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National News
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News Briefs
Monday, May 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 relying 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 abstracted below for full texts of the articles.
National News
NEVADA: "Nevada Lawmakers Split over Funding for AIDS Program"
Associated Press (05.06.05):: Kathleen Hennessey
On April 29, state Senate Republicans on a legislative budget
panel refused to immediately add funds to Nevada's AIDS Drug Assistance
Program (ADAP), which currently serves 881 HIV/AIDS patients. However,
Assembly members on the joint budget subcommittee approved $742,000 in
new funding to help serve 103 additional patients over the next two
fiscal years.
Although state health officials said the number of people
qualifying for the program is growing, Gov. Kenny Guinn did not
recommend increasing funds over the $1.35 million approved for the
current two-year budget cycle closing June 30. The state's ADAP serves
HIV/AIDS patients who earn up to four times the federal poverty level.
Health division officials estimate the program will have 48
people on a waiting list next year and 131 on a waiting list in 2006 if
funding remains frozen over the next two years. The Legislature's fiscal
division came up with a slightly lower estimate using updated medication
cost numbers.
Some senators said they would rather wait to find out how much
the program needs and how long the waiting list is before allocating
more money, and that health officials could appeal, as necessary, to the
lawmakers' Interim Finance Committee.
Assembly members voted for the $742,000 in additional funds
after Assemblymember Sheila Leslie (D-Reno) said the Interim Finance
Committee process wastes time and HIV/AIDS patients should not have to
wait for their medications. ADAP has been added to a list of issues that
Senate and Assembly budget panels will have to resolve by May 26, the
deadline for clearing up budget differences between the houses.
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NEW MEXICO: "New Mexico Faces TB Challenge"
Associated Press (05.06.05)
New Mexico and neighboring border states are facing significant
challenges in preventing and treating TB. Mexico's rates of both TB and
multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) are high, yet it does not offer
effective MDR-TB treatment. As a result, Mexican patients infected with
MDR-TB can choose to either die or cross the border into the United
States for treatment.
"You have no choice if you want to live," said Charles Wallace,
manager of the infectious disease intervention and control branch at the
Texas Department of State Health Services. "It's a natural, human thing
to do. you go somewhere where you can be treated."
Last year, New Mexico recorded 42 TB cases, 45 percent of them
among foreign-born persons. Two of the cases were MDR-TB. Arizona
reported 272 TB cases in 2004, three of which were MDR-TB. Texas is
currently treating 16 MDR-TB cases.
New Mexico has $400,000 in federal prevention funds and $475,000
in state money for TB treatment this fiscal year, according to Chris
Jameson, manager of the TB and refugee program for the state Health
Department. The estimated average cost of treating MDR-TB is $250,000
per case, said Dr. Gary Simpson, medical director for infectious
diseases with the New Mexico Department of Health. And with MDR-TB cases
increasing among immigrants, border states are questioning who should
pay for their care.
"We surely need to have some investment other than the state
support we're getting," said Wallace. "But we're not going to turn
anyone away [for treatment] when they put our own citizens at risk."
Late last year, Arizona residents passed an initiative barring
the state from providing certain government services to illegal
immigrants. However, the state attorney general issued an opinion that
appears to exempt the treatment of communicable diseases and
immunizations.
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MISSISSIPPI: "Mississippi Abstinence Campaign Appears to Be
Working, DHS Says"
Associated Press (05.05.05):: Shelia Byrd
At a rally Thursday in Jackson to kick off National Teen
Pregnancy Prevention Month, Don Taylor, executive director of the state
Department of Human Services, said although Mississippi still leads the
nation in teen pregnancy, the numbers are declining.
The percentage of babies born to teen mothers fell from 21.3
percent of all Mississippi births in 1996 to 16 percent in 2003.
However, the percentage of children born to unmarried teens in the state
increased from 80.8 percent to 83.3 percent over the same period.
Taylor said DHS has three programs targeting teen pregnancy:
abstinence, responsible fatherhood, and the healthy marriage initiative.
Mississippi founded its Abstinence Unit in 1997 as part of a national
initiative to reduce teen pregnancy. Taylor said an abstinence team
makes weekly visits to schools, churches, and youth groups to talk about
problems associated with premarital sex.
Particularly troubling, Taylor noted, is the increase in girls
15 or younger giving birth. In 2003, the state had 494 girls 15 or
younger who gave birth.
