                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 11, 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 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 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Lawyer's Family In Court Over 'Philadelphia'"
"In the Loop: Courting Clinton's Reconsideration"
"AIDS Data Not in Peril"
"AIDS Clinical Trials Lack Data on Adolescents"
"UNAIDS Highlights Women and AIDS in New Report"
"Eight Causes Explain Most Cases of Fever in AIDS Patients"
"Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in Homosexual Men with
AIDS"
"Soldiers and AIDS: All of You, Out"
"Blood, Sweat and Fears"
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"Lawyer's Family In Court Over 'Philadelphia'"
New York Times (03/11/96) P. D1;  Pristin, Terry
     A lawsuit charging that Tri-Star Pictures misappropriated the 
story of Geoffrey Bowers, a New York lawyer with AIDS, in the 
film "Philadelphia" is set to go to trial Tuesday in Federal 
District Court in Manhattan.  Bowers' family claims that the film
company misrepresented the origins of the film's screenplay.  The
family is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages and public 
acknowledgment that the movie was based on Bowers' experience.  
Bowers died in 1987 before winning a discrimination suit against 
his former employer, Baker & McKenzie, the world's largest law 
firm.  The 1993 movie was heralded by gay-rights groups for 
changing attitudes about AIDS.  Tri-Star has promoted the 
screenplay, by Ron Nyswaner, as an original story developed after
brainstorming with the director Jonathon Demme.  The company 
holds that the story was derived from numerous discrimination 
cases, including Bowers'.  The case may depend on whether the 
family's contributions to the film are seen as unique.  Details 
of the Bowers case had been public information before the film 
was made, but the family contends that some details in the film 
could only have come from information provided by them.
      
"In the Loop: Courting Clinton's Reconsideration"
Washington Post (03/11/96) P. A17;  Kamen, Al
     A controversy is brewing over President Clinton's appointment of 
Andrew S. Effron, minority counsel for Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), to 
the Court of Military Appeals.  Some gay groups oppose the 
appointment because of Effron's participation in Nunn's anti-gay 
policy in the military and Clinton's signing of a measure to 
force HIV-positive people out of the military.  Other gay groups 
are holding back their criticism, hoping that Nunn will support a
bill to repeal the HIV-positive ban.  Nunn had been undecided on 
the repeal, but is said to be leaning in its favor.  He will 
announce his decision soon.
      
"AIDS Data Not in Peril"
New York Times (03/11/96) P. A16;  Bereano, Philip L.
     In this letter to the editor appearing in the New York Times, 
Philip Bereano, a University of Washington engineering professor,
says that a recent Times article misrepresented the impact a ban 
of HIV-positive military personnel would have on AIDS research.  
The article suggested AIDS research would be threatened by the 
ban, but Bereano says this would be "highly improbable."  He says
that the ban should be opposed because it is a result of 
homophobia and hysteria, but that AIDS research would not be 
affected by the ban because the 1,049 HIV-positive people do not 
represent a unique group of patients.  Bereano argues that 
similar subjects could be studied by any medical institution.
      
"AIDS Clinical Trials Lack Data on Adolescents"
Reuters (03/08/96)
     A report by the Office on National AIDS Policy shows that 
adolescents are being overlooked in AIDS clinical trials.  
Patricia Fleming, the Office director, said that one-quarter of 
all new U.S. HIV infections are thought to occur in people 
between the ages of 13 and 20.  The report suggests that the 
government, researchers, and clinicians work together to develop 
appropriate clinical practice guidelines for adolescents with HIV
or AIDS.  It also recommends that the National Institutes of 
Health develop dosage guidelines for treating HIV-positive 
adolescents.  According to the report, adolescents have been on 
the "periphery" of AIDS research.
      
"UNAIDS Highlights Women and AIDS in New Report"
Reuters (03/08/96)
     The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has 
released a report, called "Reducing Women's Vulnerability to HIV 
Infection," which says that more than 10 million women are 
infected with HIV and that the number is increasing worldwide.  
The report gives the biological, social, and economic reasons as 
to why women are vulnerable to the virus.  To lessen women's 
vulnerability, the report suggests such methods as combating 
ignorance, providing "women-friendly" services, developing 
prevention methods women can control, building safer norms, and 
reinforcing women's economic independence.
      
