Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 10:55:34 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary March 23, 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 ************************************************************ "Former City AIDS Official Charged" "AIDS Researcher Pursued" "Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern" "Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper" "Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS" "A Personal Story" "Swiss Law for Safer Blood" "Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools" "U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics" "Agenda: Split Personality" ************************************************************ "Former City AIDS Official Charged" Philadelphia Inquirer (03/23/95) P. A1; Gammage, Jeff Francis Stoffa Jr., former head of the Philadelphia AIDS Task Force, has been charged with the theft of more than $200,000 from the agency. "He literally stole the lives of the people he was trying to help," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham. "The people who are suffering the worst, the people with AIDS and who are HIV positive, were mistreated the worst." Stoffa left the task force last April, after a criminal investigation of its fiscal management was launched. The task force, which also went by the name of Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, provided a number of services in the city, including AIDS testing and counseling. Stoffa was expected to be arrested today on charges of theft, forgery, fraud, and other offenses, said the district attorney's office. "AIDS Researcher Pursued" Baltimore Sun (03/23/95) P. 1A; Bor, Jonathan Offering public money and research space, political and academic leaders in Maryland are trying to attract world-famous AIDS researcher Dr. Robert C. Gallo to Baltimore. Gallo's medical achievements include the discovery of two leukemia viruses, as well as crucial findings in the biology of AIDS. Gallo, who currently operates the tumor cell biology laboratory at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., would receive a joint appointment on the faculties of the University of Maryland at Baltimore's Biotechnology Institute and medical school. According to the Baltimore Sun, Gallo would receive a total of $12 million to cover the first three years of costs to establish a Center for Human Virology at the university. Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening says he expects competing states and institutions to offer more money to attract Gallo, who will likely retire from the NCI after qualifying for his pension in July. Gallo has indicated that he will examine other factors in addition to money concerning his relocation, including academic environment, lifestyle, and AIDS caseloads. "Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern" Reuters (03/22/95); Charles, Deborah Luc Montagnier, the French researcher who first identified HIV, announced at a Wednesday news conference that the increasing number of HIV-positive people in Thailand underscores the country's need to change sexual behavior. There are an estimated 750,000 people in Thailand infected with HIV, up from approximately 250,000 in 1991. Montagnier attributed the increasing rate of HIV in Thailand to prostitution and sexual promiscuity. "We need to give education in school at an age before sexual activity so the message could be taken more seriously," he said. Montagnier made the announcement in Thailand during a brief visit following the AIDS conference in Singapore. The World Health Organization announced in December that Thailand and India have the fastest growing rates of people developing AIDS. "Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper" Reuters (03/23/95) France's Liberation newspaper quoted a High Public Health Committee report in its Thursday edition which stated that French doctors must share the blame with authorities for causing hundreds of hemophiliacs to contract AIDS through HIV-tainted blood products. The Liberation said the still unpublished report blamed the crisis on doctors who collected blood donations, saying they had failed to screen donors for HIV, and therefore allowed blood products to be contaminated. Until now, doctors had avoided the blame for the mid-1980s scandal in which 1,250 hemophiliacs contracted HIV. Over 400 of those infected have since died. Two former senior health officials have been put in jail after being found guilty of fraud in connection with the distribution of tainted blood products. The two officials, as well as seven Socialist former government officials--including former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and two former ministers--are under investigation by magistrates attempting to determine if they should face the more serious charge of poisoning. They have been accused of attempting to save money by using up contaminated blood stocks rather than importing disinfected products. The Liberation also said the report blamed doctors for not demanding that authorities provide their patients with blood products disinfected by heat treatment because that new disinfection method had not been fully documented at the time. "Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS" Reuters (03/22/95) India's Ishwar Gilanda, Secretary of the Indian Health Organization (IHO), said on Wednesday that New Delhi was preoccupied with the country's political and economical problems, and was not focusing enough attention on countering the spread of HIV. Gilanda said the city of Bombay