Newspaper Page Text
THE NEWS, page 7
News Notes
U. S. House
committees defeat
anti-gay amend
ments to AIDS,
civil rights bills
Despite efforts by noted homopho
bic Congressmen William Dannmeyer
(R-CA) and Edward Madigan (R-IL),
three key bills made it through mark
up committees late in June without
hostile amendments.
Introduced by Rep. Barney Frank
(D-MA), the Immigration Exclusion
and Deportation Amendments Act
(H.R. 4427, formerly H.R. 1119)would
repeal a provision the Reagan admini
stration uses to prevent gays and lesbi
ans from other countries from visiting
the United States or immigrating to this
country. The law currently bars "sex
ual deviants," which the current ad
ministration reads to mean gays and
lesbians. A Dannmeyer amendment
would have restored the phrase.
According to lobbyists for the
Human Rights Campaign Fund
(HRCF), when the House Judiciary
Committee voted 21 to 14 to report the
bill to the House floor without the anti
gay language, it represented the first
repeal of homophobic legislation in the
history of the U. S. Congress.
The AIDS Counseling and Testing
Act (H.R. 4757, formerly H.R. 3071),
which authorizes $400 million for each
of the next three years to provide for
confidential and voluntary counseling
and testing, was sponsored by Rep.
Henry Waxman (D-CA).
The bill first came under attack by
Dannmeyer in May when he intro
duced an amendment to withhold fed
eral funds from any counseling that
"promotes homosexual activity." Af
ter that amendment was defeated,
Dannmeyer cam up with some addi
tional stumbling blocks in June during
consideration by the Energy and Com
merce Committee, when seven more
the California homophobe's hostile
amendments had to be disposed of.
Some of the amendments would
have required mandatory name re
porting, required tests in hospitals,
prisons, and for marriage license appli
cants. Others would have required no
tification of spouses when a person has
a positive HIV antibody test, would
have allowed consent for testing to be
verbal rather than written (which
would allow testing personnel to sub
ject people to involuntary tests and
then claim they consented), and would
have encouraged breaches of confiden
tiality by cutting the penalties in half.
All the amendments were defeated
and the committee reported the bill
favorably on a unanimous voice vote.
The AIDS Research Act (H.R. 4850,
formerly H.R. 3825) is similar to the
research portion of the Senate's AIDS
Research, Education and Care Act (S.
1220), designed to reduce bureaucratic
delays and to authorize spending for
AIDS research, education, and care.
Introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman
(D-CA), the bill passed the Energy and
Commerce Committee by a unani
mous voice vote after the committee
got rid of some amendments by Rep.
Edward Madigan (R-IL). Madigan
wanted to gut the bill of a provision
authorizing additional federally-
funded AIDS research personnel.
Gay rights lobbyists were delighted
with the progress of the bills, having
lobbied extensively to get the commit
tees to report them favorably.
"This is a three-way win for the gay
and AIDS community," said Robert
Bray, Human Rights Campaign Fund
communications director, "and its
three strikes against Dannmeyer and
others who continue to stand in the
way of saving lives and civil rights for
gays and lesbians."
More volunteers sought
for AIDS vaccine study
Additional volunteers are being sought
for the AIDS vaccine study that is
underway at the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in
Bethesda, Maryland. The study is
designed to determine the best dosing
regimen and the nature of the antibody
and cell - mediated immune responses to
this vaccine. At the recent Fourth
International Conference on AIDS in
Stockholm, NIAID scientists reported
promising new results from this study —
the first experimental AIDS vaccine to be
tested in humans in the United States.
Dr. H. Clifford Lane, Deputy Clinical
Director, NIAID, said that 20 volunteers
had developed an immune response to the
vaccine. He presented data on 60
volunteers who have already been
inoculated using escalating doses of a
recombinant AIDS vaccine manufactured
by MicroGeneSys, Inc., a
biopharmaceutical firm in West Haven,
Connecticut. The vaccine consists of
purified envelope protein (gpl60) derived
from the genetic material of the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause
of AIDS. Participants in the study are
healthy homosexual and bisexual men
who are at low risk of HIV infection.
The first group of volunteers received
10 micrograms of gpl60 and the dose was
doubled for each successive group. Two -
thirds of each group received a booster
dose (either 50 percent or 100 percent of
the primary dose) one month later.
The Western blot test is being used to
examine blood specimens, taken weekly,
for antibody responses to the various
doses of the vaccine. This test can detect
the specific HIV proteins against which an
individual’s immune system has produced
antibodies.
Of the 16 vlounteers who were
immunized with 40 micrograms of the
vaccine, 10 showed an antibody response.
Four of the 5 persons who received
primary immunizations and no boosters
developed antibodies within 8 weeks. Six
out of the 10 persons who received a
primary dose and a booster at one month
also showed antibodies by 8 weeks. Of the
15 volunteers who received 80
micrograms of the vaccine, 10 have
developed antibodies so far. The
investigators stated that immunization
with gpl60 appears safe during short -
term followup with initial doses up to 80
micrograms.
