From: "Flynn Mclean" Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 10:06:38 -0400 Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/23/96 AIDS Daily Summary October 23, 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 ****************************************************** "Blacks Urged to Act to Increase Awareness of the AIDS Epidemic" "Helping Kids With HIV" "Study of Access to Medical Care Finds Outlook Remains Grim for Uninsured" "USA Snapshots: AIDS in the Workplace" "ADA's Miseries and Accommodations" "Survey: Congress Hopefuls Lean to Drug Prevention" "HIV Perinatal Transmission Risk Not Affected by Infection Outcome of Previous Siblings" "New Surveillance Tool Introduced for Global Monitoring of HIV-1 Variants" "Here's the Straight Dope" "A Reluctant Campaigner" ****************************************************** "Blacks Urged to Act to Increase Awareness of the AIDS Epidemic" New York Times (10/23/96) P. A16; Rimer, Sara Black leaders representing government, academia, religion, and medicine met Tuesday at Harvard University to urge African-Americans to take action against the spread of HIV. Henry Louis Gates, chairman of Afro-American studies at Harvard, told the group that "our people, our leaders, our culture, have long been in denial about AIDS in the black community." The Harvard AIDS Institute estimated that more than half of all U.S. AIDS cases would be among blacks by the year 2000. By that time, the institute said, a Black person would be nine times as likely to have AIDS as someone who is not Black. Institute member Mario Cooper said that all levels of government, as well as charitable organizations, must be more active in making AIDS-fighting resources available to Blacks. "Helping Kids With HIV" Washington Post (10/23/96) P. A22; Brodsky, Marian Washington, D.C.'s Whitman-Walker AIDS Clinic does not serve children with HIV, claims Marian Brodsky, of Children's National Medical Center in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post. Brodsky, who serves as hospital volunteer coordinator of Project CHAMP (Children's HIV/AIDS Model Program), takes issue with a recent Post article that called Whitman-Walker "the largest health care and legal provider" for area AIDS patients. She points out that CHAMP provides medical care, volunteer services, respite care, and recreational activities to more than 70 percent of children with HIV and AIDS in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as providing community outreach. "Study of Access to Medical Care Finds Outlook Remains Grim for Uninsured" Wall Street Journal (10/23/96) P. B9; Winslow, Ron As many as 17 million adults have difficulty getting the medical care they need or struggle to pay for it when care is obtained, a new study has found. Researchers at Harvard University report in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that 15 percent of the U.S. population is uninsured. Led by Karen Donelan of the Harvard School of Public Health, the researchers report that those lacking insurance were four times more likely than those with insurance to fail to get the care they needed and three times more likely to struggle to pay their medical bills. Furthermore, they said, those in the poorest health had the most problems getting care. "USA Snapshots: AIDS in the Workplace" USA Today (10/23/96) P. 1B Employees at about one in six companies are offered HIV/AIDS education, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Business Responds to AIDS Program. Only about 6 percent of companies with less than 50 employees offered employee AIDS education, compared to 32 percent of companies with at least 750 workers. "ADA's Miseries and Accommodations" Washington Times (10/23/96) P. A15; Germer, Fawn Critics of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) argue that measures needed for compliance are too costly and time-consuming, but supporters say that the changes are fair and necessary. The ADA prohibits employment and public access discrimination against disabled people--including those who use wheelchairs, the hearing impaired, blind, learning-disabled, recovering alcoholics, and those with HIV and other diseases. According to the ADA definition, about 49 million Americans are disabled--more than one in six. The ADA, moreover, has sparked thousands of lawsuits, most of which were against businesses that must make "reasonable accommodations" to allow disabled people to work. For example, a man in Indiana who lost his job because he was HIV-infected was awarded $25,000 in damages in a lawsuit against his employer because the employer did not keep his medical condition confidential. "Survey: Congress Hopefuls Lean to Drug Prevention" USA Today (10/23/96) P. 3A; Johnson, Kevin Prevention is the favored tool among many Republican and Democratic congressional candidates for reducing teen drug use, in contrast to the enforcement methods favored by their parties' presidential candidates. A new survey, conducted by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, found that 65 percent of the 1,000 candidates that responded favored education programs over the punitive and interdiction proposals offered by President Clinton and GOP nominee Bob Dole. The survey also found that 13 percent of the respondents supported some type of drug legalization that included the legalization of marijuana for medical use. "HIV Perinatal Transmission Risk Not Affected by Infection Outcome of Previous Siblings" Reuters (10/22/96) The risk that a woman will transmit HIV to a child does not increase with time, according to researchers at Emory University. In the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal, Dr. Steven Nesheim and colleagues report on a study of 114 HIV-positive women who gave birth to at least two children after becoming infected. Among members of that group, 18 percent of the younger siblings and 17 percent of the older children became infected. The researchers concluded that strong maternal factors do not affect the risk of perinatal transmission, but rather that the risk is linked to factors associated with the individual pregnancy and delivery. "New Surveillance Tool Introduced for Global Monitoring of HIV-1 Variants" Reuters (10/22/96) A new method has been developed to determine more easily the type of HIV-1 that is in a contaminated blood sample. Sharon Cassol of the University of Ottawa and other Canadian researchers report that their method, which involves collecting a blood sample on paper and mailing it to a laboratory for analysis, avoids the biohazards associated with processing and shipping whole blood or cell samples from developing countries. The researchers analyzed dried blood spot samples from HIV-1 positive patients in five Asian countries, and found that, in southern India, type C was most prevalent, with rare occurrences of type A. Their findings agreed with what has been reported in western and northern India. "Here's the Straight Dope" Newsweek (10/21/96) Vol. 128, No. 17, P. 37; Klaidman, Daniel While Bob Dole's charges about the rise in drug use during the Clinton administration have received a lot of attention during the presidential campaign, his claims may be misleading, writes Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek. The proportion of teens using marijuana rose from 4 percent in 1992 to 8.2 percent last year, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The reported rise in the use of harder drugs, however, may be too small to be statistically significant, survey experts say. In addition, the rise in marijuana use actually started in 1992, when President Bush was still in office. Drug-policy experts point out that prevention programs take years to have an impact. Furthermore, overall drug use has remained the same or decreased since the Clinton administration began. Clinton, meanwhile, has also used statistics from the Household survey, noting that cocaine use dropped from 2.6 percent to 1.7 percent last year. According to Klaidman, he has slightly exaggerated the decrease as 30 percent, when it is actually closer to 21 percent. Clinton's claims of increased drug control and border enforcement are also misleading, Klaidman concludes, because his administration cut interdiction funding by 50 percent in 1993, then raised it, but not to the original level. "A Reluctant Campaigner" Newsweek (10/21/96) Vol. 128, No. 17, P. 36; Kosova, Weston; Klaidman, Daniel Gen. Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's drug czar since last year, is more interested in long-term solutions to the drug problem than campaigning for Clinton's re-election. He believes that drug use can be diminished more effectively through long-term prevention and treatment programs, rather than through incarceration and interdiction, which Clinton has favored. McCaffrey is valuable to Clinton, because he is respected by both Democrats and Republicans. His testimony to Republicans on the welfare bill this summer persuaded them, for example, to drop a provision that would have stopped benefits to recipients who are arrested on drug-related charges.