                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 20, 1995

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, and the CDC
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Tobacco Firms Are Buoyed by Hemophiliac Decision"
"Across the USA: California"
"On-Line AIDS 'Diagnosis' Assesses Risks"
"AIDS Victims Protest Violently at Italian Hospital"
"Drugs Give Youth Escape from Portugal's Social Ills"
"Los Angeles Stands to Lose $159 Million in Housing and Community
Development Funds"
"Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral 
Interventions"
"HIV-Associated Histoplasmosis with Pulmonary Manifestations"
"Further Refinements to French Blood System"
"Gay Community Links and Safety"
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"Tobacco Firms Are Buoyed by Hemophiliac Decision"
Wall Street Journal (03/20/95) P. B6;  Geyelin, Milo
     Last week, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago 
refused to permit a group of hemophiliacs to continue with a 
class-action suit alleging that they contracted HIV from 
blood-clotting medicine.  The decision gives hope to tobacco 
companies fighting a class action on behalf of allegedly addicted
smokers.  The appeals-court panel said the two-step trial 
procedure could force the four pharmaceutical companies named in 
the suit into bankruptcy-court proceedings, causing irreparable 
harm, and that the class certification was an abuse of judicial 
discretion.  The trial judge in the case designed the two-step 
procedure to allow one jury to first determine whether the 
pharmaceutical companies were negligent and, if so, to allow 
individual members to then pursue claims for damages.  Lawyers 
for the approximately 20,000 hemophiliacs said they will seek a 
review by the full seven-member appeals court.  Related Stories: 
New York Times (03/20) P. D1; Philadelphia Inquirer (03/18) P. A7
      
"Across the USA: California"
USA Today (03/20/95) P. 11A
     In Martinez, Calif., a 24-year-old man accused of neglecting to 
inform a sexual partner that he was infected with HIV has been 
charged with assault with a deadly weapon.  His partner has not 
tested positive for HIV, and officials say she is unlikely to 
develop AIDS.
      
"On-Line AIDS 'Diagnosis' Assesses Risks"
Los Angeles Times (03/19/95) P. A30;  Hines, Rochelle
     Michael Wright, a social scientist in Oklahoma, is developing a 
program designed to help individuals decide whether to be tested 
for HIV.  "It occurred to me that a private, anonymous encounter 
with a non-judgmental computer would be a good strategy to help 
people make a decision about whether to be tested for HIV 
antibody," says Wright.  The program is being developed with the 
help of a $357,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute's 
Small Business Innovation Research Program--which is interested 
in the research because one of the more common AIDS-related 
diseases is Kaposi's sarcoma, a tumor of the blood or lymphatic 
vessel walls.  Anyone in the Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth 
metropolitan areas can pick up a touch-tone phone, call the HIV 
Computer Risk Assessment Service, and talk to a computer at no 
charge.  The computer asks the caller questions, analyzes the 
information supplied, and provides advice on whether that person 
is at risk of current HIV infection.  Bill Pierson, chief of the 
HIV/STD Service for the Oklahoma Department of Health, says the 
computer is a good method of trying to reduce the number of false
positives, but is concerned about whether "talking to a machine 
and punching some numbers is going to really alleviate the 
fears."
      
"AIDS Victims Protest Violently at Italian Hospital"
Reuters (03/19/95)
     On Sunday, approximately 50 AIDS patients demonstrated at a 
hospital in Naples, Italy, maiming themselves and setting fire to
mattresses in a protest against hospital conditions, police said.
The patients filled syringes with their blood and threatened to 
infect the hospital staff in a protest against scarce supplies of
medicine, cramped quarters, and bad food.  About 10 women slashed
their lips and tongues, while other patients set mattresses on 
fire and threatened to throw themselves out of windows.  The 
police said  hospital officials convinced the patients to end 
their demonstration after meeting with them and discussing their 
complaints.
      
"Drugs Give Youth Escape from Portugal's Social Ills"
Reuters (03/19/95);  Brough, David
     The increase of cocaine and heroin addiction in Portugal has led 
to a rise in violent crime in Lisbon and other cities.  Addicts, 
for example, go through the cars of suburban trains begging for 
money with one hand and holding  a used hypodermic needle in the 
other, with the implied threat that they will stab and infect 
with HIV those who do not give them money.  As hard drugs have 
become widely available, the number of registered addicts in 
Portugal has quadrupled to 60,000 in the last decade.  Luis 
Patricio--director and founder of Portugal's largest drug 
treatment center, the state-funded Centro das Taipas in 
Lisbon--said that one in five addicts who sought help at the 
center was HIV-positive.  The fear of contracting HIV from shared
needles has led many heroin and cocaine users to switch from 
injecting drugs to smoking them, Patricio added.  The government 
provides free syringes to those addicts who insist on injecting.
      
