Washington Blade - November 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES - A new study found that almost a fourth of HIV-positive patients surveyed had unprotected sex over a three-month period, HealthDay News reported. Other studies also have shown that many gay men with the virus continue to have unsafe sex, and such behavior has increased in the last several years as HIV patients live longer and healthier lives due to new drug treatments, HealthDay reported. "You kind of see a creep taking place," Lee Klosinski, director of programs at AIDS Project Los Angeles, told HealthDay. The continued spread of HIV by those who are infected "is a really difficult thing for the gay community in general and the HIV community to talk about," Klosinski added, according to HealthDay. The new study, led by researchers at Yale University, surveyed 333 people who are HIV-positive from 2000 to 2002, the news outlet reported. Of those surveyed, 23 percent, or 75 people, admitted having unprotected sex sometime in the previous three months, HealthDay reported.

After delay, OraSure to launch saliva-based HIV test this month

CHICAGO (Dow Jones/AP) - Saying its saliva-based test for HIV works properly, OraSure Technologies Inc. said the test will start shipping early in November. The launch was delayed after a clinical trial of the OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test indicated a higher rate of unconfirmed positive results than the company had observed in its own clinical data. The Bethlehem, Pa., company conducted another study that mirrored the use of the test in the field, reviewing over 12,000 test readings. The results from that study, in addition to data analyzed from several independent studies, "clearly indicate that the test is operating within its specifications," the company said. OraQuick Advance is the only FDA-approved rapid HIV test available that can use saliva, the company said.

Texas textbooks to define marriage as between man, woman

HOUSTON - Before approving new health textbooks, the Texas Board of Education told publishers to change the wording to depict marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The decision involves two of the biggest textbook publishers. Conservative State Board of Education member Terri Leo, from Spring, Texas, said the proposed new books were not in agreement with the Texas Defense of Marriage Act because the texts used terms like "married partners" instead of "husband and wife." The board vote was 10-4 in favor of the changes. Publisher, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, agreed to include a definition of marriage as a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife." The other publisher, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, agreed to use "when a man and a woman marry" instead of "when two people marry" and to use "husbands and wives" rather than "partners." Democratic board member Mary Helen Berlanga argued that the board was being asked to follow a political agenda. Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian & Gay Rights Lobby of Texas agreed. "Many people think [Leo] overstepped the mandate that the Texas Legislature gave to the school board," he said. "They're supposed to review the books for errors, not make changes based on ideology."

Chicago researchers studying effects of drinking on lesbian health

CHICAGO - Health officials are examining the effects of alcohol consumption on the health of lesbians in a new survey, the Windy City Media Group reported. The Chicago Health & Life Experiences of Women study involves collection of information about lesbians' drinking habits and other health issues specific to gay women, the media group reported. Researchers currently are in the second round of interviews with 448 women who took part in the study in 2000-2001, the news outlet reported. Topics of interest include how lesbians' drinking patterns change over time and what influences those changes, according to the media group. National studies show that the effects of alcohol consumption are more serious for women than men because women's bodies metabolize alcohol differently, researchers told the media group. Lesbians and bisexual women are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to drink, research in Chicago and across the nation has found, and the current Chicago study will examine the topic more closely, the media group reported.

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