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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2000)
NAT ION Paee 12 THE BATTALION ^ Ty— —— ^ February 2,. Oral sex more dangerous than previously thought SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Oral sex, long re garded by many gay men as a low-risk practice, ap pears to be a surprisingly frequent way of spread ing AIDS. A study released Tuesday found that oral sex was probably the cause of eight percent of recent HIV infections among a group of homosexual men ex amined in San Francisco. In the past, there have been occasional reports of people apparently catching HIV orally. But health investigators have had difficulty being certain, since gay men who have oral sex also may engage in oth er, riskier sex practices, such as anal intercourse. Now diagnostic tests allow doctors to narrow down the timing of HIV infections. They wereusedy in the latest study, described as the most definitive on the subject to date. The work was conducted by the Centers for Dis ease Control (CDC) and Prevention and the Uni versity of California at San Francisco, and was pre sented in San Francisco at a scientific conference. “While oral sex may still be safer than anal in tercourse or vaginal intercourse, it is not without risk and perhaps has higher risk than we would have ex pected otherwise,” Dr. Helene Gayle, the CDC’s AIDS chief, said. The researchers sought to leam the means of infection in 102 gay and bisexual men who had recent ly caught HIV. When all other possible means of infection were ruled out, oral sex turned out to be the only risk behav ior in eight of these men. Most of them said they thought oral sex had little or no risk. Because of the strict criteria used, the real num ber of cases resulting from oral sex may actually have been higher. For instance, two men said they had oral sex but not anal sex. But they also said they had blacked out once and could not be sure what had happened, so they were excluded from the total. All of the men apparent ly caught the virus by giving oral sex, rather than re ceiving it, and none used con doms. “We know that the only safe sex is total abstinence or sex with a mu tually monogamous, non-HIV-infected partner." Gayle said. “Everything else has some degree of risk. The sense that oral sex is safe sex may have been an unfortunate message.” Gayle said she assumes that the risk of oral m:\ when properly using a condom is close to zero. She also said that if oral sex alone has played a large role in the spread of AIDS, that would al ready have become obvi&us during the 20 years ol the epidemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Insti tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that some gay men turned to frequent unprotected oral sex alter giving up anal intercourse. “A lot of us in the public health field have been saying all along to be careful of unprotected fella tio.” he said. "People think the risk is loss, but what’s low?” Dr. Frederick M. Hecht of San Francisco Gen eral 1 lospital. a co-author of the studs, said anal in tercourse may be 100 times riskier than oral sex "The message is not that every one will get infected through oral sex,” he said. Because of declines in unprotected anal inter course, there has been a big reduction in high-risk exposure, I lechl said, but there is still plenty of low - risk exposure through oral sex vsithout condoms. "While oral sex may still be safer than anal intercourse or vaginal in tercourse, it is not without risk and perhaps has higher risk than we would have expected otherwise." — Dr. Helene Gayle CDC's AIDS chief News in Brief Tuesday the number of charges from the military i Motorist rescued from avalanche ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Nine motorists were rescued by a state police helicopter Tuesday after spending the night in their cars, trapped by huge avalanches that buried a highway. The travelers, who had kept in touch with rescuers by cellular phone as they waited along the Seward Highway, were flown out in three groups and taken to a diner for break fast. They were in good condition. “We ate everything they had in the restaurant, and now we’re starting all over again,” Darwin Peterson said. “I told my wife when we get back home, I’m not going as far as the post of fice for the rest of the winter.” Some of the people wrapped up for the night in sleeping bags, while others were in a van that had a propane heater. They spent the time playing cribbage, getting acquainted and talking to troopers by phone. Most Alaskans carry warm cloth ing, sleeping bags and survival gear when they travel long distances in the winter. Blizzard conditions has prevented rescuers from dropping supplies such as food and blankets overnight, when temperatures dipped into the low teens. The rescuers had to wait for the weather to clear to reach the motorists. Coal train derails killing 15-year-old BLOOMINGTON, Md. (AP) — A CSX coal train was running downhill at more than twice the recom mended speed when it derailed and crashed into a house at about 55 mph, killing a 15-year-old boy, a fed eral investigator said Monday. Investigators will interview crew members and use computer simu lation to determine why the 80-car train was going so fast Sunday and what caused the derailment, Rus sell Quimby, a rail safety engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, said. He said the investigation will fo cus on the three-member crew, weather conditions and possible brake failure or other mechanical problems. It was snowing early Sunday morning when 76 coal hoppers de railed along 2.4 miles of track near the Maryland-West Virginia border, about 130 miles west of Baltimore. The stretch has a recommended speed of 25 mph, Quimby said. Military training for gay policy approved WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, the nation’s military ser vices have written guidelines to en sure that the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays is im plemented fairly and uniformly. Defense Secretary William Co hen said Tuesday he has approved new training pro grams for each of the services, including guide lines for investi gating harass ment or threats against individu als based on al legations of ho- william COHEN mosexuality. defense secretary As a matter of policy, comman ders are not to use complaints of such harassment or threats as a reason to investigate the com plaining person but is supposed to investigate the source of the threat or harassment. “These plans make it very clear ... that there is no room for ha rassment or threats in the military," Cohen said in a written statement. The Pentagon also announced fiscal year ended last Sept. 30 fell to 1,034 from 1,145 in the year-earlier period. Spokesperson Kenneth Bacon said 83.5 percent of discharges resulted from statements by ser vice members that they were ho mosexual. Under the Clinton administra tion’s policy, gays may serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation to themselves. If they state that they are homosexu al. they are supposed to be removed from the service. Cohen instructed the services to develop new training guidelines last December amid widening criticism that administration policy on gays in the military was not working. The criticism sharpened after a court-martial in which an Army pri vate was convicted of murdering a gay soldier harassed with the knowledge of his superiors. 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For more complete information about Fidelity mutual funds or any option available through the plan, including fees and expenses, call or write Fidelity for free prospectuses. Read them carefully before you make your investment choice. Fidelity Investments O n Dec. 13, after tearinj through hal China like the pirn bial bull in a shop. Imperial Japanese Army captured the of Nanking and bei three* months of loc rape, torture and m murder. The massa 32,000 and 369,00 agenda of who one In a perfect woi wearing a white ha any discussion oft spectacularly knov has reached levels perhaps only by th The Japanese gove downplayed all Ja] while the Chinese have supported the Perhaps most e insistence of man) including figures; Ishihara, governor no massacre at Nanking at all. Tlie lies on both sides must stop before history is doomed to bear the repetition of these crimes. I he efforts of the Chinese to memorialize the dead of Nanking (and more impor tantly for the Chinese, to blame deaths) are being of otherw ise repul ly high death tolls ures like this are a can he kindly lain, better description “biased" or perha : The Chinese a the official Allied The Allies counte highly suspect soi |f For example,; the banks of the \ sur\ Ivor Lu Su at a local peasant, re were bound in pa machine-gunned, and then set on fn hid in a cave, whi count. The fact th couni that well th jured and on the r to trust his numbi plagued by simik ami the Chinese I face value. Fidelity Investments Tax-Exempt Services Company A division of Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc. 82 Devonshire Street, Boston, MA 02109 1 A relief organ said it buried 110 month period. In this time, they cL J.403b-TEXAM PERF-0100 105,000 victims. would have had t ^ 2i 95090