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SOUTHERN VOICE NOVEMBER3/1994
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Supplemental Health
Insurance
Whether you are in preferred
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M. Bryan Freeman
pi BENEFITS
^AMERICA
3109 Maple Drive, Suite 404
Atlanta, GA 30305
404/233-5411 • 800/777-8878
Come see the
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We are people
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* Washer/Dryer
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* Newly renovated
* Large pool with
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* Walk to Ansley Mall
* Three laundry
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* l and 2 bedroom
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2 and 3 bedroom
townhome
floorplans available
404/875-4702
1616 Piedmont Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
arrciruimi*
Wolff Tanning Center
320-3077
2201 Faulkner Road
Fitness Center
321-6507
MIDCITY
FITNESS
CTR.
We have access to the primary funding source of life insurance poli
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are proud to be able to assist people living with life threatening ill
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VIATICAL ASSISTANCE CORPORATION
1-800-892-1282 or
NAPWA 1-800-892-1280 NVA
HHS issues mammogram guide
Washington, DC—New government guide
lines suggest women make sure the labs where
they get mammograms are certified by the
Food and Drug Administration and provide
results in no more than 10 days.
“This empowers women,” Health and Hu
man Services Secretary Donna Shalala said
October 19. “This guide will literally save
lives.”
Mammograms are the best way to find
breast cancer early enough to cure it. They can
detect tumors two years before they’re big
enough to feel but can miss 10 percent of
breast cancers because of what critics main
tain is inadequate supervision of the exams’
quality.
The FDA began certifying the nation’s
11,000 mammography centers five weeks ago
to ensure they use properly trained workers
and modem equipment.
The HHS guidelines issued Oct. 19 are
intended to build on the certification program
by telling clinics, doctors and women every
step needed for the best possible mammogram.
The doctor and clinic guides include tech
nical advice on how to perform the exam with
specific equipment and on women with such
complications as breast implants.
For individual women, they advise:
• Use only FDA-certified centers. If the
center can’t produce its certification, leave.
• Schedule an appointment at a time of the
menstrual cycle when breasts aren’t tender, so
the technician can apply proper pressure.
• Don’t use deodorant, lotions or powders
because they can block the picture.
• Provide your address and phone number
as well as your doctor’s so both can be told the
results. Find out whom to call if you don’t
receive results.
• Never assume the mammogram is nor
mal just because you don’t receive the results.
After 10 days, call the center or your doctor
and demand the information.
Although those guidelines are voluntary
right now, FDA Commissioner David Kessler
said most will be added to certification re
quirements by March.
But the guidelines don’t clear up the age
controversy. While it is clear that women 50
and older need a mammogram yearly, the Na
tional Cancer Institute ignited a firestorm last
year by saying women 40 to 49 don’t need
routine mammograms unless they’re at high
risk for breast cancer, a recommendation with
which many doctors disagree. So HHS merely
advised these women to follow their doctor’s
advice.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
For a copy of the guide, write: AHCPR
Publications Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547,
Silver Spring, MD 20907, or call 1-800-358
9295 weekdays.
Sex survey finds students at risk
Charlottesville, VA—A survey showing that
just 40 percent of sexually active University
of Virginia undergraduates always use con
doms proves many students don’t take AIDS
seriously, an official said.
Of the 1,225 students surveyed, 65 percent
said they were sexually active last year and 40
percent of those reported between two and
five sexual partners.
In addition to the 40 percent who said they
always use condoms, 23 percent reported that
they usually used them and 36 percent said
they never, seldom or only sometimes used
them.
“Students think they’re not at risk” of con
tracting HIV, said Elizabeth McGarvey, asso
ciate director of research and evaluation at
U.Va.’s Institute for Substance Abuse Studies.
“They think only others are at risk. But it’s
just denial.”
The survey, mailed out by the institute,
questioned the randomly selected students
about the HIV risk for people who engaged in
unprotected sexual intercourse. Respondents
were allowed to remain anonymous.
Most of the students responded that they
believed other people were at great or moder
ate risk, but half said they were not personally
at risk.
McGarvey said many of those students
were taking false comfort in sexual relation
ships they saw as monogamous.
“They think monogamy is being faithful to
the person they’re currently sleeping with,”
McGarvey said. “But if they’ve had two or
three sexual partners over two years, that is as
risky as having the partners concurrently.”
Dr. James Turner, director of student health,
said he knows of two HIV-positive students at
U.Va. Neither has developed AIDS.
Based on national averages, there are about
two HIV-positive cases per 1,000 people,
Turner said. That would mean there are about
30 to 40 HIV-positive students at the univer
sity.
Turner said 600-700 students take HIV tests
every year. The university has had no positive
tests for the past three or four years, he said.
However, he said he believed students at a
high risk for HIV may be tested anonymously
elsewhere.
The survey found about 36 percent of the
students had no sexual partners, about 37 per
cent had one, about 13 percent had two, about
13 percent had three to five partners and about
2 percent had six or more.
Of the sexually active students, 90.4 per
cent reported partners of the opposite sex, fol
lowed by 8.2 percent who reported having
same-sex partners and 1.4 percent who re
ported either-sex partners.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New HIV test seen as promising
Washington, DC—A sensitive, rapid test
that can monitor the amount of HIV in a
patient’s bloodstream may help clinicians de
cide when to administer antiviral therapy, ac
cording to researchers at the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
and Georgetown University.
A report describing use of the assay to
monitor the virologic status of 102 HIV-in
fected patients appears in this month’s Journal
of Infectious Diseases.
“The ability to measure levels of HIV in
the blood is critical, because changes in the
amount of circulating virus may predict a
patient’s clinical course,” said H. Clifford Lane,
MD, NIAID clinical director and a senior au
thor of the study.
The test, called the branched DNA assay
for HIV-1 infection, also may help investiga
tors determine whether an experimental therapy
is effective, thus circumventing the long de
lays associated with clinical trials. Currently,
it is available only for research use.