                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      December 1, 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
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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"State to Cut Payments for Drugs in AIDS Program for Poor"
"State Aims AIDS Ads at High-Risk Individuals"
"New UM Clinic Honors an AIDS Victim who Inspired Others"
"AIDS Day Finds Magic on a Mission"
"Critics Choice: 24 Hours of Action on AIDS"
"Nationline: Bad Condoms"
"AIDS After Randy Shilts: Still Blame Enough for All"
"Across the USA: Iowa"
"Email Bytes: Victory for Prisoners with HIV Disease"
"Canadian Project Focuses on Legal, Ethical Issues Surrounding 
HIV/AIDS"
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"State to Cut Payments for Drugs in AIDS Program for Poor"
New York Times (12/01/95) P. B7;  Belluck, Pam
     The New York State Health Department announced Thursday the state
will no longer fund approximately 70 percent of the drugs used by
low-income people infected with HIV under its HIV Uninsured Care 
Programs.  According to spokeswoman Diane Mathis, the department 
had to make the cutbacks because the program--which is primarily 
funded with Ryan White dollars from the federal government--did 
not have adequate funds to cover the growing number of HIV and 
AIDS patients.  Beginning in 1996, New York will stop paying for 
129 medications that it deemed "nonessential drugs that don't 
pertain specifically to AIDS patients," including some 
antibiotics for infections and pneumonia and psychotropic drugs 
that treat mental disorders, Mathis said.  She added that the 
Health Department would try to help patients obtain free 
medications from drug companies or "spend down" their assets so 
they could qualify for Medicaid, which would pay for the drugs.  
Related Story: USA Today (12/01) P. 10A
      
"State Aims AIDS Ads at High-Risk Individuals"
Los Angeles Times--Washington Edition (12/01/95) P. B1;  Boxall, 
Bettina
     California health department officials introduced on Thursday the
first part of a $6-million HIV prevention campaign.  The program 
is geared toward high-risk groups who do not necessarily consider
themselves to be in that category, including young men, men who 
have sex with men but do not think of themselves as gay, and drug
users and their sexual partners.  "We're looking at some of the 
new emerging populations in the epidemic," explained Wayne 
Sauseda, director of the California Office of AIDS.  The campaign
will use community outreach programs, as well as television, 
radio, and billboard ads.
      
"New UM Clinic Honors an AIDS Victim who Inspired Others"
Baltimore Sun (12/01/95) P. 1C;  Bor, Jonathan
     The University of Maryland Medical Center's new AIDS clinic will 
be dedicated today to Evelyn Jordan, a former patient who touched
the lives of both staff members and patients alike.  "I met some 
patients who really made a change in their life from being around
Evelyn," said nurse practitioner Debra Kosko.  "They were more 
positive and upbeat, living with HIV rather than dying of it."  
Jordan worked, raised a child, became addicted to drugs, yet 
remembered to ask exhausted doctors how they felt, paid for a 
patient's television service, and turned some patients into 
advocates.  She died from the disease in March 1994.  The 
dedication of the new Eutaw Street clinic comes 14 years into the
AIDS epidemic, during which time nearly 13,000 cases have been 
diagnosed in Maryland.
      
"AIDS Day Finds Magic on a Mission"
USA Today (12/01/95) P. 2D;  Williams, Jeannie
     Magic Johnson and filmmaker Spike Lee will speak today, World 
AIDS Day, at Brooklyn Technical High School about AIDS and 
positive roles in society.  "Over 55 percent of [AIDS] cases are 
people of color," he noted.  "We have to get out there and hammer
the message."  Johnson, who learned he was HIV-positive in 1991, 
reports that he is "probably in better shape now than when [he] 
was playing" basketball and that his "T-cells are staying the 
same, rock solid."
      
"Critics Choice: 24 Hours of Action on AIDS"
New York Times (12/01/95) P. C30;  Dunning, Jennifer
     Starting at 12:01 A.M. today, Dancers Responding to AIDS will 
perform for 24 consecutive hours in New York City's St. Mark's 
Church.  This latest project of the group which was formed four 
years ago by the Paul Taylor dancer Hernando Cortez is called 
"The Remember Project."  The program will feature performances by
the Taylor and Merce Cunningham companies, as well as a modern 
dance class and pianist Richard Cameron-Wolfe.  Funds raised from
the event will benefit the Actors' Fund AIDS Initiative.
      
"Nationline: Bad Condoms"
USA Today (12/01/95) P. 3A;  Leavitt, Paul;  Goodwin, M. David
     Thousands of faulty Olympus brand condoms that were given to 250 
New York state organizations to be distributed among poor people 
to prevent HIV-infection have been recalled.
      
"AIDS After Randy Shilts: Still Blame Enough for All"
New York Times (12/01/95) P. C33;  Kakutani, Michiko
     "The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS," a new 
book from Elinor Burkett, continues where Randy Shilt's 1987 
work, "And the Band Played On," stopped.  Similarly to Shilts, 
who said that "AIDS did not just happen to America--it was 
allowed to happen," Burkett argues that the AIDS epidemic has 
been worsened by "politics, greed, and utter stupidity" and by 
society's "failure to treat AIDS as a disease, pure and simple." 
She focuses primarily on the politics and the economic aspects of
the disease--on the infighting between AIDS organizations, on 
intramural debates about the direction research should take, and 
the relationship between drug makers and government bureaucrats. 
Burkett notes that as AIDS is "the most politicized disease in 
human history," health-care agendas and plain common sense 
frequently get trapped in political crossfire.
      
"Across the USA: Iowa"
USA Today (12/01/95) P. 10A
     A new study shows that the number of AIDS cases in Iowa is 
continuing to rise, and that the number of heterosexuals becoming
infected is increasing significantly.
      
"Email Bytes: Victory for Prisoners with HIV Disease"
Gay Community News (Fall 1995) Vol. 21, No. 2, P. 3
     An Ohio judge has ruled that HIV infection may be regarded as an 
extraordinary physical impairment under federal sentencing 
guidelines used to determine reduced prison stays.  "While HIV 
status alone does not warrant a sentence reduction, once a 
defendant has developed infections related to his or her 
compromised immune system, those impairments may be sufficient to
warrant a [reduced sentence]," wrote Federal Judge Ann Aldrich.  
This is the first ruling in the United States that permits 
prisoners with pre-AIDS conditions to qualify for reduced 
incarceration times.  Catherine Hanssens, the director of the 
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's AIDS Project, points 
out that the decision does not authorize a reduced sentence for 
every HIV-infected prisoner, but that courts will need to make an
"individualized determination" of each inmate's condition.
      
"Canadian Project Focuses on Legal, Ethical Issues Surrounding 
HIV/AIDS"
Nation's Health (11/95) Vol. 25, No. 10, P. 6
     The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Canadian AIDS Society
have completed an annotated bibliography of available resources 
concerning the legal and ethical issues related to HIV and AIDS. 
The group also made a list of immediate priorities, including 
testing and confidentiality, criminalization of HIV transmission,
drug laws and policies and their impact on the spread of HIV, and
legal issues raised by HIV and AIDS in prisons.  The second phase
of the project will take the form of an attempt to stimulate 
discussion on all levels about the legal and ethical issues of 
HIV and AIDS, develop a series of discussion papers on the eight 
priorities established in the first phase, and then organize a 
series of workshops related to these priorities.
      
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