Announcements

** Alternative/Complementary Treatment Workshop U.S./Canada
Tour; Help Sought

"Staying Healthy with HIV," a well-regarded nonprofit workshop in
alternative/complementary/traditional treatments for AIDS or HIV, is
planning a tour of 25 cities in the U.S. and Canada during March,
April, and May 1993. At this time the organizers are seeking help from
local contacts in making arrangements for the workshops, which they
hope to provide free.

Staying Healthy with HIV has been developed during the last two years
by David Baker, R.N., who specializes in teaching health promotion to
people with HIV, and Richard Copeland, managing director of the Healing
Alternatives Foundation (the AIDS buyers' club in San Francisco) for
almost four years. The workshop has been presented twice through the
San Francisco Kaiser Medical Center, twice through the Sonoma County
Public Health Department, at the AIDS, Medicine, and Miracles
conference in Boulder, June 1992, and in San Francisco at the Immune
Enhancement Program and the Quan Yin Healing Arts Center. Baker and
Copeland presented a related poster at the VIII International
Conference on AIDS in Amsterdam, July 19-24, 1992 ("Collected Research
Findings and Anecdotal Reports on the Optimal Dosage, Side Effects and
Benefits of Selected Alternative Medications in Gay Men with HIV,"
abstract #PoB3391). Their workshop is a project of the Center for
Natural and Traditional Medicines in Washington, D.C.

The workshop consists of a two to three hour session focusing on
alternative medications, together with discussions of nutrition, stress
management, understanding laboratory test results, prophylaxis for
opportunistic infections, and holistic healing. Over 25 alternative
treatments are discussed in the 32-page handout given to participants.
The organizers do not recommend any particular treatments, but provide
information and guidelines to help evaluate different options. (There
is also a one-day version of the workshop, limited to 10 people, which
includes experiential exercises.)

If you could help to bring Staying Healthy with HIV to your city,
contact the organizers at the address or phone below. They need
assistance in finding a free or low-cost facility, publicity (including
outreach to underserved communities), arranging computer/modem access
during their stay, finding a host who can provide lodging and some
meals, learning about specific needs of your community, and locating
additional funding.

If you could help, or want further information, contact David Baker &
Richard Copeland, Staying Healthy with HIV, 13-B Belcher Street, San
Francisco, CA 94114, 415/255-0690.

** Media, Public Relations Professionals: ACT UP Needs
Volunteer Help

The acyclovir price-cap issue (reported in AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #165)
shows the need for professional assistance to help treatment activists
advocate for the interests of the AIDS community. ACT UP/Golden Gate,
Project Inform, and AIDS Action Baltimore, although kept in the dark
about details of the Burroughs-Wellcome program, were able to reply
with a faxed press release on the same day the program was announced.
But only one mainstream newspaper (the San Francisco Examiner) used the
activists' information; the Wall Street Journal covered only the
Burroughs-Wellcome view. Most of the press ignored the story entirely
-- despite the fact the issue of pharmaceutical prices is central to
President- elect Clinton's effort to control health-care costs, and will
probably be a major battle in Congress during the coming year; a bill
to discourage pharmaceutical price increases is being sponsored by
Senator David Pryor (Democrat, Arkansas).

Activists can do the footwork -- writing, word processing, faxing or
mailing. But they need professional advice on getting information into
the media -- for example, on building their lists of key people to send
it to. They also need strategic advice, for example in evaluating what
stories will or will not work even before negotiations begin with
pharmaceutical companies, government officials, or others.

In San Francisco, ACT UP/Golden Gate is seeking media assistance now;
if you can help, call Virg at 415/648-2758 or Mark at 415/863-8797. In
other areas, local treatment or other AIDS organizations may also be
able to use assistance.