HIV (AIDS)
among gold miners indicates a ten-fold increase in four
years.

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

This is reported by Mr Robin Plumbridge, chairman of
the giant Gold Fields of SA (GFSA) mining group.

He said his group had been deeply concerned about the
worldwide spread of AIDS.

Until recently South Africa had been regarded as a
relatively low incidence country—a view borne out by a
major study by the Chamber of Mines in 1986.

Since then, GFSA monitored the situation at the Sexu-
ally Transmitted (STD) clinics which were run in con-
junction with the group’s major hospitals.

By late last year it was apparent that a major adverse
trend was developing in the HIV incidence, says Mr
Plumbridge in his annual report.

As a result, a study was conducted in the first six months
of this year with the co-operation of GFSA’s gold mine
employees.

“This study indicates a ten-fold increase in the HIV
incidence since the mining industry’s 1986 study,” says
Mr Plumbridge.

“This has occurred despite one of the most intensive
educational programmes ever mounted on the subject.

“The benefits of these programmes can be judged in the
comparison of HIV incidence at various STD clinics
which reflects that the incidence at the group’s major
clinics is about 42 percent of the prevailing incidence at
clinics in Johannesburg and 27 percent of the latest
available figure for New York city.

“The results of our study have confirmed the need to
redouble our educational activities, to expand our coun-
selling activities to handle an increasing number of
employees who are unfortunate enough to test HIV
positive, to continue monitoring the spread of the dis-
ease and to keep abreast of the latest research into
prophylactics and cures.”

AIDS Figures for Natal Termed ‘Alarming’

91WE0026B Durban THE DAILY NEWS in English
20 Sep 90 p 1

[Text] More than 100 new AIDS cases—including
infants—are being identified in Natal every month while
there are now up to 10 AIDS patients in Durban’s King
Edward VIII Hospital at any one time and several deaths
each month.

These ever-spiralling figures were revealed today by
Natal’s member of the National AIDS Advisory Group,
Professor Denis Pudifin, who described the increase in
numbers of infected heterosexual blacks as “alarming”.

There are now 2,140 known AIDS-carriers (HIV-
infected people) in Natal, but this reflects only the tip of
the iceberg, as there are many healthy carriers who have
not been tested and who are unaware that they are, in
fact, AIDS-carriers.


IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Health Ministry Reports 45 AIDS Cases, 10
Deaths

PA1210172990 Managua Radio Sandino in Spanish
1200 GMT 11 Oct 90

[Text] Health Ministry authorities have carried out
approximately 70,000 tests to detect AIDS among the
population and have found 42 cases or carriers of this
terrible disease.

EL SEMANARIO reported that, of the 42 positive cases
or carriers, 21 were foreigners who have left the country.

NICARAGUA 2

So far, 10 persons have died of this disease that destroys
a person’s immune system. Only one of the victims was
homosexual.

Currently, in a Managua hospital, there is one patient in
the illness’ terminal phase.

The way things are going in Managua, we will soon have
AIDS cases everywhere, like the drugs that are invading
the country because of the lack of an anti-drug policy in
the current government. In Managua it is common to see
youngsters getting high on marijuana and others brag-
ging about taking cocaine which, because of its price, is
used by elite groups.



26 LATIN AMERICA

Ministry Confirms 240 AIDS Cases Throughout
Country

PY0611023790 Santiago Radio Chilena Network

in Spanish 1600 GMT 5 Nov 90

[Summary] Health Under Secretary Patricio Silva has
disclosed that there are 240 confirmed cases of AIDS
throughout Chile, 17 of which are women and four of
which are children.

CUBA

Public Health Official Reports on AIDS

FL3008012390 Havana Television Service in Spanish
0000 GMT 30 Aug 90

[Text] A news conference was held today on AIDS in
Cuba as one of the collateral activities of the Eighth UN
Conference on Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation. It
was presided over by Dr. Hector Terry, vice minister of
public health, and other Public Health Ministry special-
ists.

In response to initial questions, Terry said that from the
start of the testing program in 1986 to the present, 8.53
million people have been tested. Of the people tested,
only 479 have the illness or are asymptomatic while 73
people have been infected and 37 have died.

In speaking to the national and foreign press, the vice
minister mentioned the various aspects related to AIDS
in our county, such as the diagnostic system used,
preventative measures, and the health policy that Cuba
applies to its patients. In regard to this last aspect, Terry
said that its fairness is based on better treatment for the
patient and protection for those who are healthy. He
added that this policy does not conflict with the patients’
social ties.

In regard to this issue and in response to insistent
questions on whether the confinement of patients to
sanitariums violates certain human rights, AIDS patients
who are present at this conference were invited to
respond based on their own experience.

Unidentified AIDS patient: It is true that it can be
annoying to be in the sanitarium. One does not have the
freedom to move around that he used to have. Never-
theless, many possibilities open up here. You learn how
to live with your illness. I think you learn how to protect
the rest of society without harming anyone and, most

IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

importantly, you learn to live like a human being, with
limitations, but you learn to live. [end recording]

The topic of the cost of treating AIDS patients, estimated
to be $8,000 dollars a year per patient, comes to light
amid economic difficulties in Third World countries in
general and, particularly, in Cuba. In regard to this topic,
Terry said:

Terry: I cannot say that the phenomenon we are con-
fronting now will affect this or that health program. Up
to now, we have not had that problem and I am abso-
lutely sure that amid the difficulties we may have, if we
maintain something in the country, it will always be the
national health system and its accomplishments. [end
recording]

JAMAICA

Four New AIDS Cases in September

FL2010171790 Bridgetown CANA in English
1607 GMT 20 Oct 90

[Text] Kingston—Four additional cases of AIDS were
reported in September, bringing the total number diag-
nosed in Jamaica to 180. Of the 180 cases, 125 are male
and 55 are females.

Forty-three cases were reported for the period January to
September 1990. Sixty-four cases were reported in 1989
and 30 in 1988.

At the end of September 110 persons here had died of
AIDS—an overall mortality rate of 61 percent. Thirty-
nine of the deaths were reported in 1989 and 19 in 1990.

A release from the Ministry of Health noted that most
cases were reported in the Kingston and St. Andrew area
while 20 cases were reported in the adjoining parish of
St. Catherine. Only one parish, St. Elizabeth in south
central Jamaica, has no reported cases of AIDS. How-
ever carriers—persons infected with the virus that causes
AIDS—have been identified among residents of all par-
ishes.

Ninety-one of the adult cases were infected locally with
the AIDS virus and 49 overseas. The place of infection of
19 persons is unknown.

One hundred and twelve of the adults are heterosexuals.
Twenty-three (14 percent) are male homosexuals and 15
are bisexuals. The sexual practice of eight cases is
unknown.



SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

by the increase in crime and the individual agony caused
by AIDS, society’s unequivocal choice has already
enabled the government to collect over 1 billion CFA
francs to fight the former. Should AIDS also be allowed
to cause the same psychosis before getting the attention
it deserves?

Specialist Says 15 Percent of Deaths Due to
AIDS

AB2610190090 Abidjan Domestic Service in French
1930 GMT 23 Oct 90

[Excerpt] A headquarters for the Ivory Coast retrovirus
project was inaugurated this afternoon in the presence of
the minister of health and population in the building
where the infectious diseases ward was formerly hosted
at the Treichville Teaching Hospital. This headquarters
is a research project which will be aimed at better
understanding infections by certain AIDS viruses like
the HIV | and the HIV 2 and the development of AIDS
in Ivory Coast. The headquarters will also participate in
training the medical personnel and preventing and con-
trolling AIDS in cooperation with the national com-
mittee for the fight against AIDS.

Dr. Kevin Decock of the Infectious Diseases Control
Center of Atlanta in the United States and director of the
Abidjan AIDS headquarters explains to our correspon-
dent, Aron Bade, the reasons for setting up this head-
quarters in Abidjan. [Begin recording]

Decock: It is an AIDS research project because we think
that AIDS and the HIV infection in West Africa is an
important problem for everyone: for Ivory Coast and for
the rest of the world. This project has been initiated to
find solutions to this problem. The problem of HIV and
AIDS in Ivory Coast is very serious.

