"12.2 Percent of Argentine Inmates Are Found to Have AIDS" Chicago Tribune (01/06/93), P. 1-4 A total of one in eight prisoners in Argentina's federal prison system has AIDS, according to a report released Monday night by the Federal Prison Service. The report said 12.2 percent of the 4,500 inmates in its jails have AIDS. It added that if the current AIDS case rate remains constant, in 10 years 45 percent of the prison population could develop AIDS. Justice undersecretary Carlos Loturco told the private news agency Diarios y Noticias that 23 prisoners who are very ill have asked President Carlos Menem to grant them clemency. Menem offered pardons to a dozen prisoners with AIDS after they were found chained to their beds in a Buenos Aires hospital ward used as a jail sick bay. "VIIth International Conference on AIDS in Africa" AIDS Treatment News (01/01/93) No. 166, P. 7 (Heyman, Jason) The Seventh International Conference on AIDS in Africa was held in Yaounde, Cameroon, from Dec. 8-11. The tone, however, was somewhat murky. The primary issue addressed was HIV prevention and how efforts in Africa are hurting due to a lack of resources. Michael Merson, the director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS, said, "There have already been over 7.5 million infections in adults [in Africa] since the start of the pandemic, close to 4 million of them in women." There was very little discussion on treatments used for HIV infection. But HIV-2 was discussed in detail at the conference. HIV-2 has come to be known as the virus of developing countries and has not been given the attention that HIV-1 has received. It was revealed that HIV-2 is much less likely to be transmitted from mother to child. Sy El Hadj Amadou, the African Secretary of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) delivered a speech at the conference which drew a connection between the failure of prevention efforts and the lack of AIDS treatments available to Africans. He said that as a consequence of the African AIDS community's defeatist attitude towards access to treatment, and the West's view of Africa as hopeless, all anti-AIDS efforts are seen as weak and not taken seriously by the public. The only treatment discussed in any detail was PCM-4, a little-known alternative treatment made from extracts of pig spleen and Siberian genseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus. Currently, it is being researched in the United States and Uganda, and is sold in buyers' clubs and health-food stores. "Israel: Rethinking of Entry Restrictions" Lancet (01/02/93) Vol. 341, No. 8836, P. 42 (Naparstek, Yaakov and Morag, Abraham) The Israeli Ministry of the Interior's recent decision to prohibit the entry of HIV-positive foreigners into the Israel has prompted controversy among the public and in the Knesset. Exactly how the restriction--intended to keep the rate of HIV infection low (now 1,000 HIV-positive people and 230 AIDS patients in a population of more than 4 million)--is to be executed is unclear. A statement by an applicant that he or she does not have AIDS could satisfy the restriction. Also, it is possible that the applicant will have to produce a medical certificate or undergo a blood test for HIV infection. The debate over the restriction is between groups who object to it on human rights grounds and supporters who claim it protects public health, and those who believe the regulation is useless and that the main effort should be invested in public education. Tourists who visit for less than three months at a time and Arab citizens from the occupied territories will not be affected. Regarding new immigrants, the issue is even more problematic. The "Law of Return" allows for every Jew to become an Israeli citizen whenever he or she wishes. Therefore, a positive test would not prevent Jews from entering the country. But since a quarter of the HIV-positive people in Israel are immigrants from African countries, where the prevalence is very high, testing and counseling must be performed in confidence. It is undetermined whether the proposed restriction will prevent the spread of HIV in Israel, and due to the controversy, authorities have decided to reassess their approach to the problem.