Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:57:16 +0500 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/17/96 AIDS Daily Summary April 17, 1996 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 National AIDS Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "Real Estate: A Consolidation of Offices for the Gay Men's Health Crisis in a New Lease on West 24th Street" "Across the USA: New York" "Across the USA: Nebraska" "63,000 AIDS Cases Reported in Kenya" "Repeat HIV Tests Reassure Thousands of Britons" "UPI World Issues: Indonesia AIDS at a Glance" "Japan Provides Anti-TB Medicines to Nepal" "HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Programs for Adults in Prisons and Jails and Juveniles in Confinement Facilities--United States, 1994" "Russian Region to Protect HIV-Infected" ************************************************************ "Real Estate: A Consolidation of Offices for the Gay Men's Health Crisis in a New Lease on West 24th Street" New York Times (04/17/96) P. D22; Rothstein, Mervyn The Gay Men's Health Crisis, the nation's oldest and largest AIDS service organization, will consolidate its offices into a newly leased 150,000 square-foot building at 199 West 24th Street. The organization's facilities are now spread out at five sites in the Chelsea/Midtown South area of Manhattan. Mark Robinson, the group's executive director, said it had decided to stay in the Chelsea area because it was the organization's first home and because it is convenient to most clients. The organization may collaborate with a medical center to provide on-site medical care. Robinson said no money set aside for programs would be used for renovation and construction. A campaign to raise capital funds is underway, and the move to the new building is expected to be completed within a year. Louis Bradbury, the board president, said the move would improve services and save the group money in facility costs. He said the organization would now be able to open the David Geffen Center for HIV Prevention and Health Education. "Across the USA: New York" USA Today (04/17/96) P. 11A AIDS will leave 58,000 children in New York motherless by 2001, researchers at City University of New York Medical School estimate. Nine out of 10 of the children will be black or Hispanic. "Across the USA: Nebraska" USA Today (04/17/96) P. 11A Although men who have sex with men are still the largest group in the state at risk for HIV, HIV infection among women, heterosexuals, and minorities is increasing in the state, Nebraska authorities report. "63,000 AIDS Cases Reported in Kenya" Xinhua News Service (04/17/96) Kenya has reported 63,000 AIDS cases since 1964, Nyanza Provincial Medical Officer Richard Muga told attendees at a workshop on AIDS and sexually transmitted disease on Tuesday. Of the total number, 14,000 AIDS cases were in the Nyanza Province. Muga said that unless measures are taken to fight the disease, Kenya's work force will be hurt. Most people affected by AIDS are in their most productive years, Muga said, adding that AIDS has led to discrimination by insurance companies, early retirement, dismissals of employees from work, and rejection by fellow workers. "Repeat HIV Tests Reassure Thousands of Britons" Reuters (04/16/96) Thousands of Britons, anxious about the reliability of HIV test results they have received, have now been reassured of their accuracy, the government said Monday. Health minister John Bowis told Parliament that out of 25,000 samples tested with a questionable test kit, more than 90 percent had been re-tested, and all but three were reconfirmed as negative. Britain ordered re-tests for blood that was initially screened with a kit made by Abbott Laboratories following reports that the test missed four cases of HIV infection. "UPI World Issues: Indonesia AIDS at a Glance" United Press International (04/16/96) The sex trade in Indonesia is thought to be largely responsible for the rapid increase in the country's number of HIV infections and AIDS cases. However, a two-year-old program that promotes AIDS awareness among prostitutes in Jakarta is resulting in dramatic improvement in condom use. A total of 380 cases of HIV or AIDS have been reported in the country, but experts say the number of cases could be as high as 200,000. As in most Asian countries, in Indonesia the virus is spread primarily through heterosexual contact. "Japan Provides Anti-TB Medicines to Nepal" Xinhua News Service (04/16/96) The Japanese government has donated nearly $750,000 worth of anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs to Nepal through the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The medicines, to be distributed to all 75 districts of the country through the national TB control project, would meet 90 percent of Nepal's total yearly demand for TB treatment. "HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Programs for Adults in Prisons and Jails and Juveniles in Confinement Facilities--United States, 1994" Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (04/05/96) Vol. 45, No. 13, P. 268; Hammett, T.M.; Widom, R. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that a 1994 survey of federal, state, and some local prison systems identified a need to increase HIV/AIDS education and prevention among adult male inmates and confined juveniles. In the adult prison and jail population, the AIDS rate was nearly six times that of the total U.S. adult population. HIV education programs in the jails included peer-led programs, lectures, discussions, videotapes, and written materials, though the percentage of systems providing instructor-led programs decreased to 75 percent in 1994. The survey found a small number of AIDS cases in the juvenile systems surveyed, but the rate of gonorrhea--an indicator of high-risk sexual activity--was much higher than the rate in the general population. The facilities offered peer- and instructor-led programs, as well as audio-visual and written materials. An editorial accompanying the NIJ/CDC study points out that HIV education is especially important for inmates and confined juveniles because they are vulnerable to HIV and could spread it in the community. The authors therefore advocate interactive education, counseling, testing, and providing condoms and bleach in the facilities. "Russian Region to Protect HIV-Infected" American Medical News (04/08/96) Vol. 39, No. 14, P. 25 Lawmakers in the republic of Kalmykia, the site of Russia's first major AIDS outbreak, have approved legislation to guarantee people with HIV free medical care, priority housing, education and employment. Beginning in 1988, an AIDS epidemic spread through hospitals in the southern Russian region, infecting 260 infants. The wave began when a man who had been infected in Africa infected his wife, who passed the virus on to her child. The child was hospitalized in Elista, the Kalmyk capital, and doctors further spread the virus by re-using tainted syringes.