AIDS Daily Summary November 3, 1993 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1993, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD "AIDS Not Mentioned for Fear of Suicide" Toronto Globe and Mail (Canada) (11/02/93) P. A16 (Downey, Donn) The doctor who treated a man who died of AIDS-related causes in March 1990 testified in court that he did not inform Kenneth Pittman that he was at risk for infection because he feared his patient would become suicidal. Dr. Stanley Bain testified Monday at the civil trial launched by Pittman's family against him, Toronto General Hospital, and the Canadian Red Cross Society. "I felt that Ken would not have been able to handle it," he said, noting that there was considerable stigma affiliated with the AIDS disease. Bain said that Pittman had already lost his job, and felt abandoned by friends. Since Pittman developed a heart condition in 1982, said the physician, he could not recall his patient "not being depressed." Bain also cited a survey concluding that men aged 29 to 59 with HIV were 60 times more likely to commit suicide. Although he was concerned about the risk Pittman posed to his wife, Bain went over his patient's records, which indicated that in 1988 Pittman told his doctor that he was not sexually active. Rochelle Pittman has since tested positive for HIV and maintains that she and her husband had an active sex life up until a few months before his death. Pittman received transfusions during heart surgery in 1984, and the donor later tested positive for the AIDS virus. After Bain was notified, he was advised that the decision to inform Pittman was at his own clinical discretion. Uncertain whether his patient had even been infected, with no effective treatment available if he had been, and given Pittman's emotional frame of mind, Bain chose not to notify his patient. "Germany--Tainted Blood" Associated Press (11/02/93) (Thorson, Larry) Berlin--In the latest development in Germany's AIDS-contaminated blood scandal, police Tuesday arrested two more employees of a blood products company and hospitals throughout the country sorted through files in search of patients who may have been infected. In western Germany, police in Koblenz arrested the laboratory physician and the controls manager at UB Plasma, the company charged last week with saving money by conducting inadequate tests for HIV. Although reliable tests were available in 1985, the staff at UB Plasma allegedly mixed blood donations, thus rendering test results uncertain. Since it was discovered Thursday that blood products may have been tainted, at least one new case of infection has surfaced. That case is a Bosnian child who received 60 blood products while being treated for cancer at a hospital in Frankfurt. Officials say risk of infection is low, but urge HIV testing for anyone who received transfusions or other blood products. "On the Front Lines in AIDS War" Toronto Globe and Mail (Canada) (11/02/93) P. A5 (Picard, Andre) Medecins de coeur (Doctors With Heart), a new, rare film about AIDS, premiered recently. By Tahani Rached of the National Film Board, this film differs from others about the disease in that it is not about death. The film is in intimate look at the ethical, mental, and physical pain of compassionate physicians and their plea for tolerance, understanding, and the need for society to treat dying AIDS patients with dignity. Rached's film revolves around the staff of L'Actuel medical clinic in downtown Montreal. The center, which now treats more than 3,000 patients with HIV/AIDS, was founded in 1984 by Dr. Clement Olivier; Dr. Michael Marchand, who has since died from AIDS; and current chairman Dr. Rejean Thomas. Olivier compares the emotional roller coaster upon which AIDS doctors ride to bungee jumping. This morality leads the co-founders and their colleagues to take stances that are seemingly radical. They oppose mandatory disclosure of positive HIV tests, promote sexual equality as a way of stemming infection rates, and state bluntly that condoms cannot be eroticized. Medecins de couer examines their philosophies and their work with AIDS patients. The film summarizes the ugly realties of the disease and ends with the L'Actuel staff burying Dr. Michael Marchand. "National Leadership Coalition on AIDS to Honor Union President; Public Employee Union Has Educated More Than 7,500 Union Members Since 1983" PR Newswire (11/02/93) Washington--This month, the National Leadership Coalition on AIDS will honor Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), for his union's early efforts to educate AFSCME employees and members about the deadly AIDS disease. "I urge corporate CEOs and union presidents to implement an AIDS policy that mandates education for every worker in America," says McEntee. "Without such a policy our members and employees will not know that they can come to their union when they need us the most. After all, that is what unions are all about." AFSCME was the first labor organization to incorporate an AIDS policy for international union staff members. That policy focuses on non-discrimination in hiring, job assignment, promotion, eligibility for benefits, performance appraisals, or the termination of infected employees solely because of their condition. AFSCME estimates that it conducts more than 30 workshops and conferences nationwide each year. The union was also instrumental in shaping "Business and Labor Responds to AIDS," a public awareness/education program initiated by the Centers for Disease Control. "Frank Russo Guild: AIDS Guild Corrals Support for Western Hoe-Down; Dale Chihuly, Seattle Supersonics Donate Collector Auction Items" PR Newswire (11/02/93) Seattle--Encouraged by the success of last year's fundraiser, the Frank Russo Guild will host its second annual Hoe-Down on Saturday, Nov. 6. Complete with a live band, line dancing, and buffet, the AIDS organization hopes to reach its goal of $30,000 to support programs for people living with AIDS. The event features auctions that include donations from internationally acclaimed artist Dale Chihuly, who contributed a $10,000 sculpture and a signed Venetian painting. Other items to be auctioned are a basketball autographed by the 1993 Seattle Supersonics, a rare 75-year-old West African Janus headpiece, and two round-trip tickets to New York, including a two-night stay at the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel. Proceeds will benefit Seattle's Bailey-Boushay House, the country's first skilled nursing facility that was planned, financed, built, and staffed for the sole purpose of meeting the needs of AIDS patients. Children's Orthopedic Hospital, which runs a "one-stop" health center for women and children infected and affected by HIV, will also benefit from the event. The Frank Russo Guild was founded in June 1992, and named for the manager of an engineering firm who died of AIDS in 1991. "Verex Reports Start of Aztec Phase III Clinical Trials for Treatment of AIDS and HIV Viral Infections" PR Newswire (11/01/93) Englewood, Colo.