Aids Patient

Lisa W. Yingling looks the picture of good health. She smiles broadly and often, and pokes fun at AIDS, the disease that is threatening her life."Even my husband is totally optimistic," she said. "He says I look well, so I must be well."Five years ago, with the tiny prick of a needle, this 36-year-old Carroll County nurse went from care giver to carrier of deadly HIV. Now an AIDS patient retired on disability, Ms. Yingling is telling her story to anyone willing to listen. Her husband, who is not infected, supports her efforts, she said.

Robert Stone was a healthy baby until he was 13 months old. Then, over three or four days, he became unresponsive and lost the use of his limbs. His bewildered parents put him through one medical test after another, each yielding inconclusive results. The tests have remained mostly inconclusive for the past 13 years. The next step for the Stone family is to pay to have the boy's genetic material mapped in an attempt to find the cause of his illness. But that costs a minimum of $7,500, and insurance doesn't cover it. So the family has turned to the Internet and a new Baltimore startup — a nonprofit founded by a Johns Hopkins University graduate student — for help.

A Johns Hopkins Hospital specialist says that fears of AIDS patients and doctors afraid of contracting the disease have kept more than half of Maryland AIDS patients from receiving the anti-viral drug AZT that could prolong their lives.Dr. Richard E. Chaisson, director of the hospital's AIDS patient care, said yesterday that AIDS patients fear anemia and other much-publicized debilitating side effects and doctors who fear they will contract AIDS refuse to treat these patients "they do not feel comfortable with."

The Baltimore County Health Department has received an additional $160,930 in federal funding to provide more rental assistance to people with AIDS, bringing the total appropriation through 2010 to nearly $2 million. The program offers transportation, education, employment services and counseling to low-income residents coping with HIV and AIDS. The additional funds will mean at least eight more housing vouchers for a total of 100 in 2010, in addition to other support services. No county matching funds are required.

The senior surgeon at an operation in which Dr. Rudolph Almaraz reportedly contracted AIDS says there has never been any surgical accident in his career "that could have put me or my colleagues at risk for contracting AIDS."Dr. William Knapper of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said in a written statement to The Sun, "It is clear that the case in question was a routine procedure that was performed with our full knowledge of the patient having AIDS."Dr. Almaraz, a prominent breast cancer surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome last month.

A study quoted by a Johns Hopkins doctor says that a surgeon operating on an AIDS patient has a 0.2 percent chance of catching the disease from an accidental skin prick, and that the chance of transmitting an infection from doctor to patient is smaller still. That is a statistic the estimated 1,800 women treated by Dr. Rudolph Almaraz before he died of AIDS should keep in mind.Discovering that your surgeon had AIDS, though, is jolting. But the statistical probabilities should allay the fears of many such patients.

Dr. Richard T. Johnson, a neuroscientist whose research has uncovered disorders of AIDS in the brain, promises to bring an extra dimension to the chairmanship of the new Governor's Council on HIV Prevention and Treatment.The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS.The new council will have a leader who has an intimate knowledge of the biology of acquired immune deficiency syndrome -- one who knows how it is transmitted, how the virus works and what the legitimate concerns are.The Schaefer administration announced yesterday that Johnson would head the new panel.

Linda R. Stromberg gave her "AIDS 101" course Monday at St. Joseph Catholic Community in Sykesville.Ms. Stromberg, Carroll County's only caseworker for AIDS patients, repeats the lecture whenever she is asked because she believes "the more we talk about AIDS, the more we prevent it."About 60 people listened intently as Ms. Stromberg described the course of the disease from initial infection to the complete breakdown of the body's immune system."It's a controversial topic that many prefer to ignore," said Nancy Birck, chairman of the church's newly formed AIDS ministry.

Every day, a young man faithfully visited his brother, an AIDS patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He dealt with the stress of AIDS alone and never revealed his brother's fatal illness to any co-worker.When he saw his boss in the waiting room, he went to the nurses' station in a panic."What if she sees me?" he asked Kevin Mallison, a clinical nurse on Osler 8, the AIDS unit. "She'll know I know someone with AIDS.""I told him he needed to talk to his boss," said Mr. Mallison. "Her son was dying of AIDS, too."

Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, the Johns Hopkins breast cancer surgeon who died of AIDS last month, continued to operate on patients after he knew he had the disease, his widow said yesterday.Speaking publicly for the first time, Betty Almaraz defended his decision in an interview with The Sun."He was a talented and gifted man. The risks [of his transmitting AIDS to his patients] are minimal. My husband saved many, many lives, weighed against the infinitesimal risk," said Mrs. Almaraz, whose husband, Rudolph, died Nov. 16. "If he had stuck anyone at all, he would have been the first to tell anyone."

