CHICAGO
(AP)
—
Illinois
last
week
became
the
first
state
with
a
law
specifically
allowing
HIV-positive
people
to
donate
organs
to
others
with
the
virus,
but
for
anyone
to
actually
use
the
state
law,
federal
rules
will
have
to
change.
Currently,
organs
from
HIV-infected
patients
are
discarded
to
prevent
them
from
being
transplanted
into
uninfected
patients
and
spreading
the
virus
that
causes
AIDS.
But
those
organs
could
prolong
the
lives
of
people
who
already
have
HIV,
many
of
whom
are
living
longer
because
of
advances
in
medicine,
said
Dr.
Patrick
Lynch,
a
hepatologist
at
Northwestern
Memorial
Hospital
who
helped
write
the
legislation.
“When
those
laws
were
originally
put
on
the
books,
they
made
sense.
HIV
was,
unfortunately,
a
death
sentence
back
then,”
Lynch
said.
“That
doesn’t
make
sense
anymore.”
But
before
HIV-positive
organ
donations
can
be
performed
in
Illinois,
officials
will
have
to
work
with
the
United
Network
for
Organ
Sharing
—
which
coordinates
the
nation’s
organ
transplant
system
under
contract
with
the
government
—
to
change
U.S.
Department
of
Health
&
Human
Services
regulations
that
prohibit
it.
BANGKOK,
Thailand
(AP)
—
Male
circumcision
may
have
prevented
HIV
infection
in
some
cases
but
the
evidence
is
still
not
strong
enough
to
make
it
a
policy
in
the
fight
against
AIDS,
a
leading
researcher
said
last
week.
Recent
evidence
from
a
study
in
Uganda
revealed
that
while
no
circumcised
men
in
a
test
group
got
infected
after
having
sex
with
HIV-positive
women,
nearly
17
percent
who
were
not
circumcised
got
infected,
said
Quarraisha
Abdool
Karim,
an
epidemiologist
from
University
of
Natal
in
South
Africa.
Some
studies
suggest
that
the
mucous
lining
of
the
inner
foreskin
is
more
susceptible
to
HIV
infection
than
that
of
a
woman’s
cervix.
At
the
same
time,
the
inner
foreskin
has
glands
that
secrete
an
enzyme
that
kills
HIV,
she
told
a
plenary
session
at
the
International
AIDS
Conference.
She
did
not
say
how
many
men
were
tested
in
the
Uganda
study.
BANGKOK,
Thailand
(AP)
—
Shouting
activists
held
up
a
speech
last
week
by
the
top
U.S.
official
on
AIDS
when
they
massed
in
front
of
the
conference
stage
and
tried
to
hand
him
a
placard
mocking
Washington’s
policy
on
HIV.
Randall
Tobias,
the
U.S.
global
AIDS
coordinator,
was
at
a
podium
to
address
the
15th
International
AIDS
Conference
but
sat
down
to
wait
out
the
minutes-long
protest
before
launching
his
speech,
which
drew
near-constant
heckling.
“He’s
lying,”
the
protesters
chanted.
“People
dying.”
The
placard
looked
like
a
check
for
$15
billion
—
the
amount
the
U.S.
government
has
pledged
over
five
years
to
help
curb
HIV
and
help
its
sufferers
—
but
the
check
was
made
out
to
pharmaceutical
companies
and
“right-wing”
extremists.
Conference
organizers
pleaded
for
calm,
and
the
protesters
sat
down
facing
the
audience
during
the
speech.
The
activists
say
the
U.S.
funding
comes
with
too
many
strings
—
requiring
some
of
it
to
go
toward
programs
emphasizing
abstinence
as
the
best
policy
against
HIV
transmission
even
though
most
experts
say
condoms
are
the
best
first
line
of
defense.
NEW
YORK
(AP)
—
Black
men
between
the
ages
of
40
and
54
are
nearly
three
times
as
likely
as
other
New
Yorkers
to
have
HIV
or
AIDS,
according
to
a
new
report
by
the
New
York
City
Department
of
Health
&
Mental
Hygiene.
Only
gay
and
bisexual
men
and
injecting
drug
users
have
higher
rates
of
infection,
said
the
report
released
last
week
at
the
International
AIDS
Conference
in
Bangkok,
Thailand.
Citywide,
one
of
every
14
middle-aged
black
men
are
infected
with
the
virus,
the
report
found.
In
Manhattan
alone,
the
infection
rate
is
one
in
seven.
Many
middle-aged
black
men
are
not
being
tested
in
the
early
stages
of
infection
and
do
not
know
they
need
treatment,
the
report
said.
NEW
YORK
—
Researchers
released
a
study
on
the
effects
the
popular
gay
party
drug
crystal
methamphetamine
has
on
the
brain
and
it
was
worse
than
scientists
expected
to
find,
according
to
the
New
York
Times.
The
first
high-resolution
MRI
study
of
methamphetamine
addicts
shows
a
“forest
fire
of
brain
damage,”
said
Dr.
Paul
Thompson,
an
expert
on
brain
mapping
at
the
University
of
California
Los
Angeles.
“We
expected
some
brain
changes
but
didn’t
expect
so
much
tissue
to
be
destroyed.”
The
study,
published
in
the
June
30
issue
of
the
Journal
of
Neuroscience,
shows
the
brain’s
surface
and
deeper
limbic
system.
The
portion
of
the
brain
involved
in
drug
craving,
reward,
mood
and
emotion
lost
11
percent
of
its
tissue,
according
to
the
Times.
“The
cells
are
dead
and
gone,”
Thompson
said.
The
study
looked
at
22
people
in
their
30s
who
had
used
the
drug
for
at
least
10
years
and
a
control
group.
The
addicts
averaged
weekly
four
grams
of
the
drug,
which
is
popular
among
gay
club-goers,
and
had
been
high
for
19
of
the
previous
30
days
before
testing
began,
the
Times
reported.
