Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995                   TAG: 9508110070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN THE NATION

SAN FRANCISCO - Jerry Garcia, 53, was reportedly trying to kick a recurring heroin habit when he checked into a drug rehab center two days before his death.

The leader of the Grateful Dead, who once called heroin ``the perfect comfort drug,'' was found dead Wednesday at Serenity Knolls, a Marin County rehab center.

Dennis McNally, the band's publicist, said Garcia died of a heart attack.

However, the cause will not be confirmed until after toxicology test results, which could take two weeks, Marin County coroner's investigator Gary Erickson said Thursday. The coroner's early findings indicate that Garcia died from natural causes.

- Associated Press

Blood banks told to use new test

WASHINGTON - The government has told blood banks to begin using a new test to screen for the AIDS virus.

The first of the new Food and Drug Administration recommendations concern a test for HIV, the AIDS virus, that is nearing the market.

Currently, blood donors are tested for an immune reaction to HIV, but it can take up to 25 days after HIV infection for that reaction to occur. Colter Corp. of Miami has created a test that will detect the virus itself about six days earlier, and the FDA said it is just about to approve the test as soon as some details are worked out.

Meanwhile, the FDA wrote the American Red Cross and other blood centers this week that they should be ready to begin using the new tests within three months of their sale.

- Associated Press

Poll endorses a Powell campaign

WASHINGTON - Gen. Colin Powell, whose politics remain unknown, nevertheless scored high in a U.S. News & World Report poll. It suggests 46 percent of voters think he should run for president.

Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has neither disclosed a party preference nor given any indication whether he will make a run for the presidency. He's saving such news for a September book tour.

``If Powell were to enter the Republican presidential primary, the poll shows that likely votes for Sen. Bob Dole among Republicans would drop from 67 percent to 43 percent,'' the magazine says in the issue that will be on stands Monday. ``Twenty percent of American say they would vote for Powell no matter who ran against him.''

- Associated Press