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Student
Health
Services
4 1' Ileutel Health Center
IJmsion of Student Affairs
Texas A&M University
Accredited by
Accreditation Association
for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc.
www.tamu.edu/shs
4UP <£
Grades need a firmer
foundation this semester?
The week of Febuary 8-Febuary 12 I
=7
Aect
229/209
Bana 303
Anthony
Bana 303
Hayictt
Bana 305
Stein
Biol 113
Econ 202
Econ 203
Econ 311
Econ 322
Fine 341
Math
141M66
Math 151
Math 152
Part 1
Mon Feb 9
5pm-7pm
or
9pm-] 1pm
Part I
Mon Feb 9
9pm-Itpin
Part H
Tbe Feb 10
5pm-7pm
or
9pm-Jlpm
Part II
Tuc Feb 10
9pni-l ipm
Part III
Wed Feb II
5pm-7pni
or
9pm-llpni
Part IV
Thur Feb 12
Spm-7pm
or
9pm-llpn\..
Part II
Sun Feb 8
7pm-10pm
Parti
Wed Feb II
9pm-J 1pm
Part I
Sun Feb 8
5pm-8pm
or
8pm-llpm
Part I
Mon Feb 9
7pm-9pm
Part I
The Feb 10
9pm-I2am
Part I
Sun Feb 8
4pm-7pm
Part I
Wed Feb II
6pni-9pm
Part I
Sun Feb 8
7pm-10pm
Parti
Sun Feb 8
5pm-7pm
Part I
Mon Feb 9
Upm-tam
Part I
Mon Feb 9
7pm-9pm
Part II
Thu Feb 12
9pm-llpm
Part II
Mon Feb 9
5p«n-8pm
or
8pm-H pm
Part II
Tue Feb 10
7pm-9pm
Part U
Wed Feb II
9pm-12am
Part U!
Tue Feb 10
5pm-7pm
or
8pm-I0pm
Part III
Wed Feb II
7pin-9pm
Part IV
Thur Feb 12
7pm-9pm
Part II
Mon Feb 9
4pm-7pm
Part II
Thur Feb 12
6pni-9pm
Part 11
Mon Feb 9
7pm-10nm
Part II
Mon Feb 9
5pm-7pm
Part II
Tue Feb 10
Upm-lam
Part II
Tue Feb 10
7pm-9pm
hjlffyt Woo V
Billy's Video
Acct 327
Acct 328
Bana 303
Bana 305
Math 142
Math 151
Math 152
/
Question:
§v
,Vhat was in Abe
Lincoln's pocket
when he died?
(First 5 to call with ans
wer get free reviewl)
Answer appears mursaay
846-TUTOR (8886)
Part HI
The Feb 10
7pm-9pm
Part III
Tue Feb 10
Spm-7pm
Part 111
Wed Feb 11
11pm-lam
Part 111
Wed Feb 11
7pm-9pm
Part IV
Wed Feb 11
5pm-7pm
Part IV
Thur Feb 12
Upm-lam
Part IV
Thur Feb 12
7pm-9pm
4.0 & GO r m
G-.tAOitp*. SuaJi
SMI KaJikiuay.
TAMU
Look for our ads
in the Batt on
Mondays
&Thursdays
The Battalion
EALTH
Thursday
Search for better, easi-
AIDS treatment intensii
CHICAGO (AP) — The AIDS
cocktail is being shaken and stirred.
More than 200 reports at an AIDS
conference this week describe new
combinations of AIDS drugs, all in
tended to improve on the spectac
ular success of the three-drug mix
es credited with the steep drop in
AIDS deaths over the past two years.
The goal is to concoct new for
mulations that are more powerful,
less toxic and easier to take.
Ideally, these new mixes will of
fer a second chance to those who
failed to do well on the original
combos. And they will require few
er pills, taken on less rigorous
timetables, with fewer side effects.
At the Fifth Conference on Retro
viruses and Opportunistic Infections,
a meeting this week of the world’s top
AIDS investigators, U.S. officials an
nounced that AIDS deaths dropped
by nearly half during the first six
months of 1997. They said the reason
was largely the use of the so-called
AIDS cocktail, which is actually a
combination of pills consisting of a
newer medicine called a protease in
hibitor and two older ones called nu
cleoside analogues.
Despite this surprising turn
around in the war on AIDS, there is
no suggestion the virus is licked.
Some people with AIDS cannot
take the drugs or do not respond.
In others, the virus grows impervi
ous to the medicines after first
seeming to succumb. And experts
worry that many more are enjoy
ing a sort of honeymoon, after
which the virus will reappear
someday with the upper hand.
"We’ve made progress, but the
progress is not complete. Not every
one is helped by the new therapies,’’
Dr. Douglas Richman of the Univer
sity of California at San Diego said.
“Potency, tolerability and ease of
“We’ve made progress,
but the progress is not
enough.”
Dr. Douglas Richman
University of California
at San Diego
use are the real goals.”
A few new AIDS drugs are near
ing the end of human testing and
will be submitted soon to the Food
and Drug Administration for ap
proval. Many more are in the test
tube stage of development, and no
one knows if they will pan out.
