Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 05/12/95

From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/[email-masked]
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 09:40:18 +0500

AIDS Daily Summary
                        May 12, 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

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"What's News: U.S. Officials"
"Staff Found to Fill Gaps at AIDS Clinic"
"Overhaul for AIDS Effort"
"Worker with AIDS Sues Bell Atlantic"
"Administration Unveils Proposal to Cut 2,400 HHS Jobs in 5
Years"
"AIDS Challenges Road Deaths as Killer in Italy"
"Across the USA: Rhode Island"
"Tried to Warn People of Plot, Former Tan Confidante Says"
"Anomaly Admitted in 'First' AIDS Case"
"HIV-1 Subtypes and Male-to-Female Transmission in Thailand"
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"What's News: U.S. Officials"
Wall Street Journal (05/12/95) P. A1
     In a surprise move, U.S. officials have ended the anonymous
testing of newborns for HIV.  The cancellation of the HIV testing
was announced at a congressional hearing shortly before a
congressman urged Congress to require authorities to inform all
mothers of the results of the tests, which have been conducted
anonymously in 45 states since 1988.  Related Stories: Washington
Times (05/12) P. A12; Philadelphia Inquirer (05/12) P. A29;
Baltimore Sun (05/12) P. 25A

"Staff Found to Fill Gaps at AIDS Clinic"
Washington Post (05/12/95) P. C2;  Goldstein, Amy
     At the request of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, D.C.
General Hospital has temporarily reassigned physicians to work in
it AIDS clinic.  As of today, a specialist in infectious diseases
and two general internists with AIDS experience will join the
clinic, filling a void left last week when two of the clinic's
three physicians quit.  Hospital officials say they are trying to
recruit replacements, a task that some believe will be difficult.
The AIDS clinic treats 800 low-income patients, many of whom are
in the advanced stages of AIDS.  Related Story: Washington Times
(05/12) P. C6

"Overhaul for AIDS Effort"
Financial Times (05/12/95) P. 4;  Williams, Frances
     Prompted by donor fatigue and confusing AIDS initiatives, six
international organizations will co-sponsor a single United
Nations (UN) agency to spearhead the global AIDS effort.  The
Joint UN Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) will be completely
operational by January 1996.  UNAIDS--which will be financed by
the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and various
UN agencies--will have fewer employees and less money than the
programs it will replace, including the WHO AIDS program.  Dr.
Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said this week that the
change was inevitable because donor countries most affected by
AIDS had become fed up by different agencies promoting their own
programs and giving conflicting policy advice.  Piot's goal is
"to make UNAIDS a more efficient, more client-friendly
programme."  Piot is hoping for an annual budget of about $70
million, approximately the same as the current WHO AIDS budget.
There are fears, however, that the program will find itself
underfunded, particularly if the United States is forced by
Congress to make drastic reductions in its payments to the UN.

"Worker with AIDS Sues Bell Atlantic"
Baltimore Sun (05/12/95) P. 12C;  Dresser, Michael
     An employee of Bell Atlantic Corp. who has AIDS has sued the
company, alleging that it has violated federal pension law and
the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to cash out her
disability pension.  Tema S. Gerhardt, who has worked for the
company since 1979, says she was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 but
continued to work until her illness forced her to go on
disability last June.  Gerhardt, formerly Tema Luft, became
well-known in the Baltimore area in the late 1980s after she
became one of the first women in the United States to publicly
disclose that she had contracted HIV through heterosexual sex.
Gerhardt is joined in the suit by her husband, the executive vice
president of Local 2100 of the Communications Workers of America
(CWA), which represents Bell Atlantic employees.  The suit claims
that Bell Atlantic agreed during 1992 negotiations with CWA to
let employees retire in 1994 and 1995 and take their disability
and other pensions as a lump sum instead of monthly payments.
Bell Atlantic later changed the policy to exclude the disability
pensions from the cash-out option, which violates the company's
collective bargaining with CWA and illegally treats disabled
people differently from other employees, the lawsuit claims.

