                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       June 14, 1995

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Advisory AIDS Panel to Be Announced"
"Indonesia Warns of Economic Threat of AIDS"
"Dentist Pays Fine over Treatment of HIV Patients"
"White House Strongly Opposes Defense Bill"
"Search for HIV-1 Group O Infection in Nigeria"
"HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, and Tuberculosis Testing at 
Community Sites in Upstate New York"
"Blood Safety"
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"Advisory AIDS Panel to Be Announced"
Baltimore Sun (06/14/95) P. 10A
     The Clinton Administration met with 45 gay and lesbian elected 
officials on Tuesday, and prepared to announce a new presidential
AIDS panel.  The 30-member panel, which will be announced on 
Thursday, will advise the President and AIDS policy director 
Patricia S. Fleming on how to support AIDS research and care.  An
administration official said that at least six of the members are
homosexual and at least as many are HIV-positive.  The most 
well-known member will be Bob Hattoy, the White House liaison to 
the Department of Interior, the official said.  Hattoy, who is 
infected with HIV, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in
1992.  The elected officials were briefed on homosexual issues by
several senior administration officials.  Overall, said the 
anonymous official, the audience was generally supportive of the 
administration's efforts of gay rights and AIDS.  Related Story: 
New York Times (06/14) P. B7
      
"Indonesia Warns of Economic Threat of AIDS"
Reuters (06/14/95)
     Treating HIV and AIDS will cost Indonesia up to $2 billion by 
1999, the official Antara news agency has reported.  "If the 
spread is not checked now, the consequences...will bring great 
loss to the national economy," Azwar Anas, coordinating minister 
for welfare, said.  Azwar also said that there were 309 known 
cases of HIV/AIDS in the country.  The World Health Organization,
however, last year estimated that there were 50,000 HIV-infected 
people in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation.  
Nafsiah Mboy, an official of an Indonesian commission to 
coordinate efforts to fight AIDS, said that HIV has spread to 
most of the country's 27 provinces.
      
"Dentist Pays Fine over Treatment of HIV Patients"
Reuters (06/13/95)
     A New Orleans dentist will pay $120,000 in damages for refusing 
to treat two HIV-infected patients, the Department of Justice 
(DOJ) announced on Tuesday.  DOJ sued Dr. Drew Morvant in 1993 
for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act 
(ADA).  On March 23, the U.S. District Court in New Orleans ruled
that Morvant had violated the ADA and had discriminated against 
people with AIDS or HIV by refusing to treat them.  "This 
settlement, together with the court's ruling, demonstrates that 
such discriminatory conduct will not be tolerated," said 
Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick.
      
"White House Strongly Opposes Defense Bill"
Reuters (06/13/95)
     Claiming that it was too expensive and would restrict the 
President's authority to dispatch troops, the White House 
registered strong opposition to a $267 billion defense bill that 
was in the House on Tuesday.  Among its complaints, the White 
House objected to a provision of the bill that would prohibit 
abortions at U.S. military hospitals and another that would 
discharge HIV-infected service members.  Although Democrats 
claimed that Republicans blocked them from proposing amendments 
to reduce the $9.4 billion increase from the bill, the 
Republican-controlled House approved terms of debate that 
prohibit consideration of the amendments.
      
"Search for HIV-1 Group O Infection in Nigeria"
Lancet (06/03/95) Vol. 345, No. 8962, P. 1436;  Dada, Abinbola;  
Olumide, Yetunde M.;  Henrard, Denis R. et al.
     Dada et al. selected 248 serum samples from commercial sex 
workers and patients seen at clinics in Lagos to be tested for 
HIV-1 group O.  Of the 182 samples that were reactive to an 
enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA), 61 were HIV western-blot 
positive, 73 were indeterminate, and 48 tested negative.  The 
other 66 tested EIA negative but had varying numbers of bands.  
The samples were sent to Chicago's Abbott Laboratories and to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for HIV-1 group 
O testing.  At Abbott Laboratories, the samples were tested by 
the Clonatech HIV (1+2) EIA, which is generally non-reactive with
group O.  A total of 94 had negative Clonatech results.  Forty of
these 94 were further analyzed for type O reactivity using 
"consensus" group O specific peptides for the gp41 area of HIV-1,
but none had group O peptide reactivity.  At the CDC, the samples
were screened by Genetic System's HIV 1/2 EIA.  Sixty-two tested 
positive for HIV.  These samples also had no group O reactivity 
when tested with EIAs based on synthetic peptides derived from 
the V3 loop of the envelope proteins representing group O.
      
"HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, and Tuberculosis Testing at 
Community Sites in Upstate New York"
American Journal of Public Health (06/95) Vol. 85, No. 6, P. 867;
Chaffee, Barbara Hunter;  Moehring, Shirley;  Pruden, Sondra
     An upstate New York health team has used the principle of taking 
services to the people to take HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and 
syphilis screening out of the Broome County health department and
into places where people at risk for these infections can be 
found.  Sites include homeless shelters, drug abuse treatment 
centers, battered women's shelters, the local university, and a 
gay bar.  The team--which consists of a public health nurse and 
public health representatives--makes regular visits to the sites,
providing education, testing, and counseling.  In three years, 
more than 3,400 people have been educated and more than 2,000 
have been tested.  The $28,000 grant from the New York State 
Department of Health paid for salaries and start-up 
expenses--such as visual aids, condoms for distribution, and 
training.  The researchers believe that by taking the education 
and testing to the various locations, they reached more people 
than similar clinic-based services would have.
      
"Blood Safety"
Nature Medicine (06/95) Vol. 1, No. 6, P. 493;  Grgicevic, Damir;
Potocnik, Marjeta
     In response to a Nature Medicine article on global blood safety, 
Damir Grgicevic and Marjeta Potocnik defend the safety of their 
countries' blood transfusion systems.  Grgicevic, of the Croatian
Institute for Transfusion Medicine, notes that the data for 
Croatia were incorrect because in Croatia, every donor has been 
regularly screened for HIV since 1987.  Transfusion therapy in 
his country is considered very safe because there have been no 
incidences of transfusion-related HIV infection and only 3 
percent of the hemophiliacs were infected with HIV by imported 
coagulation factor concentrates.  A member of the Blood 
Transfusion Centre of Slovenia, Potocnik writes that mandatory 
HIV screening was implemented in 1986.  Only blood that does not 
contain HIV antibodies is released for transfusion or plasma 
fractionation.  In addition, all blood donations in Slovenia are 
voluntary and are performed by well-trained personnel.  Potocnik 
concludes that blood transfusion in Slovenia is as safe as in any
West European country.
      
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