Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!usenet From: dmcanzi@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (David Canzi) Newsgroups: sci.med.aids Subject: HICN410 News -- excerpts. Message-ID: <1991May27.154130.19915@cs.ucla.edu> Date: 27 May 91 06:03:40 GMT Sender: dmcanzi@watserv1.waterloo.edu (David Canzi) Organization: Effete Corps of Impudent Snobs Lines: 159 Approved: ddodell@stjhmc.fidonet.org (David Dodell) Note: non-commercial reproduction. Nntp-Posting-Host: squid.cs.ucla.edu Archive-Number: 3191 Medical News for April 29, 1991 to May 27, 1991 Copyright 1991: USA TODAY/Gannett National Information Network Reproduced with Permission --- May 1, 1991 --- AZT COSTS: Using AZT to add symptom-free years to the life of someone with HIV infection makes financial sense, a new study says. The treatment, which costs about $2,600 a year and postpones the onset of fullblown AIDS, results in $6,500 to $70,500 in medical costs for every year that life is prolonged, say researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. --- May 6, 1991 --- AIDS MYSTERY REPORTEDLY SOLVED: The mystery of the origin of the world's first known AIDS virus, whose discovery was claimed by both French and American researchers, has apparently been solved, according to a report in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. French scientists at Paris' Pasteur Institute say they are now virtually certain the virus originated in their laboratories. AIDS DISCLOSURE: Doctors or dentists with AIDS or HIV should be legally required to tell patients about it, say 93% of participants in a survey published in Monday's National Law Journal. The survey of 800 adults covered a wide range of biomedical issues. Other findings: 79% say someone who knowingly infects another with AIDS or HIV should be charged with assault or murder; 64% say doctors shouldn't be prosecuted for helping the terminally ill commit suicide. --- May 14, 1991 --- AIDS VACCINE YEARS AWAY: None of about 20 possible AIDS vaccines has yet emerged as a top candidate for large human tests, scientists said Monday. Dr. Daniel Hoth, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says it could take 2 to 10 years to prove a vaccine stops HIV infection and disease in real-world conditions. GLIMMER OF HOPE: A vaccine made from whole inactivated viruses has protected monkeys from an AIDS-like illness, but some experts consider a whole-virus vaccine too risky for humans. So other animal studies are focusing on parts of the virus. U.S. health officials are optimistic enough to start planning for the multinational studies that eventually will be needed to prove a vaccine works. --- May 16, 1991 --- LAST IN LINE: AIDS sufferers who are women, minorities or drug users are less likely to get life-extending medical care, says the first study of treatment trends for an entire state. The analysis of Maryland AIDS patients provides some of the strongest proof yet that those who get the drug AZT, and the medical attention that usually goes with it, live much longer than those who don't. WHITE MEN GET BETTER CARE: A report in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms that white men get better care than others. Access to insurance can't be the only reason, since most of the 719 AIDS patients studied had coverage, says Dr. Richard Moore of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. --- May 21, 1991 --- RED CROSS UNDERGOES CHANGES: The American Red Cross is making changes in an effort to come to terms with the age of AIDS. The $120 million reorganization -which includes temporarily closing each of 53 blood centers on a rotating basis over the next 2 1/2 years - is the latest attempt to clean up an image tarnished by reports of inappropriate handling of blood contaminated by hepatitis viruses and HIV. CONFIDENCE IN BLOOD SUPPLY DOWN: While Red Cross officials hope the public will be impressed by the magnitude of the cleanup plan, it won't be easy: Last summer, about the time the recent string of controversies began, the blood supply was considered safe by only 44% of people - down from 48% in mid-1988. --- May 23, 1991 --- AIDS TESTED DISCUSSED: The federal government could smooth the way for controversial AIDS testing policies by covering the medical expenses of everyone infected with the AIDS virus, says Dr. Marcia Angell, editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. Such coverage - plus new anti-discrimination laws - would "give those at risk an incentive to be tested," Angell says. AIDS HAS TOLL ON LYMPHOMA CASES: Grim news emerges from updated projections of the effect of the AIDS epidemic on non-Hodgkins' lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system. Doctors have known for years that AIDS patients are more likely than healthy people to get the disease, but a new study by the National Institutes of Health shows the number is growing sharply among men between 20 and 49. PATIENTS SURVIVING LONGER: The increase in lymphoma can be traced to AIDS patients' lengthening survival. Improving treatment can ward off lethal infections, but AIDS patients' weakened immune systems still may somehow develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Volume 4, Number 10 May 25, 1991 +------------------------------------------------+ ! ! ! Health Info-Com Network ! ! Newsletter ! +------------------------------------------------+ Editor: David Dodell, D.M.D. St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center 10250 North 92nd Street, Suite 210, Scottsdale, Arizona 85258-4599 USA Telephone +1 (602) 860-1121 FAX +1 (602) 451-1165 Copyright 1991 - Distribution on Commercial/Pay Systems Prohibited without Prior Authorization The Health Info-Com Network Newsletter is distributed weekly. Articles on a medical nature are welcomed. If you have an article, please contact the editor for information on how to submit it. If you are interested in joining the automated distribution system, please contact the editor. E-Mail Address: Editor: FidoNet = 1:114/15 Bitnet = ATW1H @ ASUACAD Internet = ddodell@stjhmc.fidonet.org LISTSERV = MEDNEWS @ ASUACAD.BITNET (or internet: asuvm.inre.asu.edu) anonymous ftp = vm1.nodak.edu (Notification List/ftp = hicn-notify-request@stjhmc.fidonet.org) Associate Editors: o Dr. J. Martin Wehlou (Bitnet: WEHLOU@BGERUG51) -- David Canzi