Washington Blade - May 16, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) - An international fund that is a key to the Bush administration's $15 billion plan to fight global AIDS is threatened by a lack of money, according to a congressional report made public last week. The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, could bolster the argument of some that the administration needs to do more to support the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Earlier this month, the House passed a five-year, $15 billion package to fight AIDS globally. The Senate is expected to take up the measure soon. Up to $1 billion in fiscal year 2004 is earmarked for the Global Fund, which has been working since January 2002. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), the gay chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, said his panel enthusiastically supported the president's efforts to establish the Global Fund, but "we are aware of the vulnerability of any organization awarding large sums of money in countries that are poorly governed and often corrupt." The GAO warned that a lack of resources "threatens the Fund's ability to approve and finance additional grants." It said the Fund currently has less than $300 million to support the next round of grants later this year, well short of the Fund's projections that it will receive $1.6 billion in technically sound proposals.

West African form of HIV reached humans by 1940, report says

WASHINGTON (AP) - One form of the virus that causes AIDS made the jump from animals to people by 1940, a new analysis indicates. HIV-2 didn't become widespread until the 1960s, perhaps spread during a war in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau, where researchers say it originated. HIV-2, which is common in West Africa, is genetically different from HIV-1, the virus that has spread around the world, also causing AIDS. An international team of researchers studying the genetic code of two subtypes of HIV-2 reported that one type first entered the human population before 1940 and the other before 1945. Their findings are reported in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A previous analysis of the evolutionary tree of HIV-1 indicated it moved into humans around 1930.

Calif. officials want more resources to fight crystal meth use

SAN FRANCISCO - About 150 people attended a May 7 hearing about a growing crystal methamphetamine problem, which health experts say is fueling an increase in HIV infections among gay and bisexual men, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The hearing followed a Chronicle series documenting that 30 percent of those with new HIV infections at one high-risk clinic reported using crystal meth in the previous six months. The articles also showed how state health officials found that gay men who use the drug are twice as likely to be HIV-positive, and that men who use crystal are less likely to use condoms. At the forum, health officials said that already limited resources needed to be focused on counseling and prevention because mental health problems underlie much of the crystal use. "I fear our waiting lists (for treatment and counseling) are just going to get longer," Michael Siever, director of the Stonewall Project, a speed recovery program for gay men, told the newspaper. Crystal meth is a powdery substance that can be swallowed, injected, snorted or smoked. It is often referred to as "Crissy," "Tina," "tweak" and "crank."

Gays more likely to be left-handed, study says

FULLERTON, Calif. - Gay men are much more likely to be left-handed than heterosexual men, according to a new study by California State University, Fullerton. According to the report published last month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, a little more than 3 percent of heterosexual men are exclusively left-handed, compared with nearly 8 percent of gay men. Taking into account people who are ambidextrous, the study concluded that gay men had 82 percent greater odds of being non-right-handed than heterosexual men. Lesbians had a 22 percent greater chance of being non-right-handed than heterosexual women, the study said. The report was based on a survey of about 2,000 people in Southern California. About half of those polled were gay. The report noted that a larger study published three years ago found that gay men had a 34 percent greater chance of being non-right-handed and lesbians had a 91 percent greater chance of being non-right-handed as compared with their heterosexual counterparts. The study's author, Dr. Richard A. Lippa, discussed four complex theories to explain the differences that include a number of hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors present in the development of a fetus.

From staff and wire reports

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