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NEW
YORK
—
Dr.
John
Nelson,
the
president
of
the
American
Medical
Association,
apologized
for
anti-gay
comments
he
made
last
month
in
an
interview
with
a
newspaper,
the
New
York
Journal
News
reported.
During
the
interview
with
the
Journal
News,
Nelson
defended
a
decision
by
New
York
Medical
College
to
ban
a
gay
students’
group
by
comparing
it
to
a
decision
by
Brigham
Young
University
officials
to
suspend
four
students
accused
of
rape,
the
Journal
News
reported.
Nelson
announced
the
AMA
has
agreed
to
expand
the
work
of
a
commission
that
is
studying
minority
access
to
medical
care
“to
include
disparities
experienced
by
GLBT
people.”
That
commission
had
been
focusing
on
ethnic
and
racial
minorities,
the
Journal
News
reported.
New
York
Medical
College
officials
denied
a
gay
group
because
it
is
affiliated
with
the
Catholic
Church
and
said
such
a
group
does
not
conform
to
church
philosophy,
according
to
the
Journal
News.
Nelson.
In
the
interview,
Nelson
stressed
doctors
should
treat
gay
Americans
“with
dignity,
with
respect
and
with
absolute
confidentiality.”
He
added
that
the
rights
of
gay
students
should
be
balanced
against
the
right
of
a
private
institution
to
enforce
its
own
policies,
the
Journal
News
reported.
Nelson
then
likened
the
decision
to
ban
the
gay
group
to
Brigham
Young’s
decision
to
suspend
the
students
accused
of
rape
and
to
ban
Coca-Cola
(in
fact,
the
school
bans
only
coffee,
tea
and
alcohol).
BRIDGEORT,
Conn.
(AP)
—
An
AIDS
specialist
believes
that
one
of
his
Connecticut
patients
may
be
linked
to
a
case
of
drug-resistant
HIV
discovered
in
a
New
York
City
man.
Dr.
Gary
Blick
said
last
week
that
in
a
preliminary
study
he
found
epidemiological
and
genetic
links
between
the
virus
strains
infecting
both
men.
“The
two
patients
appear
to
have
had
unsafe
sex
together
during
a
night
of
sex
and
drugs
last
fall
at
a
club
in
Manhattan,”
Blick
told
the
Connecticut
Post.
However,
Blick
said
it
“does
not
by
any
means
confirm
direct
person-to-person
transmission
of
HIV
between
the
two
individuals.”
The
New
York
patient,
a
man
in
his
mid-40s
who
had
unprotected
sex
with
other
men,
contracted
a
strain
of
HIV
that
is
“difficult
or
impossible
to
treat
and
which
appears
to
progress
rapidly
to
AIDS,”
New
York
Health
Commissioner
Dr.
Thomas
Frieden
said
last
month.
The
new
strain
of
the
virus
that
both
men
tested
positive
for
is
known
as
multi-drug
resistant
HIV,
or
MDR-HIV.
Not
only
is
it
drug-resistant,
but
it
can
progress
from
HIV
to
full-blown
AIDS
in
a
matter
of
months,
according
to
health
officials.
WEST
PALM
BEACH,
Fla.
(AP)
—
Palm
Beach
County’s
top
health
official
is
asking
for
a
criminal
investigation
into
anonymous
letters
received
by
HIV-positive
people.
The
letters
have
been
mailed
since
a
confidential
list
of
about
6,500
HIV
carriers
was
mistakenly
e-mailed
to
about
800
county
health
workers
last
month.
At
least
16
people
opened
the
e-mail.
The
list
did
not
include
addresses.
One
letter
with
no
return
address
said,
“Your
name
appeared
on
a
list
of
HIV-AIDS
patients
for
Palm
Beach
County.”
Health
Department
director
Jean
Malecki
said
last
week
that
the
letters
are
not
official
correspondence,
and
she
wants
a
criminal
investigation,
calling
the
mailings
“terrorism.”
“We
have
a
creep
or
creeps
out
there
trying
to
frighten
people
following
a
separate
incident
with
that
e-mail,”
Malecki
said.
Florida
requires
people
who
carry
HIV
to
register
for
monitoring
purposes.
Disclosing
the
list
is
a
crime.
WASHINGTON
—
International
researchers
said
last
week
that
drug
cocktails
taken
to
battle
the
AIDS
virus
may
also
protect
patients
against
some
cancers
related
to
the
disease,
Reuters
reported.
The
highly
active
antiretroviral
therapy
or
HAART
drug
mixtures
rein
in
the
virus
and
help
patients
fight
off
pneumonia
and
other
infections
that
result
when
HIV
begins
to
destroy
the
immune
system,
according
to
Reuters.
But
HAART
also
prevents
some
cancers,
said
researchers
including
Gary
Clifford
of
the
International
Agency
for
Research
on
Cancer
in
Lyon,
France,
Reuters
reported.
By
analyzing
the
records
of
more
than
7,300
Swiss
with
HIV,
researchers
found
that
those
on
HAART
had
lower
risks
of
Kaposi’s
sarcoma
and
non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma
than
those
who
were
not
on
HAART,
according
to
Reuters.
Still,
health
officials
noted,
both
kinds
of
cancer
are
20
times
more
common
in
HIV
patients
than
in
the
general
population,
Reuters
reported.
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