Washington Blade - September 19, 2003

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A hardware salesman is suing a medical laboratory that mistakenly told him he was HIV-positive. Brett Bareford, 45, of Granite City was wrongly informed he was HIV-positive after he submitted blood samples for testing during a physical examination on June 25, 2002, said Rhonda Jenkins, Bareford's attorney. "Of course, he was just a mess," Jenkins said. "He kept thinking there must be a mistake, but he was assured that these tests are accurate." The lawsuit filed in Madison County names Tri-Lab LLC as a defendant. It seeks damages in excess of $50,000 for extreme emotional distress, anxiety, mental anguish, embarrassment and lost wages. A Tri-Lab employee would not comment on the lawsuit. Jenkins said Bareford scheduled the examination because he was getting married.

VaxGen stock up on study linking smallpox vaccine, HIV prevention

NEW YORK (AP) - VaxGen Inc. stock gained value after a university study suggested that a smallpox vaccination may help prevent HIV infection. Researchers at George Mason University's National Center for Biodefense said the preliminary findings were based on laboratory studies conducted on the blood cells of individuals recently vaccinated with Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth Inc.'s smallpox virus. VaxGen spokesperson Lance Ignon declined to speculate on the reason for the stock's move but added that he "wouldn't necessarily link" it to the possible HIV-smallpox connection. VaxGen's smallpox vaccine is based on a different strain than Wyeth's and Acambis' vaccines, Ignon noted. The company would have to see stronger evidence of a benefit before it investigates the link between smallpox and HIV, he said.

Shorter turn-around time mandated on HIV testing for N.Y. newborns

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The state health department will soon cut the time limit within which newborns must be tested for the AIDS virus by three quarters to give drug therapies a better chance of preventing transmission of the disease from mother to baby. Under a new requirement on birth centers to take effect Nov. 1, the department is mandating that the results of blood tests on newborns be returned within 12 hours. The current time limit, under a 1999 mandate from the state, is 48 hours - too late, health department officials said, to give drug therapy against mother-child transmission of HIV the best chances of working. Those drugs should be administered within 12 hours of when a woman presents herself for delivery or, if she refuses to consent to the test, within 12 hours of the birth of her child, according to health officials.

Court reinstates gay doctor's case against U.S. Air Force

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled that a gay doctor discharged from the U.S. Air Force may not have to pay $71,500 to the government for his medical education. John Hensala, 38, obtained free medical school funding from the U.S. Air Force in exchange for a promise to serve four years as a military doctor. But when he was ordered to report for duty, he notified the service that he was gay and told authorities he would be living with his boyfriend at Scott Air Force Base in Kansas, where he was to report in 1995. The military discharged him under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy barring service by gays, and demanded he return the $71,500 the government spent on his education. Hensala sued, saying he shouldn't have to pay. Judge Sidney Thomas and Judge Richard Paez of the Ninth Circuit said it may be discriminatory to require gays to pay back the government for their education if they were forced from the service against their will. The majority ordered the case returned to U.S. District Judge William Alsup, possibly for a trial. In 2001, Alsup dismissed Hensala's suit against the Air Force before trial. Alsup said Hensala should be required to pay back the government because he voluntarily came out as gay and should have known the consequences of violating the military's policy.

Drug-resistant staph on the rise among sports teams, gays, others

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Seven USC football players became infected with a painful staph skin infection before their first game of the season last month and four had to be hospitalized, health and school officials reported. Drug-resistant staph infections are not only a growing problem for sports teams but also in jails, among gays and among children. The outbreak, which is believed to be over now, demonstrated what a serious problem drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has become in competitive sports, officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Health said. "Any situation where you may have significant skin abrasions and where you have potential breaks in normal hygiene practice - sharing equipment, sharing towels - it is possible to spread infection," said Dr. Fred Fielding, Los Angeles County's public health director. The cases identified at USC, known as methicillin-resistant staph, don't respond to the most frequently used antibiotics, such as penicillin and erythromycin. Instead, such drugs as Bactrim, rifampin, clindamycin, the expensive antibiotic Zyvox, and intravenous vancomycin must be used.

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