                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      March 21, 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
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Dornan Says Leaders Back Him on HIV"
"Digest: Life Partners Inc."
"Discharging HIV-Positive Service Members is Unfair and 
Unnecessary"
"The Reliable Source: Now You Know..."
"Man Goes for Wild Ride After HIV Test Results"
"Obituary: Perry Watkins, 48, Gay Sergeant Who Won Enlistment in 
Court"
"All But One of Japan Hemophiliacs Take Compromise"
"S. Africa Insurer Launches HIV Policy"
"Vaccine Drought Spurs NIAID Plan to Improve Industry Ties..."
"Treatment of Cognitive Impairment"
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"Dornan Says Leaders Back Him on HIV"
Washington Times (03/21/96) P. A12;  Price, Joyce
     Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif.) says the House leadership will 
help him in opposing a Senate vote to repeal a law that would 
force the discharge of HIV-positive military members.  Dornan 
said that House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has assured him 
that there is "zero chance" that the House will allow the Senate 
to kill the provision, and said the measure would die in a 
House-Senate conference committee this week.  A spokesperson for 
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said the leadership 
does not have a position on the issue.  Dornan said that if by 
some chance the repeal were passed, he would put the ban into the
1997 defense authorization bill.  Basketball star Magic Johnson, 
who recently returned to the NBA despite having HIV, wrote to 
oppose the ban, but Dornan responded that "a basketball court 
isn't a battlefield."  Dornan called the Senate vote to repeal 
the ban "obvious kowtowing to the activist homosexual agenda."
      
"Digest: Life Partners Inc."
Washington Post (03/21/96) P. B10
     A federal judge has ordered Life Partners Inc. to stop selling 
"interests" parceled from insurance policies of AIDS patients.  
The judge, who made the ruling after the Securities and Exchange 
Commission filed an emergency motion, dismissed Life Partners' 
argument that it had developed new procedures that took its 
offerings outside the scope of securities law.
      
"Discharging HIV-Positive Service Members is Unfair and 
Unnecessary"
Washington Times (03/21/96) P. A20;  Childress, Kirk
     In a letter to the editor of the Washington Times, Kirk Childress
takes issue with the paper's coverage of a controversial attempt 
to discharge all HIV-positive military members.  He says the 
paper has helped Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif.) misrepresent 
the issues surrounding the controversial proposal.  Childress 
claims that HIV-positive soldiers do not hurt combat readiness, 
as Dornan has argued, but actually enhance it by playing 
important roles in engineering, logistics, medical research, and 
other areas.  Childress also contends that Dornan's assertions 
that "the majority of cases are the result of illicit drug use or
playing 'Russian roulette' with infected prostitutes" are false 
and unsupported by any evidence.  He says the military's policies
for protecting combat readiness include measures to deal with 
personnel who cannot be deployed, and HIV cases should not be 
handled any differently.
      
"The Reliable Source: Now You Know..."
Washington Post (03/21/96) P. D3;  Gerhart, Ann;  Groer, Annie
     TriStar pictures admitted on Tuesday that its movie 
"Philadelphia" was "inspired in part" by the story of Geoffrey 
Bowers, a New York lawyer who successfully sued his law firm for 
AIDS discrimination.  The filmmaker will settle a $10 million 
breach of contract suit with Bowers' family for an undisclosed 
"mid-seven-figure" amount, Variety reported.  Director Jonathan 
Demme, writer Ron Nyswaner, producers Scott Rudin and Edward 
Saxon, and the studio were named as defendants in the case.  The 
settlement was decided before Rudin, who was expected to testify 
that he tried to persuade TriStar to honor his verbal agreement 
to pay the family, took the stand.
      
"Man Goes for Wild Ride After HIV Test Results"
Washington Times (03/21/96) P. C7
     A man angered by a positive HIV test result led police on a chase
across Maryland's Eastern Shore at speeds up to 118 mph Tuesday. 
State troopers initially stopped 20-year-old Kashaka Miller for a
traffic violation.  However, the 25-mile chase ended when 
Miller's BMW hit two parked cars and crashed into a tree.  "He 
was screaming he was HIV-positive and he doesn't care," said 
Trooper Antonio Graham.  Miller was charged with fleeing and 
eluding police, assault with intent to murder, and several 
traffic offenses.
      
