Intravenous Drug Users

Sperm banks in the state can no longer accept gay men and intravenous drug users as donors because of new state health regulations prompted by fears about AIDS, officials said Tuesday. For the first time, sperm banks must get a state license and must subject all donors to at least two AIDS tests before their sperm is used, said Mary Anne Gardineer, an associate director of the New York state Health Department.

Thirty years ago Sunday, a brief report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described cases of a rare form of pneumonia called Pneumocystis carinii in five young Los Angeles men, "all active homosexuals. " The cases were noteworthy because the men had previously been healthy, though their particular pneumonia had only been seen in people with severely depressed immune systems. Within a month, a second report had identified 54 young gay men with a rare cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma, another disease that had been almost unknown in young men. And by the following summer, the mysterious disease underlying these reports had a name: acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

Los Angeles County, home to one of the largest concentrations of intravenous drug users in the United States, is lagging behind comparable urban areas in efforts to slow the spread of AIDS within this increasingly critical group. While smaller communities with fewer addicts have aggressive programs to teach needle users about the risks of catching and spreading the AIDS virus, Los Angeles County has yet to make a concerted effort to reach that majority of users not enrolled in drug treatment.

Nelson Mandela made an impassioned plea to the 15th International AIDS Conference on Thursday for more funds to fight tuberculosis, the lung disease that is the leading cause of death among AIDS victims in Africa. "The world has made defeating AIDS a top priority. This is a blessing, but TB remains ignored," said the former South African president, who will turn 86 on Sunday.

The prevalence of the AIDS virus among intravenous drug users appears to be low in San Diego right now: 2% to 5% of the drug injectors, according to county figures. But, once the virus gets into a drug-abusing population, it can spread silently and swiftly in the absence of aggressive intervention efforts. Increases of more than 10% per year in the prevalence of HIV antibodies--a precursor to AIDS--have been reported among IV drug users in New York City, parts of Italy, Edinburgh and Bangkok.

Four years after it was proposed, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday approved a program intended to dampen the spread of AIDS by distributing bleach and condoms to intravenous drug users. Board observers said the action signals the most significant shift in county policy since Supervisor Gloria Molina took her oath of office on March 8, ending a decade of conservative domination of the board.

Thirty years ago Sunday, a brief report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described cases of a rare form of pneumonia called Pneumocystis carinii in five young Los Angeles men, "all active homosexuals. " The cases were noteworthy because the men had previously been healthy, though their particular pneumonia had only been seen in people with severely depressed immune systems. Within a month, a second report had identified 54 young gay men with a rare cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma, another disease that had been almost unknown in young men. And by the following summer, the mysterious disease underlying these reports had a name: acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

AIDS cases reported among New York City's intravenous drug users outnumbered cases among homosexuals and bisexuals for the first time during the first three months of 1988, the city Health Department reported. "It has become clear that the gay community has made effective progress in reducing the spread of new infection, unlike the IV drug-using population, where the virus continues to spread virtually unabated," said Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, health commissioner.

While new cases of AIDS increase steadily in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area, public health officials are bracing for an expected rapid spread of the virus into the ranks of intravenous drug users and then into the general population. In Alameda County, the number of diagnosed AIDS cases doubled from 130 in August, 1985, to 267 last week. In Contra Costa County, 91 cases have been diagnosed, up from 50 in January.

Los Angeles County added another $170,000 Tuesday to its new outreach program aimed at reducing the spread of AIDS among intravenous drug users and their families. The Board of Supervisors forwarded a state grant to the Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, a private organization that serves East Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley and Southeast Los Angeles.

Health-care volunteers soon will begin exchanging new needles for used ones brought in by drug users in Santa Paula, as the Ventura County Health Care Agency expands its year-old syringe replacement program. The move into Santa Paula is part of an effort to take the program countywide, where an estimated 905 to 1,460 residents are thought to be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, officials said.

In her first public forum since winning the April primary in the 32nd Congressional District race, former state Sen. Diane Watson denounced a recent campaign mailer by an opponent, which described her as someone who "wants to give free needles to heroin addicts" and showed a graphic photograph of an addict shooting up. "It was a very scurrilous attack piece," Watson said about the mailer sent by her Republican challenger, Noel Irwin Hentschel. "It came into people's homes. . . .

A moral riddle: Would you take steps to stem a deadly epidemic if by doing so you seem to sanction another deadly epidemic--the use of illegal drugs? The Ventura County Board of Supervisors grappled with this question last week and arrived at the correct answer. In a 4-1 vote, the board approved a needle-exchange program that will allow drug addicts to turn in used hypodermic needles for new ones.

Opening a new and controversial front in local government's battle against HIV/AIDS, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared a public health emergency in Los Angeles County, paving the way for a legal needle exchange program. "We get very few opportunities in our political lives to save lives," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

In a scenario eerily reminiscent of the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic, nearly five dozen intravenous drug users in Scotland, Ireland and England have become ill or died since April of a mysterious illness whose origins health officials have not yet identified. The baffling ailment is characterized by excessive swelling and redness at the injection site, low blood pressure and a high white blood cell count, often followed by heart failure.

City officials issued a health alert Thursday after two intravenous drug users died after being infected by a so-called flesh-eating bacteria. A 33-year-old woman died June 6 and a 28-year-old woman died Thursday. Doctors have tied the infections to heroin the women, who were sharing needles, were injecting. The bacteria suspected in the deaths is Clostridium perfringens and produces toxins that degrade human tissue, according to a city health official.

Alameda County declared a local state of emergency Thursday because of the high incidence of HIV/AIDS infection among African Americans, hoping to place the region at the head of the line for new federal funding aimed at staunching the epidemic.

Fearing that the ban on federal funds for needle exchange programs might be lifted, opponents on Wednesday warned Congress and the Clinton administration that a majority of the public is against reversing the current policy. Needle exchange programs are "a dopey idea," said Gary L. Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative interest organization, as he held up a handful of syringes.