Last year, the National Center for Health Statistics released a
report showing that for girls ages 15-17, the percentage who have ever
had intercourse declined from 38 percent in 1995 to 30 percent in 2002.
For boys, according to the agency, the percentage decline was from 43
percent to 31 percent.
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International News
GLOBAL: "Lack of Cash Blocks AIDS Treatment Goal: Journal"
Reuters (05.06.05)
The World Health Organization (WHO)'s "3 by 5" goal of providing
life-saving AIDS medicines to three million people in developing
countries by the end of 2005 is being jeopardized by a lack of
funding, staff, and commitment from key nations, according to an
editorial published Friday by the medical journal Lancet.
"For what was a modest target, it is tragic that many of those
with HIV/AIDS who desperately need treatment will not receive it by the
end of 2005, and will die as a result," the Lancet said.
At the time WHO launched the initiative in 2003, just 400,000 -
or 8 percent of the approximately 6 million people in need of treatment
- were getting antiretrovirals (ARVs), said the journal. By the end of
2004, an estimated 720,000 people (12 percent) were receiving treatment.
The target for the next progress report, due in two months, is 1.6
million.
There are enough health outlets to distribute the drugs but what
is urgently needed is more funding, said the editorial. WHO has deployed
112 staff for the program but this is a fraction of what it needs to be,
said the Lancet. "Crucially, the number of countries that have
established treatment goals is 30, yet the December target was 50," it
added.
Africa remains the program's largest hurdle. Just 325,000 of the
continent's 4 million people who need ARVs are receiving them. About
half of patients in Uganda and Botswana are now getting treatment, but
distribution is lacking in South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania,
and Ethiopia. "Without South Africa on board, with its 837,000 people
affected by HIV/AIDS and its leadership position within Africa, '3 by 5'
is but a pipe dream," the editorial stated.
Strategies to pressure ministries of health in sub-Saharan
Africa to work toward the goal are needed, said the Lancet's "Predicting
the Failure of 3 by 5," (2005;365(9471):1439). It also called for more
treatment donations from drug makers and continued leadership from WHO,
UNAIDS, the World Bank, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
Malaria.
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TAIWAN: "Taiwan Mulls Giving Addicts Access to Needles to
Reduce HIV Transmission"
Agence France Presse (05.08.05)
Taiwan's health authorities said Sunday they were considering
providing drug users with access to sterile syringes, since needle
sharing rather than sex is now the leading mode of HIV infection on the
island. Under the harm-reduction program, "police may no longer follow
the drug users who buy needles and injection equipment from drug
stores," said Tsai Shu-fen, an official with Thailand's Centers for
Disease Control. Implementation of the measure by local governments may
vary, Tsai said, and the program would be started on a trial basis after
further discussions among relevant government agencies.
The center said a needle program is a pragmatic approach to
guarding the public health and that the approach has been successful in
countries such as Australia, Britain and the Netherlands. The center's
figures show that in 2002, fewer than 10 HIV patients were infected
through using shared needles, but last year the number surged to 553.
Through April of this year, up to 52 percent of new HIV cases were
infected through needle sharing.
"If this trend continues without the government's active
prevention measures, the number of domestic drug users infected with
[HIV] could be dozens of times higher than now," the center warned.
As of December 2004, AIDS had killed 1,025 Taiwanese out of the
6,762 HIV patients registered since the nation's first case was
diagnosed in 1986.
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Medical News
CHINA: "Discriminatory Attitudes Towards People Living with
HIV/AIDS and Associated Factors: A Population Based Study in the Chinese
General Population"
Sexually Transmitted Infections Vol. 81; No. 2: P.113-119
(04..05):: J.T.F. Lau; H.Y. Tsui
The researchers conducted a population-based cross-sectional
telephone survey of 808 Hong Kong Chinese, ages 18-50, randomly selected
from the general population. The purpose was to examine the level of
discriminatory attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and
factors associated with such attitudes.
Approximately 42 percent of respondents showed discriminatory
attitudes in at least five out of 20 relevant survey items. For example,
roughly 42 percent said they would avoid physical contact with PLWHA; 35
percent believed all infected medical staff should be dismissed; and 47
percent said they would agree with enacting a law to prohibit PLWHA from
visiting Hong Kong. A large proportion of respondents indicated negative
perceptions about PLWHA, with 43.7 percent agreeing that the majority of
PLWHA are promiscuous, and 20.7 percent thinking PLWHA are receiving the
punishment they deserve.
