Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 09:23:19 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary March 20, 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 ************************************************************ "Tobacco Firms Are Buoyed by Hemophiliac Decision" "Across the USA: California" "On-Line AIDS 'Diagnosis' Assesses Risks" "AIDS Victims Protest Violently at Italian Hospital" "Drugs Give Youth Escape from Portugal's Social Ills" "Los Angeles Stands to Lose $159 Million in Housing and Community Development Funds" "Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral Interventions" "HIV-Associated Histoplasmosis with Pulmonary Manifestations" "Further Refinements to French Blood System" "Gay Community Links and Safety" ************************************************************ "Tobacco Firms Are Buoyed by Hemophiliac Decision" Wall Street Journal (03/20/95) P. B6; Geyelin, Milo Last week, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago refused to permit a group of hemophiliacs to continue with a class-action suit alleging that they contracted HIV from blood-clotting medicine. The decision gives hope to tobacco companies fighting a class action on behalf of allegedly addicted smokers. The appeals-court panel said the two-step trial procedure could force the four pharmaceutical companies named in the suit into bankruptcy-court proceedings, causing irreparable harm, and that the class certification was an abuse of judicial discretion. The trial judge in the case designed the two-step procedure to allow one jury to first determine whether the pharmaceutical companies were negligent and, if so, to allow individual members to then pursue claims for damages. Lawyers for the approximately 20,000 hemophiliacs said they will seek a review by the full seven-member appeals court. Related Stories: New York Times (03/20) P. D1; Philadelphia Inquirer (03/18) P. A7 "Across the USA: California" USA Today (03/20/95) P. 11A In Martinez, Calif., a 24-year-old man accused of neglecting to inform a sexual partner that he was infected with HIV has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. His partner has not tested positive for HIV, and officials say she is unlikely to develop AIDS. "On-Line AIDS 'Diagnosis' Assesses Risks" Los Angeles Times (03/19/95) P. A30; Hines, Rochelle Michael Wright, a social scientist in Oklahoma, is developing a program designed to help individuals decide whether to be tested for HIV. "It occurred to me that a private, anonymous encounter with a non-judgmental computer would be a good strategy to help people make a decision about whether to be tested for HIV antibody," says Wright. The program is being developed with the help of a $357,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute's Small Business Innovation Research Program--which is interested in the research because one of the more common AIDS-related diseases is Kaposi's sarcoma, a tumor of the blood or lymphatic vessel walls. Anyone in the Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan areas can pick up a touch-tone phone, call the HIV Computer Risk Assessment Service, and talk to a computer at no charge. The computer asks the caller questions, analyzes the information supplied, and provides advice on whether that person is at risk of current HIV infection. Bill Pierson, chief of the HIV/STD Service for the Oklahoma Department of Health, says the computer is a good method of trying to reduce the number of false positives, but is concerned about whether "talking to a machine and punching some numbers is going to really alleviate the fears." "AIDS Victims Protest Violently at Italian Hospital" Reuters (03/19/95) On Sunday, approximately 50 AIDS patients demonstrated at a hospital in Naples, Italy, maiming themselves and setting fire to mattresses in a protest against hospital conditions, police said. The patients filled syringes with their blood and threatened to infect the hospital staff in a protest against scarce supplies of medicine, cramped quarters, and bad food. About 10 women slashed their lips and tongues, while other patients set mattresses on fire and threatened to throw themselves out of windows. The police said hospital officials convinced the patients to end their demonstration after meeting with them and discussing their complaints. "Drugs Give Youth Escape from Portugal's Social Ills" Reuters (03/19/95); Brough, David The increase of cocaine and heroin addiction in Portugal has led to a rise in violent crime in Lisbon and other cities. Addicts, for example, go through the cars of suburban trains begging for money with one hand and holding a used hypodermic needle in the other, with the implied threat that they will stab and infect with HIV those who do not give them money. As hard drugs have become widely available, the number of registered addicts in Portugal has quadrupled to 60,000 in the last decade. Luis Patricio--director and founder of Portugal's largest drug treatment