PAGE 14 THE WEEKLY NEWS MARCH 9, 1988

AIDS UPDATES

National Groups Issue Alert On Congressional Bill

WASHINGTON National lesbian and gay rights groups have issued an alert to concerned citizens nationwide urging them to act immediately to insure the passage of the nation's first comprehensive AIDS bill without hostile amendments.

The Federal AIDS Research, Information and Care Act (S. 1220), a/k/a the Kennedy/Hatch Bill, would enable AIDS education grants to be awarded to community based AIDS-service organizations, allow the hiring of more researchers at the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, enable the launching of a national AIDS prevention campaign and hasten time for AIDS research proposals.

Conservative Senators, led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), have already mobilized to attach amendments to the bill calling for mandatory HIV testing and reporting, the firing of HIV infected food and health care workers, the cancellation of health care policies of the HIV infected and the imposition of criminal penalties for transmitting the virus.

Through a series of ads being placed in the gay media nationwide (including The Weekly News, see page 5), the Human Rights Campaign Fund is urging concerned citizens to call their Senators' offices and/or to call a special Fairness Fund 1-800 number and send a mailgram to their Senator urging them to vote for S. 1220 without the hostile amendments.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) has urged those concerned to send letters and make phone calls immediately. The message to Senators should be: Vote for S. 1220 without restrictive amendments! Oppose efforts to restrict the content of AIDS education programs or impose mandatory testing!

Letters can be sent to: The Honorable Senator (in Florida, Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles), Washington D.C. 20510. NGLTF urges all to send copies of letters to them at 1517 U Street NW, Washington D.C. 20009.

Lawyers File Suit Against Discriminatory Health Plan

BOCA RATON Attorneys for National Gay Rights Advocates (NGRA), a California-based national lesbian and gay legal defense association, filed suit last week against Arvida Corporation whose health plan limited the amount of insurance coverage on AIDS-related illnesses, in the case of Boca Raton Person With AIDS, Joel Starkey.

Shortly after diagnosis with AIDS, Starkey's employer switched health insurance plan carriers. The new plan guaranteed payment of up to $1 million in coverage to all diseases except AIDS which it only covered for up to $15,000 in medical expenses annually.

Jean O'Leary, NGRA's Executive Director, said: "For employee health plans to shirk their responsibility to pay for AIDS-related expenses is to undercut the very purpose of health insurance. Not only is a special AIDS limitation clearly discriminatory, it also shifts the cost of paying for AIDS on to state and local governments.

""

An NGRA press release states that the case against Arvida is complicated because the company did not purchase the health plan from an insurance company, but is instead "self-insured." As such it is not governed by state insurance laws. Florida is one of 18 states that do not allow insurance companies to exclude or limit coverage on AIDS. In addition to filing the administrative complaint against Arvida, NGRA is preparing a lawsuit against them in federal court. This will be the first lawsuit of its kind in the nation.

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AIDS Commission Urges Boost To

Drug Treatment Programs

WASHINGTON Gaining uncommon praise from the AIDS activist community, the Presidential AIDS Commission released a report late last month urging the federal government to spend $1.5 billion for drug treatment to prevent the spread of AIDS, particularly among the IV drug community and the heterosexual population.

Commission Chair Retired Admiral James Watkins said that the proposals would allow for "treatment on demand" for IV drug users, the opening of 3,330 new drug treatment centers and the hiring of 32,000 more drug counselors.

If approved, the proposal would almost double the annual AIDS budget, which stands at $951 million this year. Although applauded by even conservative heads such as White House Domestic Policy Advisor Gary Bauer, many wonder where the money will come from for the ambitious proposal the commission recommends.

Encouraged by the proposal, AIDS activists nationwide are stating that the recommendations show promise.

"What they're really saying," said Ann McFarren of the AIDS Action Council, "is this government is not doing what it should be doing about this disease."

According to The Washington Blade, among the recommendations are provisions that:

•

New drug approval reviews be speeded up by using computer communication rather than just paperwork interaction between the Food and Drug Administration and drug sponsors.