I think that today AIDS is probably the priority of public
health in Ivory Coast. We can speak about the preva-
lence of the infection, that is to say the extent to which a
person is infected. We can also speak about the incidence
of the disease or the mortality rate due to the disease—in
other words the number of new cases of the disease and
the number of deaths caused by AIDS.

In Abidjan, there is prevalence in pregnant women and
blood donors, who are to some degree representative of
the population in general. The proportion of infected
persons is now more than 10 percent. The number of
new AIDS cases is on the increase and has outnumbered
cases found in other African cities like Kinshasa, for
example. AIDS is now the number one cause of death
among adults in Abidjan. It is the number one cause of
death among men and the number two cause of death
among women, after maternal mortality.

Bade: Do you have any idea how many people have died
of AIDS?

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 3

Decock: We believe about 15 percent of male deaths and
13 percent of female deaths in Abidjan are due to AIDS.
[end recording] [passage omitted]

KENYA

Over 9,000 Deaths From AIDS

EA3110150190 Nairobi KTN Television in English
0500 GMT 31 Oct 90

[From the press review]

[Text] THE STANDARD also carries on its front page a
revelation by the director of medical services, Professor
Joseph Oliech, that AIDS has so far killed over 9,000
people in the country.

MOZAMBIQUE

134 AIDS Cases in Mozambique

MB1010115790 Maputo Domestic Service in Portuguese
0800 GMT 9 Oct 90

[Text] Mozambique has reported 134 AIDS cases to the
WHO. The WHO reports that our country has the largest
number of AIDS cases among the five Lusophone
African countries.

Guinea-Bissau has reported 123 AIDS cases, compared
to 104 cases in Angola and two in Sao Tome and
Principe.

More than 288,000 AIDS cases had beeen reported to
the WHO from all over the world by 30 September 1990.

NAMIBIA

Epidemiologist Details Country’s AIDS Figures

MB0611100090 Johannesburg SAPA in English
0823 GMT 6 Nov 90

[Text] Windhoek—Namibia recorded its highest ever
monthly AIDS fatality rate in September with the death
of two of the 62 new reported cases, Nambc [Namibian
Broadcasting Corporation] radio news reported.

Ministry of Health and Social Services epidemiologist
Mr. Steve Titus said 316 new cases were reported in
Namibia during the first nine months of the year,
bringing a cumulative total of 505 cases.

A total of 42 AIDS-related deaths have been recorded
since 1986.

Mr. Titus said statistics indicated the number of AIDS
cases in Namibia doubled every eight months.

A regional breakdown for 1990 showed most cases
occurred in the central region where 91 cases were
reported.



IPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

AUSTRALIA

Ministerial Conference Focuses on AIDS in
Pacific

BK3010132590 Hong Kong AFP in English 1211 GMT
29 Oct 90

[Text] Noumea—South Pacific leaders urged regional
governments to educate people on the danger of AIDS.
here Tuesday on the second day of a South Pacific
commission ministerial conference.

A World Health Organization (WHO) official also told
ministers of the 27 territories represented at the commis-
sion’s 30th annual meeting to move quickly to ensure
that the regional AIDS problem did not explode into a
full-fledged epidemic.

The bishop of Tonga, Patelisio Finau, Fiji Health Min-
ister Apenisa Kuruisaqila and the vice chancellor of the
University of the South Pacific, Konai Helu-Thaman,
joined the WHO official in warning of the potentially
disastrous socio-economic effects of AIDS.

They stressed the need to organize a campaign to educate
the public on the dangers of acquired immune deficiency
syndrome (AIDS), a fatal disease which breaks down the
body’s immune system.

Some 16,000 people were found to be carrying the AIDS
virus in the South Pacific region as of the start of
October, 2,710 of them with full-blown AIDS, the WHO
official said.

The bishop of Tonga stressed the Roman Catholic
Church’s opposition to the use of condoms to stem the
spread of the largely sexually contracted disease. Instead,
he called for a return to “moral values” to fight AIDS.

Earlier in the day, international aid agencies outlined
proposals to help implement programs under discussion.

Observers from the Asian Development Bank, the Com-
mission of the European Communities for the Pacific
and the United Nations Development Program outlined
financial aid packages for the region while the WHO
official listed healthcare priorities in the region target-
ting polio, tuberculosis and the eradication of malaria.

The conference was due to end Wednesday.

HONG KONG

Clinic Users Fear AIDS

91WE0045A Hong Kong HONG KONG STANDARD
in English 20 Jul 90 p 6

{Article by Denise Wong]

[Text] Syringes used by heroin addicts at a Government
clinic at San Po Kong and discarded outside were
creating an AIDS risk, a health expert warned yesterday.

EAST ASIA 17

The Robert Black Health Centre has recently posted
notices for people queuing to attend the clinic, warning
of the dangers of “‘being pierced by the sharp things on
the ground”.

Apart from providing general out-patient services,
maternity and child health, and an ear, nose and throat
clinic, the centre also houses a methadone clinic, pro-
viding the substitute prescribed for addicts trying to kick
the habit.

People living near the centre said the methadone clinic
attracted not only drug addicts undergoing rehabilita-
tion, but also a large group of addicts who gathered.
outside the health centre.

“They even inject themselves in public areas, as if no
other people were there ... dispose of syringes everywhere
on the floor,” said Mr Lam as he lined up at the head of
a queue outside the clinic.

Mr Lam, who declined to give his full name, said: “Of
course I am scared of being pierced by the disposed
syringes. That is why I never wear slippers or sandals
when I come to see the doctor.

“God knows what disease I would get if I was jabbed by
those syringes.”

A Health Department spokesman yesterday said that
“arrangements to clear disposed syringes from the area
affected have been made as far as possible”.

But yesterday morning I saw more than 30 syringes
discarded in the small grass patch next to the benches
outside the centre’s entrance. The patch is surrounded by
iron bars through which a hand can easily reach.

Mr Lam said reports of the problem had probably caused.
a drop in drug addicts loitering in the area and clearing
of syringes in accessible areas.

A department spokesman said “‘as an additional precau-
tionary measure, warning notices have been put up in the
vicinity of the clinic”, and the matter has been referred
to the police.

Dr Patrick Li, senior medical officer of the AIDS Coun-
selling and Health Education Service, said there was
certainly a risk of AIDS infection as well as other viruses
such as hepatitis.

“The risk is just like in a hospital setting,” Dr Li said.

“Studies in the United States indicate that doctors and
nurses have a chance of about 0.5 percent of being
infected with AIDS, if pierced by syringes used on
patients.

“But the risk is not so high as needle sharing among
intravenous drug users, where blood remains inside the
syringe while another guy injects himself.”



34 WEST EUROPE

Half of those infected this year did not know the source
of infection. According to Hovi, the situation is very
difficult because the intention is to direct information
toward the high-risk groups.

Not All Physicians Ask About Source of Infection

“Sometimes a patient does not really know where he
received the infection, if there were several possibilities.
Not all physicians ask about the source of infection, even
though the Contagious Disease Law clearly requires this.
Some physicians are of the opinion that patients must
not be labeled by prodding them to reveal the source of
the infection.”

Not a single new HIV infection among Finnish intrave-
nous drug users was reported to the Medical Board this
year.

“T do not believe this statistic. It is quite certain that
there is a drug addict or two among the group of over 30
cases in which the source of infection is unknown,” Satu
Hovi hypothesized.

Out of the total of 647 HIV-infected persons in Finland
67 have come down with AIDS. Of these 36 have died
and 4 have left the country.

3 Million Markkas to Prevent AIDS and Whooping
Cough

The Medical Board has prepared plans for disseminating
information about AIDS to the whole country through
the media, but money is lacking for the campaign.

“We have a budget of a little over 3 million markkas
from which we manage prevention and research on all
infectious diseases. When a whooping cough epidemic
breaks out in Ii, part of our funds go for that. Studying
and caring for whooping cough is important too, of
course, but our funds do not increase at all no matter
how many local epidemics there are,” Satu Hovi said.

