| prevention-news@cdcnpin.org 2005-03-19, 5:18 pm |
| CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The CDC National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention provides the following information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis does
not constitute CDC endorsement. The following summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against re
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tracted below for full texts of the articles.
HEADLINES
NATIONAL NEWS
ILLINOIS: "Number of Illinois Teens Giving Birth Falls to Near 45-Year Low in 2003"
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GLOBAL: "UNAIDS Urges Closer Cooperation on AIDS, Drug Policy"
UNITED KINGDOM: "Tories Pledge Sex Health Campaign"
MEDICAL NEWS
UNITED STATES: "Gel for Safer Sex Shows Promise"
AUSTRALIA: "Screening Injecting Drug Users for Sexually Transmitted Infections and Blood Borne Viruses Using Street Outreach and Self Collected Sampling"
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
NEW MEXICO: "Most Schools Not Inviting Sex-Ed Group"
FLORIDA: "Teens Get Lessons on Living with HIV"
RHODE ISLAND: "Thundermist Wins HIV/AIDS Funds"
NEWS BRIEFS
TEXAS: "Budget Writers Tackle Health Care Funds"
SINGAPORE: "Singapore Minister Says New AIDS Cases Soared in 2004"
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NATIONAL NEWS
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ILLINOIS:
"Number of Illinois Teens Giving Birth Falls to Near 45-Year Low in 2003"
Associated Press (03.09.05)
On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health released statistics showing that the number of teen pregnancies in the state for 2003 had fallen to the lowest level seen in nearly 45 years. In 2003, Illinois women ages 19 and younger gave birth
to 17,670 babies, down from the 18,546 babies born in 2002. The number of births among girls ages 10-14 has declined 57 percent since 1994. Teen births comprised 9.7 percent of all births in the state in 2003.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich credited the drop in teen births to community and state pregnancy prevention efforts.
A nationwide 2001 CDC study found fewer teens reported having sex than in 1991 and that teens who did have sex reported using contraceptives more effectively than in the past.
"Having sex at such a young age places teens at risk of unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and other sexually transmitted diseases," said Dr. Eric Whitaker, DPH's director. "In addition, having a child presents emotional, psychological, and financi
al challenges that most teens are not prepared to deal with."
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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GLOBAL:
"UNAIDS Urges Closer Cooperation on AIDS, Drug Policy"
Associated Press (03.08.05):Susanna Loof
Agencies that combat drug use and those that fight HIV/AIDS must work together to curb the rapid rise of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs), UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot told the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs on Tuesday in Vienna.
HIV is spreading most rapidly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of IDUs has boomed, said Piot. That puts entire societies at risk because once HIV has infiltrated IDUs, it can spread to others via sexual contact.
Though policies to curb drug use and combat HIV/AIDS ideally complement each other, some countries have conflicting regulations in place. "The job of the people in charge of drug control programs is to make sure that no one takes drugs. This will als
o ultimately reduce the risk of HIV," Piot said. "My job is to ensure that no one becomes infected with HIV. Let's not fall into the trap of a false dichotomy."
"It is together we have to find a solution," said Piot, calling for more dialogue between officials creating drug control policies and those drafting AIDS policies. "What matters is that we save lives."
Piot weighed in during a commission debate on how to prevent HIV's spread in the context of drug abuse, saying "demand and supply reduction has to be at the heart of every AIDS and drug response." "It's clear that if there were no drugs, we would not
have the HIV problem we face now in many countries," he noted.
Governments must also make AIDS drugs available to infected drug users, said Piot. "Very often, they are excluded from [treatment] programs. We're missing an opportunity to bring under control not only the issue of drug use but also of HIV infections
."
UNITED KINGDOM:
"Tories Pledge Sex Health Campaign"
BBC News (03.08.05)
Britain's Conservative Party says a major publicity effort - like that mounted against AIDS in the 1980s - is needed to reverse an epidemic of STDs. Party leaders promised, if victorious in the election expected to be called for May 5, to encourage y
ouths to resist peer pressure to have sex. They denied, however, plans for a US-style abstinence campaign.
"It is no exaggeration to say that in Britain today we face a sexually transmitted diseases epidemic," said party leader Michael Howard. "Gonorrhea has doubled. Chlamydia has doubled. HIV has more than doubled. We have the worst rates of sexual healt
h since records began." If elected, Conservatives will ensure that money for sexual services reaches the "front line," Howard said.