0

A special approval process be used for medical foods such as the egg-based AL-721, especially for those substances which have long been used for other diseases.

• The number of full-time drug application reviewers be "immediately doubled" to meet the doubled number of new drug applications.

•

The number of full-time employees working on federal clinical trials be "immediately increased from 47 to 120."

•

A direct grant program be "immediately funded" to help sponsor community-based drug trail sponsors.

·

Placebo-controlled studies be used only for people who test HIV antibody positive and not for people with AIDS.

AIDS NOTES

⚫ Police last week questioned porn star John Holmes in the case of a 1981 mass murder for which he was tried and acquitted and in doing so made public the fact that the star of countless sex movies made throughout the 70s and 80s has

AIDS. The appearance of a new witness and rumors that Holmes is near death from AIDS complications prompted last week's questioning. Holmes' attorney has not revealed what, if anything, his client told the police about the murder case and declined to comment on the film star's health.

Radio Marti, the U.S. agency that beams anti-Castro broadcasts to Cuba, has charged that the Cuban government is forcibly sending Cubans who test HIV antibody positive to quarantine camps in the town of Boyeros, south of Havana. A New York Times columnist wrote last month that approximately 400 Cuban emigrees, refugees and political defectors are said to be kept in the camp. Cuban premier Fidel Castro admitted the existence of the camps last September, but did not say whether people were taken there against their will. Radio Marti charges that those reluctant to go to the camps are taken there by security police with a nylon bag placed over their heads. All Cubans entering state hospitals and applying for visas are administered an HIV antibody test by law.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a' case in which a lower court forced a Fort Worth blood bank to release a list of its volunteer blood donors late last month, The Washington Blade reports. This decision in the case of Tarrant County Hospital v. William Hughes has alarmed AIDS activists who feel this decision may now allow individuals to sue for blood banks' donor lists if they feel they became HIV infected through a transfusion from a blood bank. Bill Rubenstein, staff attorney for the national American Civil Liberties Union's AIDS and Civil Liberties Project in New York, stated, "The (Texas court of appeals) decision itself is very bad and dangerous. We have grave concerns about it because it carves out an exception about confidentiality. Never before has a blood bank had to turn over lists."

• Manufacturers of Ayds diet candy are again contemplating changing the name of their product due to the widespread connection of their product to AIDS and recent drops in sales. The 47-year-old product has dropped in sales by over 50 percent in the last few years, reports Dep Corporation Chair Robert Berglass. He said, "Every time I get a phone call from someone they end the conversation with the same question: 'By the way, did you solve the Ayds name problem yet?" In Britain, the product is now being sold under the name "Aydslim," and if successful the new name may begin appearing on American packages as soon as the end of this year.

A physician treating Ricky Ray, the oldest of the three HIV antibody positive Ray boys, formerly of Arcadia, Florida, has recanted last month's statement that the 11-year-old now has AIDS Related Complex (ARC), saying his statement was a "poor choice of words." Dr. Jerry Barbosa stated he made the statement under pressure from a court order. "The way I interpreted the order, I had no choice but to label the patient as having ARC against my clinical judgement."

Jurors in the case of Joseph Markowski, a Los Angeles prostitute who allegedly sold his HIV infected blood to a county plasma bank, was acquitted of attempted poisoning charges last week. Prosecuting attorneys have expressed dismay at the court's ruling, saying that the mentally ill man can now "go out and do this again." "What the court has told us here today is that the law in the state of California does not make it a crime to sell AIDS-contaminated blood," declared attorney Ira Reiner.

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced late last month a decision upholding the rights of PWAS to non-discriminatory health care. John Campanella had filed suit against his dentist, Dr. William Hurwitz, who refused to treat him and referred him to a hospital because he has AIDS. Claiming his office was not a "place of public accommodation," Hurwitz charged his office was exempt from the New York City's ban on discrimination against the HIV infected. A New York judge rebuffed the dentist's defense last month, holding that "establishments dealing with goods or services" are covered by the city ordinance, and allowed the case to go forward.

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