The San Francisco Examiner; Wednesday, March 25, 1998
Lisa M. Krieger of the Examiner Staff

Sandra Thurman, director of the White House Office of AIDS Policy, will speak on HIV policy issues facing the Clinton administration. Mayor Brown will offer a summary of last January's S.F. AIDS Summit. Former

S.F. Department of Health director Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman will talk about the societal response to science and policy issues.

The three-day conference will also offer 120 workshops, 100 exhibits and displays of art, theater and videos.

For information, call (650) 595-5476.

Needle exchange

At the conference, the S.F. AIDS Foundation and the American Foundation for AIDS Research are giving all attendees postcards addressed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, urging her to support needle-exchange programs to cut the spread of AIDS - and allow communities like San Francisco to use federal funds for such programs.

At the White House, President Clinton's two main policy advisors on the issue have staked out opposing positions.

Their disagreement makes prospects for government financing of needle-exchange programs more unlikely when a ban on such spending, imposed by Congress in 1992, expires at the end of March.

Sandra Thurman advocates spending money on the programs as a way of saving lives by reducing the incidence of HIV acquired from shared needles. But Barry McCaffrey, the retired Army general who is the administration's director of national drug policy, fervently opposes any government subsidy. McCaffrey's opposition to needle exchange is expected to undercut whatever support exists for the programs, according to the New York Times. Many members of Congress already oppose the concept or do not want to look as if they are soft on drug use in a congressional election year.

Both Thurman and McCaffrey have said they will leave it up to Shalala to settle the needle-exchange issue.

Shalala, who has sided with McCaffrey on other drug policy questions, has yet to decide whether needle exchanges deserve government money.

News briefs

*Mayor Brown and the mayors of Oakland, Santa Cruz and West Hollywood have written to President Clinton, urging him to halt a federal lawsuit that threatens to close six Northern California clubs that distribute marijuana for medical use.

The letters were sent to forestall a federal court hearing on the suit scheduled in San Francisco this week.

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has said if the clubs close, city officials might distribute marijuana to patients who say they need it.

*A quick treatment that could cut in half the number of HIV-infected infants born in developing countries may be more difficult and expensive than initially suggested, U.S. health officials say.

The United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS has called international experts to Geneva this week to decide how to get short AZT therapy to developing countries.

First, doctors must diagnose the 2 million HIV-infected women who will get pregnant each year in developing countries. The U.N. has begun HIV counseling and testing programs in 14 developing countries, at a cost of $25 per person. The question is how to find and diagnose the infected women at a more affordable price.

Then comes AZT. The anticipated price of $50 to $150 is several times the amount normally spent on all prenatal obstetric care for a woman in developing countries.

Then, health officials must keep the healthy babies from being infected by breast-feeding. If their HIV-infected mothers breast-feed, one in six of the babies will catch the virus that way. Events

* "Are We Having As Much Fun As We Think We Are?," a community forum about methamphetamine (speed) use among gay and bisexual men, will be held Thursday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at 1015 Folsom St.

Forum sponsor STOP AIDS Project will release the results of 500 surveys with gay men about speed. Speakers include Dr. Diana Amodia of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic Detox Unit and three anonymous current and former speed users. Call (415) 621-7177.

* "Positive Choices: A treatment workshop for women living with HIV," sponsored by Community Prescription Service, will be held March 28 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, Julia Morgan Tea Room, 1515 Webster St. in Oakland. Free. Lunch and child care provided. Call 800-842-0502.

* "Quarterly HIV & AIDS Update," featuring Dr. Carol Brosgart of the East Bay AIDS Center and Dr. Harry Lamparis of UC-San Francisco, will be held March 30 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Alta Bates Medical Center auditorium, 2450 Ashby Ave. in Berkeley. Free, light dinner provided. Call (510) 204-1870.

*International AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Saag of the University of Alabama will speak on April 7 at Summit Medical Center, third floor auditorium, 3012 Summit St. in Oakland. Reception at 6 p.m.; discussion from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Call (510) 869-6514.

The toll

Jeff Lettow, 43, former Marin Independent Journal entertainment editor and a resident of Forestville who was active in the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and the nonprofit group Food for Thought. A volunteer consultant to Kaiser Medical Center, he taught patients how to use the Internet to research AIDS and HIV . . . Charlie Milhaupt, 48, vice president of Gilman Paper Co. and a former film producer of "Soldier's Story," "Iceman" and "Agnes of God" and two Disney films, "Foreign Exchange" and "Parent Trap," in New York City.

. . . . . .Date . . . . . .reported. . Cases. . Deaths S.F.. . . .3/1 . . . . 25,148. .17,049 Calif.. . .3/1 . . . .105,121 . 66,450 U.S.. . . .3/1 . . . .612,078 .379,258 WHO(rprtd) 3/1 . . .8,400,000 6,400,000 Figures are cumulative since June 1981. Government officials now compile and release statistics quarterly, not monthly. To contribute to AIDSweek, call (415) 777-7867.

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