Nine thousand West Indian sugar cane workers apparently had to pass a new test this year to work in the lush fields of Belle Glade -- an HTLV-III test for antibodies to the virus believed to cause AIDS. The island governments of Jamaica , Barbados , St. Vincent, St. Lucia and
Belle Glade, known as the city with the highest case rate of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the United States , may have an even higher rate, but Palm Beach County doesn t have the money to confirm suspected AIDS cases. County health officials are asking the state for a specialist, special medical equipment and
Strong new evidence indicates the AIDS virus may directly affect the brain and spinal cord, leading to nervous system damage in some AIDS patients and perhaps posing a lifetime risk for others infected with the virus but not initially ill. Researchers say that the findings may present new difficulties in seeking a trea
Members of the Governor s Task Force on AIDS recommended Friday night that $6.8 million in state funds be spent for establishment and the first year of operation of a comprehensive treatment network for AIDS patients in Miami. The proposed network would be based at the Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Medi
Forty-five Dade prostitutes recently walked into a county clinic and volunteered to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. The results: seven had contracted gonorrhea, two have herpes, three have syphilis and six of the women were exposed to an AIDS virus. Test results for another 45 prostitutes will be available
Gregory Duff says he had worked as a salesman in California s Silicon Valley for four months when his bosses at Sunnyvale Electronics told him to take a test for exposure to AIDS. Duff, 27, refused. He was fired. Nobody has any right to tell me that I have to take a test like that, and if it meant losing my job, OK, h
The main test used to screen for AIDS is a good one, experts say. But it won t prove whether someone has acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Like the test for hepatitis, the main test for the AIDS virus only indicates possible exposure to the virus. The test is relatively straightforward, can be done in about 4 1/2 ho
Scientists disclosed evidence on Thursday suggesting that a new, unidentified virus found in patients from Key West and Sweden may be a cause or trigger of multiple sclerosis. The research does not prove that a virus causes the crippling nerve disease. However, it coincides with the findings of a study by The Miami Her
A research director for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Monday attacked a Miami Herald study suggesting that the disease may be transmitted through prolonged person-to-person contact among susceptible individuals. Stephen Reingold, vice president for research for the MS society, said there is no evidence that
Key West s unprecedented outbreak of multiple sclerosis, afflicting eight nurses in the island city s biggest hospital, promises to alter age-old theories about the paralyzing nerve disease. The cluster of at least 29 victims challenges the century-old belief that multiple sclerosis is a noncommunicable Snow Belt illne
A new virus found in the blood and spinal fluid of multiple sclerosis victims in Key West and Sweden may be a cause of the poorly understood disease. The virus, which remains unidentified, resembles but is not the same as HTLV-1, a virus that causes human leukemia, one of the researchers said Thursday. We have fou
Examination and testing of AIDS victims who live in a Belle Glade slum tend to support a controversial theory that mosquitoes and squalor are factors in spreading the disease, according to two Miami doctors who developed the theory and put it to their own scientific test. What we re looking at is an interaction between
PARIS - A debate is under way in Paris on what really motivated three French doctors to go public last week with unconfirmed findings on a possible new treatment for AIDS -- humanitarian considerations or nationalistic crowing over getting ahead of American researchers. Three doctors of the Laennec Hospital in Paris to
The trade exhibitors fill the Miami Beach Convention Center s south hall with their corpuscle collectors, refrigerators, spectrograms and other equipment, but they are generally disregarded, if not quite ignored, at the 38th annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks. For the delegates to this event, AID
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon, which this month began testing recruits for exposure to the AIDS virus, will expand testing to all 2.2 million military personnel, a Pentagon source said Friday. But military officials still are working out details and haven t decided when they will start the broader testing or how they will
A Miami surgeon, suffering from AIDS, operated on hundreds of patients apparently without infecting them with his lethal illness, authorities said Wednesday. The doctor, Dixon Yeste, operated on 400 patients between 1978 and his death in 1983. As of August, none of those patients had developed AIDS, a new study shows.
