Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Wed Mar 12 07:31:06 PST 1997 (164 lines) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary Wednesday, March 12, 1997 The CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC. 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 ****************************************************** "With Cuts, City to Sever a Lifeline" "Ruling in French Blood Scandal" "Across the USA: Connecticut" "Gynecologist with HIV Barred in Britain" "Exchange the Program" "But Will Our Wishes on Dying Be Respected?" "Poignant Work by Barber Is Sung at AIDS Benefit" "Sharp Increase in Tuberculosis Cases in India" "A New Way to Resist AIDS?" "Adventures in Brain Chemistry" ****************************************************** "With Cuts, City to Sever a Lifeline" Washington Post (03/12/97) P. A1; Loeb, Vernon Among the budget cuts called for by the Washington, D.C., financial control board is a $19.3 million reduction from health and human services spending. The cutback is expected to come within weeks, following reductions in other areas, including welfare, day care, emergency aid, and public health. The newest cuts will profoundly affect Calvin Jones and other AIDS patients who could lose their home health services. Jones, nearly paralyzed by an AIDS-related disorder, depends on his aide Darlene Mayo, from the Whitman-Walker Clinic, to help him take the medications that could restore some muscle movement. Jim Graham, Whitman-Walker's director, says a number of AIDS patients are currently in hospitals at a cost of $1,000 a day because adequate home care is not available. "We're cutting off money to spend more money," he said. "Ruling in French Blood Scandal" Washington Post (03/12/97) P. A24 Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius should be cleared of responsibility in the country's tainted blood scandal, according to prosecutor Jean-Francois Burgelin. The families of the hemophiliacs who contracted HIV as a result of the unsafe blood products were angered by Burgelin's report, which also recommended that former health and social affairs ministers Edmond Herve and Georgina Dufoix be cleared. Burgelin said he did not eliminate ministerial responsibility but said the officials' liability was political, not criminal. The government delayed importing a U.S.-made blood test to allow French laboratories time to develop their own. As a result, 1,250 hemophiliacs contracted HIV from public health service blood products in the 1980s. "Across the USA: Connecticut" USA Today (03/12/97) P. 11A Connecticut health officials have decided to end a local needle-exchange program aimed to curb the spread of HIV on March 21, citing weak community support. "Gynecologist with HIV Barred in Britain" Washington Times (03/12/97) P. A16 A Zambian gynecologist was banned from practicing in Britain on Tuesday, because he refused to take an HIV test for 8.5 months after a lover told him she was HIV-positive. Dr. Patrick Mubanga tested positive for HIV in January and has caused a health scare among thousands of women in southern England, where he has practiced since 1991. Mubanga resigned from his post in January and is reportedly in Zambia now. "Exchange the Program" Richmond Times-Dispatch (03/12/97) P. A10 The decision by Washington, D.C. officials to support a needle-exchange program shows that the government is willing to help drug users pursue illegal drug use, assert the editors of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The writers also point out that, when a similar program was tried four years ago, only 33 drug addicts participated. They refute the argument that a needle exchange would ultimately save lives and money, saying that it could apply to any risky behavior. The authors conclude that the nation's capital should not support such a program, because it involves all Americans in the process. "But Will Our Wishes on Dying Be Respected?" New York Times (03/12/97) P. A28; Rolston, Lorraine Among other responses to a New York Times series on making end-of-life provisions, Lorraine Rolston notes that, unlike the case profiled of a minority single mother with AIDS who left orders for the care of her HIV-infected daughter, most children in such circumstances are rejected by relatives because of the stigma attached to AIDS. "Poignant Work by Barber Is Sung at AIDS Benefit" New York Times (03/12/97) P. B2; Tommasini, Anthony When orchestra musicians agree to play for a benefit, they usually are paid only for rehearsal time. For Sunday night's Carnegie Hall benefit Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, however, the members of the Orchestra of St. Luke's contributed the performance as well as rehearsal time. Soprano Renee Fleming and conductor Andre Previn also contributed their services to the concert. They performed Samuel Barber's melancholic "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" on the day that would have been Barber's 87th birthday. "Sharp Increase in Tuberculosis Cases in India" Xinhua News Agency (03/12/97) The number of tuberculosis cases in India has increased dramatically, with 1.2 million new cases detected last year and 1.5 million reported so far this year. A total of 14 million people in India have the disease, which kills about 500,000 people every year. Experts caution that the number of new infections could rise further due to environmental pollution and the spread of AIDS. About 60 percent of AIDS patients in India are co-infected with tuberculosis. "A New Way to Resist AIDS?" Science (02/28/97) Vol. 275, No. 5304, P. 1258; Kaiser, Jocelyn At the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers presented new clues to the mystery of why some people remain uninfected with HIV despite repeated exposures to the virus. Miles Cloyd of the University of Texas presented findings that suggest that some HIV-resistant individuals may have immune cells that do not allow HIV to replicate, even after being infected. Last year, scientists reported that HIV could not infect the immune cells of some individuals because they carried a gene for a defective coreceptor required by the virus. Cloyd and his colleagues found that when they added HIV to samples of CD4 cells from 50 healthy individuals, the virus could not replicate in up to 15 percent of the cells. The virus would cease reproduction after entering the cells and copying its RNA into DNA. It is unknown whether the mechanism would protect people from HIV infection, but preliminary data from two men who seemed to clear the virus suggest that it may. CD4 cells taken from these men seemed to show the same reaction as the cells in the study. Further research will test the CD4 cells from 50 HIV-negative men who are at risk of contracting the virus from their infected partners. "Adventures in Brain Chemistry" POZ (03/97) P. 78; Thorne, Beowulf Depression, which affects between one-third and one-half of the general population, is especially damaging for people with HIV. The social and psychological factors of the AIDS epidemic contribute to this depression, as HIV-positive people see their friends die and face the fear of their own declining health. Psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs are effective treatment options for depression. Psychotherapy takes more time than drug therapy, and it may also be more inconvenient and more costly. However, antidepressants can have serious side effects, including dry mouth, impotence, and constipation. The drugs can take up to eight weeks to work, and certain medications may have only a short term effect for some patients, or no effect at all. Because mental problems and physical problems are related, both should be considered when treatment decisions are made. Chronic pain, for example, can make depression worse and depression can exaggerate the effects of pain. Depression can also affect an individual's overall mental state, which can cause some patients to fear dementia and consider suicide.