The Labor Party government, in its Public Health White Paper, promised to reduce STDs. At their 2003 conference, the Liberal Democrats supported mandatory sex education for children as young as seven to reduce teen pregnancy and STDs.
The Health Protection Agency last year announced that chlamydia cases were up by 9 percent. Almost 10 percent of UK adults have had an STD, and 13 percent have visited a genitourinary medicine clinic.
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MEDICAL NEWS
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UNITED STATES:
"Gel for Safer Sex Shows Promise"
New York Times (03.08.05)
At the recent 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, Dr. Marla J. Keller, a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine professor, and colleagues presented a study they hope will yield a vaginal microbicide effective against HIV and
herpes simplex virus.
In an effectiveness pilot study in 20 HIV-positive women, 10 women received the PRO 2000 gel intravaginally and 10 women received a placebo gel. One hour later, researchers collected secretions and examined them for viral infection. PRO 2000 signific
antly reduced virus levels and did not cause an inflammatory response. A new 14-day study already underway will assess whether repeated applications cause undesirable side effects. In addition, a larger study involving 3,000 women at nine sites has receiv
ed financing, said Keller.
Dr. Betsy Herold, a senior author of the report, said the team is being careful not to repeat the unfortunate mistake made with nonoxynol-9, a lubricant initially thought to protect against HIV that is now believed to increase HIV risk.
AUSTRALIA:
"Screening Injecting Drug Users for Sexually Transmitted Infections and Blood Borne Viruses Using Street Outreach and Self Collected Sampling"
Sexually Transmitted Infections Vol. 81; No. 1: P. 53-5 (02.05):C.S. Bradshaw; L.I. Pierce; S.N. Tabrizi; C.K. Fairley; S.M. Garland
Injecting drug users (IDUs) are a marginalized population at high risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBV), yet they infrequently access health services for screening. In the current study, the authors used street
outreach and self-collection of samples for STI screening to establish the prevalence of BBVs and STIs and to identify risk behaviors among a cohort of culturally diverse, street-based IDUs.
From 1999 to 2002, a cross-sectional study of 314 IDUs in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, was conducted. Using street outreach as the recruitment strategy, researchers visited injecting and dealing locations. Self-collected gen
ital sampling was used to increase acceptance of screening for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Trichomonas vaginalis by polymerase chain reaction. Participants were tested for hepatitis A, B and C, syphilis, and HIV, and given the option
of a self-collected or clinician-collected blood sample to increase acceptance for BBV screening.
"Street outreach was highly effective and self directed STI sampling was more acceptable than practitioner directed sampling (76% versus 9% acceptance, p<0.001). There was a high prevalence of hepatitis C (74%, 95% CI 69 to 79) STIs (8% (5 to 13)), a
nd chlamydia (6% (3 to 10)), and past exposure to hepatitis A and B was common," wrote the researchers. "High rates of recent sharing of injecting equipment, unprotected sex and casual sex partners, together with low levels of awareness of current hepatit
is C infection were identified."
The researchers concluded that street outreach and self-collected genital samples facilitated STI and BBV screening in IDUs, revealing a high prevalence of infections and risk behaviors.
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LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
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NEW MEXICO:
"Most Schools Not Inviting Sex-Ed Group"
Albuquerque Journal (03.08.05):Russell Contreras
Albuquerque school district officials and recent media reports have "confused" local schools into believing that Best Choice Educational Services' abstinence-only sex-education curriculum is medically inaccurate, according to Mandi Dotson, BCES's pee
r mentoring director. Consequently, most of the 25 Albuquerque Public Schools that invited BCES to present abstinence-only workshops last year have not renewed the invitation this semester, said Dotson.
In January, APS Board Member Miguel Acosta and some public health educators criticized the BCES curriculum as propagating false information about condom efficacy against STDs. BCES officials denied the charge, countering that their curriculum is base
d on CDC data and that BCES's federal grant requires the group to teach abstinence-only, not contraception.
The district has not changed its policy of allowing individual schools the choice of augmenting APS' sex-education curriculum with outside abstinence-only speakers, said Rigo Chavez, APS spokesperson. Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt said the distric
t is waiting for state guidance before it recommends any policy changes.
The state Public education Department is devising content standards on health education that will be released in June, said its spokesperson, Jennifer Chavez. The standards will define what students should know at what age; how to present the informa
tion will be left to the local communities to decide, said Chavez.
The state Department of Health is reviewing all abstinence-only materials to determine medical accuracy, said Kristine Suozzi, public health division director. School districts can access that information upon request, she said.
