Announcements

** Group Helps HIV-Infected Physicians;
Assistance Urgently Needed

The Medical Expertise Retention Program (see AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #125, April 19, 1991), a project of the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, assists HIV-infected physicians and also speaks publicly for rational policies on healthcare workers with HIV. Due to the recent national interest in this issue, MERP is being flooded with information requests from the media, as well as calls for help from individual physicians. This program, started part time last November, must expand immediately to meet today's needs.

You can help by contributing to AAPHR-MERP, 2940 16th Street #105, San Francisco, CA 94103. For more information, call Ben Schatz or Naphtali Offen at 415/864-0408.


** Travel/Immigration Ban: Call the White House

ACT UP and other groups are asking people to call the White House switchboard at 202/456-1414 to tell them the following:

"I do not condone discrimination in any form, therefore I support the removal of all immigration and travel restrictions based on a person's HIV status."

They are asking people to call on August 1 or 2, the last days for official public comment; but it DOES count if you call after those dates. (The August 2 deadline is for written comments received at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.)


** Imuthiol Suspended

On July 24 Reuters reported that Imuthiol (also called DTC) is being withdrawn at least temporarily by the French company, Institut Merieux, when new results from a large clinical trial failed to show any benefit.

Only sketchy information is available at this time, but according to a reliable report we have heard, there was more progression to AIDS in the treatment group than in the placebo group.

Previous studies of Imuthiol have found benefit, although the interpretation of these studies has been controversial. The reason for the contradictory results is unclear.


** San Francisco: Meet the Staff of AIDS TREATMENT NEWS

The owners of Dottie's True Blue Cafe invite Bay Area readers to meet the staff of AIDS TREATMENT NEWS for dinner on Wednesday, August 21. The restaurant, whose food was rated "excellent" in the November 11, 1990, San Francisco Chronicle, is located at 522 Jones (between Geary and O'Farrell) in San Francisco. This special evening will feature a three-course vegetarian pasta dinner, including choice of dessert and coffee; other beverages and gratuities are extra.

There will be just 35 places for each of two seatings, 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. Dinner tickets will be $12 in advance ($15 at the door, if available), and may be purchased directly from any staff member of AIDS TREATMENT NEWS, by calling 415/255-0588 for Visa or MasterCard reservations, or by sending a check or money order to ATN Publications, P. O. Box 411256, San Francisco, CA 94141.


** AIDS Treatment Activist Conference, Sept. 27-
October 1, Washington, DC

ATAC2 (the second AIDS treatment activist conference) and subsequent demonstrations for national leadership in the AIDS crisis and for national healthcare are scheduled for Washington, D. C., in about two months. Organizers are from ACT UP/DC, ACT UP/New York, and other groups.

ATAC2 will meet from Friday evening, September 27, through Sunday, September 29. The agenda is not yet final; if you have suggestions, call the numbers below immediately. The first ATAC, held in November 1990, drew 350 treatment activists.

A White House demonstration on Monday, September 30, will protest the lack of leadership by President Bush, and specifically demand "that the President appoint a national AIDS czar. The proposed cabinet-level officer would be given broad authority to lend direction to the government's AIDS policies and programs; to weed out duplicative and wasteful research projects; to broaden the definition of AIDS; and to make AIDS education, care, and research a national priority." Demonstrators plan to deliver to the White House 130,000 obituaries of persons whose deaths are AIDS related.

A march on Congress for national health, organized by ACT UP Network, is planned for Tuesday, October 1; it may include a funeral procession to call attention to deaths caused by lack of universal healthcare.

For more information, call Robert Warnock, ACT UP/DC Media Coordinator, 202/328-8253, or Treatment and Data Committee, ACT Up/New York, 212/564-AIDS.