Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:22:53 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 06/12/96 AIDS Daily Summary June 12, 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 ****************************************************** "Baltimore Plans to Use Old Mailboxes to Collect Needles From Drug Addicts" "Global Team to Track Disease" "Feds File AIDS Discrimination Claim" "AIDS Main Killer of Young, Mid-Age Copenhagen Men" "UN AIDS Team Stays in Geneva" "Mother's Message on Love and Death" "High Risk of HIV Transmission in Mentally Ill, Homeless Drug Users Persists" "PERT Assay: A More Accurate Screen for Plasma RNA HIV-1" "Of Bad Blood and Blame" "The Accurate Diagnosis of Oral Lesions in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Injection: Impact on Medical Staging" ****************************************************** "Baltimore Plans to Use Old Mailboxes to Collect Needles From Drug Addicts" Washington Times (06/12/96) P. C3 In an attempt to prevent the littering of Baltimore streets with discarded syringes, city health officials are planning to use old sidewalk mailboxes as needle drop boxes. Beginning this month, the city will turn six U.S. Postal Service mailboxes in drug-infested neighborhoods into burgundy drop boxes and urge drug addicts to deposit their needles in them. More than 1 million dirty needles litter Baltimore parks and streets each year, and officials want to reduce the risk of disease transmission for children, trash collectors, and others who may handle the needles. Baltimore has an estimated 48,000 drug users, and about 25 percent are infected with HIV. The project, which began in Florida and has been tested in such locations as Texas and Australia, will be expanded if enough needles are deposited over the next few months. "Global Team to Track Disease" USA Today (06/12/96) P. 1A; Manning, Anita The first national program to combat emerging infectious disease, which will include a global tracking and response system, encourage research, and update regulations for quarantine at U.S. ports of entry, will be announced by the Clinton administration today. The program will be led by a task force of the National Science and Technology Council. James Hughes of the National Center for Infectious Diseases called new diseases like hantavirus and Ebola, and older ones including dengue, diptheria, and cholera "wake-up calls." In the United States, the death rate from new and re-emerging infectious diseases, excluding AIDS, rose 22 percent between 1980 and 1992. "Feds File AIDS Discrimination Claim" United Press International (06/12/96) The first AIDS housing discrimination claim filed in California's Central District was brought against the operators of a mobile home park in Huntington Beach Wednesday. Shirley Lewis and her son Steven alleged that they were discriminated against when they were refused permission to live in the park, after the operators learned Steven had AIDS. Lewis had already lived in the park and wanted to bring her 39-year-old son to live with her so she could care for him. She asked the park to waive the minimum age requirement of 45 years for her son, who had become too ill to live alone. Although the park had lifted the age requirement for residents on two other occasions, it refused Lewis' request and said she would be evicted if her son continued living with her. The Lewises had filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development late in 1995, claiming that the park's management had discriminated against Steven because he had AIDS. Following an investigation into the case, HUD sided with the Lewises, saying there was "reasonable cause" to believe the park violated the Fair Housing Act by not waiving the housing rule. "AIDS Main Killer of Young, Mid-Age Copenhagen Men" Reuters (06/11/96) AIDS has become the leading killer of young and middle-aged Copenhagen men, accounting for one in four deaths, more than both heart disease and cancer. State Health Agency researchers Jan Fouchard and Hedda Bille, who reported their findings in The Danish Medical Journal on Tuesday, say the disease has reached similar proportions in other major Danish cities, due in part to the prevalence of drug-taking and risky sexual activity. The most recent AIDS survey found that 1,547 Danes had full-blown AIDS, and 91 percent were men. "UN AIDS Team Stays in Geneva" Reuters (06/11/96) The United Nations AIDS Program, organized on Jan. 1, announced Tuesday that it has decided to remain in Geneva, rejecting the French city of Lyon's offer of free office space. The new agency was formed to bring together six U.N. groups, including the World Health Organization's AIDS program, which is based in Geneva. The Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS has 70 staff members and a two-year budget of $140 million. "Mother's Message on Love and Death" New York Times (06/12/96) P. C18; O'Connor, John J. Tonight's episode of the HBO series "Family Video Diaries" features a video diary made by a Staten Island mother dying of AIDS. Sandra Billups, the 29-year-old mother, made the video for her 8-year-old daughter Yolanda, whose father died of AIDS when she was a baby. The video shows the love between the mother and daughter, as well as the support of an organization called Project Hospitality. "High Risk of HIV Transmission in Mentally Ill, Homeless Drug Users Persists" Reuters (06/11/96) Mentally ill injection drug users continue to practice behaviors that put them at risk for HIV infection, researchers report in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Ezra Susser and colleagues at Columbia University conducted interviews with 50 homeless men, all of them mentally ill injection drug users who lived in a New York City shelter. The majority reported high-risk injection drug use behaviors, including sharing needles. High risk sexual behavior, including unprotected anal sex, was also common among the men. Susser concluded that efforts to reduce risk among this group are needed. "PERT Assay: A More Accurate Screen for Plasma RNA HIV-1" Reuters (06/11/96) A new test, the product-enhanced reverse transcriptase (PERT) assay, provides a more accurate measure of the plasma level of HIV-1 RNA than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, a team of Swiss researchers report. Jurg Boni and colleagues at the University of Zurich found that the PERT assay, which can detect less than 100 HIV-1 particles per milliliter, to be more sensitive than the PCR assay. "Of Bad Blood and Blame" Maclean's (06/03/96) Vol 109, No. 23; P. 14; Jenish, D'Arcy The federal inquiry into Canada's tainted-blood tragedy, which left more than 1,000 people infected with HIV, is being delayed by a legal challenge brought by the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) Society, the federal government, provinces, former health ministers, and others. The delay, which could last months or years, has left victims and their families wondering if they will ever learn the truth. The Red Cross and other groups are challenging Judge Horace Krever's authority to assign blame to any person in his report, because they say such findings would turn the inquiry into a trial and violate the rights of the organizations and individuals implicated. Victims' groups say the challenge is an attempt to keep Krever from ever issuing a final report. Representatives of the CRC say findings of misconduct should not be allowed because they could lead to civil or criminal suits. In notices of misconduct sent by inquiry lawyers to the CRC, the organization was cited for delaying measures to ensure a safer blood supply. The tragedy has resulted in a loss of public confidence in the blood system, and a decline in blood donations. The CRC has taken steps to improve the safety of the blood supply, however, and its officials now say Canada has one of the safest blood systems in the world. "The Accurate Diagnosis of Oral Lesions in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Injection: Impact on Medical Staging" Journal of the American Medical Association (06/05/96) Vol. 275, No. 21; P. 1616; Cruz, Gustavo D. To determine how often medical and dental examiners identified oral candidiasis (OC) and oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL), as well as the impact of these diagnoses on the medical staging of HIV, researchers analyzed medical records from 245 individuals. The participants were homosexual men as well as men and women who were parenteral drug users living in New York City. Gustavo D. Cruz and colleagues at Columbia University report that among homosexual men, the oral/dental examiners diagnosed OC in 11 percent of the individuals and the medical examiners in 4 percent. Among the same group, OHL was diagnosed by the oral/dental examiners in 14 percent of the individuals and by the medical examiners in 8 percent. The oral/dental practitioners consistently diagnosed both conditions more frequently than the medical examiners. The diagnoses affected the medical staging of 12 percent of the HIV-positive homosexual men and 22 percent of the HIV-positive drug users. The researchers concluded that specific training and a comprehensive oral exam have a significant impact on the diagnoses of OC and OHL, and on the medical staging of individuals with HIV. This research was reported in the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery.