Announcements

** Correction: Date of Last Issue

Our last issue was incorrectly dated July 26. The date should have been June 28.

AIDS TREATMENT NEWS is usually published on the first and third Friday of each month. The June 28 and both July issues have been delayed a week due to travel to conferences. Our next issue will be dated July 27 (a Saturday), to avoid the confusion of July 26 appearing as the date on two issues.

** Atlanta: New Buyers' Club

People living in the Atlanta area will have increased access to some promising HIV and AIDS-related treatments through a new buyers' club opening there. The Atlanta Buyers Club (ABC), is a non-profit community organization pledged to offer its members a forum for information and a source for alternative treatments. Like other buyers' clubs around the country serving people with HIV, ABC cannot make professional medical recommendations. ABC members will be encouraged to discuss all treatment decisions with their doctors, and the organizers of the club told us that they are seeking productive communication with HIV health providers in Atlanta.

To contact ABC, interested persons may call 404/874-4845, or write to P. O. Box 77003, Atlanta, GA, 30357.

** SEARCH Alliance Seeks Executive Director

SEARCH Alliance, a community-based AIDS treatment research organization in Los Angeles (see AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #105, June 15, 1990) is looking for an executive director. The candidate must have proven fundraising ability and strong administrative experience. Send resume to: William Zimmerman, Suite 901, 14724 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.

** San Francisco: HIV "Nightline" Sponsored by Suicide
Prevention Project

Two years ago, San Francisco Suicide Prevention established a hotline to offer nighttime support and information to people with emotional concerns about HIV. The "AIDS/HIV Nightline," the only service of its kind in the U. S., receives calls from around the country, and is staffed by volunteers who are trained to speak compassionately and knowledgeably about a range of issues related to HIV infection and crisis intervention.

The line is open 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays, and 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The number to call from San Francisco and outside of Northern California is 415/668-AIDS, and throughout Northern California, 800/273-AIDS. Volunteers and donations for the Nightline are welcomed.

** AIDS Frauds and Scams: Journalist Seeks Interviews

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) in San Francisco has been asked to provide an article on AIDS fraud for a publication which goes mainly to physicians' offices. We spoke with Sarah Henry of CIR, who is doing this story, and found that unlike many reporters who approach it, she is well aware of the difference between legitimate experimentation and unconscionable exploitation; she wants to focus her article on the latter. Anyone who has had personal experience with a suspected treatment scam and wants to talk with a journalist about it can contact Sarah Henry at CIR: phone 415/543-1200, or fax 415/543-8311, or mail to CIR, 530 Howard Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105. She needs to hear from people as soon as possible.

** Travel/Immigration Reminder: Letters Must Be
Received by August 2

By the time you receive the next issue of AIDS TREATMENT NEWS, it will be too late to write your letter or postcard supporting the end of the ban on visitors and immigrants with HIV entering the United States. Public comments must be received in Atlanta, Georgia by August 2 in order to be considered.

Your letter could urge that the final rule proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and published in the Federal Register on January 23, be adopted. This proposal, that only persons with active tuberculosis be automatically excluded from the United States on public-health grounds, is the recommendation of experts within HHS and is supported by all medical authorities. (Political pressure from conservatives, and from the U. S. Department of Justice, prevented this rule from being implemented as scheduled on June 1.)

Write to: Director, Division of Quarantine, Center for Prevention Services, Centers for Disease Control, Mail Stop E04, Atlanta, GA 30333.

For extensive background on this issue, which threatens the Eighth International Conference on AIDS scheduled for Boston in May, 1992, see AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #128. If you need a copy, send us a self-addressed stamped envelope and a note requesting issue #128.

Note: Perhaps the best short statement of the case against the travel and immigration ban is the lead editorial in The New York Times, Wednesday, June 19, 1991.



AIDS TREATMENT NEWS Published twice monthly Subscription and Editorial Office:
P. O. Box 411256
San Francisco, CA 94141
800/TREAT-1-2 toll-free U. S. and Canada
415/255-0588 regular office number
415/255-4659 fax Editor and Publisher:
John S. James Medical Reporters:
John S. James
Michelle Roland
Denny Smith Reader Services, Business, and Marketing:
Thom Fontaine
Keith Griffith
Tadd Tobias
Tim Wilson Statement of Purpose: AIDS TREATMENT NEWS reports on experimental and standard treatments, especially those available now. We interview physicians, scientists, other health professionals, and persons with AIDS or HIV; we also collect information from meetings and conferences, medical journals, and computer databases. Long-term survivors have usually tried many different treatments, and found combinations which work for them. AIDS TREATMENT NEWS does not recommend particular therapies, but seeks to increase the options available.

Subscription Information: Call 800/TREAT-1-2
Businesses, Institutions, Professionals: $200/year.
Nonprofit organizations: $100/year.
Individuals: $100/year, or $55 for six months.
Special discount for persons with AIDS or HIV with
financial difficulties: $40/year, or $20 for six months.
If you cannot afford a subscription, please write or call. Outside North, Central, or South America, add air mail postage: $20/year, $10 for six months. Back issues available. Canadians add 7% Goods and Services Tax. Bulk rate: five or more non-discount orders, 40% savings. For larger orders, contact our office. Please send U. S. funds: personal check on U. S. bank, U. S. bank draft, international postal money order, or travelers checks. VISA, Mastercard, and purchase orders also accepted.

ISSN # 1052-4207

Copyright 1991 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.