Washingtion Blade - December 7, 2001

CHICAGO (AP) -- Symptom-free HIV patients can safely hold off taking AIDS drugs longer than previously thought, two new studies suggest. When antiretroviral drugs first became available in the mid-1990s, their dramatic effects prompted many doctors to recommend immediate treatment for all HIV patients to keep the virus in check. However, the drugs are costly, must be switched often to remain effective and can cause serious side effects, so doctors have sought to delay treatment whenever possible. The new studies, which were published in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that for many patients, delaying treatment does no harm. In one study, researcher Andrew Phillips of Royal Free and University Medical College Medical School in London and colleagues analyzed data from 3,226 patients treated in European HIV clinics from 1996 to 2000. The second study, led by researchers Robert Hogg and Dr. Julio Montaner at the University of British Columbia, involved 1,219 HIV patients who started triple-drug treatment between 1996 and 1999. Dr. Roger Pomerantz, chief of infectious diseases at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said the studies would probably change treatment for HIV-infected patients in developed countries.

WHO: Condom shortage fuels epidemic's spread

GENEVA, Switzerland -- Despite the lack of money and access to drugs, the World Health Organization has said the world is now ready to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic, just as experts warn that a severe shortage of condoms worldwide is fuelling a rapid increase in infection, the British Broadcast Company reported.

"The world is now ready to turn back the epidemic," Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO head, said in a statement to mark World AIDS Day, Dec. 1. The statement came as the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS said that in order to reduce HIV transmission rates sufficiently, up to 24 billion condoms should be made a year -- three times the current estimated number produced, according to the BBC. UNAIDS studies across several countries have shown that despite the fact that many governments and social marketing agencies buy condoms in bulk and hand them out for free, young people do not know that HIV infection can be prevented through having unprotected sex. The organization said that if more people wanted condoms, manufacturers could easily increase their output. UNAIDS said that only when demand doubles or triples from the current eight million condoms manufactured each year will this start to have a significant effect on HIV transmission rates.

CDC: A third of at-risk people untested for HIV

ATLANTA (AP) -- Nearly 30 percent of people deemed at risk for HIV have never been tested, the government said as a warning that population could be unknowingly spreading the virus that causes AIDS. The study announced Thursday, Nov. 29, by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention involved more than 30,000 people in the United States. Some 73 percent of those considered at risk for HIV said they had been tested, but only 30 percent said they had been tested in the previous year. The results underscore a problem that has concerned health officials for years: A substantial segment of people with the virus don't realize they have it and are probably spreading it. The study cited lack of access to testing centers and a perceived lack of confidentiality as reasons some people don't get tested. The 1999 study was released in advance of World AIDS Day.

Gay teens less suicidal than thought

ITHCA, N.Y. -- Gay teenagers are only slightly more likely than their straight counterparts to attempt suicide, contrary to past studies that suggest gay youth have about triple the rate of trying suicide, according to a Cornell University psychologist in a controversial report due this month, USA Today reported. Studies finding that about 30 percent of gay adolescents have attempted suicide exaggerated the rates because they surveyed the most disturbed teens and didn't separate thoughts from action, according to the psychologist, Ritch Savin-Williams. Savin-Williams' two studies, to be published in the Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, focus on 349 students aged 17-25. Some of the key findings show that more than half of reported suicide attempts turned out to be "thinking about it" rather than trying anything and that 266 college gay men and lesbians were not significantly more likely than their straight classmates to have tried to take their own lives. "They're trying to communicate that they do have difficult lives," Savin-Williams told USA Today. "But most gay kids are healthy and resilient. Poorly designed studies that exaggerate their suicide risk "pathologize gay youth, and that's not fair to them," he said.

Gay musician Elton John co-sponsoring AIDS ads

LOS ANGELES -- Cable TV networks MTV and VH1 and the Elton John AIDS Foundation began a new public service announcement campaign Dec. 1, with 30-second ads aimed at bringing attention to the fact that rates of HIV infection in the United States continue to rise -- despite years of public health messages emphasizing the need to practice safer sex, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. "The ad campaign is important for two reasons," Tom Coates, director of the University of California at San Francisco AIDS Research Institute, told the Chronicle. "Number one, because it's being unveiled by Elton John and his foundation. It's important that celebrity leaders maintain their commitment to fighting against HIV/AIDS. Number two, because it focuses on gay men, a group in which we're seeing a rise in new infections and who also represent a substantial part of existing infections." The ads were unveiled in L.A. Dec. 1. The networks donated the airtime for the ads.

-- Staff and wire reports

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