                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       July 16, 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
     
     
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"Needle Exchanges Inject Controversy in AIDS Prevention"
"Discussing Possible AIDS Cure Raises Hope, Anger and Question: 
What Exactly Is Meant by "Cure"?"
"New Rules Press HMOs to Disclose Data" 
"Across the USA: Illinois"
"In AIDS Fight, Hope Has High Price" 
"California to Vote on Legalizing Pot as 
Medicine" 
"Support Groups for H.I.V.-Negative Gay Men"
"At the AIDS Epicenter, New Urgency for Vaccine"
"N.C. Seeks FDA Waiver to Let it Keep New HIV Home Test Kits From 
Market"
"Assisted-Suicide Charge"
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"Needle Exchanges Inject Controversy in AIDS Prevention" 
Washington Post (07/16/96) P. A1; Span, Paula
     There are 86 known needle-exchange programs in the United
States, including publicly funded programs and those that operate 
underground.  Washington, D.C., which has had a high incidence of 
AIDS, but no effective, legal needle-exchange program, is now 
preparing to award a contract for a program that should be 
operating by August or September.  Under a congressional ban, 
federal funds cannot be used for needle exchanges.  The war on 
drugs is blamed for the opposition. Moreover, according to Denise 
Paone, a researcher at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, 
politicians who would support the programs "are afraid that their 
constituents will think they're soft on drugs, soft on crime."  
Research has shown that needle exchanges can effectively reduce 
needle sharing and HIV transmission among drug users, yet without 
federal funding, local programs cannot meet the needs of the 
community.
     
"Discussing Possible AIDS Cure Raises Hope, Anger and Question: 
What Exactly Is Meant by 'Cure'?"
New York Times (07/16/96) P. C3; Altman, Lawrence K.
     While some AIDS researchers say a cure for AIDS may exist in
a combination of drugs able to suppress the virus, others warn 
that talk of a cure is likely to create a false sense of security. 
In addition, as researchers increasingly use the words eradication 
and elimination in reference to patients who have undetectable 
levels of HIV, no one knows if the virus can be permanently 
cleared from the body.  David D. Ho and Martin Markowitz, both of 
the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, plan to stop 
treatment in a small number of patients to determine if HIV can 
come back.  Helene Gayle of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention said the agency does not have a definition for an AIDS 
"cure."  Many people in the AIDS community see talk of a cure as a 
distraction, and those involved in HIV prevention have expressed 
concern that publicity about the success of treatment would 
threaten funding for their programs.
     
"New Rules Press HMOs to Disclose Data"
Wall Street Journal (07/16/96) P. A3; Anders, George
     New standards being released today by the National Committee
for Quality Assurance call for health maintenance organizations 
(HMOs) to disclose more information about their care of patients. 
The new guidelines include more detailed, standardized patient 
surveys to facilitate comparison between plans.  Under the new 
guidelines, for example, HMOs will have to reveal how well they 
provide HIV-positive patients with preventive care for 
potentially fatal pneumonia.  This would be the first attempt to 
monitor the quality of HMO care for patients with HIV or AIDS.  
The standards also call for HMOs to disclose whether patients 
hospitalized with a heart attack receive a class of drugs known 
as beta-blockers.
     
"Across the USA: Illinois"
USA Today (07/16/96) P. 5A
     Illinois' AIDS Drug Reimbursement Program has reduced the
number of medications it provides free to low-income patients 
from 112 to 28, the result of skyrocketing drug prices.
     
"In AIDS Fight, Hope Has High Price"
Miami Herald (07/15/96) P. 1A; Smith, Stephen
     At the 11th International Conference on AIDS, Nkosazana
Zuma, South Africa's minister of health, urged participants to 
support a global effort to fight AIDS in developing countries, 
where 90 percent of people infected with HIV live.  The 
pharmaceutical industry has responded to the AIDS epidemic with 
powerful drugs; however, these treatments are not available to 
poor, developing countries.  An AIDS vaccine, while being pushed 
by the federal government, still is not a research priority for 
drug companies.
     
