CHICAGO — Alleging that ads for the impotence pill Viagra encourage recreational use of the drug, a top AIDS advocacy and treatment organization last week asked the drug’s maker to pull the New Year’s Eve advertisements, Reuters reported. In the full-page ad that ran in the Dec. 29 Wall Street Journal, a smiling gray-haired man asks, “What are you doing on New Year’s Eve?” The ad states, “Fact: Viagra can help guys with all degrees of erectile dysfunction — from mild to severe.” The AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles alleged the ads promote Viagra as a party drug and encourage risky sexual behavior. “Not only does sending this reckless message contribute to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but it is also part of a pattern of irresponsible direct-to-consumer advertising by the drug industry,” Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDs group, said in a statement. Pfizer officials were unavailable for comment.

British government bans ‘special K’ for recreational use

LONDON — After gaining popularity in Europe and the U.S. as a recreational drug, Ketamine joins the British government’s list of controlled substances as of Jan. 1, Reuters reported. An animal anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, the drug, also known as “K” or “special K,” was used on the battlefield in Vietnam. Under new British law, Ketamine joins cannabis, anabolic steroids and similar substances as a Class C drug. Anyone convicted of possessing such a drug may receive up to two years in jail; those convicted of supplying it can face up to 14 years. First popular in gay nightclubs, use of the drug more recently spread to a wider group of partiers, officials said. “Although Ketamine use is relatively low in the UK, there has been an increase use by clubbers in recent years,” Home Office minister Paul Goggins told reporters.

Study finds tired immune cells can re-energize

ATLANTA — When immune cells tire while fighting chronic viral infection, they can reenergize, and new research shows how they do it, UPI reported. Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Emory University said CD8 T cells eventually become “exhausted” as they battle persistent infection and thus are less effective in fighting the disease. But researchers traced the problem to a gene that turns off the infection-fighting drive of such cells in mice. Scientists said they found a gene that is much more active in the exhausted cells, raising the possibility that the exhaustion could be reversed in humans to recharge the immune system’s defenses against chronic viral infections ranging from hepatitis to HIV.

Ill. drops code system to track HIV by names

CHICAGO — State public health officials insist that confidentiality will remain intact as Illinois begins tracking HIV among its residents by using their names, rather than the anonymous code-based system previously employed, the Chicago Tribune reported. People who get an anonymous HIV test still will receive results via an assigned number. But when people who test positive go to a doctor or hospital for care, their names will be reported by the provider to local health officials. Without the change, the state faced the loss of vital federal funds, so AIDS activists say they are resigned to name-based reporting. But some fear that the revised system will discourage some people from seeking early treatment, which is most successful.

N.Y. group focuses on lesbian cancer survivors

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The only group of its kind in New York City, the Lesbian Cancer Initiative recently ended its first two months of sessions. The group is debuting at a time when more health officials are investigating whether lesbians have a higher risk for developing cancer than their heterosexual counterparts. The National Cancer Institute reported more than a decade ago that lesbians have two- to three-times the risk of breast cancer as other women. The difference was blamed partly on bad habits such as obesity, drinking and smoking, and partly on science: Lesbians are less likely than other women to bear children or take the pill, both interruptions of the body’s estrogen production and therefore believed to decrease the risk of cervical and breast cancer.

From staff and wire reports