We need an appropriation of about 3 million markkas a
year just for AIDS education. We have appealed for
additional funds many times, most recently for a 3-
million-markka supplementary budget. Already during
the hearings the amount shrank to 680,000 markkas, and
I do not know whether we will receive even that.‘

If the Medical Board received the additional funds Hovi
wants, the training of health care personnel and some
youth support people would be started right away in
addition to press releases.

AIDS Support Center Faces Threat of Closure When
Money Runs Out

The AIDS support centers operating in Helsinki, Turku,
Tampere, Kuopio, and Oulu face the threat of closure for
the last three months of the year. The support center
payrolls now have 11 persons, of whom five are at the
Helsinki branch.

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

The AIDS Support Center receives the greater part of its
approximately 2.5-million-markka annual budget from
the Rahaautomaattiyhdistys [Finnish Slot Machine
Association]. This year the funds have almost run out,
and there has been no response to the request for
additional funds.

One of the more important kinds of operations in the
center is a hot-line telephone that anyone who fears an
HIV infection, has contracted an HIV infection, is
suffering from AIDS, or wants information about it can
call,

The Center also offers the services of physicians, psychi-
atrists, lawyers, theologians, and support personnel.

The Support Center carries out AIDS education and
prevention by distributing its own publications and
providing lecturers at various events.

SWEDEN

Minister Defends AIDS Policies

90WE0362A Stockholm DAGENS NYHETER
in Swedish 4 Sep 90 p 4

[Guest commentary by Social Affairs Minister Ingela
Thalen—first paragraph is DAGENS NYHETER intro-
duction]

[text] “Sweden implements the European Council’s rec-
ommendations in all areas except where they are in
conflict with our laws,” Social Affairs Minister Ingela
Thalen writes in a reply.

In the DAGENS NYHETER debate of 17 August, the
sociologist Benny Henriksson criticized the Swedish
AIDS policy, particularly the government’s statements in
the Council of Europe on ethical questions and HIV.

The recommendation he refers to was adopted in
October 1989. To put it mildly, the tone of his article is
extreme. He gives a badly misleading picture of the
policy Sweden is following.

Sweden’s Riksdag has, in broad political unity, decided
upon a law—the protection against infection law—that
allows society in the most extreme emergency to act
against individuals who inconsiderately and consciously
expose others to the risk of infection with HIV. It is this
law that is the basis of Sweden’s actions in the Council of
Europe.

The government naturally had to follow Swedish law and
act in accordance with the Riksdag’s decision. Obviously
in the shaping of the European Council’s recommenda-
tion, just as in other situations, we had to give an account
of our laws.

Of necessity this means that Sweden cannot sign a
binding document or its recommendations if they con-
flict with our present laws.



SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

In many international organizations, particularly in the
World Health Organization and in the United Nations,
Sweden has fought against discriminatory elements in
the AIDS policy followed by certain groups in the world.
For example, we have strongly protested against the
discriminatory decisions that require HIV testing at
borders and that are directed against immigrants, refu-
gees, HIV-positives, and other groups.

We have broad policy unity on the manner in which we
combat AIDS. Everyone is agreed that the spread of
infection can be combatted primarily through intensive
efforts at disseminating information and at education.

It is primarily in three areas that Sweden has reported
differences with the European Council’s recommenda-
tions:

1. The first area is “the rights of HIV-positives.” On this
point, Sweden has said that we have rules that have been
made into law that put HIV-positives under certain
obligations, among which are not to spread the infection
further.

2. The second area has to do with the rules of HIV
testing. Here we have said that Swedish AIDS policy
certainly provides for voluntary HIV testing, but that
there are exceptions. For example, the Riksdag has
passed a law allowing a rape victim to demand that the
perpetrator be tested for HIV if he does not do so
voluntarily.

WEST EUROPE 35

3. The third point is the question of forced isolation that
I have already reported on. The Social Affairs Ministry
now has the task of evaluating how forced treatment has
functioned in practice according to the law of protection
against infection.

We must direct our efforts according to their effective-
ness—what treatment, what help, shall those who are
infected and those who are in forced isolation receive.

Sweden has said that the recommendations of the Euro-
pean Council’s Committee of Ministers are in large part
completely in agreement with the direction Swedish
AIDS policy has taken. In Sweden, many resources and
great efforts have been directed toward preventive work
that is completely in the spirit of the recommendations.
It is obvious that the recommendations—those that do
not conflict with Swedish law—will be implemented in
our country. This applies also to the general recommen-
dation, which Sweden agreed to as early as 1987, for a
common European health and medical care policy in the
struggle against AIDS.

The government is not carrying out any policy of defi-
ance. We give account of what we stand for, and we
defend the direction we have taken in AIDS work in
broad policy unity.

Henriksson has a different opinion on certain questions.
But when he accuses the government of lack of respect
for human rights, he is mistaken.



JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

BAHAMAS

Officials Report 2,308 New AIDS Cases

FL1911184090 Bridgetown CANA in English
1642 GMT 18 Nov 90

[Text] Nassau—Bahamian health authorities said 2,308
persons tested positively for the AIDS virus during the
first nine months of this year. Comparative figures for
1989 were not given.

Disease specialist Dr. Herbert Orlander said 554 were
full- blown cases. 296 have already died. Dr. Orlander
said the figures were shocking for a small nation like the
Bahamas, which has a population of 250,000.

“It is time for the entire nation to pause and reflect on
present lifestyles,” he said. “In the early days of the
epidemic, many Bahamians, although aware of the dis-
ease, failed to take the necessary precautions to guard
against infection,” he added.

Dr. Orlander said the virus would continue to be a
problem until Bahamians decide to adopt preventative
measures. He said it was time for Bahamians to fully
alter sexual practices which may lead to ill health.

BARBADOS

Health Authorities Report Twenty New AIDS
Cases

FL1810154590 Bridgetown CANA in English

1430 GMT 18 Oct 90

[Text] Twenty persons, including two foreigners, were
diagnosed here with AIDS between July and September,
bringing the tally of full-blown new cases for the year to
34, health authorities said.

A 14-year-old boy was among the group. Chairman of
the National Advisory Committee on AIDS, Professor
Mickey Walrond, said the youth was the youngest person
known so far to have contracted the fatal disease through
sexual intercourse.

The island recorded seven AIDS deaths between July
and September, with the total for the year so far standing
at 21. One of the two foreigners was among the group.
Health authorities said the latest figures brought total
full-blown cases to 145 since 1984 when Barbados
started official records on the incidence of AIDS which
kills by destroying the body’s immune system. Total
deaths since 1984 stand at 103.

In addition to the full-blown cases, there are 185 persons
here who are asymptomatic—that is, they carry the virus
but are otherwise healthy. The majority of AIDS cases
involved persons in the 20-44 age group. The disease was
most prevalent among male homosexuals, followed by
promiscuous heterosexuals.

LATIN AMERICA 2B

BRAZIL

AIDS Incidence Among Women Rising

91WE0024B Rio de Janeiro O GLOBO in Portuguese
9 Sep 90 p 20

[Article by Laura Antunes]

[Text] The AIDS virus has broken another barrier. Of
the patients registered in the services of the two institu-
tions that treat AIDS patients in Rio (the University
Hospital of Fundao and the Group in Support of AIDS
Prevention [GAPA]), 30 percent are women. In the
outpatient clinic of the Gaffree and Guinle University
Hospital, 20 percent of the patients are women. These
figures are significant since, according to the Health
Ministry, the average is about 12 percent for females.
The situation is even more disturbing, given that three
years ago, 90 percent of the patients were male.

Considered a disease that is disseminated only in certain
segments of the society (the so-called risk groups, such as
homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes and bisexuals),
the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has gained
potential for transmission and is already attacking the
female population at an accelerated rate. Of the 1,200
HIV carriers now on file in the outpatient clinic of the
AIDS Program of the University Hospital of Fundao, 30
percent are women. In the last three months, the GAPA
supplied medicines to 80 AIDS patients, 30 percent of
whom were women.

