                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 23, 1995

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
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Former City AIDS Official Charged"
"AIDS Researcher Pursued"
"Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern"
"Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper"
"Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS"
"A Personal Story"
"Swiss Law for Safer Blood"
"Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools"
"U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics"
"Agenda: Split Personality"
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"Former City AIDS Official Charged"
Philadelphia Inquirer (03/23/95) P. A1;  Gammage, Jeff
     Francis Stoffa Jr., former head of the Philadelphia AIDS Task 
Force, has been charged with the theft of more than $200,000 from
the agency.  "He literally stole the lives of the people he was 
trying to help," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.  "The 
people who are suffering the worst, the people with AIDS and who 
are HIV positive, were mistreated the worst."  Stoffa left the 
task force last April, after a criminal investigation of its 
fiscal management was launched.  The task force, which also went 
by the name of Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, 
provided a number of services in the city, including AIDS testing
and counseling.  Stoffa was expected to be arrested today on 
charges of theft, forgery, fraud, and other offenses, said the 
district attorney's office.
      
"AIDS Researcher Pursued"
Baltimore Sun (03/23/95) P. 1A;  Bor, Jonathan
     Offering public money and research space, political and academic 
leaders in Maryland are trying to attract world-famous AIDS 
researcher Dr. Robert C. Gallo to Baltimore.  Gallo's medical 
achievements include the discovery of two leukemia viruses, as 
well as crucial findings in the biology of AIDS.  Gallo, who 
currently operates the tumor cell biology laboratory at the 
National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., would receive a joint
appointment on the faculties of the University of Maryland at 
Baltimore's Biotechnology Institute and medical school.  
According to the Baltimore Sun, Gallo would receive a total of 
$12 million to cover the first three years of costs to establish 
a Center for Human Virology at the university.  Maryland Gov. 
Parris N. Glendening says he expects competing states and 
institutions to offer more money to attract Gallo, who will 
likely retire from the NCI after qualifying for his pension in 
July.  Gallo has indicated that he will examine other factors in 
addition to money concerning his relocation, including academic 
environment, lifestyle, and AIDS caseloads.
      
"Rapidly Rising HIV Rate Causes Serious Concern"
Reuters (03/22/95);  Charles, Deborah
     Luc Montagnier, the French researcher who first identified HIV, 
announced at a Wednesday news conference that the increasing 
number of HIV-positive people in Thailand underscores the 
country's need to change sexual behavior.  There are an estimated
750,000 people in Thailand infected with HIV, up from 
approximately 250,000 in 1991.  Montagnier attributed the 
increasing rate of HIV in Thailand to prostitution and sexual 
promiscuity.  "We need to give education in school at an age 
before sexual activity so the message could be taken more 
seriously," he said.  Montagnier made the announcement in 
Thailand during a brief visit following the AIDS conference in 
Singapore.  The World Health Organization announced in December 
that Thailand and India have the fastest growing rates of people 
developing AIDS.
      
"Doctors Share Blame for French Blood Scandal--Paper"
Reuters (03/23/95)
     France's Liberation newspaper quoted a High Public Health 
Committee report in its Thursday edition which stated that French
doctors must share the blame with authorities for causing 
hundreds of hemophiliacs to contract AIDS through HIV-tainted 
blood products.  The Liberation said the still unpublished report
blamed the crisis on doctors who collected blood donations, 
saying they had failed to screen donors for HIV, and therefore 
allowed blood products to be contaminated.  Until now, doctors 
had avoided the blame for the mid-1980s scandal in which 1,250 
hemophiliacs contracted HIV.  Over 400 of those infected have 
since died.  Two former senior health officials have been put in 
jail after being found guilty of fraud in connection with the 
distribution of tainted blood products.  The two officials, as 
well as seven Socialist former government officials--including 
former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and two former 
ministers--are under investigation by magistrates attempting to 
determine if they should face the more serious charge of 
poisoning.  They have been accused of attempting to save money by
using up contaminated blood stocks rather than importing 
disinfected products.  The Liberation also said the report blamed
doctors for not demanding that authorities provide their patients
with blood products disinfected by heat treatment because that 
new disinfection method had not been fully documented at the 
time.
      
"Health Expert Says India Lax Over Fighting AIDS"
Reuters (03/22/95)
     India's Ishwar Gilanda, Secretary of the Indian Health 
Organization (IHO), said on Wednesday that New Delhi was 
preoccupied with the country's political and economical problems,
and was not focusing enough attention on countering the spread of
HIV.  Gilanda said the city of Bombay contains almost a third of 
the country's more than 1 million AIDS cases and 18,000 HIV cases
as of Jan. 1.  Gilanda said a year ago there were 600 AIDS cases 
and 13,000 HIV cases.  He also said that a large number of cases 
in India are unreported, and that IHO estimates that there are 
currently 4  million HIV infections in the country and over 
200,000 full-blown cases of AIDS.  The World Health Organization,
which estimates the current number of HIV cases in India between 
1.5 and 2 million, projects that figure will increase to around 
10 million by the year 2000, according to Gilanda.  He 
recommended that the Indian government spend more money on 
education, treatment, and management of sexually transmitted 
diseases.
      
