| prevention-news@cdcnpin.org 2005-03-19, 5:18 pm |
| CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update
Thursday, March 10, 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
lying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This daily update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) articles, fact sheets and
announcements. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update should be cited as the source of the information. Contact the sources of the articles abs
tracted below for full texts of the articles.
HEADLINES
NATIONAL NEWS
MASSACHUSETTS: "Proposal to Use Abstinence Funds in Schools Fails"
UNITED STATES: "AIDS Threat to Minority Women Grows"
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LIBYA: "European Union Urges Libya to Free Medical Workers Convicted in AIDS Trial"
GLOBAL: "AIDS Fight Faces New Challenges"
MEDICAL NEWS
UNITED STATES: "Culture Keeps Hispanic Youth from Sex : Study"
UNITED STATES: "HIV-Infected Patients with Low Literacy Skills Do Not Take Medications Correctly"
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
MICHIGAN: "Spread of HIV to Get Tested in Detroit Park"
NEWS BRIEFS
ALABAMA: "$1 Million Approved for AIDS Program"
CALIFORNIA: "Council OKs Help for Drug Users, Tenants"
UNITED STATES: "Bristol-Myers Hepatitis Drug Works: FDA Staff"
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NATIONAL NEWS
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MASSACHUSETTS:
"Proposal to Use Abstinence Funds in Schools Fails"
Boston Globe (03.10.05):Michael Levenson
On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 104-44 to continue using $740,000 in federal abstinence funds on television, subway, and bus advertisements, defeating a proposal by Gov. Mitt Romney to use the funds directly for classro
om instruction. By a voice vote, the Senate also rejected Romney's proposal.
"The governor believes the most effective abstinence education is done in the classroom, in a more personalized setting with young people," said Eric Fehrstrom, Romney's spokesperson. "The people that support the abstinence education programs believe
it is best spent in the classroom, as opposed to pamphlets that sit on a table that never get used," said Rep. Viriato Manuel deMacedo (R-Plymouth).
Opponents of Romney's proposal said an emphasis on school-based abstinence courses would be at the expense of other forms of sex education, a claim that proponents denied. Abstinence-funded educators could only discuss the failure rates of contracept
ion, not their effectiveness in pregnancy and STD prevention, opponents said. Abstinence-only programs "can be harmful because they're misleading, they're incomplete," said Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts.
Since 1998, Massachusetts has spent federal abstinence funds on radio and television ads targeting students ages 9-12 and 15-17, as well as brochures and films in Spanish and English.
Last year, the Legislature voted to spend abstinence funds in the classroom, but repealed the measure several weeks ago. In response to the repeal, Romney reintroduced the measure.
UNITED STATES:
"AIDS Threat to Minority Women Grows"
Miami Herald (03.06.05):Fred Tasker
A Global Coalition on Women and AIDS delegation recently began a five-city US tour to discuss women's experiences and to learn new prevention strategies for women. "The purpose of our Global Coalition is to shine a bright light on the very specific p
roblems women and girls face, and to learn what works to fight them," said Dr. Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, who led the visit.
On Saturday, the women toured AIDS facilities at university of Miami/Jackson Medical Center and held a roundtable discussion with about 100 students from UM, Miami Dade College, and Florida International University.
"Latin America has a tradition of machismo," said Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga, 27, of Bolivia. "In some places, if a woman tried to get her husband to use a condom, he might kill her. He'd say 'You must have a lover.'"
Princess Kasune Zulu was 15 and had to support five brothers and sisters after losing both parents to AIDS. "I had to get married to survive, to a man twice my age," said Zulu. "And he got me infected. It's the story of thousands of girls around the
world."
"A decade ago, less than one-third of the world's HIV/AIDS patients were women; now it's more than half," said Cravero. "In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, 75 percent of the new HIV cases in the 15 to 30 age group are in young women. It makes youn
g women an endangered species in these areas."
The delegates are also visiting media executives, lawmakers, religious leaders, and AIDS advocates in New York City, Nashville, Chicago, and Washington.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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LIBYA:
"European Union Urges Libya to Free Medical Workers Convicted in AIDS Trial"
Associated Press (03.09.05)
On Wednesday, officials of the European Union called for the immediate release of six medical workers imprisoned in Libya for allegedly infecting more than 400 children with HIV. The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor have been in custo
dy in Benghazi since 1999. The EU is "waiting for a gesture" from Libya, said Luxembourg Immigration Minister Nicolas Schmit, who was speaking on behalf of the European Council.
In a visit to the European Parliament, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said there are "no indications" the six would be released soon.
Franco Frattini, the union's top justice official, said the case "brings a shadow" on Libya, and the death sentence was "delivered on grounds that were unclear to us."
During the trial, Dr. Luc Montagnier, who co-discovered HIV, said he believed the children were infected in 1997 - more than a year before the Bulgarians were hired - and the cause was likely poor hygiene at the hospital. Libya maintains the children
were infected as part of an experiment seeking an AIDS cure. Some human rights groups have said Libya concocted this story to conceal unsafe practices in its medical facilities.
A Bulgarian doctor implicated in the same case has been released; however, he remains at the Bulgarian embassy in Tripoli awaiting permission to leave the country.
GLOBAL:
"AIDS Fight Faces New Challenges"
Wall Street Journal (03.10.05):Gautam Naik
Last year, $6.1 billion was spent to fight HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income nations, but with a projected rise in costs, the efforts face an $8.2 billion shortfall between 2005 and 2007, UNAIDS officials said.
Besides a shortage of funds, the global AIDS fight is being hindered by a lack of coordination between Western donors, including governments, the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and independent health groups. The groups often have ove
rlapping approaches, conflicting ideologies, and varying documentation requirements that can overwhelm developing nations' health ministries.
