WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The FBI and the U.S. Postal Service have joined the criminal investigation into the disclosure of the names and addresses of some of the 6,500 HIV/AIDS patients in Palm Beach County. County Health Department Director Dr. Jean Malecki said last week that the FBI and postal inspectors have joined the police probe of two incidents in which a confidential list of names of those with AIDS or who are HIV-positive may have been used illegally. A confidential list of about 6,500 HIV carriers was mistakenly e-mailed to about 800 county health workers in February. At least 16 people opened the e-mail. The list did not include addresses. In early March, HIV-positive people on the county health department list received letters telling them to call an Indiana company to volunteer to help local families dealing with AIDS. The Indiana company, which does electronic billing for doctors’ offices, had no knowledge of the letter and told callers to contact the health department. “The FBI and U.S. Postal inspectors have the resources to trace DNA on the envelopes from this mailing,” Malecki said. “We’re hopeful that they can find out who did this.”

Officials report HIV cases on the rise in Wis., N.D.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — More than 400 new cases of the virus that causes AIDS were reported in Wisconsin last year, the largest increase since 1997, a state agency says. The largest segment of the population causing the increase was gay men, health officials said. North Dakota officials also reported a spike in new HIV cases. A report from the Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services said the new cases of HIV infection increased from 364 in 2003 to 417 in 2004, a rise of 14.5 percent. North Dakota had 15 new HIV cases last year, that state’s Health Department said. The new infections occurred primarily in people ages 20 to 39, with male homosexual contact accounting for about half of the cases, the health officials said.

New York Times to share AIDS archives with group
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — More than a decade of requests from AIDS activists led to the announcement by the New York Times last week that it will make available its archives of AIDS news coverage, according to a news release from the AIDS Education Global Information System or AEGIS. The newspaper’s files of coverage began with a July 3, 1981 story about a rare cancer that manifested itself in gays, the AEGIS release stated. “I’m grateful to the Times’ executives for their humanitarian gesture,” Sister Mary Elizabeth, founder and publisher of the nonprofit AEGIS Web site said in a written statement. “Visitors to AEGIS.org will be able to search 24 years of AIDS stories, analyses and editorials for free. The Times joins other mainstream newspapers and wire services that have contributed their archives to us.”

Del. takes cautious approach on HIV-positive prison autopsies
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware has experienced high rates of AIDS-related deaths and HIV infection among its prison population. But officials have denied Freedom of Information Act requests from the Associated Press for HIV- and AIDS-related information in prisoner autopsies, saying they need to black out such information because of privacy concerns. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 60 percent of inmate deaths in Delaware in 1999 involved AIDS-related deaths, by far the highest percentage in the country. The 1998 edition of the Corrections Yearbook, a publication of the Criminal Justice Institute, reported that a sampling of inmates found Delaware to have the largest percentage in the country testing positive for HIV antibodies, at more than 10 percent.

Study: Homeopathic drugs curb some HIV infection
NEW DELHI — A senior researcher said last week that homeopathic medicines are effective in curbing the growth of some infections in HIV-positive patients, the Press Trust of India reported. The success is gained because such medicines improve patients’ immune systems, according to media reports. “In a study carried out on 100 patients in terminal stages of AIDS, homeopathic medicines proved to be useful in improving or maintaining immune system of about 50 percent of the people,” Dr. Nirupama Mishra, research officer at Regional Research Institute for Homeopathy in Mumbai, told the Press Trust of India. The drugs slowed viral infections including influenza, mumps, measles and chicken pox.

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