Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 09:53:03 -0400 (EDT) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary April 21, 1994 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 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD "Aids Research Suffers Setbacks" Financial Times (04/21/94) P. 17; Griffith, Victoria The past year doled out disappointment and dashed hopes to AIDS patients and scientists. Harvard researchers admitted that positive data on a cocktail of AZT-like drugs was faulty. Merck, which was working with one of the most promising of a new class of AIDS drugs known as protease inhibitors, discovered that its product staved off HIV only for 12 to 24 weeks before succumbing to infection. U.S. biotechnology firm Chiron suspended research for its candidate AIDS vaccine pending government funding for large-scale trials. And, in the latest setback, the Concorde study on AZT concluded that the drug has no value for asymptomatic HIV patients. Scientists are concerned that continued disappointment will lead the private sector to invest less money into HIV research. There are other disincentives to private research, according to Myron Essex, chairman of the Harvard AIDS Institute. "There is evidence that the number of people with AIDS in developed countries may be plateauing and even decreasing," he notes. "Most new AIDS cases are in developing countries, which may not be able to afford treatment even if it were available. Pharmaceutical companies don't usually invest heavily in researching drugs for declining markets." "Hospital Advises 4,100 Adult Ex-Patients to Get AIDS Test" Toronto Globe and Mail (04/20/94) P. A7; Mickleburgh, Rod More and more Canadian hospitals are now taking the time-consuming and expensive initiative to notify patients who received blood transfusions from 1978 to 1985, the critical period before donated blood was screened for HIV. Sunnybrook Health Science Center in Toronto is believed to be the first hospital in the country to launch a program expressly for contacting adult patients who may have received contaminated blood. On Tuesday, the facility mailed out 4,100 registered letters informing patients that they received blood that was not tested for the virus. The letter recommends that the patients undergo AIDS testing, if they have not already done so. Several other hospitals earlier took steps to track children and neonatal patients who received blood transfusions before HIV testing of blood was instituted in 1985. Advocates of the more than 1,000 Canadians infected through tainted blood have long called for such measures but, until recently, hospitals have resisted. For years, they depended upon broadly based public awareness campaigns to urge those who received donated blood in the critical period to take an AIDS test. "We're observing more and more hospitals trying to do something," said Carol Clemenhagen, president of the Canadian Hospital Association. "I guess we're learning that some people do not respond to that approach [public awareness campaigns]." "California Public Schools Get High Marks for HIV/AIDS Prevention Training Programs" Business Wire (04/20/94) Despite the expense, parental objections, and lack of time and materials, California's public schools provide students with more than twice the minimum amount of time recommended for HIV/AIDS education, according to a study from the California School Boards Association. Currently, students receive close to 40 hours of HIV/AIDS instruction from kindergarten to 12th grade. "The number of teens who already have AIDS has increased by more than 70 percent in the past two years alone, and AIDS is now the sixth leading cause of death among youth ages 15-24," cited CSBA President Sherry Loofbourrow. "This survey was designed to determine what HIV/AIDS information was reaching our children. We're encouraged that school districts and school board members are not only focused on adhering to the law, they also care about protecting our students as well." The law to which Loofbourrow refers is Assembly Bill 11, effective as of January 1992, which presents specific curriculum components that must be addressed during HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Among those requirements are the nature of the disease and its effects on the body; transmission and risk factors; methods of avoiding infection--including abstinence and safe sex; HIV-related public health issues; societal stereotypes of HIV/AIDS; information concerning local resources for testing and care; and development of sexual activity refusal skills. "Therion Biologics Receives $5.0 Million Grant From NIAID" PR Newswire (04/20/94) The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded Therion Biologics Corporation a $5 million grant to further its AIDS vaccine development program. The funding is the continuation of a five-year grant previously awarded to the Cambridge, Mass.-based company by NIAID. "Therion's AIDS vaccine strategy is based on developing recombinant vaccines containing multiple HIV antigens," explained the company's president and chief executive officer, Dennis Panicali. "The grants will fund research aimed primarily at determining which HIV antigens are needed to trigger a protective immune response. This will help us design safe and potentially more effective AIDS vaccines." In March 1993, Therion exclusively licensed the rights to AIDS vaccines based on the live, attenuated (genetically deleted) viral technology from Harvard University. Dr. Ronald Desrosiers, a professor at Harvard's Medical School, also received a NIAID grant, in the amount of $6 million. The four-year grant will be used to advance research to develop and test AIDS vaccines based on live, attenuated viral vector technology. Desrosiers' group has developed a live, attenuated SIV, the simian version of HIV, as a prototype of an AIDS vaccine. This vaccine has produced the most enduring and most protective vaccine candidate tested in an animal model. "Roman Catholics Urged to Defend African Women" Reuters (04/20/94); Pullella, Philip Delegates at a Vatican synod on Africa urged the Roman Catholic church to take an aggressive stance against female circumcision and other practices they say reduce African women to second-class citizenship. The bishops were also informed by Kathryn Hauwa Hoomkwap, one of the few women to address the synod, that African women were bearing the brunt of the continent's AIDS epidemic, largely because they are married to unfaithful husbands. Two-thirds of AIDS patients in Africa are women, many of whom were infected by unfaithful husbands, said Hoomkwap. "We are worried about our women who are very faithful to their partners and yet contract this deadly disease," she said. According to World Health Organization estimates, nearly 10 million Africans have contracted HIV, out of a global total of 15 million. "CDC Study Launched to Track AIDS Treatment by Physicians" AIDS Alert (04/94) Vol. 9, No. 4, P. 62 In September 1993, researchers launched a three-year effort to better monitor the changes in HIV/AIDS treatments and the evolution of the epidemic. "Because we are getting better at long-term survival, we need to study the changing history of infections to better understand how to focus our resources in the future," explains Dr. Steven Marlowe, principal investigator of the study, which is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is the first study to look at a broad spectrum of HIV patients being cared for by infectious disease specialists in a private-practice setting." The first part of the study involves tracking 4,000 or so HIV patients for three years. The researchers are gathering data to monitor trends in prophylaxis, treatment of opportunistic infections, and outcomes of care. The second vein of the study, which began in early April, will monitor treatment and outcomes of patients with pneumocystic carinii pneumonia. Researchers hope to answer questions about trends in the epidemic, such as which treatments effectively prolong life. "The investigators also hope to unlock other AIDS mysteries, including which drug or drug combination is most efficient in managing severe AIDS-related conditions and at what phase in the disease HIV patients are most vulnerable to infections. "Madison Research Avenue" Advocate (04/19/94) No. 653, P. 29; Bull, Chris The Madison Project, a blue-ribbon panel of academicians, government officials, and private researchers dedicated to improving the nation's AIDS research effort, has submitted a preliminary report of recommendations to the Clinton administration. The report recommends creation of a task force to monitor testing of combination drug therapies; improvement of communication between government and private AIDS researchers through advanced telecommunications; development of multidisciplinary training programs for researchers; formation of a non governmental grant program to encourage innovative AIDS research; and the establishment of a library of AIDS-related scientific data. The most controversial proposal, however, advocates a pilot research program--with a $200 million annual budget--that would allow scientists to explore unusual avenues of research not pursued by the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health. While some insist that such a program would conflict with government research, Dr. Richard Marlink, executive director of Harvard University's AIDS institute, argues that it would supplement the NIH work. National AIDS Policy Coordinator Kristine Gebbie says the controversy reflects a larger disagreement about the state of AIDS research. "Some people think we are on the right track and say, 'Let's just let the NIH do its job,'" she says. "But others think we are in a state of emergency because nothing looks promising right now." "The Business Lessons of AIDS" Inc. (04/94) Vol. 16, No. 4, P. 29; Ehrenfeld, Tom A company's response to AIDS can reveal just as much the health of the company as can financial reports, says Inc. staff reporter Tom Ehrenfeld. One that already treats its employees well will respond compassionately to an employee with AIDS; those who do not, will not. The issue is caring, says Ehrenfeld. A case of AIDS in the workplace challenges some of the basic conceptions about what a company is all about, and allows one to check the firm's real "vital signs." For example, he notes, the extent to which an employee is knowledgeable about his company's AIDS policy can reveal the level of engagement that employee has in company programs in general. In addition, Ehrenfeld explains, the AIDS issue challenges a business' integrity by placing a new emphasis on sensitive issues like sexual preference or drug addiction. All employees, even those not concerned with AIDS, can look at how the company treats an infected employee, then make an educated guess at whether the company will respond with integrity to other issues, like cancer, drug addiction, or homosexuality. More importantly, Ehrenfeld says a firm's AIDS policy can reflect how it faces reality. A company that is aware of the statistics and prepared in the event that one of its own becomes infected is already ahead of its competitors. In conclusion, Ehrenfeld asserts that companies can assess their own identities by examining their response to AIDS. "Books: Art Official" Advocate (04/19/94) No. 653, P. 77; Brownworth, Victoria A. The particularly devastating effect of the AIDS epidemic on the arts profession has prompted many writers and visual artists to produce works that reflect the impact of AIDS on the arts as a whole. Thomas Avena--writer, interviewer, editor, and curator--has survived longer than any other person with AIDS in the United States. His survival and devotion to the arts are catalysts for "Life Sentences: Writers, Artists, and AIDS." The book is an attempt to define the link AIDS and the arts. Poets Essex Hemphill, William Dickey, and Thom Gunn contribute to the book, as do filmmaker Marlon Riggs, playwright Tony Kushner, and late writer Bo Huston, and it is their works which effectively show how AIDS has redefined the arts.