Washington Blade - December 13, 2002

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Affordable medications to treat AIDS should be available to more people, especially minorities living in the inner cities, former basketball great Earvin "Magic" Johnson said Dec. 3, according to the Associated Press. "What we want to do now is prolong life," Johnson said. "There might never be a cure." Johnson, a former Los Angeles Lakers star who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last month, remains free of AIDS 11 years after he first tested positive for HIV. Johnson was in Des Moines to give the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture at Drake University. "I'm the face now of HIV and AIDS," said Johnson, who has turned his basketball fame with the Los Angeles Lakers into a successful business career. "I wear it as a badge. I'm happy to be that face, but there's a lot of pressure that goes along with it." Johnson stressed that HIV is on the rise among blacks and women and called for AIDS education in inner-city neighborhoods. "People think it can't happen to them," he said. "I'm living proof that it can happen."

U.K. ponders HIV tests for new docs, nurses

LONDON -- The British government is considering requiring HIV tests for all new doctors and nurses, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The move was prompted by the discovery of 10 HIV-positive nurses recruited from South Africa, which has one of the world's highest incidents of HIV. Britain's National Health Agency is heavily dependent on foreign recruits, but all newly registered medical staff would be tested -- including British-born staff -- to eliminate charges of discrimination. Health workers found to be HIV-positive would not necessarily be barred, but would be restricted to certain types of work, according to the newspaper. Britain is expected to hire thousands more doctors and nurses from overseas in future years to fill ambitious recruitment plans promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ky. court reinstates lawsuit by man whose doctor disclosed HIV status

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A lawsuit against a doctor who disclosed to an employer that a patient was HIV-positive was reinstated Dec. 6 by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the Associated Press reported. The panel said it was a mistake for a trial court to dismiss the case and that the doctor's consultation notes could have omitted the reference to HIV. The case pits Steven G. Barnett against Dr. Julio Melo, an infectious disease specialist. Barnett worked at a veterinarian's veterinary clinic and developed a severe infection from a cat bite. Barnett filed a claim for workers' compensation, and Melo sent his bill and notes to Barnett's employer. "Barnett, who had kept his HIV status strictly confidential, found the atmosphere at work to be extremely tense" after that, the ruling said. Melo said the workers' compensation law required him to attach his treatment notes to his bill, but Barnett pressed his case under a different statute on HIV confidentiality that allows the disclosure to be kept from employers. The more specific HIV-test statute takes precedence over the broader workers' compensation law, the ruling said.

Canadian Supreme Court upholds Glaxo Wellcome patent on AZT

OTTAWA, Canada -- Canada's Supreme Court upheld the Canadian patent held by Glaxo Wellcome Inc. on AZT, one of the most important drugs for combatting the effects of AIDS, reported the Associated Press. Two generic Toronto drug manufacturers challenged the patent by claiming the right to market cheaper generic copies of AZT. The unanimous ruling issued Dec. 5 noted that Glaxo's pricing policies for AZT have "generated serious controversies in some countries, particularly in the developing world," but that such issues are irrelevant to the patent question, which shows a legitimate scientific claim deserving legal protection. A similar challenge is currently in the U.S. court system.

Gays as likely as heterosexuals to say they are happy, study shows

NEW YORK -- A comparison between a 1993 study that showed more gays are unhappy than heterosexuals and a 2002 study released last week shows that gays are now just as likely as heterosexuals to say they are happy, Reuters Health reported. Susan D. Chochran and her colleagues from the University of California Los Angeles said the difference was significant. "But why, we don't know," she said. "Anti-gay stigma and discrimination is a fact of life, but somehow these folks manage to achieve equivalent levels of happiness as other people." Findings were based on responses to the question: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days?" Around 2,000 participants were involved in the survey, a small percentage of whom were gay. During the early 1990s, the authors discovered that only 79 percent of gays said they were happy, compared with 92 percent of straights. Responses in the new study show around 90 percent of each group said they were happy. Cochran noted that in the early 1990s, gays were hit particularly hard by AIDS and that improvements in how heterosexuals view gays may also play a role. "Perhaps it's a better environment in which to be gay than it used to be," Cochran noted.

From staff and wire reports

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