                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       August 19, 1994

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD

"Baby Infected With HIV in NYC Hospital"
USA Today (08/19/94) P. 1D;  Painter, Kim
     Health authorities in New York City report that a baby boy who 
entered a city hospital for an eye infection apparently 
contracted HIV inside the facility.  Investigators are unsure of 
how the infection occurred, but the facts suggest a lapse in 
routine precautions against patient-to-patient transmission.  The
study is reported in today's Lancet medical journal.  Related 
Story: New York Times (08/19)
      
"Transmission by Caregiver Is Rare"
USA Today (08/19/94) P. 1D
     While contracting the HIV in a hospital or in a doctor's or 
dentist's office is exceedingly rare, a few such cases have been 
reported.  Routine needle re-use in the Soviet Union and Romania 
several years ago caused the infection of many infants.  In 
addition, four Australian women were infected in a surgeon's 
office.  In the United States, a Florida dentist with AIDS is 
thought to have infected several people.  Also in the United 
States, one adult has been infected from the accidental use of 
another patient's contaminated syringe.
      
"Local Basketball Stars and Former Players Team Up With Portland Youth Groups"
Business Wire (08/10/94)
     Winning Against AIDS, a collaboration for HIV/AIDS prevention 
education by the National Basketball Players Association and the 
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, will take 
place in Portland, Ore. today from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  The 
outreach effort features professional athletes and their spouses,
along with health educators and officials from local HIV/AIDS 
education programs.
      
"Modernization of Japanese Birth Control Policies Advocated"
Business Wire (08/18/94)
     In a policy forum article in the Aug. 19 issue of Science, Carl 
Djerassi and Mariko Jitsukawa say Japan should modernize its 
birth control policies and practices, and legalize oral 
contraceptives and morning-after pills.  "Such a move," they 
write, "would be highly beneficial to the people of Japan, 
particularly its women, and to international family planning 
efforts as Japan becomes an increasingly important player in this
field."  The Japan Ministry of Health an Welfare has indefinitely
postponed approval of low-dose oral contraceptives because of 
criticism that such approval would contribute to the spread of 
AIDS by reducing condom use.
      
"Body Puts Up Strong Fight Against HIV at First"
Reuters (08/10/94)
     Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and 
Infectious Diseases and colleagues report that HIV-infected 
individuals put up a strong immune resistance initially, but 
quickly slacken that resistance.  The researchers found a large 
increase in the numbers of T-cells soon after infection in six 
patients studied.  The two patients who showed the most dramatic 
response also developed full-blown AIDS within a year, possibly 
because the T-cells cannot recognize every variant of the virus, 
Fauci wrote.  Another possible reason is that the immune system 
cells simply become exhausted.  The report, published in the 
journal Nature, concluded, "This type of immune response may be 
typical of other viral infections and may be critical for 
antiviral immune surveillance."
      
"Groundbreaking AIDS Study Examines Attitudes of Older Gays"
Business Wire (08/08/94)
     A study conducted by Golden Gate University Professor Leonard 
Kooperman has found that gay and bisexual men between the ages of
50 and 80 have a high level of accurate knowledge regarding 
HIV-transmission and tend to engage in lower-risk sexual 
behavior.  Kooperman said the survey of 191 gay and bisexual 
older men showed that "There is a high frequency of what is 
generally considered to be moderate to low-risk sexual activity, 
and a low frequency of sexual activity that is largely considered
to be high risk, such as anal intercourse without a condom."  The
study is published in the June issue of AIDS Patient Care: A 
Journal for Health Care Professionals.
      
"French Ministers Face Public Trial in HIV Blood Affair"
Nature (07/28/94) Vol. 370, No. 6487, P. 243;  Butler, Declan
     Fresh debate over who was responsible for the distribution of 
HIV-contaminated blood to French hemophiliacs in the mid-1980s 
surfaced in July as the Court of Justice of the Republic decided 
to allow charges to be heard against three former socialist 
ministers.  Driven by repeated failed attempts to try the 
officials, the Court accepted 11 civil suits against former prime
minister Laurent Fabius, then minister of social affairs Georgina
Dufoix, and ex-deputy health minister Edmond Herve.  The trio 
will likely face criminal charges of deliberate administration of
dangerous substances from March 1985, when the French government 
acknowledged that it had been informed that unheated 
blood-clotting products were contaminated, and October 1985, when
the French National Blood Transfusion Service halted distribution
of the products.
      
"Funding Proposal Shot in Arm for HIV Prevention in Drug Users"
AIDS Alert (08/94) Vol. 8, No. 9, P. 115
     Although President Clinton's budget proposal for 1995 would not 
boost funding for HIV prevention, it does include a new $345 
million treatment initiative that could substantially increase 
HIV prevention and drug treatment services for the country's 
estimated 2.7 million hard-core drug addicts.  Intravenous drug 
use represents more than one-third of the nation's AIDS cases, 
according to the most recent statistics from the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.  A primary goal of the initiative
is to cut HIV and tuberculosis among this population by reducing 
the number of addicts, by offering them treatment.
      
"Racial Differences in the Use of Drug Therapy for HIV Disease"
New England Journal of Medicine (08/04/94) Vol. 331, No. 5, P. 
333;  Simon, Paul A.;  Sorvillo, Frank J.;  Lapin, Richard K.
     In Moore et al.'s study at an HIV clinic in Baltimore, the 
findings suggested that black patients were less likely than 
white patients to have received previous antiretroviral therapy 
or prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).  
Although Moore et al. gathered data from patient reports and 
"accompanying medical records when available," Simon et al. note 
that the researchers did not report the extent to which patients'
reports were validated by reviews of medical records.  Simon and 
his colleagues conducted data in Los Angeles County similar to 
the Baltimore data.  They discovered, however, that a significant
number of patient reports conflicted with the information on 
their medical records.  This discrepancy--patients saying they 
had not received a treatment, while their records indicated that 
they had--occurred more frequently among blacks and foreign-born 
Latinos than among whites and U.S.-born Latinos.  Simon et al. 
suggest that Moore's conclusions may have been biased and are 
potentially misleading.  The differences, they said, may reflect 
poor communication between health care provider and patient, or 
between patient and research interviewer.
      