"California to Vote on Legalizing Pot as 
Medicine" USA Today (07/16/96) P. 10A; 
Goodavage, Maria
     Californians will vote in November on whether it should be
legal to smoke marijuana for medical purposes, including reducing 
nausea during chemotherapy, increasing appetite to prevent wasting 
in AIDS patients, and easing the pressure of glaucoma.  Under the 
proposed law, patients would be allowed to grow and possess 
marijuana if a physician has recommended it; doctors who 
recommended the substance would be legally protected.  Supporters 
of the initiative have obtained more than 800,000 signatures to 
get the measure on the ballot, and polls indicate that many 
Californians agree with the bill.  But opponents claim that 
marijuana's medical benefits have not been proven scientifically, 
and they dispute the bill's loose wording, in part because it does 
not require a doctor's prescription, only a recommendation, and it 
does not state how much of the drug can be possessed.
     
"Support Groups for H.I.V.-Negative Gay Men" 
New York Times (07/14/96) P. 25; Fisher, Ian
     A dozen groups for HIV-negative gay men have been created in
New York's West Village and Brooklyn over the past two years, 
giving these men a forum to talk about their guilt and their 
constant fear of infection, as well as giving them a sense of 
community.  The groups are part of a movement among people who are 
HIV-negative and want to remain that way.  The groups especially 
attract young gay men, in their late 20s or early 30s, who do not 
necessarily have many friends who have died of AIDS or who are even 
HIV-positive.  The meetings also provide a connection to the larger 
gay community that does not otherwise exist for young gay men.
     
"At the AIDS Epicenter, New Urgency for Vaccine" 
Philadelphia Inquirer (07/14/96) P. E1; Collins, Huntly
     The majority of the world's HIV-positive patients are living
in developing countries--where anti-HIV drugs are too expensive 
and an AIDS vaccine is the best hope of curbing the epidemic. 
The U.S. government will increase funding for vaccine research to 
$116 million next year, though this will account for less than 10 
percent of the government's AIDS research budget.  Large 
pharmaceutical companies have been criticized for not undertaking 
more vaccine development, but Dani P. Bolognesi of Duke 
University says that "science has not given industry the keys to 
how to make vaccines."  While vaccine research in the United 
States was stymied in 1994 when the federal government decided to 
postpone large-scale clinical trials of two experimental AIDS 
vaccines, Thai officials are planning to launch their own trial 
by 1998.
     
"N.C. Seeks FDA Waiver to Let it Keep New HIV Home Test Kits From 
Market"
American Medical News (07/01/96) Vol. 39, No. 25, P. 15
     Some North Carolina health officials are trying to keep the 
newly approved home HIV test kits off pharmacy shelves, fearing 
the tests could undermine state efforts to control the spread of 
HIV.  In its appeal, North Carolina is using a rarely used 
regulation that permits states to ask the Food and Drug 
Administration to waive its authority over state rules on medical 
devices for "compelling local conditions."  North Carolina has 
also been involved since 1991 in a court battle with the AIDS 
activist group ACT-UP Triangle over the state's attempt to 
replace anonymous HIV testing with confidential testing.  State 
health officials say confidential HIV testing would allow them to 
identify and contact more people who could have been infected by 
someone with HIV.
     
"Assisted-Suicide Charge"
Maclean's (07/01/96) Vol. 109, No. 27, P. 23
     A Toronto doctor recently became the first Canadian
physician to be charged with aiding an AIDS patient's suicide. 
Maurice Genereux, who specializes in treating AIDS patients, 
allegedly aided in the April 11 death of Aaron McGinn, who had 
tested positive for HIV in 1990 but had not developed full-blown 
AIDS.  Genereux was released on $1,000 bail and allowed to 
continue his medical practice but not to prescribe drugs.  
Friends of McGinn said he was psychologically troubled but still 
in relatively good physical health.
     
     
