AIDS Daily Summary December 7, 1993 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1993, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD "AIDS in Children" Washington Post (Health) (12/07/93) P. 9 (Evans, Sandra) Despite two rare cases of HIV transmission between children that surfaced last weekend, public health officials are reassuring parents that youngsters are at virtually no risk of contracting AIDS from contact with infected playmates at day-care centers or schools. This type of transmission is "a chance of one in hundreds of thousands or one in a million," calculates Donald T. Dubin, one of six New Jersey researchers who reported one of the cases. Another, Lawrence D. Frenkel, agrees. "We do not think there is any reason to have increased concern from school contacts in day-care settings ..." he says. "There is no need to panic." Still, health officials are emphasizing the need for institutions to follow recommended safety guidelines, such as wearing disposable rubber gloves when diapering children, treating nosebleeds, or bandaging scraped skin and routinely cleaning soiled surfaces with disinfectants and disposable towels. Early in the AIDS epidemic, there was debate over the treatment of infected children. Attempts by parents and officials to bar these youngsters from schools and day-care facilities were often successful. Health authorities argued that transmission was difficult and risks could be controlled in school settings. The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 dictates that AIDS-infected children today cannot be kept out of schools simply because they are infected. "Life-Or-Death Matter for Man With AIDS" USA Today (12/07/93) P. 7D Although the Food and Drug Administration says it has no intention of taking away vitamin supplements, Fred Bingham and other AIDS patients are wary. Bingham began taking megadoses of antioxidant vitamins, amino acids, and herbs to try to combat his condition. Today, he says his immune system is stabilized. Founder of Direct AIDS Alternative Information Resources, a vitamin-buying group in New York, Bingham believes the supplement industry is in need of regulation. And, even though more research is needed, he feels some supplement claims should be permitted. "It's an American's right to choose what type of health care they want," he declares. But Bingham thinks the FDA has an "institutional bias" against supplements, particularly when they are used for alternative purposes. Michael Taylor of the FDA reassures that it is not the wish of his agency to take these products away from users. "I know there are people who distrust us, but the specter that has been raised is just not true," says Taylor. The agency has listed some safety concerns about some of the supplement products, but he says most of these can be addressed by affixing warning labels. "We believe manufacturers who want to market products should have to support their claims," admits Taylor, but adds that consumers should not be concerned about FDA restricting access. "French Premier Pledges More Funds to Fight AIDS" Reuters (12/06/93) Paris--"More means must be given to research. The government is making a staunch commitment to this end," vowed Prime Minister Edouard Balladur as he pledged more money to help combat AIDS in France, the European country with the highest incidence of the disease. The French government this year earmarked an additional $20.5 million for experimental purposes, a fourth of which has been designated expressly for AIDS, said Balladur. Also, money for publicity campaigns targeting young people would be doubled from $1.02 million to $2.05 million, he said. In France, 15 people die from AIDS every day. Approximately 110,000 people in the country are infected with the AIDS virus. "Ceremony to Commemorate the First Licensed Board and Care Residence Facility for Homeless People Disabled by AIDS" Business Wire (12/06/93) A renovation ceremony on Tuesday afternoon will kick off the conversion of one of San Francisco's oldest homes into the first licensed board and care residence facility for homeless people infected with the AIDS virus. The Richard M. Cohen Residence, a $700,000, 10-bedroom facility, will cater to people who are not in need of a medical institution, but are too ill from dementia or physical disabilities to live alone. The building will be staffed around the clock, and will be rent-subsidized and wheelchair-accessible. Funds to purchase, renovate, and furnish the residence were generated by the Richard M. Cohen Trust, the Department of Housing & Urban Development, San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and Dolores Street Community Services, a non-profit organization, among others. "AIDS Therapy" Associated Press (12/04/93) (Recer, Paul) Bethesda, Md.--A panel of experts who advise the National Institutes of Health has approved an experiment using a vaccine made from an altered mouse virus to boost resistance to the AIDS virus in human patients. The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, which evaluates experimental human therapy proposals that use manipulated genes, gave the green light to test the vaccine on 20 human subjects. The experiment must now be approved by the directors of NIH and the Food and Drug Administration before it can be conducted. The lead researcher of the project, Dr. Richard Haubrich of the University of California at San Diego, said the vaccine is the first to use HIV genes to trigger action by the body's T lymphocytes, the "killer" cells of the immune system. The experimental vaccine is made from a non-infected mouse virus that has been modified to include two harmless genes from HIV. The virus would be injected into patients, where it would infect cells near the injection site. This delivers the HIV genes to the cell interior, where they