Washington Blade - September 12, 2003

A new study suggests that a quick, readily available test for the AIDS virus may not only be faster but also cheaper than standard tests, Health Behavior News Service reported. The one-step test offers results in 30 minutes, while traditional tests may take weeks to deliver results. Donatus U. Ekwueme, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta analyzed costs of three HIV tests, comparing the standard counseling and testing method to two-step and one-step rapid-test techniques. Previous research established that the rapid tests give results as accurate as the standard test, the news service reported. The cost of lab materials and staff time per HIV-positive person notified was nearly $82 for the standard test, about $86 for the two-step rapid method, but only $34 for the one-step method.

ACLU backs medical marijuana use among HIV/AIDS patients

NEW HAVEN - The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a federal appeals court ruling that allows doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases. The group noted in a press release that is has filed a legal brief with the court. "This is yet another example of the federal government trying to deny us access to accurate information about HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention," said James Esseks, litigation director of the ACLU's AIDS Project. "The government has no business interfering in the doctor/patient relationship of people suffering from AIDS and other life threatening illness." The ACLU represents 15 doctors and patients in California who have suffered as a result of the federal government's threats to doctors regarding the discussion of marijuana as medicine, the group contends.

Hopkins doctors used mislabeled drugs in ecstasy tests

BALTIMORE - A Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center study that links even a single use of the drug ecstasy to serious, long-term brain damage has been retracted by the researchers who published the paper. Johns Hopkins researchers retracted the highly publicized paper after discovering that they had actually administered a different drug to most of the animals in their study, the Baltimore Sun reported. In a retraction in the prestigious journal Science, which published the original results a year ago, the team led by Hopkins neurologist George A. Ricaurte said mislabeled vials led to the invalidation of the study. Ricaurte said a vial labeled as MDMA, the active chemical in ecstasy, actually contained methamphetamine, a similar but chemically distinct drug known as "speed." The supplier of the chemicals apparently mislabeled them, according to researchers. In their retraction, the scientists said the error does not invalidate past studies concluding that ecstasy can have serious effects on brain function in rats. But the mistake does mean that it remains to be established whether ecstasy has similar effects on primates, scientists said. Claims that ecstasy can harm the brain were used to help gain passage of the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act in Congress, which was renamed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, and calls for penalties against venue owners and promoters of events where patrons are found taking ecstasy.

Cleveland approves downtown gay retirement community

CLEVELAND - A gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender retirement community project has preliminary city approval to go forward, the Gay People's Chronicle reported. The community is planned on a downtown Cleveland site currently owned by the city. The Cleveland Department of Community Development gave a nod to the joint proposal of A Place For Us Development, Inc. and Richard L. Bowen & Associates at a site across the street from the Chesterfield apartment building and Embassy Suites hotel, the Chronicle reported. A Place For Us and Bowen propose a $24.4 million, 10- to 19-story, 172-unit building on what is now a parking lot. The development would be one of only 11 such retirement communities in the nation, the Chronicle reported. A Place for Us developers said they want to offer multiple levels of care for gay seniors, including both independent and assisted living facilities. Gay seniors number 1 to 2.8 million, according to a 2000 National Gay & Lesbian Task Force report

Transgendered Canadians sue government for surgery costs

TORONTO - Four transgendered women are battling the Ontario government to have the cost of sex reassignment surgery covered by the province's health insurance plan, according to media reports. The Ontario Human Rights Commission will hear the case later this month. Ontario stopped funding the surgery on Oct. 1, 1998, leaving many transitioning patients in limbo. One of the male-to-female trans patients, Martine Stonehouse, said, "To leave any patient halfway through a recognized medically necessary procedure is medically and morally unethical no matter what the condition is." The hearing debate will likely focus on whether or not sex-reassignment surgery is deemed a "medically necessary" procedure, which makes a procedure fundable under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

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