                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       June 12, 1996
     
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 National AIDS 
Clearinghouse, or any other organization. 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
     
     
****************************************************** 
"Baltimore Plans to Use Old Mailboxes to Collect Needles From 
Drug Addicts"
"Global Team to Track Disease"
"Feds File AIDS Discrimination Claim"
"AIDS Main Killer of Young, Mid-Age Copenhagen Men" 
"UN AIDS Team Stays in Geneva"
"Mother's Message on Love and Death"
"High Risk of HIV Transmission in Mentally Ill, Homeless Drug 
Users Persists"
"PERT Assay: A More Accurate Screen for Plasma RNA HIV-1" 
"Of Bad Blood and Blame"
"The Accurate Diagnosis of Oral Lesions in Human Immunodeficiency 
Virus Injection: Impact on Medical Staging" 
******************************************************
     
"Baltimore Plans to Use Old Mailboxes to Collect Needles From 
Drug Addicts"
Washington Times (06/12/96) P. C3
     In an attempt to prevent the littering of Baltimore streets
with discarded syringes, city health officials are planning to 
use old sidewalk mailboxes as needle drop boxes.  Beginning this 
month, the city will turn six U.S. Postal Service mailboxes in 
drug-infested neighborhoods into burgundy drop boxes and urge 
drug addicts to deposit their needles in them.  More than 1 
million dirty needles litter Baltimore parks and streets each 
year, and officials want to reduce the risk of disease 
transmission for children, trash collectors, and others who may 
handle the needles.  Baltimore has an estimated 48,000 drug 
users, and about 25 percent are infected with HIV.  The project, 
which began in Florida and has been tested in such locations as 
Texas and Australia, will be expanded if enough needles are 
deposited over the next few months.
     
"Global Team to Track Disease"
USA Today (06/12/96) P. 1A;  Manning, Anita
     The first national program to combat emerging infectious
disease, which will include a global tracking and response system, 
encourage research, and update regulations for quarantine at U.S. 
ports of entry, will be announced by the Clinton administration 
today.  The program will be led by a task force of the National 
Science and Technology Council.  James Hughes of the National 
Center for Infectious Diseases called new diseases like hantavirus 
and Ebola, and older ones including dengue, diptheria, and cholera 
"wake-up calls."  In the United States, the death rate from new 
and re-emerging infectious diseases, excluding AIDS, rose 22 
percent between 1980 and 1992.
     
"Feds File AIDS Discrimination Claim" 
United Press International (06/12/96) 
     The first AIDS housing discrimination claim filed in
California's Central District was brought against the operators 
of a mobile home park in Huntington Beach Wednesday.  Shirley 
Lewis and her son Steven alleged that they were discriminated 
against when they were refused permission to live in the park, 
after the operators learned Steven had AIDS.  Lewis had already 
lived in the park and wanted to bring her 39-year-old son to live 
with her so she could care for him.  She asked the park to waive 
the minimum age requirement of 45 years for her son, who had 
become too ill to live alone.  Although the park had lifted the 
age requirement for residents on two other occasions, it refused 
Lewis' request and said she would be evicted if her son continued 
living with her.  The Lewises had filed a complaint with the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development late in 1995, 
claiming that the park's management had discriminated against 
Steven because he had AIDS.  Following an investigation into the 
case, HUD sided with the Lewises, saying there was "reasonable 
cause" to believe the park violated the Fair Housing Act by not 
waiving the housing rule.
     
"AIDS Main Killer of Young, Mid-Age Copenhagen Men" 
Reuters (06/11/96) 
     AIDS has become the leading killer of young and middle-aged 
Copenhagen men, accounting for one in four deaths, more than both 
heart disease and cancer.  State Health Agency researchers Jan 
Fouchard and Hedda Bille, who reported their findings in The 
Danish Medical Journal on Tuesday, say the disease has reached 
similar proportions in other major Danish cities, due in part to 
the prevalence of drug-taking and risky sexual activity.  The 
most recent AIDS survey found that 1,547 Danes had full-blown 
AIDS, and 91 percent were men.
     
"UN AIDS Team Stays in Geneva"
Reuters (06/11/96) 
     The United Nations AIDS Program, organized on Jan. 1,
announced Tuesday that it has decided to remain in Geneva, 
rejecting the French city of Lyon's offer of free office space. 
The new agency was formed to bring together six U.N. groups, 
including the World Health Organization's AIDS program, which is 
based in Geneva.  The Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS has 70 
staff members and a two-year budget of $140 million.
     