contains almost a third of the country's more than 1 million AIDS cases and 18,000 HIV cases as of Jan. 1. Gilanda said a year ago there were 600 AIDS cases and 13,000 HIV cases. He also said that a large number of cases in India are unreported, and that IHO estimates that there are currently 4 million HIV infections in the country and over 200,000 full-blown cases of AIDS. The World Health Organization, which estimates the current number of HIV cases in India between 1.5 and 2 million, projects that figure will increase to around 10 million by the year 2000, according to Gilanda. He recommended that the Indian government spend more money on education, treatment, and management of sexually transmitted diseases. "A Personal Story" Chicago Tribune (03/22/95) P. 2-3; Johnson, Steve For an experimental series of reports, Chicago's WBBM-Channel 2 has hired Rae Lewis-Thornton, an amateur reporter who has AIDS. Lewis-Thornton's reports are part of the CBS affiliate's attempts to give its broadcasts more of a community service focus. WBBM News Director John Lansing says the AIDS reports will also help break down stereotypes about HIV-positive people. Although similar projects have been initiated elsewhere, Lansing says, "Our response is, we don't think enough has been done. I worry about our kids getting a strong enough message." Lewis-Thornton, who made her condition publicly known in 1992, claims that she also wants to use her reports to confront existing stereotypes. "This is an opportunity to show women the face of another woman who is living with AIDS," she says. "Swiss Law for Safer Blood" Lancet (03/11/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 640; McGregor, Alan A mandate by the Swiss government to strengthen quality control of blood supplies, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, is still awaiting approval by the Parliament. Under the order, the Federal Public Health Office will be responsible for ensuring that all blood products and organ transplants undergo all the standardized tests, including those for HIV and hepatitis B and C. Blood donors will be required to fill out a detailed questionnaire. The Blood and AIDS working group recommended the new measures. The Ministry of Interior formed the group after it was determined that blood products supplied to hospitals by the Swiss Red Cross were the source of HIV infection in several patients. The only person to have been charged as the result of these infections is Professor Alfred Haessig, who was director of the Red Cross central laboratory at the time. He is charged with having permitted the preparation and sale of blood derivatives in which HIV contamination was a suspected possibility. "Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools" Nation's Health (03/95) Vol. 25, No. 3, P. 9 Although sexual abstinence should be encouraged, young people should have access to condoms in school, according to "Condom Availability for Youth"--a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Public health concerns necessitate the removal of barriers and restrictions to condom availability, said the report. The number of HIV-infected teens, for example, doubles every 14 months. Schools are a suitable location for teens to have access to condoms because they are likely to have a comprehensive array of related educational and health care resources. To be most effective, condom availability should be organized through a community process and be accompanied by school health programs, parental involvement, counseling, and positive peer support. "U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics" AIDS Alert (03/95) Vol. 10, No. 3, P. 43 In the first national study of hospital costs for treating HIV and tuberculosis (TB), researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than one-third of young adult TB patients were also treated for HIV or AIDS, and that co-infection significantly boosted the morbidity and cost of health care in young adults. The study used data from 1985-1990, during which time the national cost of inpatient care for HIV and TB was $8 billion--5 percent of which was spent on co-infected patients. "The increasing co-prevalence of hospital patients with both diseases is a big problem," said Dr. Lisa Rosenblum of the CDC. About 418,200 young adults were hospitalized for HIV and 77,700 for TB during the five years. A total of 16,200 were hospitalized for co-infections. Although an average of 21 percent of all TB patients were also HIV-positive, the rate increased significantly during that time, from 10.6 percent for 1985-1988 to 39 percent in 1990. The researchers found that patients with extrapulmonary TB had a higher prevalence of HIV than those with pulmonary TB. Rosenblum suggested that the higher rate of HIV with extrapulmonary TB indicates the greater risk for disseminated disease in immunocompromised patients. Another high risk factor for co-infection was drug-addiction, which affected 27 percent of co-infected patients. "Agenda: Split Personality" Advocate (03/07/95) No. 676, P. 16 AIDS has two faces in the United States--one east of the Mississippi River and one west of it--said speakers at the seventh annual AIDS Update Conference earlier this year. "In the East it more resembles what we see in the Caribbean, where it's increasingly heterosexual, hitting women, children, and minorities," said Dr. Michael Gorman of the University of Washington. He added that 80 percent of the new cases west of the Mississippi River are still gay. The geographic gap complicates AIDS prevention efforts, educators said.