The growing spread of the virus among women is also
confirmed by the National AIDS Referral Center of the
Gaffree and Guinle University Hospital, where the
number of female patients in its outpatient clinic has
doubled in the last two years. Up to 1988, almost 100
percent of the patients registered were men; now women
represent 20 percent of the clinic’s load. According to the
Health Ministry surveys, five years ago there was one
infected female for every 30 infected males. Last year the
ratio had already changed: there was one infected female
for every eight males carrying the virus.

Although he says the increased incidence of HIV among
women was to be expected, Dr. Mauro Schechter, coor-
dinator of research of the AIDS Program, in the Depart-
ment of Infectious-Parasitic Diseases (DIP) of Fundao,
finds the situation troubling. According to Schechter,
studies conducted by the DIP confirm that most of the
infected females belong to the high-risk groups or are
partners of men who are at risk. Even so, Schechter said
that, to curb the spread of the virus among the female
population, it is urgent to conduct education campaigns,
which up to now have been directed only at the high-risk

groups.

“Infection in the female population is not indiscrimi-
nate. Studies indicate that the great majority of these
women are drug addicts, or partners of addicts or of
bisexuals. But it cannot be denied that this increase in
cases shows that is a greater potential for transmission of



JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 NOVEMBER 1990 3 AIDS

THAILAND

200 Test Positive for AIDS Virus in Northern Province
[Khamphon Khotsema; Bangkok THE NATION, 16 Nov 90] .. . 18
Survey Shows 4,000 Prostitutes Carry AIDS Virus [Bangkok THE NATION, 16 Nov 90] .

Official on AIDS Figures; Curb on Burmese Fishermen. ..... 19
EAST EUROPE
POLAND
AZT Treatment of AIDS Patients; Polish AZT Production Foreseen
[Warsaw POLITYKA, 22 Sep 90] .... 20
ROMANIA
WHO Group To Study AIDS Medication Claim
[Bo Draebel; Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, 20 Oct 90] 21
Hospital Director on Treatment for AIDS Children [Bucharest ROMPRES, 11 Oct 90] . 21
Commission Invited to Assess AIDS Treatment /Bucharest ROMPRES, 27 Oct 90]... 22
LATIN AMERICA
BAHAMAS
Officials Report 2,308 New AIDS Cases [Bridgetown CANA, 18 Nov 90] .... 23
BARBADOS
Health Authorities Report Twenty New AIDS Cases [Bridgetown CANA, 18 Oct IO] orn 23

BRAZIL

AIDS Incidence Among Women Rising /Laura Antunes; Rio de Janeiro O GLOBO, 9 Sep 90]
3.5 Percent of AIDS Cases Are Children [Sao Paulo FOLHA DE SAO PAULO, 26 Sep 90) ..
Highest AIDS Incidence Among Drug Users

[Sao Paulo O ESTADO DE SAO PAULO, 18 Oct 90] ..
$130 Million To Be Spent Fighting AIDS [Rio de Janeiro O GLOBO, 24 Oct 90]

CHILE
Health Minister Stresses Need To Fight AIDS [Santiago Radio Chilena Network, 9 Oct 90]... 25
Ministry Confirms 240 AIDS Cases Throughout Country
[Santiago Radio Chilena Network, 5 Nov 90] 26
CUBA
Public Health Official Reports on AIDS [Havana Television Service, 30 Aug 90] .. 26

JAMAICA

Four New AIDS Cases in September /Bridgetown CANA, 20 Oct 90] ......
NICARAGUA

Health Ministry Reports 45 AIDS Cases, 10 Deaths /Managua Radio Sandino, 11 Oct 90] .....



10 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

social impact of AIDS is already evident.” Tradition
decrees that adults support their elders until death.
Today it is the old who are burying their children. Many
people are beginning to cut back on their sexual roving.
Some are also beginning to resort to autotransfusions of
blood. Nonetheless, the bulk of the information pub-
lished or gathered in Kinshasa is indeed alarming.

For instance, in Kigali, average seropositive rates among
Pregnant women have jumped over the last two years
from 18 to 30 percent. Contrary to all predictions, the
epidemic is beginning to spread in the rural areas of
Tanzania, Uganda, and the Ivory Coast. An objective
sign of the magnitude of the disease, and one which is
beginning to create serious economic problems, is that
AIDS has become the top cause of death in the hospitals
of Abidjan, Kinshasa, Kampala, Kigali, and Lusaka.

Unfortunately, the frequency of sexually transmitted
diseases in a score of countries still relatively unscathed
by AIDS (Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gam-
bia, Mdagascar, etc.) raises the fear of a rapid expansion
of the disease in the near term in areas that have been
spared. Finally, the peculiar characteristics of AIDS and
of the procession of so-called “opportunistic” illnesses
associated with it are starting to have an impact on other
illnesses rampantly endemic in Africa. A major resur-
gence of tuberculosis has been observed in Malawi, and
also in Tanzania and Uganda. The latter could affect
seropositive as well as seronegative individuals, as a
result of promiscuity, the general lack of sanitation, and
poor rates of BCG vaccination.

As dramatic as it is, is such an account totally desperate?
Although many specialized teams unfortunately con-
tinue to act more as observers than agents of change,
different concrete intervention schemes are being imple-
mented today, as several studies presented in Kinshasa
attest. “The World Health Organization is starting to
adopt a more interventionist attitude,” explains Pro-
fessor Peter Piot (Anvers Institute of Tropical Medi-
cine), one of the meeting’s organizers. “As for me, I can
no longer ethically and morally limit myself to observing
what is happening, determining seropositive rates, and
watching them climb.”

One of the rare international organizations to have
perceived, several years ago, the magnitude of both the
health and socio-economic problems raised by AIDS is
the World Bank. One of its representatives, Mr. Mead
Over, an economist, presented the very bleak conclu-
sions of prospective studies in Kinshasa. They confirm,
if there is still any need, the absolute urgency of the
situation in Africa.

According to World Bank studies using different models,
an adult seropositive rate of 10 percent doubles the
mortality rate in that group, which rises to 10 per
thousand a year. The annual death rate is 15 per thou-
sand for a [seropositive] rate of 20 percent, and 20 per
thousand for a rate of 30 percent. The latter rate is not
uncommon in certain large African metropolises.

SJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Those figures are especially worrisome because the addi-
tional deaths will occur regardless of what happens over
the next 10 years, even were the spread of the virus to be
halted today. Another crucial point is that this mortality
hits hardest the socio-professional categories that play an
irreplacable part in the production channels and in the
economic development of African countries. The studies
presented also show that the direct cost of the disease
(estimated at an average of between 200 and 300 dollars
per year per illness in Zaire and Tanzania) represents in
reality only a minute fraction (from 5 to 10 percent) of
the total cost of AIDS, when estimated based on lost
earnings figured by years of lost life.

Taking the growth rate in most sub-Saharan African
countries before the epidemic, World Bank economists
predict that AIDS will produce a sharp drop, on the
order of 30 percent on the average, in the growth of gross
national products. And that is assuming the least
alarming hypotheses. a

The question is whether, faced with such threats, black
Africa will manage to curb the slaughter in the medium
term by implementing the only known effective mea-
sures for breaking the chain of heterosexual transmis-
sion: reducing the number of partners and systematically
using condoms in high-risk situations. And whether at
the same time it will be able to understand that, despite
the convictions of some of its leaders and probably also
of its public opinions, control of the scourge rules out
confining or stigmatizing its victims.

ZIMBABWE

Government Declares AIDS ‘Notifiable Disease’

TMMB2010162290 Johannesburg International Service
in English 1500 GMT 20 Oct 90

[Text] The authorities in Zimbabwe have taken new
steps to control the growing AIDS epidemic by making it
a notifiable disease.

Interviewed in Harare, the Zimbabwean health minister,
Dr. Timothy Stamps, said that from 1 December doctors
would be required by law to supply the names and
addreses of patients with AIDS to the local authorities.

He said any threat to an individual’s right to privacy was
outweighed by the public health benefit. Dr. Stamps said
the objective was not to exclude but to include the
patients in treatment programs.

