Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 09:46:05 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 06/14/95 AIDS Daily Summary June 14, 1995 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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "Advisory AIDS Panel to Be Announced" "Indonesia Warns of Economic Threat of AIDS" "Dentist Pays Fine over Treatment of HIV Patients" "White House Strongly Opposes Defense Bill" "Search for HIV-1 Group O Infection in Nigeria" "HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, and Tuberculosis Testing at Community Sites in Upstate New York" "Blood Safety" ************************************************************ "Advisory AIDS Panel to Be Announced" Baltimore Sun (06/14/95) P. 10A The Clinton Administration met with 45 gay and lesbian elected officials on Tuesday, and prepared to announce a new presidential AIDS panel. The 30-member panel, which will be announced on Thursday, will advise the President and AIDS policy director Patricia S. Fleming on how to support AIDS research and care. An administration official said that at least six of the members are homosexual and at least as many are HIV-positive. The most well-known member will be Bob Hattoy, the White House liaison to the Department of Interior, the official said. Hattoy, who is infected with HIV, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1992. The elected officials were briefed on homosexual issues by several senior administration officials. Overall, said the anonymous official, the audience was generally supportive of the administration's efforts of gay rights and AIDS. Related Story: New York Times (06/14) P. B7 "Indonesia Warns of Economic Threat of AIDS" Reuters (06/14/95) Treating HIV and AIDS will cost Indonesia up to $2 billion by 1999, the official Antara news agency has reported. "If the spread is not checked now, the consequences...will bring great loss to the national economy," Azwar Anas, coordinating minister for welfare, said. Azwar also said that there were 309 known cases of HIV/AIDS in the country. The World Health Organization, however, last year estimated that there were 50,000 HIV-infected people in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation. Nafsiah Mboy, an official of an Indonesian commission to coordinate efforts to fight AIDS, said that HIV has spread to most of the country's 27 provinces. "Dentist Pays Fine over Treatment of HIV Patients" Reuters (06/13/95) A New Orleans dentist will pay $120,000 in damages for refusing to treat two HIV-infected patients, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday. DOJ sued Dr. Drew Morvant in 1993 for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On March 23, the U.S. District Court in New Orleans ruled that Morvant had violated the ADA and had discriminated against people with AIDS or HIV by refusing to treat them. "This settlement, together with the court's ruling, demonstrates that such discriminatory conduct will not be tolerated," said Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick. "White House Strongly Opposes Defense Bill" Reuters (06/13/95) Claiming that it was too expensive and would restrict the President's authority to dispatch troops, the White House registered strong opposition to a $267 billion defense bill that was in the House on Tuesday. Among its complaints, the White House objected to a provision of the bill that would prohibit abortions at U.S. military hospitals and another that would discharge HIV-infected service members. Although Democrats claimed that Republicans blocked them from proposing amendments to reduce the $9.4 billion increase from the bill, the Republican-controlled House approved terms of debate that prohibit consideration of the amendments. "Search for HIV-1 Group O Infection in Nigeria" Lancet (06/03/95) Vol. 345, No. 8962, P. 1436; Dada, Abinbola; Olumide, Yetunde M.; Henrard, Denis R. et al. Dada et al. selected 248 serum samples from commercial sex workers and patients seen at clinics in Lagos to be tested for HIV-1 group O. Of the 182 samples that were reactive to an enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA), 61 were HIV western-blot positive, 73 were indeterminate, and 48 tested negative. The other 66 tested EIA negative but had varying numbers of bands. The samples were sent to Chicago's Abbott Laboratories and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for HIV-1 group O testing. At Abbott Laboratories, the samples were tested by the Clonatech HIV (1+2) EIA, which is generally non-reactive with group O. A total of 94 had negative Clonatech results. Forty of these 94 were further analyzed for type O reactivity using "consensus" group O specific peptides for the gp41 area of HIV-1, but none had group O peptide reactivity. At the CDC, the samples were screened by Genetic System's HIV 1/2 EIA. Sixty-two tested positive for HIV. These samples also had no group O reactivity when tested with EIAs based on synthetic peptides derived from the V3 loop of the envelope proteins representing group O. "HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, and Tuberculosis Testing at Community Sites in Upstate New York" American Journal of Public Health (06/95) Vol. 85, No. 6, P. 867; Chaffee, Barbara Hunter; Moehring, Shirley; Pruden, Sondra An upstate New York health team has used the principle of taking services to the people to take HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and syphilis screening out of the Broome County health department and into places where people at risk for these infections can be found. Sites include homeless shelters, drug abuse treatment centers, battered women's shelters, the local university, and a gay bar. The team--which consists of a public health nurse and public health representatives--makes regular visits to the sites, providing education, testing, and counseling. In three years, more than 3,400 people have been educated and more than 2,000 have been tested. The $28,000 grant from the New York State Department of Health paid for salaries and start-up expenses--such as visual aids, condoms for distribution, and training. The researchers believe that by taking the education and testing to the various locations, they reached more people than similar clinic-based services would have. "Blood Safety" Nature Medicine (06/95) Vol. 1, No. 6, P. 493; Grgicevic, Damir; Potocnik, Marjeta In response to a Nature Medicine article on global blood safety, Damir Grgicevic and Marjeta Potocnik defend the safety of their countries' blood transfusion systems. Grgicevic, of the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine, notes that the data for Croatia were incorrect because in Croatia, every donor has been regularly screened for HIV since 1987. Transfusion therapy in his country is considered very safe because there have been no incidences of transfusion-related HIV infection and only 3 percent of the hemophiliacs were infected with HIV by imported coagulation factor concentrates. A member of the Blood Transfusion Centre of Slovenia, Potocnik writes that mandatory HIV screening was implemented in 1986. Only blood that does not contain HIV antibodies is released for transfusion or plasma fractionation. In addition, all blood donations in Slovenia are voluntary and are performed by well-trained personnel. Potocnik concludes that blood transfusion in Slovenia is as safe as in any West European country.