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 ************************************************************ "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" ************************************************************ "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.