He said .5 million people out of a total population of
some 10 million were believed to be infected with the
AIDS virus. Others have put the figure much higher.



12 CHINA

China Reports on First AIDS Death

91WE0046A Beijing CHINA DAILY in English
19 Oct 90 p 1

[Text] The Chinese Government reported the deaths of
two mainland Chinese AIDS carriers for the first time
yesterday.

According to the deputy director of the Public Health
Ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine, Dai
Zhicheng, both men died of AIDS-related infections.

One of the men, from the southern province of Yunnan,
was an intravenous drug user who contracted the virus
from a communal needle. Dai said he died a few months
ago.

The other man, a Beijing resident, contracted AIDS via
sexual contact and died recently.

Dai said both men had travelled abroad.

He said that since 1985, 446 people on the mainland
have been found to be carrying the HIV virus, 68 of
whom were foreigners. He said the remaining 378 were
mainland Chinese, 368 of whom were residents of Yun-
nan.

To cope with the increasing number of AIDS victims in
this country, the government had intensified monitoring
and control of AIDS, and was co-operating with the
World Health Organization (WHO) in setting up a joint
medical team to try to control the spread of AIDS in
Yunnan. The joint team was expected to be formed next
month and start working the border province next
month, Dai said.

He said China had a number of advantages in trying to
combat the spread of AIDS:

—AIDS appeared in China much later than in other
countries;

—most Chinese AIDS carriers lived in Yunnan, and
were therefore easily monitored; and

—the efficiency of China’s public health system was such
as to be able to easily control the spread of the disease.

Health officials told CHINA DAILY that the HIV virus
appeared in China in the early 1980s and was mostly
confined to Yunnan because of the high incidence of
drug addiction in the province.

The Chinese Government has expressed concern over
the increasing number of AIDS cases. Regulations Con-
cerning the Monitoring and Control of AIDS were
approved by the State Council on December 26, 1987,
and an AIDS monitoring network with three laboratories
was set up by the Ministry of Public Health.

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

Health Official Warns of Serious AIDS Problem

OW1910144290 Beijing XINHUA in English
0917 GMT 19 Oct 90

[Text] “AIDS has become a reality in China and it may
develop into a serious problem,” an official of the
Ministry of Public Health warned.

Dai Zhicheng, director of the ministry’s Department of
Epidemic Prevention, said at a press conference here
Friday that China has found 446 carriers of the HIV
virus, of which five were confirmed AIDS cases, by the
end of last September.

Two of the five AIDS carriers are residents of the
Chinese mainland. One, a male from Yunnan Province
in southeast China, died last February, and the other, a
male from Beijing, died last August. The other three
recorded AIDS carriers are from abroad.

Of the 446 HIV cases, 68 are from outside of China,
whereas 368 are from Yunnan Province alone. It was
reported that 368 of the total 446 HIV cases are related
to the use of narcotics, and that another four are hemo-
Philiacs who received the virus from infected blood.

Dai said that as of last August, the number of China’s
registered venereal disease cases has amounted to
270,000. In the first eight months of this year alone,
nearly 40,000 sufferers of gonorrhea and syphilis Tegis-
tered at local hospitals. He added “this is at most one
fourth of the actual number of patients.”

The Ministry of Public Health has set up three labs, two
in Beijing and one in Shanghai, to test for and confirm
the HIV virus. Last September, 36 experts formed a
National Expert Committee of AIDS Prevention and
Control. According to Dai, the experts make the final
confirmation of AIDS cases on the basis of the patient’s
medical history and the information provided by labs.

“Since there are no effective medical cures or preventive
inoculations for AIDS at present, increased awareness
and education are the only ways available to halt the
spread of AIDS,” Dai stressed.

He said that increased awareness and education should
be carried out on a broad scale so that people will more
fully understand how AIDS spreads and the harms it
brings to the society and families, as well as how to take
better care of themselves.

Dai also stressed the importance of education among
medical personnel on the knowledge of AIDS. “We must
exert more effort in education and sustain that effort,”
since the campaign against AIDS is bound to be a long
one.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Public Health and
experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) will
go to Yunnan Province this November to explore ways
to care for those patients who carry the HIV virus.



IJPRS-TEP-90-018

28 NOVEMBER 1990 2 AIDS
[Johannesburg SAPA, 16 Nov 90) ..... 5
Half of 1990 AIDS Cases in Transvaal
[Shehnaaz Bulbilia; Johannesburg THE STAR, 15 Oct 90] 5
Increase of AIDS Among Gold Miners
[Tom Hood; Cape Town WEEKEND ARGUS, 22 Sep 90] ...... 6
AIDS Figures for Natal Termed ‘Alarming’ /Durban THE DAILY NEWS, 20 Sep 90] 6
SWAZILAND
Medical Sources say Link Between TB-AIDS Deaths
[Vusie Ginindza; Mbabane THE TIMES OF SWAZILAND, 22 Nov 90) ..... 7
Increase of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
[Vusie Ginindza; Mbabane THE TIMES OF SWAZILAND, 11 Oct 90] 7
UGANDA
Orphans Said Increasing Due to AIDS [Kampala Domestic Service, 4 Nov 90] .. 8
Museveni on Economic Growth, AIDS /Kampala Domestic Service, 15 Nov 90] 8
ZAIRE
AIDS Conference in Kinshasa ..... 9
Gloomy Prediction /Paris AFP, 13 Oct 90) 9
Prevention Discussed Jean-Yves Nau; Paris LE MONDE, 13 Oct 90] 9
ZIMBABWE
Government Declares AIDS ‘Notifiable Disease’
[Johannesburg International Service, 20 Oct 90] 10
AIDS Kills 10 in Gokwe District Since January (Johannesburg SAPA, 22 Oct 90] .. 1
Health Minister Notes AIDS Figures (Johannesburg SAPA, 8 Nov 90] ....... ll
CHINA
China Reports on First AIDS Death [Beijing CHINA DAILY, 19 Oct 90] 12
Health Official Warns of Serious AIDS Problem (Beijing XINHUA, 19 Oct 90] 12
AIDS Treatment with Chinese Medicine Practiced in Africa
[Huang Hongchang [7806 1347 2490]; Beijing ZHONGGUO YIXUE LUNTAN BAO [CHINESE
MEDICAL TRIBUNE}, 25 May 90] .. wee 13
Use of Herbs to Treat AIDS Subject of On-Going Study
[Zhou Jie; Beijing CHINA DAILY, 24 Oct 90] .... 13
Active Steps Taken on AIDS Prevention /Huang Zhiling; Beijing CHINA DAILY, 9 Nov 90] 14
Government Strengthens Programs Against AIDS [Beijing XINHUA, 8 Nov 90] 15
Healthy Lifestyles ‘Only Way To Control AIDS’ [Beijing XINHUA, 9 Nov 90] . 15
Sino-American AIDS Symposium Stresses Prevention Only Cure [Beijing XINHUA, 16 Nov 90] 15
EAST ASIA
AUSTRALIA
Ministerial Conference Focuses on AIDS in Pacific /Hong Kong AFP, 29 Oct 90] 17
HONG KONG
Clinic Users Fear AIDS [Denise Wong; Hong Kong HONG KONG STANDARD, 20 Jul 90] us. 17
SOUTH KOREA
12 AIDS Patients in Pusan /Seoul THE KOREA HERALD, 6 Nov 90) .. 18



IPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

foreseen that this year’s final figures will not rise much
above 164, according to the AIDS secretariat.

During the early years of the epidemic, the number of
AIDS patients increased explosively. Doubled statistics
from one year to the next were not unusual. For the past
few years, however, the curve has been flattening out,
and it is now definite that it is decreasing.

“Statistics show that the spread of the infection slowed
down in the mid-1980’s,” Henning Jorgensen of the
AIDS secretariat told DAGENS NYHETER.

AIDS was first detected in 1983, but it took several years
before knowledge of the disease and the best methods of
self-protection trickled down among high-risk groups
such as homosexuals and narcotics addicts. For the past
few years, the trend has been that the number of hetero-
sexual AIDS patients has increased, but according to
Henning Jorgensen there is no risk of an AIDS explosion
among the heterosexual population.

