Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.health,americast.usa-today.health From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: health Wed, Sep 2 1992 Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 04:30:34 EDT Message-ID: 09-02 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update Sept. 2, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network WIDER AIDS DEFINITION PUSHED: When does a person with HIV infection officially become a person with AIDS? Health officials now count only those who've had one of 23 infections and cancers that signal a broken-down immune system. Wednesday in Atlanta, dozens of AIDS groups will ask the federal Centers for Disease Control to include more AIDS signs they say are common in women and poor people. (For more, see special AIDS package below.) TOP HEALTH OFFICIALS TO MEET: A host of the nation's top health care experts will head up this year's major public forum to explore new ways of achieving the Healthy People 2000 goals for Americans set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It takes place at the Chicago Hilton and Towers Sept. 10-11. For more detail and a conference agenda, call 1-415-445-5281. FIRST-AID TIPS FOR SKIN SCRAPES: Dr. Joseph Greensher, assistant chairman of pediatrics at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, gives the following first-aid tips for children with scuffed knees: Clean the scrape with soap and water; press with a sterile gauze pad until bleeding stops; when the scrape begins to heal, remove the bandage. Air helps the wound heal. KIDS WORRY ABOUT PARENTS: A recent poll of 2,600 fourth through 12th graders done by Louis Harris and Associates, shows kids are concerned about the health of their parents. Nearly 90% of kids whose parents smoke worry that their mom or dad will get sick or die from the cigarettes. LEGAL BLOOD-ALCOHOL LEVEL HIGH: Even a blood alcohol level lower than 0.10% can seriously limit a driver's ability to detect motion, according to Penn State researchers. Testing 12 men in their 20s whose blood alcohol level was 0.088, researches ound their subjects needed twice as much contrast to notice a moving object as a stationary one. MORE WOMEN IN MED SCHOOL: The gender gap in medical school is shrinking, a new report says. About 40% of first-year med school students are women and the number of female applicants is rising. The trend is more than a decade old, says study co-author Harry Jonas, American Medical Association. But blacks are at a plateau. Black student enrollment barely budged in five years. BABOON LIVER PATIENT WORSE: The first human to receive a baboon liver was downgraded to critical condition after an infection impaired his liver function. Doctors at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where the transplant was done June 28, said the 35-year-old man still shows no sign of rejecting the liver. ABORTION RULING ON HOLD: A Jackson, Miss., judge temporarily barred state health officials from enforcing a rule that requires abortions past the 16th week of pregnancy be performed in a hospital. Judge Denise Sweet-Owens prohibited enforcement of the rule pending a hearing Sept. 12. Clinics that continue to perform such abortions risk losing their licenses. The Health Department ban took effect May 11. CHILD CAR SEATS PROMOTED: Safety groups and federal officials have teamed up with Ride Experts Centers, operated by Monroe Auto Equipment, for "Safer Baby '92," a public awareness campaign launched Tuesday to promote proper use of child car seats. Of the 601 children who died in auto accidents last year, 27% were riding in someone's lap, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON AIDS: AIDS COUNT IS POLITICAL: The CDC's AIDS count - now at 230,179 cases - carries political weight. It tells the country how bad the epidemic is and how fast it's growing. The location, sex, race, age and transmission mode recorded for each case indicate who AIDS is hitting hardest - and where money for prevention and care can best be spent. MANY AREN'T TESTED: Faced with criticism that the count excludes many seriously ill people with HIV, CDC has proposed adding anyone with HIV who has a low count of T-cells, blood cells killed by HIV. That could add 200,000 cases - if all those people received T-cell tests and were reported. But many infected people can't afford T-cell tests; others aren't offered T-cell tests or HIV tests. SOME WANT CANCERS ADDED: Patient advocates propose adding cervical cancers and pre-cancers and two lung infections, tuberculosis and recurring bacterial pneumonia, to the list of illnesses that signal full-blown AIDS. All can occur in people without HIV but, they argue, are signs of serious trouble in someone with HIV. CDC won't announce a decision for at least several weeks. (End of package.) Health Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM