Nushawn Williams guilty of exposing sex partners: Nushawn Williams has pleaded guilty to statutory rape and exposing young women to HIV. Traveling from New York City to upstate New York last year, he had traded drugs for unprotected sex with numerous women. When he was caught, the story made major headlines and has resulted in punitive legislation in a number of states.
Inventive new drug: All the current anti-HIV drugs work by interfering directly with HIV’s own enzymes used for reproduction. But in a completely new approach, an experimental drug called HE2000 will seek to tie up the human body’s energy-producing enzymes in the cells that HIV targets, in effect “starving” the virus. HE2000 doesn’t specifically attack HIV, so HIV is probably less able to mutate in order to resist the drug. Trials will begin soon, and Houston will be a test site. It’s one more way in which scientific creativity seeks an answer to AIDS.
Urban myth strikes again … and again: Two weeks ago this column addressed the current myth making the ‘Net rounds, in which someone gets stuck by a needle deliberately placed in a theatre seat. Since that column, I’ve received two more versions from Washington, D.C., and Dallas. Remember, folks, it’s just a tall tale — it isn’t actually happening!
–Sandy Bartlett, Community Information/Education Coordinator, AIDS Services of Austin
ASA Info Line: 458-AIDS, E-mail: ASA@fc.net
This article appears in March 26 • 1999 and March 26 • 1999 (Cover).