Subject: CDC Summary 3/16/93 Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 08:26:51 PST (210 lines) Archive-Number: 412 From: Billi Goldberg Note: Copyright 1993, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed. sold. Copyright 1992, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary March 16, 1993 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 Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold. Copyright 1992, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ==================================================================== "CDC Warns of HIV-Related Viruses" Washington Post (03/16/93), P. A5 People infected with HTLV-I or HTLV-II, both similar to HIV, should use the same AIDS-like precautions in order to avoid infecting others, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC reported in an article published in today's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine that infection with the two viruses is rare in much of the United States. However, it has become more prevalent in some U.S. cities and other countries. Those infected with HTLV-I and HTLV-II should refrain from donating blood, sharing needles, or breast-feeding children, and should consider using condoms to prevent sexual transmission of the viruses, the CDC said. The two human T-cell lymphotropic virus strains are associated with HIV, which was formerly known as HTLV-III. While HTLV-I can cause fatal illnesses like leukemia, HTLV-II has not been clearly linked with any disease. The CDC said blood tests recently developed, but available only for research, have shown more promise in identifying the two viruses than tests now available. The article said that in the United States, about 16 of every 100,000 blood donors are infected with either HTLV-I or HTLV-II, in roughly equal numbers. HTLV-I infection has been found in clusters of black people from the southeastern United States and in immigrants in Brooklyn, N.Y., who are from parts of the world where the virus is endemic. HTLV-II is believed to be transmitted by similar routes but is most prevalent among IV-drug users in the United States and Europe, and some Indian populations in Panama, Florida, and New Mexico. ==================================================================== "As Isolation of Racism Eases, South Africa Confronts AIDS" New York Times (03/16/93), P. A1 (Keller, Bill) Although South Africa had ample time to thwart the spread of the AIDS epidemic, now the disease's spread in the country is similar to that in most other African nations. The slow spread of HIV southward from its equatorial epicenter and the social quarantine developed by the sanctions against the apartheid government, AIDS experts said, meant South Africa had time to see the danger coming and stop it. However, this has not happened, and HIV has colonized South Africa as much as it has the rest of the continent, spurred by apartheid beliefs such as neglect, fatalism, and mistrust. Conservative estimates state that 300,000 South Africans, mostly black heterosexuals, are infected with HIV and at least 300 new people contract the virus every day. About 5,000 people have full-blown AIDS. Malcolm Steinberg, who oversees AIDS programs for the South Africa Medical Research Council, said, "South Africa has moved from the pre-epidemic to the epidemic phase, the point where the curve rises rapidly." Despite the warning, South Africa still has neglected to implement an aggressive anti-AIDS campaign. A strong puritanical streak in South Africa has prohibited mandatory AIDS education in schools and has inhibited the advertising of condoms, even though the government distributes free condoms by the millions. Peter Doyle of Metropolitan Life Ltd. predicts that by the year 2000, 3 million South Africans--more than 10 percent of the adult population--will be HIV-positive and 160,000 will have AIDS. Caring for those with HIV/AIDS will use up to three-fourths of the national health budget, according to a study by the Medical Research Council. ==================================================================== "S.F. to Provide Clean Needles to Drug Users" Los Angeles Times-- Washington Edition (03/16/93), P. B1 (Paddock, Richard C.) San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan has announced a state of emergency so that the city can distribute clean needles to IV-drug users as an effort to curb the spread of HIV infection among this group. The move, announced Monday, defies California law that makes the distribution of hypodermic needles without a prescription illegal. The action also would make San Francisco the first California city to provide public funds for a needle exchange program and deride a state law. Jordan cited the attempts of underground groups operating outside the law, which have shown that trading clean needles for used ones can significantly reduce the spread of HIV. A four-year volunteer needle exchange program conducted by Prevention Point has become so successful that it has no more private funds and would have stopped distribution Monday without help from the city, said Jordan. But Kassy Perry, spokeswoman for Gov. Pete Wilson, said the governor's legal staff is examining whether San Francisco is able to override state law by putting a state of emergency into effect. Wilson vetoed a bill supported by San Francisco and AIDS activists that would have made a needle exchange program legal. The governor and other critics claim that such a program would condone IV-drug use and undermine law enforcement agencies. In addition, the governor argues that the effectiveness of needle exchange programs in curbing HIV is unproven. ==================================================================== "D.C. Changes Rules on Death Certificates" Washington Post (Health) (03/16/93), P. 6 (Kaplow, Bobby) The city of Washington, D.C., last weekend revised the guidelines about who can pronounce death for patients in hospice programs and allowed the death certificate copies to be issued without listing a cause of death. The move comes after the urging of two health care professionals who work with cancer and AIDS patients. The bill, which became a law on Saturday after being signed by Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, permits registered nurses to make a pronouncement of death if a patient had earlier received a prognosis of less than six months to live and was receiving in-home treatment. Only physicians were permitted to pronounce deaths before the law was enacted. The second part of the bill is intended to help family members by providing them with the option of having the cause of death stated on copies of the death certificate--a public