"Mother's Message on Love and Death"
New York Times (06/12/96) P. C18;  O'Connor, John J.
     Tonight's episode of the HBO series "Family Video Diaries"
features a video diary made by a Staten Island mother dying of 
AIDS.  Sandra Billups, the 29-year-old mother, made the video for 
her 8-year-old daughter Yolanda, whose father died of AIDS when 
she was a baby.  The video shows the love between the mother and 
daughter, as well as the support of an organization called 
Project Hospitality.
     
"High Risk of HIV Transmission in Mentally Ill, Homeless Drug 
Users Persists"
Reuters (06/11/96) 
     Mentally ill injection drug users continue to practice
behaviors that put them at risk for HIV infection, researchers 
report in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. 
Ezra Susser and colleagues at Columbia University conducted 
interviews with 50 homeless men, all of them mentally ill 
injection drug users who lived in a New York City shelter.  The 
majority reported high-risk injection drug use behaviors, 
including sharing needles.  High risk sexual behavior, including 
unprotected anal sex, was also common among the men.  Susser 
concluded that efforts to reduce risk among this group are 
needed.
     
"PERT Assay: A More Accurate Screen for Plasma RNA HIV-1" 
Reuters (06/11/96) 
     A new test, the product-enhanced reverse transcriptase
(PERT) assay, provides a more accurate measure of the plasma level 
of HIV-1 RNA than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, a 
team of Swiss researchers report.  Jurg Boni and colleagues at the 
University of Zurich found that the PERT assay, which can detect 
less than 100 HIV-1 particles per milliliter, to be more sensitive 
than the PCR assay.
     
"Of Bad Blood and Blame"
Maclean's (06/03/96) Vol 109, No. 23; P. 14;  Jenish, D'Arcy
     The federal inquiry into Canada's tainted-blood tragedy,
which left more than 1,000 people infected with HIV, is being 
delayed by a legal challenge brought by the Canadian Red Cross 
(CRC) Society, the federal government, provinces, former health 
ministers, and others.  The delay, which could last months or 
years, has left victims and their families wondering if they will 
ever learn the truth.  The Red Cross and other groups are 
challenging Judge Horace Krever's authority to assign blame to 
any person in his report, because they say such findings would 
turn the inquiry into a trial and violate the rights of the 
organizations and individuals implicated.  Victims' groups say 
the challenge is an attempt to keep Krever from ever issuing a 
final report.  Representatives of the CRC say findings of 
misconduct should not be allowed because they could lead to civil 
or criminal suits.  In notices of misconduct sent by inquiry 
lawyers to the CRC, the organization was cited for delaying 
measures to ensure a safer blood supply.  The tragedy has 
resulted in a loss of public confidence in the blood system, and 
a decline in blood donations.  The CRC has taken steps to improve 
the safety of the blood supply, however, and its officials now 
say Canada has one of the safest blood systems in the world.
     
"The Accurate Diagnosis of Oral Lesions in Human Immunodeficiency 
Virus Injection: Impact on Medical Staging"
Journal of the American Medical Association (06/05/96) Vol. 275, 
No. 21; P. 1616;  Cruz, Gustavo D.
     To determine how often medical and dental examiners
identified oral candidiasis (OC) and oral hairy leukoplakia 
(OHL), as well as the impact of these diagnoses on the medical 
staging of HIV, researchers analyzed medical records from 245 
individuals.  The participants were homosexual men as well as men 
and women who were parenteral drug users living in New York City. 
Gustavo D. Cruz and colleagues at Columbia University report that 
among homosexual men, the oral/dental examiners diagnosed OC in 
11 percent of the individuals and the medical examiners in 4 
percent.  Among the same group, OHL was diagnosed by the 
oral/dental examiners in 14 percent of the individuals and by the 
medical examiners in 8 percent.  The oral/dental practitioners 
consistently diagnosed both conditions more frequently than the 
medical examiners.  The diagnoses affected the medical staging of 
12 percent of the HIV-positive homosexual men and 22 percent of 
the HIV-positive drug users.  The researchers concluded that 
specific training and a comprehensive oral exam have a 
significant impact on the diagnoses of OC and OHL, and on the 
medical staging of individuals with HIV.  This research was 
reported in the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery.
     
     