"Eight Causes Explain Most Cases of Fever in AIDS Patients"
Reuters (03/08/96)
     Eighty percent of fevers in HIV patients have one of eight 
possible diagnoses, reported Dr. Frederick Hecht of the San 
Francisco General Hospital.  Hecht explained that an 
evidence-based approach is best to evaluate fever in AIDS 
patients.  Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Mycobacterium avium
complex are two of the most common causes of fever in AIDS 
patients, but others include catheter infection, bacterial 
pneumonia, and lymphoma.  Hecht suggested that clinicians 
treating AIDS patients first look for the symptoms that 
characterize the eight most common causes of fever, focusing on 
the lungs, the lymph nodes, and the skin.
      
"Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in Homosexual Men with
AIDS"
Lancet (02/24/96) Vol.347, No.9000, P. 499;  Bindels, Patrick 
J.E.;  Krol, Anneke;  Van Ameijden, Erik; et al.
     A study in the Netherlands found that 38 percent of deaths there 
involve medical decisions concerning the end of life (MEDL), and 
that 2.1 percent are the result of euthanasia or 
physician-assisted suicide (PAS).  Bindels et al. studied the 
rate of MEDL among 131 homosexual men with AIDS by analyzing the 
mode of death information in both doctor and hospital records.  
The researchers found that 22 percent of the men died by 
euthanasia or PAS and in 13 percent another MEDL had been made.  
Seventy-two percent of those in the PAS/euthanasia group were age
40 or older, compared to 38 percent in the natural death group.  
The likelihood of euthanasia/PAS increased the longer patients 
survived after AIDS diagnosis.  Analysis of CD4 and CD8 cell 
counts and phytohaemagglutinin responses two years before death 
and at the time of death showed that most of the patients would 
have died naturally within one month of the time euthanasia or 
PAS was induced.  The authors suggest that the high rate of MEDL 
in the study group was due to the patients' high level of 
knowledge about AIDS acquired through long-term awareness of HIV 
infection.  Furthermore, the higher rate of euthanasia in 
long-time survivors could be the result of additional suffering 
or the greater opportunity to discuss the option with friends and
doctors.  According to the researchers, euthanasia and other MEDL
did little to shorten life.
      
"Soldiers and AIDS: All of You, Out"
Economist (02/17/96) Vol.338, No.7953, P. 26
     HIV-infected people in the military have not been allowed in 
combat since 1986, a logical rule since the virus is transmitted 
through blood.  However, a new policy would force the discharge 
of anyone with HIV, regardless of position, service record, or 
medical condition.  The Pentagon opposed the provision, noting 
that the military would lose serviceman and officers with 
considerable skill.  Republican Congressman Robert Dornan 
(R-Calif.) added the measure to the defense authorization bill, 
saying people with HIV are "drug dealers, people who visited 
whorehouses, or homosexuals."  Dornan is said to have offered the
provision on the grounds that people with HIV cannot serve 
overseas, and thereby weaken the military's strength in combat.  
People with diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and asthma are 
allowed to serve, however, even when they are kept from being 
deployed.  Repeal efforts are currently underway, but they would 
either have to pass through Dornan's House subcommittee on 
servicemen, or House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) would have to 
act on the issue.
      
"Blood, Sweat and Fears"
Time (02/26/96) Vol.147, No.9, P. 59;  Gorman, Christine
     With boxer Tommy Morrison's announcement that he has HIV, the 
risk of transmitting the virus in the boxing ring has been 
reconsidered.  For many reasons, researchers say the chance of 
getting HIV during a fight are small.  The skin provides a good 
barrier of the virus, the flow of blood out of a cut would make 
it difficult for another person's blood to flow in, and healthy 
athletes have only a small amount of the virus in their blood.  
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 11 
National Football League teams and found 575 bleeding injuries 
occurred in 155 games among 538 players.  The researchers 
estimated that the risk of getting HIV from playing football was 
1 in 85 million, and no such transmissions have been reported.  
Boxing, however, involves exposing mucous membranes in the nose 
and eyes.  One of the rare known cases of transmission through 
nonsexual physical contact was between two brothers, one 
infected, one not, who fought, and bled profusely into each 
other's eyes and open wounds.  Shortly after that fight, the 
previously uninfected brother tested positive for HIV.  In the 
wake of Morrison's announcement, meanwhile, New York has become 
the fifth state to require HIV testing for boxers.
      
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