After only eight weeks, Treasure Coast health officials are more than pleased with the results of an AIDS blood screening program. Sponsored by the state and federal governments, the program allows people who think they may have been exposed to the almost always fatal acquired immune deficiency syndrome to get a free b
Symptom-free AIDS carriers are infectious for years. They number about one million. Among them are more than 60 percent of male homosexuals and 85 percent of type-A hemophiliacs. Of those infected, as many as one in 50 will develop the disease, while the rest remain infectious. Those are among the major findings publis
WASHINGTON - Eight out of 10 Americans now consider AIDS a threat to the general public, and it equals cancer in being named the greatest perceived health problem facing the nation, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll. At the same time, despite such strong concern, the national survey suggests there is no
In what may be the first court action of its kind nationally, a Broward County judge on Monday ordered that a man pleading no contest to an illegal sexual act be given a test for AIDS. Judge Brian Kay, after ordering the test, said he will require it for defendants appearing before him on charges involving illegal sexu
Starting last November, before a screening test was developed for AIDS, 30,000 blood donors in Broward and Dade counties gave about three tablespoons extra when they rolled up their sleeves to donate. The blood was frozen and stored. Now it s being thawed and tested for HTLV III, the AIDS virus, as part of a national s
The president of South Florida s major blood bank was in Key West Friday, hoping to still fears that may be keeping donors away: the AIDS connection. Although Dr. Peter Tomasulo, head of South Florida Blood Service, doesn t lay the blame for South Florida s dwindling blood supply solely on hysteria over AIDS -- Acquire
Blood recipients who fear they may have contracted AIDS through a transfusion are being encouraged to call their local health departments for screening tests. We re suggesting that if you re interested, you should take the test, said Dan Richmond, AIDS program manager for the Dade Health Department. The South Florida B
Three chemicals are mankind s most promising weapons against the ever-widening scourge called AIDS. The drugs, HPA-23, suramin and ribavirin, work as a kind of viral birth control, blocking the AIDS virus from multiplying and infecting other cells. Yet these and other anti-AIDS drugs can t kill the virus, or even repai
Paul Anderson and Mark Silva, Herald Capital Bureau
TALLAHASSEE - California has spent $22.8 million in state funds to fight the deadly disease AIDS. New York has spent $12.5 million. Florida, which has the third largest number of AIDS cases, has spent $576,000. Is Florida doing enough? No, say doctors and gay leaders across the state. Yes, for now, say state health off
WASHINGTON - The virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in the teardrops of a patient suffering from the disease, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The discovery is the first evidence that the virus is found in eye fluid, and it raises new questions about whether infection could be tran
Ellyn Ferguson and Randy Loftis, Herald Staff Writers
Caroline MacLeod and Mark Whiteside hardly look like scientific detectives as they wander the ghettos of Belle Glade. But MacLeod, 32, a frank woman with a direct gaze, and Whiteside, 35, a bespectacled, quiet man whose words flow in a calm, steady stream, are tracking a medical mystery of frightening proportions: why
Antibodies to a virus that is linked to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome have been found in the blood of 10 people tested by the Palm Beach County Health Department. The 10 are among 56 people for whom the Health Department recently received test results, said Charlene Williams, the department s epidemiology nurse.
Dr. Lionel Resnick s great fortune had always been good timing. And it was timing, not design, that propelled him into research on one of the most insidious diseases of the 80s -- AIDS. Resnick, 31, wasn t planning on studying the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome when he began a year of research at the Nation
Deathly ill cancer patients who seek $10,000 miracle cures at a controversial Bahamian clinic may return home infected with AIDS, medical researchers said Thursday. Tests have disclosed that two cancer patients treated at the Immunology Researching Centre in Freeport, Bahamas , were given serum infected with HTLV-III,
Four Palm Beach County Health Department clinics began confidential testing Monday for antibodies that may indicate exposure to the AIDS virus. About 50 people have made appointments for the test, officials said. We are not encouraging anyone to come in and take the test. We are merely providing a service to keep peopl
SAN FRANCISCO - AIDS spread nearly twice as fast among heterosexual women as it did among gays during a 4 1/2-month period earlier this year and could claim thousands of heterosexual victims nationwide within 10 years, medical authorities say. Although researchers had warned for months that Acquired Immune Deficiency S
The Palm Beach County Health Department will start blood tests July 15 to detect possible exposure to the virus linked to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Until now, the tests have been available only at blood banks, a precaution taken to screen possible AIDS virus carriers from donating blood. Many health
Few people are seeking a state test that may identify possible victims of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), state officials said Wednesday. But the state s offering the test may be helping to keep suspected AIDS victims from donating blood to get the test, South Florida blood bank officials said. Undetected c
Only a few people signed up with the Palm Beach County Health Department Monday to take blood tests to detect possible exposure to the virus linked to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. We haven t had an avalanche or a large response, said Charlene Williams, a Health Department infection control nurse. Monda
