Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

On the eve of the Atlanta Olympics, U.S. boxing officials admit they're worried about the possibility--however remote--of boxers getting the AIDS virus, especially when competing against athletes from some African countries where the disease is rampant. "I just pray to God nothing happens," said Jerry Dusenberry, president of USA Boxing.

After 10 years of intense searching, scientists have identified a key molecule that allows the AIDS virus to infect human cells, a discovery that promises a new approach to treating the deadly disease and that yields insight into why some individuals are apparently more resistant to the virus. Identification of this "co-factor" should make it possible to develop inexpensive animal models for the disease, thereby accelerating the testing of new drugs and vaccines.

HIV-positive women who give birth more than four hours after the rupture of the fetal membranes--breaking of their water--are nearly twice as likely to transmit the virus to their infants as women who give birth less than four hours afterward, according to a study in the June 20 New England Journal of Medicine.

\o7 Thursday, Day 5, 46 miles to Cachuma Lake\f7 I wake to the sound of laughter. Three-time California AIDS Rider Daniel Moeshing is breaking down his tent and chatting with a fellow member of Positive Pedalers, a cycling club for HIV-positive riders. "They made an announcement about the Positive Pedalers Club, and someone said, 'Oh, I want to join!' "says friend Merle, snickering. "You're kidding!" hoots Daniel. "They wanted to join? I can tell them how to join Positive Pedalers real easily.

Thursday, Day 5, 46 miles to Cachuma Lake * Iwake to the sound of laughter. Three-time California AIDS Rider Daniel Moeshing is breaking down his tent and chatting with a fellow member of Positive Pedalers, a cycling club for HIV-positive riders. "They made an announcement about the Positive Pedalers Club, and someone said, 'Oh, I want to join!' "says friend Merle, snickering. "You're kidding!" hoots Daniel. "They wanted to join? I can tell them how to join Positive Pedalers real easily.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first in a new class of AIDS medicines Monday, clearing patients to start adding the drug nevirapine to their treatment combinations this summer. Nevirapine, to be sold under the brand name Viramune, targets the same element of the human immunodeficiency virus that many older medicines do, inhibiting an enzyme key to HIV's reproduction.

UCLA's AIDS care and research center received a $50,000 donation Monday from a rather unusual source--the soap opera "General Hospital." A soap opera may be a strange donor to UCLA but, in this case, a fitting one. AIDS has been a significant part of the story line on "General Hospital" for more than a year, and Dr. Steven Miles, a UCLA AIDS specialist, has been a consultant to the popular daytime show.

The confirmation Monday that boxer Tommy Morrison had tested positive in Nevada for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has given new ammunition to those questioning the lack of similar testing requirements in California. But the question of how much of a risk boxers and those around them take by engaging in their sport in this age of AIDS remains unanswered.

A judge in Northampton, Mass., lifted a media ban on naming a dentist accused in a lawsuit of giving AIDS to a patient through contaminated equipment. Superior Court Judge William Welch's ruling came after lawyers representing news media argued that the ban was unconstitutional. Dr. Anthony E. Breglio's lawyer wanted to forbid publication or broadcast of the dentist's name to protect his reputation, even though the trial is open to the public.

An experimental baboon bone marrow transplant performed in December in an effort to prolong the life of a San Francisco AIDS activist has apparently failed, but the patient nevertheless remains in remarkably good health, physicians said Wednesday. The results have convinced researchers to be "more aggressive" with the next transplant they undertake, said Dr. Steven Deeks, the UC San Francisco physician who performed the Dec. 14 procedure.