Taken diligently, the AIDS drugs
often reduce levels of virus so low
they cannot be detected in the
bloodstream. But m issing even a
few doses allows the virus to devel-
Critics say complaints
against HMOs should
be public information
HOUSTON (AP) — Consumer
advocates are fuming over a
Texas attorney general opinion
that says complaint details
about HMOs should not be
made public, the Texas Journal
of The Wall Street Journal report
ed Wednesday.
In an opinion issued last fall
that has just been made widely
known, Assistant Attorney Gen
eral Vickie Prehoditch wrote that
the Texas Department of Insur
ance cannot grant the public ac
cess to most documents detail
ing grievances against HMOs.
That includes HMOs’ respons
es to specific accusations and
even the Insurance Department’s
own findings as to whether a
complaint was justified.
The attorney general’s office
used a broad interpretation of a
confidentiality clause in last
year’s Health Maintenance Or
ganization Act.
Under the provision, the
complaints themselves remain
public, but patients’ identities
— names, addresses and Social
Security numbers — must be
blacked out.
The law also shields all records
submitted to the Insurance De
partment in connection with an
examination of an HMO, to pro
tect any proprietary information.
The exact definition of an exami
nation, however, was not spelled
out in the law.
The act was one of a number of
HMO measures passed last year
by the Legislature, which tight
ened regulatory oversight and
made HMOs liable for negligence
by their doctors and for adminis
trative decisions that deny or de
lay necessary care.
But the AG’s opinion is con
trary to the intent of the new
laws, said Karina Kasari, direc
tor of the Senate Economic De
velopment Committee and aide
to its chairperson, Rep. David
Sibley, R-Waco.
Sibley was the lead sponsor of
the HMO legislation.
“It’s in the public interest for the
state to know and the public to
know how an HMO handles med
ical decisions,” Kasari said.
Consumer advocates had hailed
the package of bills as a victory for
patients. But advocates now fear
that while they won that battle, they
are about to lose the war.
The attorney general’s opin
ion, they contend, closes off ac
cess to the very type of records
that spurred the campaign for
managed-care reform.
“We just had no idea this
provision in the law would be
interpreted this broadly by the
attorney general’s office,” said
Kathy Mitchell, an attorney for
Consumers Union. “It’s remark
able to me that the HMOs don’t
want to release information
they give to the Insurance De
partment in their own defense.”
The ruling has put the Insur
ance Department in an awkward
position as well. Ann Bright, an
attorney for the agency, said of
ficials there are “trying to keep
this information public,” as they
do with all records relating to
formal grievances against auto
mobile, life and health insur
ance companies.
“But we can’t just completely
thumb our nose at the attorney
general’s office,” Bright said.
op mutations andi|
hack, impervious to liL
per in n.i\ this is the:}!
reason treatment fait'
ply cannot sticktorej:
quire downing fouri :'f
once, three timesad;
“The goal is togei s
twice a day and tog 16
of pills down substar
1 miiin I mini ofMer t 01
" l his will makeiteas re g l J
i<> adhere to lifelong! ^ ect |
Several twice-a-i
lions were presented ,r > Si l
mg. and evidena nse
tiles \\(hk just aswet len L[
medicines threetimes^UI
Attempts at sta ; h' s i
out on the standard! :a ^-
then c utting back1lei
have not worked.D '’ re f ( l
meeting say the \ lei y|
emei'n probablyf: iatl( '
dormant cells where
from the drugs’effec
Eleven AIDS drug;
market, and theyfeDc
gories — the proteagfflj
such as Merck’s '
Agouron Pharmacet
the nucleoside anak
ry that includes died
such as AZT andSTC
nucleoside analogues
nucleoside analogues!!
duct ion ofanessentialp
reverse transcriptase.
0
L<
Hepatif
cases otn
rise inli
cas I (
SAN ANTONIO for J
of hepatitis A are: dGiil
and health officials Keitl!
ImTy |hi//led In : (tura [
cases in Bexar CoiiAughl
past two years. itplal
Hexai ( ounty repi od ti:
()! hepatitis \ Iasi yea ‘‘We
in 1996 and 140 in I'orni:
to a new report from Tunc
it an I lealth District, re h<
More than one# vas l J
es last year were incr. w pec]
and younger, and hail: The
pie 17 and younger :h av\
1 lepatitis A, a viral icar.j
spreads through oral tstai
infected fecal materia Buhl]
Improper liandwai izos ’
apering is a majorcai phon
protected sex. Contaa es m j
and water are otherso: fun
Although the state rt the]
for 1997 is incomplete. “ThN
about 4,026 cases ofteying,
from 3,460 in 1996. ihec <
Medical officialsss ^e a <
single cause for theirilacts
two leadi ng risk factors abou]
A exist in San Antonio. Cool,
One is interoatiAcecuj
with many caseslinkdhean
to Mexico, said Rogei'tsthc
h e alt h d i strict epidetffTh c
formal discussionsw j in u
health officials have ing tc]
similar rise in hepatf tos<
across the border. dwh|
“When they experl;
crease, we experience
Sanchez said in Wed®
Antonio Express-New
Unprotected sex 1
males is another majoii
San Antonio has seen*!
patitis cases in.thega) ,( j
ty, Sanchez said. More"
fourth of the cases we : :ive
ages 18 and 32, while qci, ]
of all cases were men
>nha
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