Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 10:00:32 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/14/96 AIDS Daily Summary October 14, 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 ****************************************************** "Police Break Up AIDS Protest at White House" "A New Danger in the Age of AIDS" "In Age of Acupuncture and Nose Piercing, Who Can Give Blood?" "When AIDS Hits Home" "Clinton, in Detailed Interview, Calls His Health 'Very Good'" "Obituary: Janice A. Burns, 33, Who Sought a Wider Understanding of AIDS" "AIDS Program Criticized" "Marijuana Club's Founder Arrested" "Congress: Biomedical Research Wins Big" "The New Tuskegee Experiment" ****************************************************** "Police Break Up AIDS Protest at White House" Washington Post (10/14/96) P. B3 More than 300 AIDS activists took part in a demonstration at the White House Sunday to protest President Clinton's AIDS policies and to voice demands for guaranteed access to AIDS treatments, increased AIDS research, and federally funded needle exchange programs. The event, called a political funeral, was organized by ACT UP. The protesters, who marched from the Mall where the AIDS Memorial Quilt was on display, threw funeral urns over the wrought iron fence at the White House. "A New Danger in the Age of AIDS" Washington Post (10/14/96) P. A4; Tippit, Sarah The disclosure of confidential AIDS records by a Florida health worker has focused attention on new threats to the security of medical records in the information age. As computer networks, insurance databases, and computer hackers proliferate, concerns about maintaining such confidentiality have been raised. The official, William Calvert III, who was an investigator with the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, is accused of using a list of local HIV-positive residents to screen potential dates for himself and his friends. Calvert was fired last Wednesday. Investigators are now trying to determine if the list was published on the Internet or whether there is a network of AIDS information brokers. "In Age of Acupuncture and Nose Piercing, Who Can Give Blood?" Wall Street Journal (10/14/96) P. B1; Chase, Marilyn When the threat of AIDS appeared in the 1980s, the screening process for blood donors became more probing and specific. Potential blood donors are now screened for disease risks based on medical and lifestyle information. A person who has had malaria must wait at least three years to give blood, for example, and a person with a history of cancer is rejected. Donors are also rejected if they have ever injected street drugs or steroids. Practices like acupuncture, tattooing, and ear or body piercing disqualify donors for a year. The use of certain drugs also make donors ineligible for shorter time periods. The risk of contracting HIV from a blood transfusion has been reduced to as little as two in one million. "When AIDS Hits Home" Washington Post (10/12/96) P. A1; Goldstein, Amy AIDS, more than any other disease, has become a part of American society, evidenced by the numerous community groups, fund-raising efforts, and corporate sponsorships focused on AIDS. The wide acceptance of the disease in the 1990s is especially surprising because it was highly stigmatized in the 1980s. The portrayal of AIDS as universal has fueled the integration of the disease into society. However, while AIDS has become a popular social issue, the disease has spread to the margins of society. Moreover, AIDS has been increasingly linked to intravenous drug use, to poverty, and to minorities. "Clinton, in Detailed Interview, Calls His Health 'Very Good'" New York Times (10/14/96) P. A1; Altman, Lawrence K. President Clinton reports, in his first interview about his health, that he has never had a serious illness and that he would make such an illness public if he developed one while in the White House. As part of an exam for a life insurance policy, Clinton tested negative for HIV in 1990. He has not been re-tested. Clinton said he was "not in any kind of at-risk category--there is nothing I've done that would indicate that I could have become positive" for HIV. Clinton will be tested for HIV again in the future, according to White House physician Dr. E. Connie Mariano. "Obituary: Janice A. Burns, 33, Who Sought a Wider Understanding of AIDS" New York Times (10/14/96) P. A15; Saxon, Wolfgang Janice A. Burns, who worked to educate the public about AIDS through her writing and speaking, died of the disease on Sept. 28 in New York. Burns wrote "Sarah's Song" about her life with her husband William Burns, and their struggle to live with AIDS. She was active in several AIDS organizations and has spoken to thousands of high school students about her experiences. "AIDS Program Criticized" Houston Chronicle (10/11/96) P. 11A A new housing program for AIDS patients in Los Angeles has come under attack by Congressional Republicans. The program will use federal funds for the housing but will not evict people for using illegal drugs, even if the drugs are used in the facility. Critics argue that a government policy requires that any resident of public or assisted housing be evicted for drug use. "Marijuana Club's Founder Arrested" Washington Post (10/12/96) P. A15 The founder of San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers Club, which provided marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer, and other terminal diseases, was arrested Friday on charges of selling the drug to dealers. Dennis Peron, also the leader of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana for medical use, is accused of conspiracy, as well as possession and sale of marijuana. California's Attorney General Dan Lungren, who led a raid on the club in August, said five other people allegedly involved in the club are being sought on similar charges. "Congress: Biomedical Research Wins Big" Science (10/04/96) Vol. 274, No. 5284, P. 27; Marshall, Eliot; Lawler, Andrew The 1997 appropriation bill recently passed by Congress includes a 6.9 percent funding increase for the National Institutes of Health, raising the research center's budget to $12.7 billion. The total is some $330 million greater than the spending proposals offered by either the Clinton administration or the Senate. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), chair of the House appropriations subcommittee responsible for NIH's budget, wanted to take AIDS spending authority away from the NIH's Office of AIDS Research (OAR). The new bill gives OAR much of the control of AIDS funding, as well as an "estimated" budget of $1.5 billion. The directors of OAR and NIH share the authority to transfer up to 3 percent of this money from one institute to another. "The New Tuskegee Experiment" Village Voice (10/01/96) Vol. 41, No. 40, P. 8; Hentoff, Nat A new law in the state of New York, sponsored by Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn, requires that mothers be informed if their newborns test positive for HIV. Mayersohn pushed for the legislation for years, battling opponents that included the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the ACLU, and some feminists and medical societies. Jim Dwyer, a columnist for the New York Daily News, is credited for his investigative reporting, then for Newsday, on the need for mandatory testing and notification. He showed that the opposition's argument--that pregnant women could be persuaded to seek their test results voluntarily--was inadequate. Additionally, the claim that mandatory testing would keep some women from seeking health care was also countered by Dwyer, who interviewed minority women who said mandatory testing would have saved their children's lives. In an interview with Dwyer, Dr. Arthur Ammann, a specialist in pediatric AIDS, compared the anonymous testing of infants in New York to the Tuskegee experiment, in which black men with syphilis were observed, but not treated, in a government study. Amman also noted that, in 1983, the community agreed that anyone who had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion had a right to be informed. He argued that infants should have the same rights.