"A Personal Story"
Chicago Tribune (03/22/95) P. 2-3;  Johnson, Steve
     For an experimental series of reports, Chicago's WBBM-Channel 2 
has hired Rae Lewis-Thornton, an amateur reporter who has AIDS.  
Lewis-Thornton's reports are part of the CBS affiliate's attempts
to give its broadcasts more of a community service focus.  WBBM 
News Director John Lansing says the AIDS reports will also help 
break down stereotypes about HIV-positive people.  Although 
similar projects have been initiated elsewhere, Lansing says, 
"Our response is, we don't think enough has been done.  I worry 
about our kids getting a strong enough message."  Lewis-Thornton,
who made her condition publicly known in 1992, claims that she 
also wants to use her reports to confront existing stereotypes.  
"This is an opportunity to show women the face of another woman 
who is living with AIDS," she says.
      
"Swiss Law for Safer Blood"
Lancet (03/11/95) Vol. 345, No. 8949, P. 640;  McGregor, Alan
     A mandate by the Swiss government to strengthen quality control 
of blood supplies, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 
1, is still awaiting approval by the Parliament.  Under the 
order, the Federal Public Health Office will be responsible for 
ensuring that all blood products and organ transplants undergo 
all the standardized tests, including those for HIV and hepatitis
B and C.  Blood donors will be required to fill out a detailed 
questionnaire.  The Blood and AIDS working group recommended the 
new measures.  The Ministry of Interior formed the group after it
was determined that blood products supplied to hospitals by the 
Swiss Red Cross were the source of HIV infection in several 
patients.  The only person to have been charged as the result of 
these infections is Professor Alfred Haessig, who was director of
the Red Cross central laboratory at the time.  He is charged with
having permitted the preparation and sale of blood derivatives in
which HIV contamination was a suspected possibility.
      
"Pediatricians Say Condoms Should Be Available in Schools"
Nation's Health (03/95) Vol. 25, No. 3, P. 9
     Although sexual abstinence should be encouraged, young people 
should have access to condoms in school, according to "Condom 
Availability for Youth"--a new policy statement from the American
Academy of Pediatrics.  Public health concerns necessitate the 
removal of barriers and restrictions to condom availability, said
the report.  The number of HIV-infected teens, for example, 
doubles every 14 months.  Schools are a suitable location for 
teens to have access to condoms because they are likely to have a
comprehensive array of related educational and health care 
resources.  To be most effective, condom availability should be 
organized through a community process and be accompanied by 
school health programs, parental involvement, counseling, and 
positive peer support.
      
"U.S Paying High Price for HIV and TB Epidemics"
AIDS Alert (03/95) Vol. 10, No. 3, P. 43
     In the first national study of hospital costs for treating HIV 
and tuberculosis (TB), researchers from the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than one-third of 
young adult TB patients were also treated for HIV or AIDS, and 
that co-infection significantly boosted the morbidity and cost of
health care in young adults.  The study used data from 1985-1990,
during which time the national cost of inpatient care for HIV and
TB was $8 billion--5 percent of which was spent on co-infected 
patients.  "The increasing co-prevalence of hospital patients 
with both diseases is a big problem," said Dr. Lisa Rosenblum of 
the CDC.  About 418,200 young adults were hospitalized for HIV 
and 77,700 for TB during the five years.  A total of 16,200 were 
hospitalized for co-infections.  Although an average of 21 
percent of all TB patients were also HIV-positive, the rate 
increased significantly during that time, from 10.6 percent for 
1985-1988 to 39 percent in 1990.  The researchers found that 
patients with extrapulmonary TB had a higher prevalence of HIV 
than those with pulmonary TB.  Rosenblum suggested that the 
higher rate of HIV with extrapulmonary TB indicates the greater 
risk for disseminated disease in immunocompromised patients.  
Another high risk factor for co-infection was drug-addiction, 
which affected 27 percent of co-infected patients.
      
"Agenda: Split Personality"
Advocate (03/07/95) No. 676, P. 16
     AIDS has two faces in the United States--one east of the 
Mississippi River and one west of it--said speakers at the 
seventh annual AIDS Update Conference earlier this year.  "In the
East it more resembles what we see in the Caribbean, where it's 
increasingly heterosexual, hitting women, children, and 
minorities," said Dr. Michael Gorman of the University of 
Washington.  He added that 80 percent of the new cases west of 
the Mississippi River are still gay.  The geographic gap 
complicates AIDS prevention efforts, educators said.
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