Another possible explanation for the falling numbers of
new AIDS patients is the use of the slowdown medicine
Retrovir, which is now regularly used on HIV-infected
persons.

“Retrovir stops the outbreak of AIDS, but that is only
part of the explanation for the downward trend,” Jor-
gensen continued.

The third reason, which explains why it is only in
Denmark that a lower number of new AIDS cases has
been registered, is the Danish policy on needle-using
drug addicts. In Denmark it is completely legal for
addicts to buy clean hypodermics at the drugstore. In
Copenhagen, the hypodermics are actually free of
charge.

FINLAND

Number of HIV-Infected Shows Upturn

91WE0015A Helsinki HELSINGIN SANOMAT
in Finnish 13 Sep 90 p 5

{Article: “Depressing Year of HIV Infections. Number of
Cases Detected in Finland Rises to Record Level”

{Text] The number of new HIV infections will rise to an
all-time record this year. Already yesterday the Medical
Board’s statistics showed 65 new cases this year. The
worst record to date was in 1986, when 67 new infections
were recorded. Last year only 39 new cases were discov-
ered.

The rapid rise in infections, however, has not moved
decisionmakers to give the Medical Board or the AIDS
Support Center additional funds for instruction con-
cerning AIDS.

The Medical Board would require an appropriation of
about 3 million markkas just for AIDS enlightenment.
The AIDS Support Center’s branch offices face the

WEST EUROPE . 33

threat of closure for three weeks at the end of the year
unless at least an additional couple of million markkas
can be obtained.

Faith in One’s Own Good Luck Has Increased

“Although Finns’ consciousness of the dangers of AIDS
is quite good, the belief in one’s own immunity has
increased in recent years. Just during the past year, a
whole new generation of homosexuals, who have not yet
been startled by the sensational news from the middle of
the last decade, have reached the age of sexual activity,”
said Satu Hovi, an inspector from the Medical Board.

A second population group prone to HIV infection is
composed of tourists seeking sex in the southern coun-
tries, who consider themselves Lady Luck’s favorites.
This year, out of 16 cases in which the infection occurred
for sure in heterosexual relations, nine Finns and seven
foreigners caught the disease. Of the nine Finns, eight
were infected abroad.

This year 12 of those infected were women, of whom
four were foreigners.
HIV Cases Recorded in Finland

Suomessa todetut apaukset

1982-12.9.1999 fl
70 =< =a a

60

50

30-———

20-4

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1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 199%

on



JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

this drug delays the moment of the appearance of full-
blown AIDS for as long as 20 years when it has been
placed in use for the first time only recently?

Grieb: We will know in all certainty in 20 years. How-
ever, all studies regarding the rate of development of the
infection give reason for optimism. Along with the
passing of time following the invasion of the virus, the
body becomes increasingly more defenseless which man-
ifests itself with, among other things, a reduction in the
number of specialized cells of the immunological system
(helper T-cells). When their number drops below 200
(the norm is between 600 and 1,200 in 1 mm? of blood),
we are already dealing with fully symptomatic AIDS.
When it reaches approximately 500, this means that the
carrier can become ill soon. That is when intervention
ought to take place, i.e., AZT treatment begun.

Pratzer: Is this a safe drug?

Grieb: Unfortunately, it causes very serious side effects;
it may; for example, damage bone marrow. Everything
depends on the proper management of treatment
including the establishment of the most appropriate
dosage. The risk may be lowered by alternating other
substances from the same group with AZT. Personally, I
feel that such combined treatment will be the most
effective defense against AIDS for many years.

Pratzer: Do we have the possibility of using AZT on a
wide scale in Poland?

Grieb: Retrovir—that is the commercial name of AZT—
is very expensive and I do not feel that we could afford
to systematically import. the necessary quantities of it.
However, there is the possibility of a considerably less
expensive, Polish AZT. The recently formed Foundation
for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Development intends to
carry over to Poland achievements of world medicine
that would simplify the diagnosing and treatment of
these diseases which constitute a great social threat. I
believe that in a few months, we will be successful in
preparing the production of AZT. The entire process of
manufacturing this drug consists of three stages. The first
two are rather simple whereas the third is more compli-
cated. However, we have chemists among the Founda-
tion’s members who have worked out in detail this most
complicated phase.

Pratzer: Thank you for the interview.
ROMANIA

WHO Group To Study AIDS Medication Claim

91WE0032A Copenhagen BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
in Danish 20 Oct 90 p 3

[Article by Bo Draebel: “Experts Look Closer at AIDS
Treatment”—first paragraph is BERLINGSKE
TIDENDE introduction]

EAST EUROPE a

[Text] WHO is sending an expert commission to Bucha-
rest to find out what a research group is doing with AIDS
infected children and the unknown preparation, FLV23/
A.

The World Health Organization, WHO, is now sending
an expert commission to Romania to clarify what a
research group at Colentina hospital in Bucharest is
carrying out on AIDS infected children with the so-called
FLV23/A, a code name for an unknown compound that
has not been scientifically described.

“The WHO commission that will work together with the
Romanian authorities on clearing up what is happening
at Colentina will consist of three persons,” Dr. Frants
Staugaard of WHO’s European office in Copenhagen
said. “An expert in clinical pharmacology, an expert in
medical ethics and treatment of AIDS victims, together
with an expert in childhood diseases.

“It is the commission’s job to investigate the guidelines
followed in the experiments and whether ethical princi-
ples are being respected,” Staugaard said. “The commis-
sion will also look at the scientific quality of the experi-
ments and the quality of the care the children are
receiving at Colentina. Finally, the experts will report on
the compound FLV23/A in a statement that will be
published by WHO next week.”

A six-man team from WHO, which was already in
Romania to help the government in the development of
a detailed five-year plan for AIDS prevention and con-
trol, has done the preparatory work for the commission.
But it left a long series of questions and loose ends.
Therefore WHO decided yesterday, in agreement with
the Romanian authorities, to set up a fast-working
commission.

Hospital Director on Treatment for AIDS
Children

AU1110115390 Bucharest ROMPRES in English
0852 GMT 11 Oct 90

[Text] Speaking about the treatment of AIDS in chil-
dren, Dr. Adrian Streinu-Cercel, director of Bucharest’s
“Colentina” Hospital said in an interview with the daily
“ADEVARUL” that, unfortunately the AZT drug sold
by the “Welcome” company is not available in Romania.
Thirteen Romanian children were experimentally given
another medicine “FLV 23-a” by a team of eight doctors,
members of the International Foundation for Medical
Research, headed by the British Doctor David Hughes,
Dr. Adrian Streinu-Cercel said.

Referring to the protests in the “THE EUROPEAN”
weekly against the use of that medicine, Dr. Adrian
Streinu-Cercel specified: This medicine has been
approved by the National Medicine Commission, after it
was proved to have zero degree toxicity. Thus, of the
thirteen children tested, an improvement in the health
condition of four was reported, two of whom were
feeling well, in seven children no change was detected
and two died. The “Colentina” Hospital director is of
the opinion one explanation for the protests may be



Epidemiology
AIDS

JPRS-TEP-90-018 CONTENTS 28 NOVEMBER 1990

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

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
BOTSWANA
Officer Reports 30 AIDS Cases in Lobatse District [Gaborone Domestic Service, 14 Nov GO] essesvee 1
BURKINA FASO
AIDS Seminar Cites Increase in Number of Cases [Ouagadougou Domestic Service, 19 Nov 90] .. 1
CAMEROON

AIDS Breakdown by Province, Cause
[Jeanne d’Arc Kom; Yaounde CAMEROON TRIBUNE, 8-9 Jul 90] .

