Immunodeficiency Virus

ANNAPOLIS -- On shaky ground since their introduction this winter, three of the Schaefer administration's AIDS bills are in trouble.A joint subcommittee is recommending that lawmakers kill the ++ so-called "mandatory testing" bill that would require certain doctors and patients to be tested for the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.Physicians and health care workers have opposed the state health department's bill on the grounds that it would be costly and would not stop the spread of AIDS.

An Aberdeen food service company has agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit with a former employee who said he was discharged because of rumors that he had the virus that causes AIDS.The employee was later told that he would have to be tested to be reinstated, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.The lawyers, Richard J. Pratt and William H. Briggs Jr. of Washington, asked U.S. District Judge Herbert Murray to dismiss the lawsuit after the company, HLJ Management Group Inc., agreed to pay $17,500 to settle the case.

Leading researchers applauded President Clinton's announcement yesterday of a 10-year march toward an AIDS vaccine but cautioned that the same problems that have frustrated scientists for years will make the goal a difficult one to achieve.Despite their cautionary tone, scientists said the president has finally made a vaccine against acquired immune deficiency syndrome a national priority -- something lacking since the disease made its ominous entrance in the early 1980s."I think it's something we've got to try," said Dr. John Bartlett, chief of the infectious disease division at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

I'm writing my mom's eulogy. Only she's not dead yet.I work on it in the shower, or while I drive to work. Line by line, it occurs to me and interrupts my other thoughts. It has begun to write itself.My mom is very much alive. But she is HIV-positive. She received infected blood during a transfusion 11 years ago, but she didn't find out the terrible truth until 1988. The Red Cross sent her a letter explaining that the donor of the blood she received had tried to give blood again. By that time, all blood was being screened for the immunodeficiency virus.

Magic Johnson's announcement yesterday that he is retiring from professional basketball because he tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus is a complex situation. What follows are some questions and answers to help explain the issues.Question: What causes AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome?Answer: AIDS is caused by a virus known as human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Unlike the viruses that cause colds and flu, HIV does not leave the body after attacking the cells.

An article in yesterday's editions about a court ruling on lawsuits filed against Johns Hopkins Hospital and a surgeon who had AIDS misstated on second reference the name of a Hopkins official.The hospital's vice president for medical affairs is Dr. Hamilton Moses III.The sun regrets the errors.Maryland surgeons who are infected with the AIDS virus must disclose that fact to patients before performing operations if they are to avoid lawsuits, the state's highest court has ruled.Yesterday's ruling says physicians infected with the human immunodeficiency virus may be held liable if they fail to disclose their conditions.

An article in yesterday's editions about a court ruling on lawsuits filed against Johns Hopkins Hospital and a surgeon who had AIDS misstated on second reference the name of a Hopkins official.The hospital's vice president for medical affairs is Dr. Hamilton Moses III.The sun regrets the errors.Maryland surgeons who are infected with the AIDS virus must disclose that fact to patients before performing operations if they are to avoid lawsuits, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.The ruling said that physicians infected with the human immunodeficiency virus may be held liable if they fail to disclose their conditions.

For six months, Beth Hodge has been trying to involve Howard County schools with the Whitney Project, which pairs HIV-infected children in other states with local 8- to 13-year-old pen pals.The Elkridge resident's Cub Scout den is participating. And some teachers at Elkridge Elementary and Centennial High schools in Ellicott City say they are interested in the New Mexico-based program.But the program has yet to be offered in local classrooms. Teachers say they like the concept and just haven't worked out the scheduling and other details.

BERLIN -- The ninth international meeting on AIDS ended yesterday after 5,500 presentations that showed little more than incremental gains in scientific knowledge about the disease."

Researchers at Baltimore's Institute of Human Virology have announced plans to begin human tests of an oral AIDS vaccine that they say would be cheaper and easier to administer than injectable vaccines now being tried. Testing of a vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, should begin within 18 months. Testing will be done on volunteers in Baltimore and in Uganda, one of the many African nations ravaged by the fatal disease. The first trial will determine whether the vaccine is safe, and could give way to further studies measuring effectiveness.