NATION IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Heart Unit Amends Guidelines on CPR

The American Heart Assn. said it was amending its guidelines on CPR by offering an alternative for people afraid of catching AIDS through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Stressing that no one is known to have contracted AIDS through cardiopulmonary resuscitation and that the risk is “minimal,” the association’s Emergency Cardiac Care Committee said in a publication in Boston that some non-professionals trained in CPR may still be fearful. “As a minimum action . . . the lay rescuer should assess the victim’s responsiveness, call for help, position the victim, open the airway and, in the absence of a pulse, perform chest compressions,” the committee said in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.