BCES has spoken to about 3,400 students this year, down from 5,000 students last year by this time, said BCES Executive Director David Magruder. Now that fewer schools are inviting BCES, the group may miss its goals and lose grant money next school y
ear, said Dotson. BCES receives $75,000 from the state DOH and $536,000 in direct federal grants.
FLORIDA:
"Teens Get Lessons on Living with HIV"
Miami Herald (03.06.05):Jacob Goldstein
Yuri, who was diagnosed with HIV when he was 17, last year became a founding member of P4 (Positive Peers Promoting Prevention) in Miami. The group's members are HIV-positive people in their teens and 20s who speak to at-risk youths - those in troubl
e with drugs and the law; those in homeless shelters - about the dangers of HIV. Yuri, who asked that his last name not be published, said young people are "sick of hearing the same thing: 'Use a condom, use a condom, use a condom.'"
Alex Moreno, director of adolescent outreach and education at the university of Miami Medical School, founded P4. It is an outgrowth of an HIV peer-education program he launched in the late 1990s as a teacher at Coral Park High in southwest Miami.
HIV peer educators can now be found at 30 of the county's 36 high schools, said Jacquelyn White, district supervisor for HIV/AIDS. Administrators hope to expand a pilot program started last year at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach. Peer educa
tors tell their stories in many settings: in health classes, at after-school rallies, and in senior classes just before the prom. Peer educators held a Valentine's Day rally at Hialeah-Miami Lakes with the theme "Don't let your first love be your last."
Receiving prevention information from people who are not only peers but also HIV-positive offers a dose of reality, students said. "It made me realize that people that don't look like they could have it, could have it," said one boy.
RHODE ISLAND:
"Thundermist Wins HIV/AIDS Funds"
Providence Journal (03.07.05):Cynthia Needham
Thundermist Health Care Center, northern Rhode Island's only HIV/AIDS treatment facility for uninsured residents, is slated to receive $1.8 million in federal grants for its programs over the next five years. Thundermist officials say the $376,445 an
nual grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services will help them expand comprehensive treatment services offered by the agency.
Now in its third year of operation, Woonsocket-based Thundermist's treatment programs include medical and dental care, nutritional and exercise counseling, and massage therapy for uninsured HIV-positive Rhode Islanders. Thundermist has treated more
than 180 patients and has conducted free, community-based HIV testing for hundreds more.
Because Thundermist is "pretty much the only game in town when it comes to dealing with patients with HIV and AIDS" in northern Rhode Island, program officials were worried when they recently learned that their Title III money might be cut, said Laur
en Nocera, community health programs coordinator at the agency. But US Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy allayed those fears last week when his office announced that Thundermist's HIV/AIDS program will be level-funded for the next five years.
Kennedy, a long-time supporter of Thundermist, called the funding "well spent." "These crucial organizations fill the gaps to provide health care to those who might otherwise fall through the cracks," he said. "I shudder to think what the state of ou
r health care system would be without organizations like Thundermist."
Now that Thundermist's HIV/AIDS funding has been renewed, program officials want to focus on expanding dental services for HIV patients, said Nocera. They also plan to increase the agency's visibility in the community and reach out to potential clien
ts. The facility also operates satellite locations in West Warwick and South Kingstown.
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NEWS BRIEFS
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TEXAS:
"Budget Writers Tackle Health Care Funds"
Associated Press (03.08.05):Natalie Gott
Among other actions Tuesday, the Texas Senate Finance Committee agreed to fund HIV medication for 2,000 state patients at a cost of $15 million. "If we don't do this, it will cost the state more, because people who are sick with HIV/AIDS can live pr
oductive lives and can work in many cases, and so this medication will enable them to do that," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), vice chairperson of the committee.
SINGAPORE:
"Singapore Minister Says New AIDS Cases Soared in 2004"
Associated Press (03.09.05)
On Wednesday, Dr. Balaji Sadasivan, senior minister of state for health, told Singapore's Parliament that the nation recorded 311 new AIDS cases in 2004 - a jump of almost 30 percent from 2003. In a move to identify the estimated 4,000 to 8,000 undia
gnosed HIV cases, the government is working to make testing easier by supplying over-the-counter test kits, Channel News Asia quoted Balaji as saying. In addition to gays, infections are increasing among "heterosexual men who have casual sex. In many case
s, this puts the wife at risk. If we do not act to protect women, many women will get infected and we too will have a situation where women form the majority of AIDS patients," Balaji said, adding, "There is a need to balance the right to confidentiality
of the AIDS patient with the right to protect those at risk."
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