"Obituary: Perry Watkins, 48, Gay Sergeant Who Won Enlistment in 
Court"
Washington Post (03/21/96) P. B8;  Dunlap, David W.
     Perry J. Watkins, an openly gay Army sergeant who won the right 
to stay in the military from the Supreme Court in 1990, died 
Sunday at the age of 48.  The cause was complications from AIDS. 
Watkins identified himself as gay when he was drafted in 1968, 
but the Army forced him out in 1984, based on a new ban of gays 
and lesbians in the military.  In 1989 Watkins won the right to 
re-enlist in the first ruling to appeal that ban.  Although he 
chose not to re-enlist, he still received retroactive pay, 
retirement benefits, an honorable discharge, and a retroactive 
promotion.
      
"All But One of Japan Hemophiliacs Take Compromise"
Reuters (03/20/96)
     Only one of the 456 Japanese hemophiliacs infected with HIV 
refused a settlement to end the long legal battle against the 
government and five pharmaceutical companies.  Last week the 
government and drug firms agreed to pay each claimant or family a
one-time payment of $420,000 and continuing monthly payments.  
The contaminated blood products are thought to have infected 
1,800 to 2,000 Japanese hemophiliacs with HIV.  The government 
recently admitted to covering up knowledge of the threat.  
However, according to Vice Health and Welfare Minister Hiroshi 
Tada, an investigation into the scandal has thus far failed to 
determine why it happened or who was to blame.
      
"S. Africa Insurer Launches HIV Policy"
Reuters (03/20/96);  Mordant, Nicole
     South African's Metropolitan Life has offered what it claims is 
the world's first life insurance policy for HIV-infected 
individuals.  The company said the policy is designed for people 
who have been denied other coverage because they are HIV-positive
but had not yet developed AIDS.  A similar policy was offered in 
France by a non-profit government-driven project involving 
pooling of funds from numerous insurers.  An estimated 1.5 
million people in South Africa have HIV, and about 80 percent 
would qualify for the new policy.  Eligible applicants are 
between the ages of 15 and 55, asymptomatic and in stage one or 
two of infection according to World Health Organization 
definitions.
      
"Vaccine Drought Spurs NIAID Plan to Improve Industry Ties..."
Science (03/01/96) Vol. 271, No. 5253, P. 1227;  Cohen, Jon
     Although the lack of AIDS vaccine clinical trial results marked 
the 8th Annual Conference on Advances in AIDS Vaccine 
Development, a new plan to encourage more cooperation between 
vaccine researchers and drug companies was emphasized.  NIAID's 
decision not to go through with two large trials of two vaccines 
in 1994 may have had a negative impact on the development of 
others.  The companies involved, Genentech and Biocine, argued 
that NIAID proved itself an unreliable business partner when it 
reversed its decision about the trials.  Genentech's vaccine, 
which uses engineered versions of HIV's surface protein gp120, is
now being developed by Genenvax, a new spin-off company.  NIAID's
new plan is one way it is trying to win back companies' interest 
in vaccines.  It outlines specific criteria a vaccine must meet 
before it can advance in clinical trials, thereby improving 
companies' incentive to continue vaccine development.  Anthony 
Fauci, head of NIAID, said a deal was being struck with the two 
companies involved in the one vaccine whose results were 
presented at the meeting.  NIAID is now funding Phase I trials of
one of the vaccine components, and if further research is 
productive, both parts could move into efficacy trials by the 
middle of 1998.
      
"Treatment of Cognitive Impairment"
Focus (02/96) Vol. 11, No. 3, P. 1;  Zeifert, Penelope;  Leary, 
Mark;  Boccellari, Alicia
     Cognitive impairment, a loss of the ability to process, learn, 
and remember information, affects 55 percent to 65 percent of 
people with AIDS.  It occurs severely in late-stage AIDS 
patients, and may have a smaller impact in the early stages of 
HIV infection.  Mild impairment is marked by slowness in thinking
and memory problems, while moderate to severe impairment leads to
memory loss, impaired manipulation and retrieval of information, 
slowed thinking, apathy, depression, and motor impairment.  Some 
aspects of the condition are treatable if addressed promptly, 
while others are untreatable and progress rapidly.  Responding to
cognitive impairment requires accurate diagnosis; coordination of
treatment and education; aggressive treatment of the causes, like
opportunistic disease and delirium; and management through 
psychotherapy and psychopharmacology.  The most common cause of 
the condition is direct infection of the brain by HIV.  
Psychotherapists should work with a patient's doctor to rule out 
or treat reversible causes.  Psychotherapy is useful to manage 
untreatable cognitive impairment, and is more important if 
dementia or an acute psychiatric condition develops.
      
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