Hollywood has abandoned plans to use an inexpensive test with questionable reliability to test prospective employees for the deadly AIDS virus. That decision, made last week by City Manager Jim Chandler, was a wise one. But the idea behind the testing procedure -- to protect the city and its taxpayers from expensive me
To prevent the county s blood supply from being contaminated by a deadly AIDS virus, the Dade Public Health Department will offer free confidential screening tests starting Monday. Blood donation centers until now were the only places where people could take the AIDS antibody test. The alternative testing centers are d
Convinced that a test to detect exposure to the deadly AIDS virus is not accurate, Hollywood city officials Tuesday dropped the test from a series of health exams required of city job applicants. This test is too new and unreliable, City Manager Jim Chandler said. Leaders of the South Florida gay community applauded Ch
THE CITY of Hollywood is hunting witches with a blood test. The city now will give job applicants a blood test for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) although that test is inaccurate and there is no medical evidence that AIDS can be transmitted by at-work contacts. The Hollywood issue shows a clear need for fas
The nation s top AIDS researchers and public health experts Saturday denounced the city of Hollywood s plan to screen job applicants for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. At a major conference on the disease in Miami Saturday, doctors also said that several hundred thousand Americans may already be infected with AID
Several hundred thousand Americans may already be infected with AIDS -- Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome -- even if they have not yet been diagnosed, the nation s top AIDS doctor said at a major conference on the disease in Miami Saturday. Dr. Harold Jaffe, chief of the epidemiology section of the AIDS program at th
Doctors and gay rights groups nationwide say they are appalled by Hollywood s decision to test prospective employees for AIDS. The City Commission passed the measure Wednesday. City attorneys approved it Thursday. The matter landed on Assistant City Attorney Leslie Langbein s desk Wednesday after members of Miami s hom
In a move that angered gay rights groups and may violate a newly enacted state law, Hollywood city officials hired a firm Wednesday to screen all would-be city employees for AIDS. A bill signed May 30 by Gov. Bob Graham makes it illegal for employers to use the test as a criterion for hiring or firing. Unanimously and
Broward health officials began offering blood screenings for acquired immune deficiency syndrome Monday, warning that the tests are not for everyone in fear of contracting AIDS. We don t want to test just anybody off the street, Health Department Administrator Myra Lentz said. We re discouraging the general public from
Testing begins Monday in the first statewide, public program to identify possible victims of AIDS -- acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The $20 test for exposure to the HTLV-III virus, believed to cause AIDS, will be offered through 16 county health departments around Florida, including those in Broward, Dade and Pal
Testing begins Monday in the first statewide, public program to identify possible victims of AIDS -- acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Only Broward among the South Florida counties is prepared to start offering the test Monday. Dade and Palm Beach health officials are working to offer the test by July 1, officials s
An unprecedented, unexplained AIDS outbreak in Belle Glade, population 20,000, gives the western Palm Beach County community an AIDS rate more than five times that of New York City, health researchers said Thursday. Government and local scientists have calculated that Belle Glade has an AIDS rate of 1.85 cases per thou
ATLANTA - Scientists battling the deadly disease AIDS are on their way to some success, a researcher said Wednesday. But he cautioned that a cure is still a long way off. Scientists have found at least six drugs that inhibit the growth of the virus that causes it, Dr. Martin S. Hirsch, of Massachusetts General Hospital
State health officials have requested $2 million in government money to fight an AIDS epidemic that by the end of this year will claim 1,000 Floridians and ring up $40 million in hospital bills. The state and federal money would be used to track the epidemic, educate the public, and set up testing sites in 16 Florida c
Local gay-rights leaders are urging people who suspect they may have acquired immune deficiency disease to get a blood test called Immune Status Screen. That test, unlike the one used by blood banks to screen donors, only shows whether a person s immune system is in distress, said Fred Tondalo, who heads a Fort Lauderd
Gay rights and Haitian community leaders are urging people not to take a test being used to screen the nation s blood supply for AIDS contamination. While the test, called an HTLV-III screen, is effective in eliminating contaminated blood in a blood bank, local gay-rights leaders said Wednesday it is not reliable enoug
Broward County is facing an AIDS epidemic, the county health department director said Tuesday. Dr. Charles Konigsberg said he is rushing to start a clinic where potential victims can get blood-screening tests. Only 12 states have more AIDS cases than Broward County, Konigsberg said. That means we have more AIDS than th
The only people who can t give blood are: HEMOPHILIACS PREGNANT WOMEN PEOPLE younger than 17 years old or older that 85 years old PEOPLE who weigh less than 100 pounds INTRAVENOUS-drug abusers ANYONE ever diagnosed with hepatitis HAITIANS who entered the United States after 1977 PEOPLE with symptoms or signs of
Practicing safe sex and being in great shape are the best ways to reduce the risk of contracting AIDS, a group of about 40 Key Westers learned Monday night. Allan O Hara, coordinator of the AIDS Education Program at Florida Keys Memorial Hospital, told the mostly male group that kissing, hugging and intimate touching a
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.