command the cell to manufacture a protein normally found on the surface of HIV. The immune system will sense this process as a foreign invasion and cause the T lymphocyte killer cells to seek out and destroy all cells containing HIV genes. Haubrich expects the experiment to get underway in the spring. "India Faces AIDS Explosion" Reuters (12/01/93) (Balachandran, P. P.) New Delhi--The AIDS virus is spreading so rapidly in India that "in a year India will have the highest number of HIV cases in the world," warned leading activist Ishwar Gilada, founder of the Indian Health Organization, which is at the forefront of the anti-AIDS battle in India. Gilada predicted that the number of infections could skyrocket to between 30 and 50 million by the end of the decade. The major problem in India appears to be the lack of awareness of AIDS. Over 70 percent of HIV infections are transmitted through sexual intercourse, and the majority of the infected persons are prostitutes in the big cities. Despite intense information campaigns, said Gilada, most prostitutes do not realize the risks of unsafe sex. Many still accept the refusal of customers to use condoms because they fear rejection if they insist on protection, he said. In addition, activists complain that socially conservative Indians are reluctant to discuss AIDS publicly because sex is a sensitive subject to them. Other HIV and AIDS carriers--mainly drug addicts--can be found in the illegal drug area of the Golden Triangle, the region where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet. Activists say that AIDS is still not a priority for government. "Good (Hidden) News About the AIDS Epidemic" Wall Street Journal (12/02/93) P. A14 (Root-Bernstein, Robert S.) The latest AIDS statistics reported by the Centers for Disease Control are odd--nearly indecipherable, and Robert S. Root-Bernstein, author of "Rethinking AIDS," is beginning to think that it is intended to be that way. The CDC confirmed 85,526 new AIDS cases between January and September of this year--a 41 percent increase for the same period last year. The first impression is that the crisis is still snowballing. But the CDC stresses that this large increase is primarily due to a new, vastly expanded AIDS definition implemented at the beginning of the year. The adjustment was expected to more than double the number of reported cases, and it did. But, says Ross-Bernstein, if the number was going to double and if AIDS continued to grow at its normal rate too, the total number should not be 41 percent greater than last year's totals, but more than 100 percent higher. So, queries Ross-Bernstein, is the number of cases skyrocketing, or is it actually decreasing drastically, and why the misleading statistics? He speculates that maybe the CDC does not want anyone to realize what some statisticians have been predicting for years: that AIDS peaked in America between 1989 and 1992, and is now on the decline. Or, he says, perhaps the people most susceptible to AIDS have already contracted it and the disease will now remain within high-risk groups. Another guess offered by Root-Bernstein is that the safe sex campaigns and needle exchange programs, combined with better health care, are paying off. If any of the possibilities is true, he wants only to know one thing: "Have we reached the stage in AIDS advocacy that we will mislead in order to succeed?" "Rock Star Elton John Opens AIDS Center in London" Reuters (11/30/93) London--On the eve of World AIDS Day, rock legend Elton John officially opened the Department of Sexual Health at King's College Hospital in London. Established a year-and-a-half ago, the center has treated 40,000 patients for sexually transmitted diseases, 10 percent of them for AIDS-related conditions. The 46-year-old John helped raise funds for the new center through the AIDS Crisis Trust charity. "Ireland's First Condom Ads Hit Airwaves" Washington Blade (11/19/93) Vol. 24, No. 49, P. 19 (van Hertum, Aras) Ireland's first condom ads debuted Nov. 10 on independent radio stations, reports the Associated Press. "As condoms have only recently become widely available in Ireland, our approach to advertising will, we hope, continue the process of normalizing condoms," said Peter Roach, a spokesperson for Durex, the company broadcasting the ads. Condoms previously had been available only from doctors and pharmacists, until May, when the Irish parliament approved the sale of condoms from vending machines. The state-operated radio and television network, however, continues to refuse to air condom ads, although it does run public service announcements promoting the effectiveness of condoms as a barrier against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. "AIDS and Sex" Futurist (11/93-12/93) Vol. 27, No. 6, P. 7 At the onset of the AIDS epidemic, very few nations conducted statistical research on sexual behavior, citing invasion of privacy as the basis for their rejection of the idea. In the past four years, however, research efforts have ballooned in the European Community, according to M. Hubert of the Center for Sociological Studies in Brussels. "Sexual Behavior and the Risks of HIV Infection" is a special program recently launched by the EC. This study of the years 1991-94 will attempt to link surveys conducted in different countries, and try to create a bridge between sociological and epidemiological information, explains Hubert. One obstacle facing the program is how to translate nuances of words and expressions used among different languages--especially when dealing with a highly emotional subject like sexuality. So far, researchers have concluded that differences in behavior are more dependent on whether the culture values romantic love more than the necessity of protection than they are on the level of knowledge about risks of infection.