"Los Angeles Stands to Lose $159 Million in Housing and Community
Development Funds"
PR Newswire (03/17/95)
     Los Angeles may lose $159 million in federal housing and 
community development funds, and more than 3,000 affordable 
housing units if the $17 billion dollar cut in funds approved by 
the House is adopted by Congress.  The funds being cut are 
"take-backs," or moneys budgeted for this year that have already 
been approved by Congress.  The cuts include $6 million for 150 
rental assistance vouchers for people with AIDS in Los Angeles, 
$1 million from a program called Housing Opportunities for People
with AIDS, and cuts in public housing and community development 
block grant funds.
      
"Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral 
Interventions"
New England Journal of Medicine (03/02/95) Vol. 332, No. 9, P. 
617;  Fleming, Patricia
     "Preventing AIDS: Theories and Methods of Behavioral 
Interventions," edited by Ralph J. DiClemente and John L. 
Peterson, is a series of essays detailing behavioral 
interventions and assessing current research on preventing HIV 
infection among populations including runaways, heterosexual men 
and women, and adolescents.  The first six chapters describe 
behavioral-science research methods.  These chapters are based on
the health-beliefs model, in which change in a person's behavior 
occurs only if that person perceives a risk and believes that the
outcome can be affected through behavior change.  In the nine 
chapters about research on HIV prevention in populations at high 
risk, the authors accent what is needed and recommend methods to 
evaluate the outcomes.  The editors call for the promotion of 
self-management to reduce risk at the individual level, and the 
promotion of sustained changes in social norms through 
community-level interventions.
      
"HIV-Associated Histoplasmosis with Pulmonary Manifestations"
Journal of the American Medical Association (03/08/95) Vol. 273, 
No. 10, P. 758k
     Wockel et al. present a case in which a 35-year-old man 
experienced a general deterioration of health--characterized by 
symptoms including weight loss, fever, and abdominal pain.  The 
man learned in 1991 that he was infected with HIV.  He was given 
tuberculostatic drugs because miliary tuberculosis was suspected.
As his condition worsened, however, he was thought to have 
Pneumocystis pneumonia, and high doses of co-trimoxazole were 
administered.  Acid-Schiff reaction and Grocott staining revealed
several histoplasma in alveolar macrophages and connective 
tissue.  Therapy was shifted to itraconazole, but changed to 
liposomal amphotericin B two weeks later because of renewed 
fever.  After six weeks of treatment, the patient was 
symptom-free and the radiological changes had largely regressed. 
Itraconazole therapy is being continued to prevent recurrence.
      
"Further Refinements to French Blood System"
Lancet (03/04/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 577
     As the final step in the reorganization of France's blood 
transfusion centers, the facilities will be regrouped by 
specialist activity--such as screening or separation of blood.  
Therapeutic products will be prepared in a laboratory under the 
control of the medicines agency.  To strengthen "hemovigilance," 
each region will have a coordinator.  Only one sensitive test 
will be used when screening donor blood for HIV antibodies.
      
"Gay Community Links and Safety"
Focus (02/95) Vol. 10, No. 3, P. 5;  Gold, Ron S.
     While it is clear that links with the gay community can often be 
beneficial, overstating the benefits without noting the potential
limitations can add to the complacency regarding HIV prevention 
among gay men, writes Ron S. Gold of the School of Psychology at 
Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, in Focus.  For example,
in two of four Australian studies which highlight the problem, 
researchers found low, but statistically significant, positive 
correlations between unprotected anal intercourse and links to 
the gay community.  Optimism about the effects of community links
has been helped along by the natural desire to portray the gay 
community in the most positive light.  There has been an implicit
assumption that HIV-infected men will feel a strong sense of 
responsibility toward their partners.  The Sydney study, however,
found that 31 percent of 88 HIV-positive men engaged in 
unprotected anal sex with the attitude that if the other person 
is willing to have sex without a condom, then that is his 
decision.  Gold concludes that there exists a need to confront 
the possibility that the current view of the gay community is too
benign, that how gay men relate to one another may often be part 
of the problem, not the solution.
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