Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary for Date: Tue Jun 6 07:01:01 PDT 2000 (169 lines) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 2000, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update Tuesday, June 6, 2000 The CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention provides the following information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis does not constitute CDC endorsement. This daily update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) articles, fact sheets, press releases, and announcements. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update should be cited as the source of the information. Contact the sources of the articles abstracted below for full texts of the articles. HEADLINES PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS "HIV/AIDS Issues Take Centre-Stage at World Health Assembly" GENERAL MEDIA "Schools Must Help Kids With HIV, Docs Say" "Web Studied as Potential Sexual-Disease Hotbed" "UN Chief Urges World to Alleviate Plight of Women" "Interventions Can Reduce STD/HIV Risk in the Military" "Internet Comes to Help in Africa's AIDS Fight" "South Africa to Press for Cheaper AIDS Drugs" "More Than a Million Mozambicans to Be Orphaned by AIDS: UNICEF" "More Than 20,000 Infected With HIV in Vietnam" *************************************************************** PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS *************************************************************** "HIV/AIDS Issues Take Centre-Stage at World Health Assembly" Lancet (www.thelancet.com) (05/27/00) Vol. 355, No. 9218, P. 1894; Kapp, Clare The World Health Assembly (WHA) focused this year on the availability of AIDS drugs for poor countries. While a WHA resolution called on World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland to "reinforce, promote, and explore partnerships both to make HIV/AIDS-related drugs accessible through affordable prices, appropriate finance systems, and effective health care systems, it did not include a surprising proposal by Brazil for a World Health Organization database of the lowest prices of generic drugs. The WHA also cited the need for better ways to fight tuberculosis and malaria. **************************************************************** GENERAL MEDIA **************************************************************** "Schools Must Help Kids With HIV, Docs Say" USA Today (www.usatoday.com) (06/06/00) P. 9D; Healy, Michelle The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that as more children with HIV attend school, teachers and administrators should be prepared to assist them. In a revised policy statement, the AAP reaffirms a previous assertion that HIV-infected should be taught in regular schools, noting that some students may need special services, such as home instruction. In addition, the AAP says that "confidentiality about HIV infection status should be maintained, with parental consent required for disclosure." "Web Studied as Potential Sexual-Disease Hotbed" Denver Post Online (www.denverpost.com) (06/06/00); Auge, Karen Sheana Saylers Bull, a behavioral scientist at the Denver Health Department, and three other researchers are using a $70,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study how people find sex on the Internet and whether it promotes promiscuity or other behaviors that may increase the risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The first phase of the study involved observing Internet chat rooms with sexual themes, and then Bull and the Denver Health Department questioned people who attended a clinic for HIV and STD counseling about their online activities. With her new Web site, www.sexquiz.org, Bull is asking about people's sex partners, how many partners they have met online, STDs, which sites people visit frequently to meet sex partners, and what attracts them to those sites. Bull is also questioning whether people meeting online lovers in person practice safe sex, lie about being married, or lie about their sexuality. Mary McFarlane, the CDC coordinator of the study, noted that while the researchers are not implying that Internet users are more reckless than the population in general, "it occurred to us there might be something going on here among a population that we're not as likely to see in public health clinics." "UN Chief Urges World to Alleviate Plight of Women" Kyodo News Service (home.kyodo.co.jp) (06/05/00) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that the gender gap must be closed so that women can have equal rights. Speaking at the opening session of "Women 2000" conference for women's rights, Annan noted that women face old challenges, such as violence and generally earning less than men, as well as such new challenges as AIDS and trafficking of women for sex. Annan called for more education for women, which would help protect against HIV and AIDS and make them less vulnerable to trafficking. "Interventions Can Reduce STD/HIV Risk in the Military" Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (06/05/00) Researchers interviewed 400 men with acute urethritis at a clinic in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in order to study interventions for HIV and other sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk behaviors in a military setting. The authors, who reported their findings in the May issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (2000;30:730-735), studied such measures as an STD and HIV health-risk assessment, an interactive video disk, and a targeted situational behavior intervention. In the two weeks after treatment, abstinence was 98.3 percent in the video group, 89.1 percent in the health-risk assessment group, and 75.5 percent in the targeted situational behavior group. The researchers noted that the easiest intervention, the video disk, appeared to be the most successful, although a combination of the disk and the health-risk assessment would likely be even more effective. "Internet Comes to Help in Africa's AIDS Fight" Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (06/05/00) Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, and Lesotho will be linked to an Internet network for healthcare workers and doctors battling the AIDS epidemic. I-Med Exchange will link African hospitals and clinics to experts around the world using 100 terminals. The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care established the program. "South Africa to Press for Cheaper AIDS Drugs" CNN Online (www.cnn.com) (06/05/00) On Monday, South Africa announced that it plans to lobby drug firms to implement the agreed price cuts for AIDS drugs. Five pharmaceutical companies last month promised to make the drugs more affordable for poor African nations. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said a team will work to negotiate price cuts for all drugs, not just antiretrovirals. The task team--representing African nations, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization--will also seek help in forming a better medical infrastructure. "More Than a Million Mozambicans to Be Orphaned by AIDS: UNICEF" Agence France Presse (www.afp.com) (06/05/00) UNICEF has warned that over 1 million children in Mozambique will be orphaned by AIDS in the upcoming five years. Despite the new statistics, the country is still considered the least AIDS-affected country in the southern African region. The epidemic is rising, however, in Mozambique's central and northern regions, which border Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. UNICEF spokesman Ian Macleod said Monday that in the Manica, Sofala, Tete, and Zambezia provinces, 25 percent of the adults are infected with HIV. Government figures show that about 15 percent of Mozambique's 17 million people were infected with HIV last year, and Macleod said that 350,000 children in the country have already been orphaned by the disease. "More Than 20,000 Infected With HIV in Vietnam" Agence France Presse (www.afp.com) (06/06/00) Over 20,000 people in Vietnam are HIV-positive, according to an official from the National Committee for AIDS Prevention. The official noted, however, that the number of people who tested positive is much less than the actual number of infections. Nearly two-thirds of the infections are among drug addicts, and local health experts noted there is also a risk of contracting HIV from prostitutes returning to the country from Cambodia.