ETHIOPIA

Over 500 AIDS Cases in Country [Addis Ababa Domestic Service, 16 Nov 90] ... 2
GHANA
Health Secretary on Traditional AIDS Treatment Accra Domestic Service, 11 Nov 90] ... 2

IVORY COAST
Study Ranks Country No. 6 for AIDS in Africa
[Abdoulaye Sangare; Abidjan VOIX D’AFRIQUE, November 90] ..
Specialist Says 15 Percent of Deaths Due to AIDS [Abidjan Domestic Service, 23 Oct 90] ..
KENYA
Over 9,000 Deaths From AIDS [Nairobi KTN Television, 31 Oct 90] ...
MOZAMBIQUE

134 AIDS Cases in Mozambique /Maputo Domestic Service, 9 Oct 90] ....

NAMIBIA

Epidemiologist Details Country’s AIDS Figures /Johannesburg SAPA, 6 Nov 90] .
AIDS Awareness ‘Urgent’ in Caprivi Strip (Johannesburg SAPA, 18 Oct 90] ..

Rw

NIGERIA

Commentary Discusses AIDS in Country
[Demini Aladjigaoun; Lagos Domestic Service, 9 Nov 90] ...

SOUTH AFRICA

Survey—Blacks Feel Family Planning ‘Government Plot’ (Johannesburg SAPA, 19 Oct ) 5
Health Survey Shows 10,000 AIDS Cases in Johannesburg Area



JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

records the presence of the “‘anti-body,” NICED techni-
cians would have to confirm the presence of the virus by
conducting the more expensive Western Blot examina-
tion. Before running out of reagents needed for this
examination, NICED experts had tested 683 of the 811
samples provided by the Manipur health authorities and
confirmed the presence of the AIDS virus in 679 of
them. The tests are to resume later this week.

This high confirmation rate—more than 99 percent—
has stunned medical scientists. It is feared that, by the
beginning of next year, the number of virus carriers in
Manipur and other affected States of the North-East will
cross the 2,000-mark. Incidentally, the total number of
virus carriers identified throughout the country during
the past five years is slightly more than 2,000. Manipur,
alone, is expected to surpass that figure in the coming
months. Scientists believe that with the worsening situ-
ation in Manipur, the AIDS phenomenon has finally
struck roots in the country.

Unlike the AIDS scenario in the rest of the country, the
Manipur situation is considered more volatile since the
source here is intravenous injection and not blood trans-
fusion or sexual contact. Young addicts in the age group
of 15 to 35 constitute a majority of the victims. Totally
unconcerned about personal hygiene, they are sharing
the same needles and syringes thereby allowing the virus
to be transmitted easily. The syringes are often in the
form of ink dropper to which a needle is attached with a
cellophane tape. After the needle is inserted in the vein,
the dropper is pressed and the heroin solution enters the
bloodstream straightaway.

Far from using boiled water to prepare their solution of
“white sugar,” the addicts are using whatever liquid is at
hand and, sometimes, even urinating to overcome the
problem of searching for water in the jungle terrain. The
number of women affected is stated to be minimal and
forms barely 7 percent of the total number of virus
carriers as yet identified. But scientists point out that,
despite a lot of furore raised about the need to strengthen
family planning measures, the male population in
Manipur are averse to the use of condoms. If the spread
of AIDS through sexual contact is to be checked, the use
of condoms is a must.

The Centre has taken up several measures to combat the
AIDS menace in Manipur and the adjoining States on a
war footing. The unused building of a district hospital in
Imphal is being renovated and given the shape of an
AIDS treatment centre. A Central Blood Bank is being
set up at Manipur so that the blood meant for transfu-
sion is properly screened before being administered to a
patient. Quite a few “health education counselling”
centres and detoxification-clinics are planned. An epide-
mological research centre under the guidance of the
Indian Council for Medical Research, with help from the
NICED authorities and its director, Dr. S. Pal, is also
being contemplated.

NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIA 29

Patients’ Arrest Contemplated

90WD0770 Bombay THE TIMES OF INDIA
in English 17 Aug 90 p 1

[Article by Vidyadhar Date: “Bill on AIDS Patients’
Arrest”)

[Text] A bill, introduced by the former public health
minister, Dr Baliram Hiray, in the legislative council last
week, provides for arrest of AIDS patients and their
detention in segregation camps.

A patient or AIDS virus carrier, who refuses to have
necessary tests done can be arrested by a police officer
without warrant and can be taken to the nearest police
station and then to an Inspector of AIDS patients,
according to the bill.

Though this is a non-official bill, it gains importance in
view of the controversy over AIDS and the fact that Dr
Hiray is a medical practitioner, who takes a keen interest
in health issues in the legislature and is a former public
health minister.

The bill is expected to come up for discussion in the
legislative council in the winter session. It remains to be
seen how the government reacts to the bill. The health
minister, Mrs Pushpatai Hiray, is a sister-in-law and
political rival of Dr Hiray. She has accused him of
having sabotaged her campaign during the last assembly
election in the Dabhadi constituency in Nashik district.

Dr Hiray has said in the statement of objects and reasons
of the bill that the legislation was prompted by the grim
warning from the World Health Organisation. Bold steps
were necessary to prevent the spread of the deadly virus
through measures like compulsory treatment and tests
for HIV and ELISA,

The minister said he had drafted the bill after consider-
able study.

The bill provides that if the government finds that in any
area a large number of people are likely to assemble, it
may notify such areas and not allow AIDS patients to
enter such areas unless they are residents of the area.

No suit, prosecution or legal proceedings shall lie against
any officer or person in respect of anything done in good
faith under the pursuance of the Act, the bill says.

A magistrate may release a patient if the latter gives a
bond saying he or she would undergo medical treatment.

Sometime ago, Dr Avtar Singh Paintal, director of the
Indian Council of Medical Research, had created a
controversy by declaring that sexual relations between
Indian and foreigners be prohibited to save India from
the menace of AIDS.

One of the grounds on which the suggestion was opposed
was that it would violate the citizens’ right to privacy.



24 LATIN AMERICA

the disease in the general population. Hence the govern-
ment must understand that it is urgent to conduct

JPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

education campaigns directed at these women, to pre-
vent the spread of the infection at an increasing pace,”
the physician said.

Percentages of Males and Females Among Individuals Infected With AIDS

1983 to 1988 1988 to Date
Male Female Male Female
Asymptomatic carriers 79.6 20.4 114 22.6
‘Onset of ganglia 91.3 82.2 17.8
Advanced stage 94.3 89.7 10.3

Register Reflects Earlier Infection

Created three years ago, the Department of Infectious
Parasitic Diseases (DIP) of the Fundao Hospital has
already admitted about 1,000 AIDS patients, more than
90 percent of whom were male. According to Mauro
Schechter, these figures reflect only infections that
occurred eight to 10 years ago—the length of time the
virus can remain in the organism without presenting any
symptoms. The number of HIV carriers registered in the
clinic—30 percent of whom are female—presents an
even more disturbing reality, he declared.

“When we say that 1,000 people were admitted with the
disease, this reflects the rate at which the virus was being
disseminated about 10 years ago, when they must have
been infected. Meanwhile, when we see people in the
outpatient clinic who are carrying the virus, we know
that the infection occurred much more recently, and
there is no doubt that the potential for transmission
among the population is increasing.”

Confirming the Health Ministry data, according to
which the ratio between males and females dropped
from 30/1 to 8/l, the number of HIV-positive females
registered with the DIP has been growing annually.

3.5 Percent of AIDS Cases Are Children

91WE0024D Sao Paulo FOLHA DE SAO PAULO
in Portuguese 26 Sep 90 p D-1

[Text] By the end of 1994, from 4,000 to 5,000 Brazilians
under 15 years of age should have AIDS—that is, if
children continue to account for only 3.5 percent of
teported cases. This is the estimate by the Ministry of
Health. According to Eduardo Cortes, director of the
ministry’s Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
and AIDS, there are no calculations regarding the
number of children who could be infected with the AIDS
virus by the end of the period.

According to Cortes, one of the major problems in the
next few years with regard to [the impact of] AIDS in
infancy will be the AIDS orphans—healthy children of
AIDS patients. The WHO estimates that about four
million children will be in this position by the end of the
1990s. Mothers infected with the AIDS virus transmit
the disease to their children only about 30 percent of the
time.

According to Cortes, the ministry should conduct a
special education program for pregnant women and
those of child-bearing age. The program should address
such sensitive questions as the interruption of the preg-
nancy. “We are not going to leave anything out,” Cortes
declared.