"Administration Unveils Proposal to Cut 2,400 HHS Jobs in 5
Years"
Washington Post (On Thursday, Vice President Al Gore and
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna E.
Shalala announced that HHS intends to reduce its work force by
2,400 jobs over five years.  The proposal, which is part of
Gore's plan to "reinvent government," would save $453 million by
the year 2000.  Shalala said that current employees would not
lose their jobs; positions would be eliminated only after a
worker quits or retires.  One part of the plan would consolidate
107 health grant, training, and service programs in several
Public Health Service agencies into five "performance partnership
grants."  These partnership grants would include AIDS services,
mental health, substance abuse, and immunizations.) P. A23;
Rich, Spencer

"AIDS Challenges Road Deaths as Killer in Italy"
Reuters (05/12/95)
     According to Italy's statistics institute ISTAT, AIDS is becoming
as big a killer in Italy as road accidents.  An estimated 4,370
Italians died from AIDS last year, compared to some 6,000 deaths
on the roads, ISTAT's annual report said.  "For young males aged
between 18 and 29 AIDS has become the second cause of death after
road accidents, overtaking drugs," the report noted.  In 1992,
the last year for which statistics are available, road accidents
caused 35 percent of deaths among males in that age group.  AIDS
was the second largest cause of death, with 9.9 percent of deaths
attributed to the disease.  ISTAT estimated that the number of
HIV-infected Italians was at least 100,000.

"Across the USA: Rhode Island"
USA Today (05/12/95) P. 12A
     Under legislation passed by the Rhode Island House, most
convicted sex offenders would be required to be tested for HIV
and to give the results to their victims.  The bill now goes to
the Senate.

"Tried to Warn People of Plot, Former Tan Confidante Says"
Toronto Globe and Mail (05/11/95) P. A4;  Feschuk, Scott
     Rachel Deitch--Marilyn Tan's former best friend--testified on
Wednesday that she tried to warn several people that Tan was
planning to inject her lover with HIV-infected blood, but that no
one believed her.  Deitch said she considered warning Conrad
Boland, the target of Tan's plot, but did not because she was
afraid he would not believe her because he did not like her.
Under cross-examination, Deitch said she eventually told Boland
that he had twice been injected with tainted blood because she
feared for her life.  She said she was afraid that Tan's sister,
who supplied the infected blood, would kill her because Deitch
knew that Tan had injected Boland in April and June of 1992.
This trial marks the first time in North America that anyone has
been charged with injecting a person with HIV-infected blood.

"Anomaly Admitted in 'First' AIDS Case"
Nature (05/04/95) 375, No. 6526, P. 4;  Masood, Ehsan
     The identification of the world's first AIDS patient as a
25-year-old apprentice printer who died in Britain in 1959 has
recently been called into question.  In a co-authored letter to
The Lancet, Gerald Corbitt--director of clinical virology at the
Manchester Royal Infirmary--admitted he knew that his results may
have been anomalous, even at the time of analysis.  He also
acknowledged that he was aware in 1992 that the apprentice could
not have died of AIDS because the HIV detected in tissue samples
in 1990 were from "a relatively modern strain."  When asked why
he failed to publish his doubts about the findings sooner, and
thus clarify the confusion over the identity of the first AIDS
case, Corbitt said he saw no reason to do so.  Corbitt claimed
that his original 1990 letter to The Lancet was not intended as
"a peer-reviewed article" on the origin of AIDS.  He said the
apprentice's tissue was analyzed only "to see whether we could
use PCR [polymerase chain reaction] on archival material."

"HIV-1 Subtypes and Male-to-Female Transmission in Thailand"
Lancet (04/29/95) Vol. 345, No. 8957, P. 1078;  Kunanusont,
Chaiyos;  Foy, Hjordis M.;  Kreiss, Joan K. et al.
     In a case-control study, Kunanusont et al. studied the risk
factors for heterosexual transmission of HIV among couples in
Thailand.  Of the 90 HIV-infected men and their partners who were
enrolled at the immune clinic of Chulalongkorn Hospital, 92
percent of the male index cases were infected with HIV-1 serotype
A (subtype E).  Most of the index cases were acquired through
heterosexual sex.  Of the 95 couples who were enrolled at various
detoxification clinics, 79 percent were infected with HIV-1
serotype B (subtype B).  The majority of these males had acquired
HIV through intravenous drug use.  Overall, the HIV
seroconcordance level was significantly higher in the immune
clinic than in the drug clinics.  The rate was also much higher
among couples in which the male was infected with serotype A,
compared to serotype B.  According to the authors, the findings
indicate that HIV-1 subtype E may be linked to a higher risk of
heterosexual transmission than subtype B.  If this is true, they
conclude, subtype E's predominance in Thailand may have advanced
the spread of the virus.