Public health experts predict dire consequences from House and Senate bills that would curtail immigrants' access to means-tested public programs, including Medicaid. Opponents say patients who are ill would delay seeking treatment, increasing hospital costs and the risk that communicable diseases would spread. HIV Testing Day June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. Doctors are urged to assess all patients' level of risk.
Testing is advised for anyone who has ever had unprotected sex or shared needles.
The campaign is sponsored by the National Assn. of People with AIDS and other groups to boost treatment opportunities. An FDA panel advised that patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis be given access to an experimental drug that may slow the progression to paralysis. Two studies of Myotrophin by maker Cephalon Inc. have had contradictory results. More research is planned. The city attorney has invited other California municipalities to join a lawsuit against six major tobacco companies to recover millions of dollars spent to treat victims of smoking-related illnesses.