Up to last August, 299 cases of AIDS in children were
reported in Sao Paulo. In 57 percent of these cases, the
disease was transmitted from mother to child; 10 chil-
dren were contaminated by the use of intravenous drugs.
There are six children interned in the Emilio Ribas
Hospital and another 200 children are being treated as
outpatients.

Highest AIDS Incidence Among Drug Users

91WE0057A Sao Paulo O ESTADO DE SAO PAULO
in Portuguese 18 Oct 90 p 22

[Text] Intravenous drug users have become the risk
group most affected by AIDS in Sao Paulo State. Of the
first 55 cases reported in September, 18 were transmitted
by contaminated syringes, while 16 were the result of
homosexual relations, In August, 54 cases resulted from
using syringes and 49 from homosexual relations.
According to the State Secretariat of Health, the Sep-
tember statistics have not been totaled yet.

AIDS in Sao Paulo

Method of Contagion 1984 1990
Homosexual 64.6 31.72
Bisexual 26.6 11.85
Heterosexual 2.56 10.13
Intravenous Drugs 31.78
Blood Transfusion 2.36
Hemophiliacs 3.8 0.89
[Perinatal] Transmission 1.72
Under Investigation 2.5 9.55

Source: AIDS Reference
Center

The new picture of the disease and the alternatives for
educating drug users began to be discussed yesterday at
the First French-Brazilian Conference on Drugs and
AIDS, at the Reboucas Convention Center in Sao Paulo.



8 SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

At the Mbabane Government Hospital only 3,658 STD
[Sexually Transmitted Diseases] cases have been
teported since the beginning of this year up to August.

Up to May this year, about 1,381 STD cases were
reported in the hospital.

But in the three months since then, the January figure
has almost doubled.

The hospital recorded 716 cases in August only and
Officials say that an accepted average is only 80-90
people a month.

Figures recorded by the hospital each month, respec-
tively, are as follows:

January - 219;
February - 326;
March - 482;
April - 401
May - 409;
June - 660;
July - 445;
August - 716.

The Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital’s assistant
administrator, Mr. Rogers Mpapane, in Manzini has
revealed that the whole of the region recorded 10,701
cases since the beginning of this year. These do not
exclude those that have been recorded by the hospital
which, Mpapane said, are not ready.

Officials say that the most prevalent of the diseses is
syphilis which is characterised by strong itching that
develops into open sores. In extreme cases, it is said,
syphilis may cause mental disorder.

Nurses in out-patient departments in hospitals around
the country are understood greatly exasperated with the
unexplained upsurge.

UGANDA

Orphans Said Increasing Due to AIDS

EA0411193590 Kampala Domestic Service in English
0400 GMT 4 Nov 90

[Excerpt] The minister of health, Mr. Zak Kaheru, has
called on the people of Uganda to pay special attention
to orphans created by the AIDS disease in the country.
He said: This is absolutely necessary, because these
children are doubly orphaned by losing both parents and
because their parents are impoverished by long illness
before death. The minister was representing Mrs. Janet
Museveni, wife of the president, at the launching of the
Kampala Branch of the Uganda Women’s Efforts To
Save Orphans, UWESO, in Kampala yesterday.

He expressed concern that as civil conflict comes to an
end, the number of orphans in the country appears to be
on the increase due to the AIDS disease. He warned that

IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

the orphans problem is likely to become worse before it
improves. He called on UWESO to increase their efforts
to meet this task. The minister also called on UWESO,
Kampala Branch, to carry out research to identify the
number and circumstances of orphans in Kampala Dis-
trict. He commended UWESO for the good work they
are doing. He said by providing education and care to
orphans and assisting other disadvantaged children,
UWESO is investing in the future of Uganda. We would
like to see UWESO, he said, move from strength to
strength. [passage omitted].

Museveni on Economic Growth, AIDS

EA1611221890 Kampala Domestic Service in English
0700 GMT 15 Nov 90

[Text] President Yoweri Museveni has assured the
people of Mpigi that Uganda’s economic growth is on an
upward trend, and it is up to the people themselves to
use the already established infrastructure to enhance
all-round development. Addressing public rallies at
Kasangati and Kakiri, Mr. Museveni said that since
1987 Uganda’s economic growth rate has been at six to
seven percent which is among the highest in Africa. He
said that if people stop haphazard planning and look for
alternative profitable crops to grow, individuals will do
themselves a lot of good in terms of economic advance-
ment. He said that due to good planning by government,
a firm foundation in terms of road construction, secu-
rity, rehabilitation of factories, water, and electricity has
been made and it should be exploited by the people
themselves for their own benefit.

Mr. Museveni said that now that the security situation
country- wide has improved, most of the developmental
Projects can be carried out successfully. He told the
people to use the RC [Resistance Council] system in
solving their problems, adding that the RC system is an
easy and fast channel of solving problems from the grass
root to higher levels. He called on the people of Mpigi
District to assist and encourage the re- afforestation
program when government and RCS start on it, because
vegetation cover helps to preserve water in the soil.

Speaking about health, Mr. Museveni said that about 90
percent of the diseases are caused by ignorance. He
called on the people to concentrate on preventive mea-
sures by ensuring hygiene, good nutrition, and immuni-
zation. He added that government is, however, ensuring
steady improvement of the existing health centers. He
cautioned the people in general, and especially the young
generation, about the dangers of AIDS. He called on
teenagers to avoid pre-marital sexual involvement and
stressed the need for AIDS tests before marriage. He
stressed that parents should be strict and frank with their
children as far as this deadly disease is concerned.



PS

IJPRS-TEP-90-018
28 November 1990

AIDS Kills 10 in Gokwe District Since January

MB2210123990 Johannesburg SAPA in English
1217 GMT 22 Oct 90

[Text] Gweru —Ten people have died from AIDS in the
Gokwe district of Zimbabwe this year, according to the
district medical officer, Dr. Johnson Dongijena.

ZIANA national news agency reports that five people
died in the past three months, and more are likely to die
before the end of the year, he said.

Dr. Dongijena said besides the 10 deaths, a total of 140
people had tested HIV positive since January.

The disease was first reported in Gokwe late last year,
and Dr. Dongijena said statistics so far showed that it
was increasing at an alarming rate.

“The number of AIDS-related deaths will have trebled
by the end of this year if Gokwe residents do not change
their highly promiscuous sexual behaviour,” he said.

Dr. Dongijena also said the worsening malaria situation
in Gokwe over the past few years had forced health
officials to concentrate on Malaria-control and preven-
tion, thereby failing to mobilise and implement the
anti-AIDS awareness and control campaigns.

He called for a united front in the fight against AIDS.

“Everything should not be left to the ministry of health.
Everyone, including village heads, should be actively
involved in the fight,” he said.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 11

Health Minister Notes AIDS Figures

MB0811092590 Johannesburg SAPA in English
0840 GMT 8 Nov 90

[Text] Harare—About 25 percent of Zimbabweans now
dying of AIDS are monogamous, faithful wives who had
the disease passed on to them by their promiscuous
husbands, according to minister of health Dr. Timothy
Stamps.

He told parliament late on Wednesday [7 Nov] about
half of the 5,086 patients reported with full-blown AIDS
by the end of Septmber were men and women “of loose
morals”, and that half of all the women with AIDS,
slightly less than half of the full cumulative total, had it
passed on to them by their husbands.

The remaining 25 percent of the total were children in
the 0-4 age group who had it transmitted to them by their
infected mothers, he said.

Zimbabwe has Africa’s fifth highest number of AIDS
cases listed by the World Health Organisation, but in
recent months has overtaken Zambia, previously consid-
ered one of the worst infected nations on the continent.

However, health experts caution that Zimbabwe’s statis-
tics are largely the result of more sophisticated reporting
and diagnostic facilities.

The number of AIDS cases reported has more than
doubled since the end of the first quarter this year, when
2,357 were reported, while the ministry of health esti-
mates that the reported cases are less than a third of the
real number, and that about 17,500 Zimbabweans are
currently stricken with AIDS.