In multiple regression analysis, the authors found that age,
HIV-related knowledge, negative perceptions about PLWHA, AIDS-related
fear, and exposure to HIV-related information were independent
predictors of discriminatory attitudes toward PLWHA. Some 30 percent
said they would give PLWHA the lowest priority in resource allocation
among five groups of patients with chronic diseases.
"The general public in Hong Kong has formed some negative
perceptions of PLWHA," the authors concluded. "Discriminatory attitudes
towards PLWHA are common and cover different aspects of their life.
Intervention programs are warranted and an integrated approach is
required."
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Local and Community News
OHIO: "HIV a Problem at university of Cincinnati, Health
Services Director Warns"
University Wire (News Record) (05.04.05):: Kara Gruber
In the last 18 months, three university of Cincinnati (UC)
students have tested HIV-positive, prompting the assistant senior vice
president of the Medical Center and Director of university Health
Services to issue a public service announcement to students. "A lot of
times, colleges consider themselves immune from this, but obviously
they're wrong," John Andrews said in a letter to the News Record.
In the greater Cincinnati area, an estimated 4,000-6,000 people
are HIV-positive, "many of whom are unaware that they have [the virus],"
said Victoria Brooks, CEO of AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati (AVOC). Of
the 130 people tested by AVOC this year, "four young adults under the
age of 30 tested HIV-positive, one of which was from testing at UC,"
said Brooks.
Because AVOC is a small group that only conducts part-time HIV
testing, "this is incredibly disturbing for us because it mirrors the
national trend of increase in young adults and it indicates a wider
problem in the greater Cincinnati community," said Brooks. "Many
students have a 'this-won't-happen-to-me' attitude, and they think
they're invincible," said Andrews.
College students are often open to suggestion and
experimentation, and this may put them at risk, said Bernard Young,
director of HIV and STD prevention services at the Cincinnati Health
Department. Alcohol and drug use only compound the risk. "Alcohol
contributes to poor decision-making around sexual activities," said
Brooks.
UC's Wellness Center offers free HIV testing each quarter.
Scioto Hall and the city Health Department also provide free testing,
with the latter offering STD tests on a sliding pay scale basis.
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News Briefs
WASHINGTON: "Increase in Gonorrhea Cases in Cowlitz County"
Associated Press (05.06.05)
The Washington Department of Health issued an alert following a
trebling of gonorrhea cases in Cowlitz County, from 15 cases in 2003 to
51 in 2004. The county now ranks fourth in the state in per capita
gonorrhea cases, behind Yakima, King and Pierce counties. The county has
recorded 21 cases so far this year, mostly among young teens and adults
in their early 20s. While the alert does not trigger any state action or
inquiry, state officials will assist Cowlitz in controlling the problem,
said Bonnie Nickel, STD education consultant for Washington.
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NORTH CAROLINA: "Teen Health Earns a Challenge Grant"
Charlotte Observer (05.08.05)
The nonprofit Teen Health Inc. received a $15,000 challenge
grant to fund HIV/AIDS prevention programs for adolescent minorities in
Iredell County, the agency announced last week. The Regional HIV/AIDS
Consortium grant awarded to the agency was funded through the National
AIDS Fund and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Teen Health Inc. plans to
use the funds to serve 120 teens in its after-school Responsible
Attitudes and Latino Outreach programs, part of the group's Focus on
Minorities initiative. Responsible Attitudes and Latino Outreach are
comprehensive prevention and educational programs involving eight groups
of teens that meet once a week for classes and activities.
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CHINA: "Clinton Foundation Helps Southwest China Province
Prevent AIDS"
Xinhua News Agency (05.08.05)
The US-based Clinton Foundation will help Yunnan Province in
southwest China enhance HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and upgrade
its HIV/AIDS laboratory's effectiveness over the next three years.
Officials from the Yunnan health department and Clinton Foundation
representatives discussed details of the plan at a recent conference in
Kunming, the province's capital.
By 2004, Yunnan reported a total of 16,141 HIV patients and
1,063 AIDS patients, the largest numbers nationwide. Experts warn that
HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly in China, especially among high-risk
groups such as drug users and homosexuals. The Clinton Foundation has
launched HIV/AIDS treatment programs in 18 countries in Asia, Africa,
and the Caribbean region.
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