PAGE 26 THE WEEKLY NEWS MARCH 9, 1988
PENSACOLA
BENEFITS SCHEDULED FOR EASE:
Two benefits are scheduled for the Escambia AIDS Services and Education Association this spring. The first of the benefits is to be held at Snoopy's, a local bar located at 720 West Government Street. The benefit is expected to be widely attended by members of the gay community and will feature Miss Pensacola (Babs Johnson) in her final stage performance. Johnson, when asked about the event, said: "I would like everyone to acknowledge this benefit as a community event where everyone can show their support for EASE. It is not just another bar event."
The second benefit scheduled to begin on April 30th will be a stage production of As Is. Open auditions were held on March 7th for roles in the work. Efforts will be made to secure several stage locations for the show in order to better raise local consciousness about the plight of people with AIDS. Six men and two women volunteers will be needed to perform roles in the play.
PAPER PROMOTES CONFINEMENT: A local newspaper here printed an editorial which suggested that an appropriate solution to the issue of AIDS containment would be confinement of PWAS. The opinion column suggested that a "Typhoid Mary solution" would have to be seriously considered in order to prevent PWAS from willingly infecting other persons who are not seropositive HIV diagnosed.
The column compared male and female prostitutes who know that they are HIV infected to Typhoid Mary in that even though they know that they are spreading the disease they continue to conduct themselves irresponsibly.
Florida lawmakers Rich Grotty (R-Orlando) and Javier Souto (R-Miami), in response to the situation, drafted legislative bills which would send AIDS infected prostitutes to prison for five years if they continue to practice their profession after they have tested HIV antibody positive.
The bill has been criticized by AIDS support groups and civil rights lawyers. The opinion statement concluded that it wasn't
developing distribution system will undermine the traditional pattern established for determining the safety and true benefit of new drugs. Grace Monaco, a Washington attorney,
N.W. FLORIDA/SO. ALABAMA suggested in a prominent medical journal that
NEWS
DAN ANDERSON
right to incarcerate only those prostitutes who are spreading AIDS, but that everyone who has tested HIV antibody positive and continues to engage in sex afterwards should be locked up.
SOUTH ALABAMA AROUND 140 PERSONS are expected to die of AIDS or ARC complications in Alabama this year. What is being done about it? Attorney General Don Siegelman wants to make those who knowingly spread the HIV virus criminals. That is, if a person who has tested positive for HIV antibodies engages in sex without forewarning the partner, that person could be convicted of a crime. Siegelman wants what he calls "AIDS assault" to become a Class B felony, which would upon conviction-carry a 20-year prison sentence.
Civil Liberties Union of Alabama board member Martin McCaffery feels that this proposal will discourage people from getting tested for HIV antibodies, and that: If the law tells someone that they cannot knowingly spread the virus, people will avoid the legal consequences by not being tested to see if they may be carriers of HIV..
McCaffery has also requested the Montgomery City Council to stop police from making files on people with AIDS, people who are gay or people who are victims of other socially-transmitted diseases (STDs).
CONTACT REFERRALS REQUESTED: Beginning in March, people who test positive for HIV will be requested to divulge the names of their past and present sexual partners. The
treatments.
The most important fear is that the program is supposed to be voluntary, but a member of an AIDS outreach team suggests that it is not voluntary if the names of persons are given without their consent.
The director of the Alabama Department of Health's STD division, Bill Holder, wants to have the sexual partners tested for the disease, also. He said that those who reveal their past or present liaisons will be kept anonymous.
Critics of the plan feel that this will add to the fear of discrimination and that knowing that they will be asked to give the names of their sex partners if they are found to be infected many people who are in high-risk groups will avoid being tested. The critics feel that this procedure is highly subject to abuse, although state officials disagree.
NORTHWEST HEALTH BEAT
DRUG MARKETING FAULTY: Last year the federal government decided that experimental drugs ought to be made available to the widest segment of Americans who are chronic disease sufferers. This decision was at first applauded, but the decision is now being questioned because it allows drug companies to apply to the Federal Drug Administration to sell the drugs they want to market outside of clinics and medical centers where tests are done under controlled conditions.
Critics feel that the system developing is a two-tier treatment pattern in which the rich (who can afford treatment) will be able to buy the drugs, but the poor (who must depend upon clinical care) will be unable to afford
the FDA's "treatment of the investigational new drug (IND)" policy basically constitutes a "research for hire" setting. This type of feeling has contributed the controversiality of the regulation, and the American Medical Association and the FDA are scheduled to hold a special meeting to review the policy.
AZT is one IND the FDA has approved. Since the AIDS drug has been approved for use outside of experimental trials, doctors everywhere have been prescribing it for almost all patients who have tested positively for in-. fection with HIV. It is felt that the true efficacy of the drug AZT and other INDs will never be known, because once the drug is considered to be useful in the treatment of chronic illness, researchers find it hard to find volunteers who will participate in placebo groups (persons who do not take the drug, but still have the illness) so that differences between treatments can be compared.
CHLAMYDIA GETS IGNORED: A clinician recently reported in an advice column that chlamydia, the most common sexually-transmitted disease, often gets ignored or overlooked because its symptoms are so similar to the telltale signs of gonorrheal infection. A person can have both of the STDs at the same time, be treated for one and still be infected with the other because the treatment for each one of the diseases is different. Persons under 30 who frequently. change sex partners and do not use a form of safe sex are at greatest risk of contracting this STD. Untreated, the chlamydia virus can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and damage the fallopian tubes in women. It can cause sterility in both males and females.
Persons who are sexually active should receive regular checkups and should specifically ask to be examined for the STD chlamydia.
To have your N.W. Fla./So. Ala. News appear here, call Dan Anderson at (904) 432-6622 for a mailing address.
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