Local reactions (tenderness, redness,
and swelling), flu - like symptoms, and
fever of up to 24 hours duration, common
in the administration of any vaccine,
occurred in some volunteers. No serious
toxicities attributable to the vaccine have
been seen, researchers say.
Volunteers must be healthy
homosexual or bisexual men who are at
low risk of HIV infection, and are able to
come to NIAID once per week for the first
month after vaccination, and
subsequently once per month for the next
year. Travel expenses for volunteers who
are not local will be paid by NIH. To
obtain more information or to volunteer,
call 1 - 800 - 634 - 3027 or 1 - 301 - 496 -
7196.
AIDS in Norway in 1966
The myth that Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
originated in gay men in the United States
received another blow. According to a
report in the June 11, 1988 issue of the
Lancet, three members of a Norwegian
family were stricken with AIDS and AIDS
related conditions (ARC) starting in 1966.
The first person in the family to become
ill was the father, a sailor who frequented
African ports. In 1966, at age 20, .the
father developed what is now recognized
as ARC, i.e., persistent generalized,
lymphadenopathy (swollen glands), flu -
like symptoms, and a connective tissue
disorder. He remained more or less stable
until 1975. During that year he developed
respiratory disease of unknown origin and
AIDS related dementia. He died the
following year.
In 1967, the mother who was 23
developed ARC including chronic thrush,
frequent respiratory illness, and chronic
fevers. In 1973, she developed a wasting
syndrome and encephalitis. She was
treated for what was thought to be a type
of leukemia and showed brief
improvement. However, she developed
progressive central nervous system
disorders ending in AIDS related
dementia. She died in 1976.
The daughter showed normal
development until age two. Early in 1969,
she became recurrently ill with a host of
infections including a fungus infection of
the lungs. She died in 1976. She is the
first confirmed pediatric case of AIDS in
the world. The two older children
remained well.
A similar early case was reported in a
Black teenager in the United States from
1969. The teenager developed a host of
illnesses including Kaposi’s sarcoma and
subsequently died. Because he had some
rectal disorders associated with anal
intercourse, the teenage was thought to
be a hustler by his physicians. His family
adamantly denied he was gay or a hustler.
He is the second confirmed pediatric case
•of AIDS in the world.
There have been a number of reports of
cases of AIDS - like illnesses in both
Europe and the United States that pre -
date the first cases described in 1981 by
Dr. Goldstein of Los Angeles. Some cases
date as far back as the tum of the century.
Today, the Centers for Disease Control
only officially recognizes cases of AIDS in
the U.S. as far back as 1979 (based on
clinical symptoms and risk group). The
posthumous diagnosis of AIDS for very
early cases is only accepted when there is
, indisputable evidence of a Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection.
Such evidence is available in a few early
cases because frozen blood or tissue
samples were kept for future forensic
study as a result of the unusual nature of
the illness and death. HIV antibody test
can now be done on these samples to
prove the clinical symptoms were the
result of AIDS. However, in many other
suspected early cases, AIDS could not be
confirmed by HIV antibody testing
because no frozen blood or tissue samples
were available.
A common theme among many of the
early AIDS - like cases reported in Europe
was travel or residence in Africa, or sexual
contact with a person who had been in
Africa. Some frozen blood samples from
Africa collected in the late 1950’s react
positively for HIV antibodies. However,
the place of origin of AIDS is still not
certain.
Californians to battle
Dannemeyer intitiative
A broad coalition of California AIDS
activists has formed a campaign to defeat a
November ballot ipjtiative on AIDS
described as "the greatest political and
public health threat to people with HIV
infection that California has ever seen."
Proposition 102, sponsored by ultra -
conservative Orange County
Congressman William Dannemeyer,
would eliminate anonymous testing,
allow forced testing by employers and
insurers, and mandate reporting and
•contact tracing of persons known or
"believed" to be infected with HIV.
Representatives of over 60 local and
national AIDS service organizations,
political action committees and grass
roots organizations met in Congressman
Dannemeyer’s Orange County backyard
on July 15 to announce the formation of
Californians Against 102. A steering
committee was appointed to raise money,
to gather endorsements, to hire a media
coordinator and to hire a statewide
campaign coordinator to work closely
with local and regional campaigns.
Participants agreed that salaries would be
kept to a minimum and that strategy
decisions and organizing would take place
on the local level.
According to steering committee
member Tom Nolan, member of the Board
of Supervisors of San Mateo County, the
initiative is dangerous for three reasons.
"Proposition 102 would destroy public
health measures to prevent the the spread
of AIDS while running roughshod over the
civil liberties of all Californians," he said.
"What is more, the initiative, if passed,
would cost California’s already strapped
counties hundreds of millions of dollars to
implement each year."
In addition to the efforts ofCalifomians
Against 102, a lawsuit has also been filed
by the California Medical Association and
the California Nurses Association to
remove the initiative from the ballot. The
suit contends that the initiative as written
violates provisions which limit such
measures to a single action. A hearing is
scheduled for Monday, August 1 before
Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco
^Superior Court.