The Rev. Richard Wise Shreffler, who had pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air for more than 30 years and was also active in Baltimore homeless and AIDS ministries, died May 1 of pneumonia at his home in San Antonio, Texas. He was 88. Mr. Shreffler was born and raised in Shelby, Ohio. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1942 from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, he entered Naval Training School at Annapolis. Commissioned as an officer in 1943, he participated in the D-Day invasion and was later assigned to the Pacific theater of operations.

Upper Chesapeake Health has started a new support group for children whose parents or grandparents have cancer, called CLIMB (Children's Lives include Moments of Bravery). The group will meet from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center The support group will also meet from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 15, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29 at the Walter and Betty Ward YMCA in Abingdon. Registration is required at 800-515-0044. Patients to explore energy healing Upper Chesapeake Health has started a new support group for those affected by cancer who are interested in exploring energy healing.

CHICAGO -- Shark fin soup might taste good. But it won't do much for cancer. Shark cartilage, a widely used alternative therapy for cancer, did not help patients with lung cancer live longer, according to the results of one of the first rigorous studies of the approach. But two smaller studies showed some preliminary but encouraging evidence that two other complementary therapies, ginseng and flaxseed, might have some benefit for cancer patients. The studies were presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, where the nation's cancer doctors usually discuss the latest in chemotherapy and new biotechnology drugs.

The Red Devils, a nonprofit volunteer organization, will sponsor its fifth Red Devils Heat and Sole Stroll at 10 a.m. Sunday, rain or shine, at Centennial Lake in Ellicott City. Registration is to begin at 9 a.m. The 2.4-mile walk around the lake will help raise money for support services for Maryland breast cancer patients and their families. The organization pays for transportation to medical appointments and helps pay for co-payments for prescription drugs, house-cleaning, meals and groceries.

WASHINGTON -- AIDS and HIV patients, who have been seeking ever simpler treatments since struggling with a complicated regimen of as many as 25 pills a day a decade ago, can now take one daily pill. The new pill, Atripla, was approved yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration after an accelerated three-month review reflecting the major public health benefits anticipated by activists, doctors and health officials. Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the acting FDA commissioner, hailed the combination drug as a "landmark" that would "fundamentally change treatment" of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the virus causing it. Since the difficult early days of treatment, AIDS cocktails have become simple enough that some patients swallow just a few medications a day. Atripla melds three widely prescribed drugs that have been available for several years and are often taken together.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A large clinical trial has showed that lowering cholesterol in heart patients well below guidelines can significantly reduce heart attacks and strokes, although the five-year study did not show an overall reduction in deaths. The results, presented here yesterday, have increased the growing clamor to substantially lower cholesterol targets in heart patients, with some cardiologists suggesting there might not be a level that's too low. But others have advocated a more cautious approach, saying more research is needed before cholesterol guidelines are changed.

Addicted to heroin and sick from AIDS, Deborah Barnes had used up her money, her friends' hospitality and her family's ability to cope. For the past few years, her home had been wherever she could lie down, often in a vacant building.But three months ago, with a little help, the 42-year-old former waitress found a place in which to settle -- with an unusual foster family in a small brick house in East Baltimore. Hundreds of other Marylanders with AIDS are not as fortunate.Ms. Barnes is a participant in C.A.R.

A widely respected surgeon who specialized in treating women with breast cancer died of AIDS two weeks ago, and Johns Hopkins Hospital is planning to send letters this week offering free AIDS tests to an estimated 1,800 patients on whom he operated.The doctor, Rudolph Almaraz, died Nov. 16 at age 41.Confirmation that Dr. Almaraz died of AIDS came Friday when his family's lawyer, Marvin Ellin, told The Sun, "He had AIDS, and he died of AIDS."Mr. Ellin said Dr. Almaraz told him he was exposed to the disease in the course of operating on an AIDS patient in New York about seven years ago while on a fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Every day, Dorothy Murray files into a downtown clinic, raises a glass of grape juice and downs three pills under the eye of a pharmacist. It has been her routine since March, when she left the hospital after nearly dying from an AIDS-related infection that reduced her weight to 70 pounds. "I was an intravenous drug user, but I didn't like taking pills," said Murray, 38, who's back to 100 pounds, which sit well on her diminutive frame. "I figured this was the only way I'd take my medication."

Sue Elizabeth Coleman, a longtime registered nurse at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center detox unit, died of stomach cancer Wednesday at her Upperco home. She was 58. Sue Elizabeth Manussier was born in Washington, Iowa. She moved frequently as the daughter of an Air Force colonel, living in Colorado, Germany, Japan and England. The family finally settled in Tacoma, Wash. Following in her mother's profession, she received her certificate of nursing at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma in 1966.