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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

August 21, 1992

'Quality of life' and fighting infection mark AIDS conference

Amsterdam--In cold, hard medical terms, long-term survival with HIV-infection--a phenomenon supported by a new body of evidence at last week's international AIDS conference--is good news that poses new problems.

study of 140 HIV-infected people with CD4 counts at 200, at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and several other hospitals around the country, found that 55 percent experienced pain--pain beyond a headache or toothache--during the previous month. Another study in London found that 30 percent of its 100 HIV-infected study group were seriously depressed.

As people survive longer, they have more time to suffer from all the many opportunistic infections that attack a weakened immune system. They will need more medications and monitoring, more inforDefeating infection "events" mation on how to keep their weight up. And, with longer survival, there are more survivors and potentially more "vectors of transmission," making prevention campaigns all the more critical for both the infected and the uninfected.

But the other good news out of this year's Eighth International Conference on AIDS is that, each year, more and more ideas surface on how to sustain people with a chronic illness and even those who are just at risk of acquiring such an illness-what the cold, hard medical establishment calls "the quality of life."

Quality of life is a feel-good measurement that more and more researchers are attempting to measure. There were, in fact, 47 papers devoted this year to "quality of life" measurments and how to achieve them. That's because it is one thing for a patient to survive--to be alive versus dead; it is quite another, and quite a better thing, for a patient to be able to go to work, pay the rent, eat well, have sex, have fun, and feel good.

This year's quality of life papers addressed the issue both directly and inderectly and, again, for both the already infected and the at-risk groups. Among two papers most directly addressing quality oflife, one

Perhaps the largest group of papers to address the issue is one some might see as the most indirect. It is that group of papers aimed at discovering which drug or combination of drugs best prevents or fights off the many opportunistic infections which strike people who have a weakened immune system. Those can include infections as relatively benign as herpes and oral thrush to as deadly as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).

There is a growing consensus among clinicians on how best to defeat these "events." as the medical community refers to them. For instance, more and more studies are finding that a combination drug known commonly as Bactrim is more effective than aerosolized pentamidine to prevent PCP. It also looks good against toxoplasmosis. Acyclovir works against most of the herpes varieties. Fluconazole is showing good results against fungal infections. Octreolide shows effectiveness against diarrhea that isn't controlled by standard therapies. And Ganciclovir shows promise in preventing cytomegalovirus (CMV).

Two separate studies this year reported that Doxil shows promise against Kaposi's

sarcoma. A report from San Francisco General Hospital found that Doxil is welltolerated and may be more useful against KS lesions than Adriamycin. The small study in 16 patients found Doxil appeared to have less toxicity and greater selectivity in its attack on KS. A second study, from the University of Munich, also found Doxil to be safe and said it "prevents completely [the] development of new skin lesions and leads to remarkable reduction of previously existing tumors, in particular with pulmonary and [gastrointestinal] manifestations."

Another drug, DBV, showed good effect against KS lesions but its effectiveness was "shortlasting,” reported researchers in the

Netherlands. They studied DBV against another treatment, rGM-CSF, in 19 Gay men and one IV drug user. Two experienced a complete remission of KS lesions but for only 10 weeks.

One report this year said that HIV-infected patients showed "significant improvement in quality of life” while taking clarithromycin for Mycobacterium Avium Complex (MAC). Another, of 255 HIVinfected patients with anemia, found that the use of erythropoitin "increased levels of energy and improved health perceptions and satisfaction" over a six month period.

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

Fourth annual lesbian festival to be held near Columbus

About 1,500 women from Ohio and surrounding states are expected to take part in the Fourth Annual Lesbian Festival next month.

Sponsored by the Lesbian Business Association, the festival will feature a full day of entertainment and workshops Saturday, Sept. 12, at a wooded site about 30 miles east of Columbus.

Participating in this year's festival will be local and national caliber performers; crafts, fine art, merchandise and services; and workshops.

Workshop topics will cover topics as hot as safer sex, lesbian parenting, and lesbian legal issues, or as playful as cats, karate, and water balloons.

This year's evening performers will include Diedre McCalla, Alix Dobkin and Pam Hall.

Tickets are $15 at the gate, but they can be purchased in advance at the following locations: Fan the Flames, Wall Street, Carpe Diem, Wholistic Health Care, Grapevine Cafe and Trade Winds in Columbus; Epic Bookstore in Yellow Springs; Crazy Ladies in Cincinnati; and Gifts of Athena in Cleveland.

For further information about the festival including volunteering and work exchange, call 614-267-4735, (TDD 614475-4851), or write LBA-Festival, P.O. Box 02086, Columbus, OH 43202.

Men and Women, It's Time to Unite for a Marvelous, Wonderful Talent Show Night... So...

LESBIAN GAY

Community

Service Center

OF GREATER CLEVELAND

Come out, come out,

Wherever You Are for the

LESBIAN GAY

Community Service Center

OF GREATER CLEVELAND

2nd Annual Lesbian Gay community Service Center

TALENT SHOW

Saturday, Nov. 21, 1992 The Civic

OPEN AUDITIONS:

We are looking for comics, musicians, singers, dancers, bands, choruses, talents of all kinds! Please have 10 minutes of prepared material for auditions to be held

Sundays, August 30 & September 13, 20 & 27-12:00 Noon 3:00 p.m.

Call 522-1999 for location and audition guidelines CASH PRIZES ★

presented in cooperation with bluefish Productions & the Gay People's Chronicle