--Verex Laboratories Inc. has begun a major Phase III clinical trial of Aztec, its new AIDS drug. The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Aztec against Retrovir, the only currently approved first-line HIV/AIDS treatment drug. Aztec is an AZT-based, twice daily, controlled release formulation which, in Phase II trials, proved to be more tolerable and produce fewer adverse side effects than the immediate release formulation that is currently available. The study design involves 200 or more patients in a double blind study being conducted concurrently in eight locations in the United States. Patients will be enrolled for an 18-week period, during which they will receive either Retrovir or Aztec in a randomized manner. The study is being directed by Dr. Alan Hollister of the University of Colorado Health Science Center in Denver, and is expected to last for six to eight months. "Research Confirms Effectiveness of Condoms in Preventing HIV" AIDS Alert (10/93) Vol.8, No. 10, P. 160 Two new studies tighten evidence that consistent use of condoms effectively lowers the risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. In one study of couples where one partner was HIV-positive and one was not, none of the 123 partners who used condoms with each act of intercourse for two years became infected. Of 122 uninfected partners who used condoms inconsistently, 12 contracted the virus. The other study of HIV-positive men and their HIV-negative female partners indicated that 2 percent of consistent condom users became infected in comparison to 15 percent of inconsistent condom users. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that latex condoms not only serve as a barrier to HIV particles, they also reduce the risk of gonorrhea, herpes, genital ulcers, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Recent laboratory studies conclude that latex condoms are an effective barrier to HIV, while natural-membrane condoms have been shown to leak the virus. "Health Plan Removes AIDS Benefits Cap" Business Insurance (10/25/93) Vol. 27, No. 44, P. 2 (Wojcik, Joanne) The Allied Services Division Welfare Fund, which provides health care coverage to union members employed by 20 companies nationwide, has agreed to settle one of the first lawsuits brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by lifting a cap it imposed on AIDS benefits. The EEOC had charged that the $5,000 cap on payments for AIDS treatment was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The self-insured fund had reduced the lifetime cap on AIDS coverage from $300,000 to $5,000 following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to review a similar case that had found that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act did not prohibit a self-insured employer from capping coverages for AIDS, according to EEOC attorney Pamela Thomason. "Crack Users' Cracked Lips: An Additional HIV Risk Factor" American Journal of Public Health (10/93) Vol. 83, No. 10, P. 1490 (Porter, Judith and Bonilla, Louis) The use of crack cocaine has been implicated as a risk factor in the spread of the AIDS virus through sexual activity, more specifically sex as payment for the drug. Judith Porter of the Bryn Mawr Department of Sociology and Louis Bonilla of Princeton University suggest that the actual process of smoking crack may be a risk factor. For the past year and a half, Porter and Bonilla volunteered as AIDS educators and street outreach workers in a low-income black and Latino area high in drug sale and abuse. Crack users who attended their weekly presentations at detoxification centers, or whom they encountered in crack houses, often informed them of the risk of smoking crack. First, commercially made pipes are too expensive, so many users have switched to metal "straight shooters," or pieces of car antennas to smoke. Since the metal transmits the heat that vaporizes the crack, the metal becomes heated and burns or blisters the lips of the user. Glass pipes often splinter or chip, cutting the smoker's lips. Because crack stems are shared, exposed blood on the smoking instruments resulting from cracked, cut, blistered, and burned lips opens an avenue of transmission for HIV-infected blood. There is also increased risk for AIDS during oral sex, which often occurs in crack houses, when a crack user's lips are cut and blistered. "AIDS and the Public Health" Lancet (Great Britain) (10/16/93) Vol. 342, No. 8877, P. 942 (Giesecke, Johan) There are two extreme views on the public health strategy to fight AIDS, with actual policy of most countries falling somewhere in between, according to Johan Giesecke of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huddinge Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. The first school of thought is that, in countries plagued by AIDS, all persons should behave as if they or their partners are infected with the virus. An individual's HIV status is irrelevant, and screening for the virus does not improve prevention. Information and education are the sole tools with which the public health arms itself. The other view holds that the best way to avoid AIDS is to localize infected persons, track chains of infection, and try to minimize transmission from infected individuals to vulnerable persons. HIV is necessary for the identification of infected people who are free of symptoms. Cuba, where testing is mandated and HIV-infected individuals are placed in a sanitarium, is the only country to adopt the second view. "Love at First Sight" Advocate (10/19/93) No.640, P. 35 (Bull, Chris) While AIDS is the leading cause of mortality of young people in five states, and is running rampant globally, activists charge that political pressures have prevented the Centers for Disease Control from responding in an adequate and effective fashion. But with Dr. David Satcher taking over as executive director of the agency in January, the activists expect a heightened response to the epidemic. They were encouraged by an article that Satcher published in a Meharry Medical College journal. In that piece, Satcher wrote of the country's need to target "education and counseling of high-risk individuals, based on sexual preferences, practices, or history of drug abuse." These are exactly the type of programs activists say they have been encouraging the CDC to implement. "I suspect that Satcher will be more sensitive to gay men of color..." speculated Kerrington Osborne, of the National Task Force of AIDS Prevention, an education organization for black and Hispanic homosexual men. Daniel T. Bross of the AIDS Action Council comments, "Dr. Satcher is a longtime advocate for community medicine and will bring much-needed leadership to the CDC in strengthening the community-based response to the AIDS epidemic." ------- End of Forwarded Message