NEW Source, Issue 7, March 1992 Page: 3
7 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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N EW Surce
March 1992Tests for Neuropathy
by Matt Earnest
Dr. Joan C. Priestley is one of the most well-
respected and beloved of AIDS practitioners. In a
pamphlet on neuropathy, Dr. Priestley outlines a
series of tests that can (and should) be performed at
home in order to note the onset of peripheral
neuropathy (numbness in the extremeties - a common
symptom in HIV infection). The following tests
should be done on a weekly basis to make sure one is
not developing any peripheral neuropathy.
I. Sensation. Make sure your sense of touch is not
changing by thoroughly testing each arm, finger,
hand, foot, leg, and knee. Test the entire surface area
of each body part.
A. Light touch. Take a feather and brush
across all of the above mentioned areas. Take
note of your sensation.
B. Fine touch. Take a sharp object and poke
small circles in each area. Be careful not to
poke yourself too hard if you're using a pin.
Skewering yourself in one spot will just test
one nerve and will be unnecessarily painful.
C. Vibration. Strike a tuning fork against a
solid object and, while it is vibrating, place it
on the boney region behind the nail of each
great toe. Repeat the test with each ankle.
D. Strength. Have a friend push against your
out-spread fingers on each hand and also push
against your foot while you press your foot
against his hand. Note any decrease in
strength from the week before.
In all of these tests you are looking for any
changes in sensation or strength. Record your
observations carefully so you will remember your
results from one week to the next.
As mentioned above, neuropathy is fairly
common in HIV infection. Many associate it
exclusively with nucleoside analogues (AZT, ddC,
ddI), which, although an overdose of a nucleoside can
cause neuropathy, is not entirely correct. Anyone who
is HIV+ could experience neuropathy, so it is wise to
practice Dr. Priestley's home test series regularly."We don't have movie
theater...
by Matt Earnest
By now, everyone has heard of the tiny town
in East Texas with the HIV-infected high school stu-
dents. The town is called Bogata, and the high school
is called Riverside. Dona K. Spence, the AIDS coun-
selor who leaked the information, has been under se-
rious scrutiny ever since she disclosed that six of the
school's 197 students are HIV positive. Perhaps the
most difficult thing to swallow, especially if the alle-
gations are true, is that those figures are about seven
times higher than what is now believed to be the na-
tional infection rate.
Ms. Spence told The Dallas Morning News
that she is a scapegoat. One state health official
agreed, saying, "People just can't believe it. It's almost
like a denial deal; they feel like it just can't be so. They
just want to know for sure."
Many Bogata residents have made much of
the fact that Spence's own husband died of AIDS sev-
eral years ago, and of the fact that the day she dis-
closed the information, December 17, is the anniver-
sary of his death. From this they construe that Ms.
Spence must be a nutcase who enjoys lying about very
serious things and attempting to wreck people's lives.
Other residents believe her. One elderly
woman wasn't surprised by the thought of sexually
active teenagers at all. "We don't have a movie theater
in Bogata," she said. "There's not much else for the
kids to do unless they want to drive to another town."
The Texas Department of Health will soon re-
veal the results of an investigation of the Bogata case
that is concluding as we go to press. Ms. Spence wel-
comed the investigation. She holds to her statement
that all she was interested in doing was helping the
kids to get proper care, and helping the community to
realize that AIDS is not just in New York City and San
Francisco. "I wanted to... make sure ignorance didn't
conquer us, and HIV to be [sic] the tool that killed us
out of ignorance."3
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Dallas Buyer's Club. NEW Source, Issue 7, March 1992, periodical, March 1992; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc271483/m1/3/: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.