Washington Blade - Friday, October 24, 2003

CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Department of Health has begun offering free inoculations against bacterial meningitis to gay and bisexual men on the city's North Side. The free vaccinations began Sunday in response to a recent cluster of meningitis cases, which have caused three deaths since Oct. 15. Dr. John Wilhelm, the city's health commissioner, said laboratory test results received earlier Sunday confirmed that four of the six cases reported so far were from a bacterial strain for which there is an effective vaccine. Bacterial meningitis is a serious infection that can be rapidly fatal if not treated with antibiotics. The city has not offered mass immunization against the disease since an outbreak in the early 1980s. Fifteen to 40 cases of meningitis are normally reported every year in the city, health officials said. But the six recent cases appear to be related, said health department spokesperson Tim Hadac. Wilhelm said the disease is not tied to sexual orientation, but the recent cluster of cases appears to be centered among gay or bisexual men who have had close personal contact since Oct. 1.

Sexual identity æhard-wired' into genes: study

LOS ANGELES - Scientists at the University of California reported last week its findings that sexual identity is "hard-wired" into the genes, according to Reuters. "Sexual identity is rooted in every person's biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome," Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, told the media. The UCLA team of researchers has identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently, according to media reports. The scientists used two separate genetic testing methods to compare the production of genes in embryonic mice, long before the animals developed sex organs. "We discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function," Vilain told the media. But Vilian said finding a gene that results in homosexuality will require substantially more research. The first focus of the research will be on determining the origin of transgenderism, which may help doctors determine gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia, he added.

Utah gay men's health summit looks beyond HIV/AIDS

SALT LAKE CITY - A three-day summit on gay men's health issues addressed not only the increasing number of HIV-infected gay men nationwide, but also other health concerns faced by gay men, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Offering education and support, gay activists, the Utah AIDS Foundation and Planned Parenthood coordinated the summit. "The goal of the weekend is to expand the notion of gay men's health beyond HIV," one of the coordinators, David Ferguson, told the Tribune. "For about 20 years, gay men's health has been equated with a person's HIV status. We're not minimizing HIV, but gay men deal with lots of issues: relationships, spirituality and substance abuse." About 160 people attended the event, up from about 100 in the past two years, the Tribune reported.

St. Louis official urges blacks to follow lead of white gays in fighting HIV

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Black people in St. Louis should follow the lead of white gay activists in mobilizing in the fight against AIDS, a city Health Department official said. "We aren't owning it," Bill Dotson, who is black, told a mostly black audience of ministers, lawmakers and health advocates. "But they don't hide it. They're actively mobilizing, advocating for dollars." Dotson, bureau chief of the city Health Department's Family & Community Health Bureau, spoke at a conference on the public health crisis of HIV/AIDS among blacks in St. Louis city and county. The city reports that blacks make up half the city's population and account for more than 75 percent of all new HIV cases reported. Dotson said the city had set a goal of reducing AIDS morbidity 20 percent by 2005.

Supreme Court rejects Bush appeal over medical marijuana

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court last week rejected an appeal that jeopardized state medical marijuana laws that allow ill patients to smoke pot if they have a doctor's recommendation. Justices turned down the Bush administration's request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors for recommending or perhaps even talking about the benefits of the drug to sick patients. Nine states have laws legalizing marijuana for patients with physician recommendations or prescriptions: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, and 35 states have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value. But federal law bans the use of the drug under any circumstances. Keith Vines, a prosecutor in San Francisco who used marijuana to overcome HIV-related illnesses, was among those who challenged a policy that requires the revocation of federal prescription licenses of doctors who recommend marijuana.

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