Hiv Infection

In 2009, Congress passed legislation reversing the decades-old ban on the use of federal funding for syringe exchange but, for unclear reasons, in late 2011, it reversed this decision, again withholding federal funding from programs that provide drug users with sterile needles and syringes. This month, Congress approved the health spending budget for the rest of this fiscal year without lifting the ban. This lack of action worsens public health problems, makes our communities less safe, and increases future financial burdens on taxpayers.

Sexually transmitted diseases proliferate among men and women who have multiple sexual partners. If the recent measure of HIV infection among Baltimore's gay men was restricted to those who frequent "gay" bars and clubs, then it will overestimate the prevalence of HIV in Baltimore because it will not include those gay men who are not seeking extra partners ("Baltimore leads in HIV infection in gay men," Oct. 2). The prime public health message to the people in any community seeking to reduce STDs, including HIV, is and has ever been, "If you are sexually active, have few and preferably only one sexual partner.

Q: My husband is HIV positive, but he has told me that it is safe for us to have intercourse as long as he uses a condom. I would like to believe him, but a friend of mine became infected even though she said that her husband used condoms. How effective are condoms in preventing the spread of HIV infection?A: Totally abstaining from sexual intercourse is, of course, the most certain way to avoid an HIV infection, and this obvious fact is behind the "Just say no!" advice trumpeted to unmarried young people.

WASHINGTON -- Treatment of HIV infection before it causes symptoms may delay progression to AIDS but does not prolong survival, a new study has found.The study, reported yesterday in the British Medical Journal, supports findings from the Concorde study in Europe that in 1993 called into question a standard practice of prescribing the drug AZT for people infected with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.The British study involved 436 AIDS patients at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London.

WASHINGTON -- After years of recommending AZT as the first-line drug for treating the virus that causes AIDS, federal health officials are considering a change because of results with other drugs.A large study paid for by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and reported last week found that AZT was less effective than another drug, didanosine (ddI), and also less effective than combinations of AZT with either ddI or zalcitabine (ddC).One part of the study showed that ddI lowered the rate of death from HIV infection to 5 percent from 10 percent, compared with the use of AZT alone over 147 weeks.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer wants HIV infection treated like any other communicable disease, enabling health workers to trace a patient's sex partners and others who may have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.While the governor's bill would designate at least five confidential testing centers, those who test positive at other sites would be treated as if they had gonorrhea, hepatitis, meningitis, typhoid, syphilis or tuberculosis.This means health workers would follow "contract tracing" procedures -- notifying those who had sex, shared needles, or otherwise exchanged bodily fluids with an HIV-infected patient.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer wants HIV infection treated like any other communicable disease, enabling health workers to trace a patient's sex partners and others who may have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.While the governor's bill would designate at least five confidential testing centers, those who test positive at other sites would be treated as if they had gonorrhea, hepatitis, meningitis, typhoid, syphilis or tuberculosis.This means health workers would follow "contact tracing" procedures -- notifying those who had sex, shared needles or otherwise exchanged body fluids with an HIV-infected patient.

The Maryland General Assembly is flirting again with legislation that would compromise the privacy rights of people with AIDS. The state government says it wants mandatory testing of certain populations, particularly health-care workers, to protect the public and to help people who are infected get the treatment they need.Virtually every medical and scientific authority to have an opinion on the subject, including the federal Centers for Disease Control, says that mandatory testing will not achieve those goals.

Unusual strains of HIV have been identified in two patients whose blood was analyzed by Maryland's state medical laboratory, health officials announced yesterday.The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene isolated the two cases in its lab's role as part of a national surveillance system for HIV and AIDS. One patient is the country's second case caused by a strain called group O, and the other is the country's first case caused by group M, subtype G HIV infection.Between 200 and 300 cases of Group O have been reported worldwide, in West and Central Africa, France, Belgium, Germany, and one in the United States, in July 1996.

NEW YORK -- The United Nations AIDS organization has released disturbing estimates of the seemingly relentless expansion of the HIV pandemic.At a time when many Americans are optimistic that drug therapy might eliminate the virus, HIV is taking a heavy toll worldwide.According to the agency, every minute six people become infected with HIV: 7,500 adults per day and 1,000 children. About 30 million people have acquired the virus during the past 15 years; 6.4 million of them have died of AIDS.