record that they must often use to settle estate matters, such as property transfers. Zail S. Berry, medical director of the Hospice of Washington and an assistant professor of Health Care Sciences at George Washington University, said the stigma that accompanies death from some diseases, especially AIDS, led her to lobby for the new legislation. "I'm frequently asked by families to lie on the death certificate. The vast majority of its uses have nothing to do with the cause of death. And a lot of people are being faced with revealing information that is irrelevant." But the new law still requires that the original death certificate, which is kept on file by the District government, record the cause of death and related information for public health purposes. ==================================================================== "Jackson Is Arrested in New York Sit Down" Washington Post (03/16/93), P. B2 Jesse L. Jackson was arrested yesterday along with 41 others in a New York demonstration to protest the detainment of HIV-positive Haitians at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Jackson, an elected lobbyist on behalf of D.C. statehood, was arrested after he sat down in the middle of Fifth Avenue as the demonstration was ending. He and four others were charged with resisting arrest and ordered to appear in court April 3, said police. The remaining 36 protesters were indicted with civil disobedience. ==================================================================== "Infectious Diseases Sweep Through St. Petersburg" Reuters (03/14/93) Moscow--A threatening increase in deaths from infectious diseases has occurred as a result of people's fears of contracting HIV when they receive vaccinations, according to health officials in St. Petersburg. Gennady Kolesnikov, the city's deputy chief medical officer, said the increase in deaths from tuberculosis, hepatitis, diphtheria, and other infections has become a "national disaster," reported the Itar-Tass news agency on Saturday. "We know the reason--a refusal to have injections, a fear of [AIDS]," it quoted Kolesnikov as saying. The spread of diphtheria is most alarming--over last year, there have been 845 cases, 15 of them fatal. The death rate from TB among children and adolescents has risen by almost half, while a third of the children in the city have had no vaccinations. Tass reported that an emergency anti-epidemic team has been established to deal with the problem. ==================================================================== "Faces of AIDS on Trading Cards" American Medical News (03/01/93) Vol. 36, No. 9, P. 30 A set of trading cards promoting AIDS awareness are expected to be released this month, but not without controversy. Catherine Yronwode, co-owner of Eclipse Enterprises, said, "There have been people who thought that these cards had a morbid cast to them." The Rock Hudson card, for example, lists career highlights and ends with a paragraph on his 1985 revelation that he had AIDS and his ensuing death. The AIDS cards also feature Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe, in addition to researchers seeking a cure for AIDS. Every card in the 12-pack includes a condom. Bob DeMoss of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on Family, is concerned that by promoting "condoms to the level of bubble gum you reduce the specialness of sex to that of a casual handshake." Other critics were worried that the cards feature some people who did not publicly disclose their HIV/AIDS-status. San Francisco AIDS Foundation spokesman Joe Ferra is also concerned about the privacy issue, but was pleased to see that condoms and medical information were included in the packets of cards. Yronwode said 15 percent of the proceeds from the cards will be given to Broadway Cares-Equity Fights AIDS, a New York- based group that provides grants to HIV-positive people in the entertainment industry. ==================================================================== "A Disappointing Decade of AIDS" Nature (03/04/93) Vol. 362, No. 6415, P. 13 (Maddox, John) Although there has been little progress in AIDS research in the past decade, such research should not be abandoned, writes columnist John Maddox. To understand the pathogenesis of AIDS is an even more significant goal now than when it was thought there might be an upcoming vaccine. The search for AIDS drugs which possibly work in conjunction with AZT is promising but quite slow. Maddox suggests it should be the pharmaceutical industry's responsibility to improve on the methods of treating the secondary infections which AIDS patients experience, but the frequency of Kaposi's sarcoma in some AIDS patients is not, as yet, understood. AIDS patients demand that there should be a more vigorous effort to treat secondary infections. That means for researchers to acknowledge that AIDS will be around for some time and that we must learn to live with it as safely as we can. Therefore, the condom is no longer just a contraceptive but a medicine. To recognize it as such calls for a greater capacity of openness about sexual practices than many people can tolerate. There is also an imminent need to address the anger of AIDS patients, which means to make sure that AIDS patients are dealt with sympathetically and respectfully, and that they are given the best care that can be afforded. This does not suggest that AIDS patients are more deserving of care than people with other fatal illnesses. It is just that they are "victims of a common fallacy of just a decade ago, the belief that fatal infections had either been eliminated or would soon be eliminated," concludes Maddox. ==================================================================== "France: AIDES Wants Aid for AIDS" Lancet (03/06/93) Vol. 341, No. 8845, P. 624 (Bader, Jean-Michel) The largest private association for AIDS patients and prevention of the disease has entered the pre-elections campaign in France with an effort directed at politicians. The group is seeking to know whether the future government will make AIDS a public health priority, and whether it will implement 21 recommendations regarding health budgets, medical information, help for patients, clinical trials of new drugs, etc. A total of 1,600 posters and a series of advertisements in the national press are being published this week. AIDES advertisements will be broadcast on radio network Radio Tele Luxembourg free of charge. In addition, many magazines have given the association free ad space. A public opinion poll funded by AIDES found the pre-electoral climate to be favorable--89 percent of French people believe the government should make AIDS one of its next priorities.