Washington Blade - October 26, 2001

WASHINGTON -- The latest issue of Health & Sexuality magazine, published by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, is focused on lesbian health concerns. The issue was developed in collaboration with the Washington-based Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer. The magazine is designed to provide tools to clinicians to help them engage in open and appropriate communications with their patients, according to U.S. Newswire. "When clinicians assume that all patients are heterosexual, or that lesbian patients do not have special needs, they create barriers and compromise the medical care that is given," Sharon Schnare, who served as the clinical adviser for the magazine, told U.S. Newswire. "Improving provider awareness and sensitivity can help increase lesbians' utilization of health care services, which can lower à cancer rates through increased screening and detection," Wayne C. Shields, ARHP president, said. The magazine can be ordered by calling the ARHP office at 202-466-3825; it is also available online at www.arhp.org/lesbianhealth.

Researchers discover method for artificial sperm

LOS ANGELES -- Researchers have discovered a chemical combination that could be used as artificial sperm, ananova.com reported. The research, conducted by Dr. Jerry Hall and Dr. Yan-Ling Feng, involved inducing eggs in female mice to reproduce their own chromosomes. In the experiment, the mice eggs duplicated enough chromosomes to start cell division. Previous findings have shown similarities between mice and human eggs and the researchers, from the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Genetics, believe the process could also work in humans. Human reproduction requires 23 pairs of chromosomes from both the female's egg and from sperm that fertilizes the egg. If the process were successful in humans, the female's egg would duplicate the chromosomes and sperm would not be needed. Babies born from the process would be female and genetically identical to the mother.

Viagra, HIV, recreational drugs make for risky combo

SAN FRANCISCO -- The drug Viagra is becoming increasingly popular with gay men in San Francisco and elsewhere, the New York Times reported. Health experts are concerned that its popularity may help foster the spread of HIV. While some gay men are using Viagra for erectile dysfunction -- its approved purpose -- others are using it as a recreational drug and taking it in combination with Ecstasy and other drugs. "For a subset of gay men, it's definitely found its way into the mix of party drugs," Dr. Ken Mayer, a board member of the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, told the Times. "And in a bathhouse or other setting where there's an opportunity to have sex with multiple partners, to have a longer-lasting erection can be a prescription for HIV transmission." Health professionals also note that Viagra can be harmful if used in combination with "poppers," a nitrate-based liquid drug. Viagra and poppers both cause blood vessels to dilate; combining them can cause dizziness, stroke, or heart attacks.

Some drug-resistant HIV-1 less able to replicate

LONDON -- Some drug-resistant types of HIV-1 are less able to replicate than their wild-type counterparts, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Virology, Reuters reported. This finding may eventually allow the effective reintroduction of "failed" medication, according to researcher Helen L. Devereux of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and her colleagues. Devereux noted that "viruses containing mutations associated with drug resistance are less fit." The researchers studied 11 HIV-infected men who had developed resistance to many antiretroviral drugs and had taken a break from therapy and who were assessed for drug-resistant mutations in protease and reverse transcriptase genes before and after stopping therapy. The researchers found that "certain primary mutations in protease and reverse transcriptase present in patients taking highly active antiretroviral therapy were associated with a substantial reduction in the viral fitness."

Some with HIV don't need PCP prophylaxis

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A recent study in the journal AIDS shows that HIV-infected patients with CD4 cell counts of 200 or higher in response to antiretroviral therapy do not need prophylactic treatment for pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), Reuters reported. The study, conducted by Dr. Susan L. Koletar of the Ohio State University Hospitals in Columbus and colleagues, examined incidence of PCP in HIV-infected patients who discontinued prophylactic therapy for primary or secondary PCP. Patients in both the primary and secondary groups had had CD4 cell counts no greater than 100 cells per microliter at some point in the past, but had counts greater than 200 cells per microliter in response to antiretroviral therapy at the time of the study. The secondary prophylaxis group had experienced a PCP episode within the preceding six months. PCP prophylaxis was discontinued within three months or at the time of study. No patients in either group developed PCP after discontinuing prophylaxis, though eight patients resumed prophylaxis after their CD4 cell counts fell below 200 cells per microliter on two consecutive occasions
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