"Lack of good coordination claims lives," said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. "Before there was money, it was only a theoretical issue." Now that money is becoming available, spending it effectively is a challenge, he said. In most develop
ing countries, the lack of adequate infrastructure makes channeling large amounts of funds difficult. Further, most developing countries are struggling with shortages of nurses, doctors, and scientists.
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MEDICAL NEWS
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UNITED STATES:
"Culture Keeps Hispanic Youth from Sex : Study"
Reuters (03.07.05)
A university of Arizona study of 7,200 Hispanic or white students in grades 7-12 found that Hispanic teens who primarily speak Spanish have a later sexual onset - and thus less STD and other risk behaviors - than English-speaking Hispanic peers. Engl
ish-speaking Hispanic students were likeliest to have had sexual intercourse, then white students, followed by Spanish-speaking Hispanic youths. This could indicate a failure of sex education for Hispanic youths and the protective effect of retaining one'
s culture, researchers said.
"Public health professionals should understand that language differences might be indicative of broader cultural differences, even within an ethnic group," the study authors noted. "Simply translating sexuality education materials does not create sen
sitive programs." "Today there is a lack of culturally sensitive sexuality education materials appropriate to the Spanish-speaking adolescents in the southwestern United States."
Despite the fact that immigrants are frequently poor and lack health insurance and medical care, an increasing amount of literature shows that "less acculturation consistently is associated with better health," an accompanying editorial commented. Le
ss acculturation of parents and children is associated with lower infant death rates, better immunization rates, and less adolescent sexual activity and drug use, the editorial said.
The full report, "Acculturation as a Predictor of the Onset of Sexual Intercourse Among Hispanic and White Teens," and editorial "The Healthy Immigrant Effect: A Greater Understanding Might Help Us Improve the Health of All Children," were published
in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (2005;159:261-265 and 295-297, respectively).
UNITED STATES:
"HIV-Infected Patients with Low Literacy Skills Do Not Take Medications Correctly"
AIDS Weekly (02.21.05)
A recent study reports that HIV-infected patients with poor literacy skills do not properly follow medication regimens.
The researchers, led by M.S. Wolf of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, examined the relationship between patient understanding of HIV, HIV treatment, and health literacy. They conducted interviews with 157 persons with HIV who we
re receiving care at a community clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Forty-eight percent of the patients were reading below the ninth-grade level. One-third of them could not name their HIV medications; this was found to be significantly associated with low literacy. Two-thirds of those reading below the ninth-grade l
evel did not know how to take their medications properly. Seventy-five percent did not know the meaning of "viral load" or "CD4 count."
The team found that HIV-infected patients with low literacy skills were more likely to identify their physician as their only source of information about HIV. "Physicians may require training to appropriately convey health information to patients of
low literacy," Wolf and colleagues concluded.
The full report, "Health Literacy and Patient Knowledge in a Southern US HIV Clinic," was published in the International Journal of STD and AIDS (2004;15(11):747-752.
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LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
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MICHIGAN:
"Spread of HIV to Get Tested in Detroit Park"
Detroit News (03.08.05):Doug Guthrie
In Detroit, HIV remains most prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM) and injection drug users. Yet the only group to experience a significant increase in new HIV infections is heterosexual women. In an effort to understand this rise, CDC has
asked the Detroit Community Health Awareness Group to expand its outreach. DCHAG's motor home-based lab will soon offer rapid HIV testing to male prostitutes in the city's Palmer Park in an effort to investigate the possible transmission link between thes
e men and their female sex partners. State health officials said 44 percent of a group of MSM surveyed when they underwent HIV testing also reported sex with women; the officials believe the actual number is higher.
In operating one of eight CDC-funded pilot programs in the United States since May, DCHAG has had good results with the rapid HIV test. In its travels to shelters and clinics throughout the city, DCHAG's mobile lab had tested more than 1,000 people a
s of January. Forty-eight tests indicated infection; those persons were linked with confirmatory lab testing and promised free food coupons if they returned for their results. All those presumed infected were given immediate counseling about their persona
l and legal responsibilities for not spreading the virus.
Last summer, the mobile unit made an initial foray into Palmer Park, known as a spot where men have sex with men, to offer the rapid test. Six men were found to be HIV-positive.
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NEWS BRIEFS
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ALABAMA:
"$1 Million Approved for AIDS Program"
Birmingham News (03.09.05)
On Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives approved a $1 million emergency appropriation for the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Without the money, the state would have to cut 200 people from the program, said Rep. John Knight (D-Montgomery
). The bill will next be considered by the Senate.
CALIFORNIA:
"Council OKs Help for Drug Users, Tenants"
Los Angeles Times (03.10.05):Steve Hymen
Among other actions Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved an ordinance allowing the sale of syringes without a prescription. Advocates have long supported such a measure as a means to reduce the sharing of needles and the possi
ble transmission of HIV and hepatitis. The ordinance, which allows over-the-counter sales to persons 18 and older, next must be signed by Mayor James K. Hahn. Pharmacies may choose whether to sell the syringes; Walgreen's has said it will do so. The city
pays about $500,000 annually to support seven area needle exchanges; the new measure is seen as a way to reach drug users who do not use them. Last fall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill legalizing non-prescription needle sales, but local approva
l is needed before pharmacies in a city can participate.
UNITED STATES:
"Bristol-Myers Hepatitis Drug Works: FDA Staff"
Reuters (03.10.05)
In documents released today, US Food and Drug Administration reviewers said clinical trials and related studies showed Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s experimental drug entecavir "effectively reduces the [hepatitis B] viral burden." However, the staffers
also indicated concerns over the possibility of long-term resistance and whether the drug poses a cancer risk.
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