center, the state-funded Centro das Taipas in Lisbon--said that one in five addicts who sought help at the center was HIV-positive. The fear of contracting HIV from shared needles has led many heroin and cocaine users to switch from injecting drugs to smoking them, Patricio added. The government provides free syringes to those addicts who insist on injecting. "Los Angeles Stands to Lose $159 Million in Housing and Community Development Funds" PR Newswire (03/17/95) Los Angeles may lose $159 million in federal housing and community development funds, and more than 3,000 affordable housing units if the $17 billion dollar cut in funds approved by the House is adopted by Congress. The funds being cut are "take-backs," or moneys budgeted for this year that have already been approved by Congress. The cuts include $6 million for 150 rental assistance vouchers for people with AIDS in Los Angeles, $1 million from a program called Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS, and cuts in public housing and community development block grant funds. "Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral Interventions" New England Journal of Medicine (03/02/95) Vol. 332, No. 9, P. 617; Fleming, Patricia "Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral Interventions," edited by Ralph J. DiClemente and John L. Peterson, is a series of essays detailing behavioral interventions and assessing current research on preventing HIV infection among populations including runaways, heterosexual men and women, and adolescents. The first six chapters describe behavioral-science research methods. These chapters are based on the health-beliefs model, in which change in a person's behavior occurs only if that person perceives a risk and believes that the outcome can be affected through behavior change. In the nine chapters about research on HIV prevention in populations at high risk, the authors accent what is needed and recommend methods to evaluate the outcomes. The editors call for the promotion of self-management to reduce risk at the individual level, and the promotion of sustained changes in social norms through community-level interventions. "HIV-Associated Histoplasmosis with Pulmonary Manifestations" Journal of the American Medical Association (03/08/95) Vol. 273, No. 10, P. 758k Wockel et al. present a case in which a 35-year-old man experienced a general deterioration of health--characterized by symptoms including weight loss, fever, and abdominal pain. The man learned in 1991 that he was infected with HIV. He was given tuberculostatic drugs because miliary tuberculosis was suspected. As his condition worsened, however, he was thought to have Pneumocystis pneumonia, and high doses of co-trimoxazole were administered. Acid-Schiff reaction and Grocott staining revealed several histoplasma in alveolar macrophages and connective tissue. Therapy was shifted to itraconazole, but changed to liposomal amphotericin B two weeks later because of renewed fever. After six weeks of treatment, the patient was symptom-free and the radiological changes had largely regressed. Itraconazole therapy is being continued to prevent recurrence. "Further Refinements to French Blood System" Lancet (03/04/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 577 As the final step in the reorganization of France's blood transfusion centers, the facilities will be regrouped by specialist activity--such as screening or separation of blood. Therapeutic products will be prepared in a laboratory under the control of the medicines agency. To strengthen "hemovigilance," each region will have a coordinator. Only one sensitive test will be used when screening donor blood for HIV antibodies. "Gay Community Links and Safety" Focus (02/95) Vol. 10, No. 3, P. 5; Gold, Ron S. While it is clear that links with the gay community can often be beneficial, overstating the benefits without noting the potential limitations can add to the complacency regarding HIV prevention among gay men, writes Ron S. Gold of the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, in Focus. For example, in two of four Australian studies which highlight the problem, researchers found low, but statistically significant, positive correlations between unprotected anal intercourse and links to the gay community. Optimism about the effects of community links has been helped along by the natural desire to portray the gay community in the most positive light. There has been an implicit assumption that HIV-infected men will feel a strong sense of responsibility toward their partners. The Sydney study, however, found that 31 percent of 88 HIV-positive men engaged in unprotected anal sex with the attitude that if the other person is willing to have sex without a condom, then that is his decision. Gold concludes that there exists a need to confront the possibility that the current view of the gay community is too benign, that how gay men relate to one another may often be part of the problem, not the solution.