Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1994 09:28:01 -0400 (EDT) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary August 09, 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 ************************************************************ "FDA Approves Drug ddC as Single AIDS Treatment" "FDA Approves AZT for AIDS Pregnant Women" "New Variants of AIDS Virus Found That Aren't Detected by Some Tests" "Some Live Long-Term With HIV" "Educating Elderly on AIDS" "World AIDS Conference Concentrates on Prevention" "Old Drugs May Have Value Against AIDS" "Medarex Bispecific Neutralizes Broad Variety of Clinical HIV Strains" "Registration Lags for Japan's AIDS Meeting" ************************************************************ "FDA Approves Drug ddC as Single AIDS Treatment" Philadelphia Inquirer (08/09/94) P. A10 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted marketing approval for zalcitabine, or ddC, as a single-drug treatment for HIV infection. The drug is sold under the brand name HIVID by Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. HIVID previously was approved only for use in combination with Burroughs Wellcome Co.'s AZT drug. Now, HIVID can be prescribed for adults with advanced HIV disease whose condition has progressed while taking AZT, and for adult HIV patients who cannot tolerate AZT. Related Stories: Washington Times (08/09) P. A10; Investor's Business Daily (08/09) P. A1 "FDA Approves AZT for AIDS Pregnant Women" Reuters (08/09/94) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the antiviral drug zidovudine (AZT) for use in preventing maternal-infant transmission of HIV. The drug, manufactured by Burroughs Wellcome Co., is now recommended as part of a regimen that includes oral AZT beginning 14 to 34 weeks after gestation, intravenous administration during labor, and an AZT syrup given to newborns. The agency said approval of the drug was based on the results of a federally funded study, which found that the rate of mother-infant HIV transmission was slashed by about two-thirds among women who were treated with AZT. "New Variants of AIDS Virus Found That Aren't Detected by Some Tests" Wall Street Journal (08/09/94) P. B8; Hamilton, David P. Researchers at the 10th International Conference on AIDS reported the discovery of several new strains of HIV, known as HIV-1 subtype O, which can elude detection by some commonly used blood tests. The new viruses are genetically different from more well-known strains of the virus, so they sometimes are not detected by commercially available blood tests. The researchers emphasized, however, that the viruses do not compromise the safety of the blood supply. There are still several tests that are able to detect subtype O, they said, and tests that cannot have been plucked from the market or are being modified so that they can detect the new strains. The O-type viruses are rare--even in the African nations of Cameroon and Guinea where they are thought to be most common--but they are yet another example of how HIV's genetic variability produces problems for AIDS scientists. Related Stories: New York Times (08/09) P. C11; Baltimore Sun (08/09) P. 11A "Some Live Long-Term With HIV" USA Today (08/09/94) P. 1A; Levy, Doug HIV infection may not always be a "death sentence," according to Dr. Susan Buchbinder, a researcher whose study includes infected men who remain healthy after more than 15 years. Buchbinder, of the San Francisco Public Health Department, studied 601 HIV-positive gay men since 1979--seven percent of whom had nearly normal immune system cell counts and remained healthy in 1994. She and other scientists are trying to learn what makes these survivors different from an average person who contracts HIV, and then develops AIDS in eight to 10 years. The men in the study tend to eat well, exercise, and practice stress-reduction techniques, but other than those factors, the study has yet to identify reasons why these men have remained healthy. "Educating Elderly on AIDS" New York Times (08/09/94) P. A14 AIDS patients over age 60 comprise a small--and largely ignored--fraction of the total AIDS population, accounting for three percent of nationwide cases reported through 1993. That number, however, is increasing at a swifter rate than among other age groups, health officials report. According to Dr. William Adler of the National Institute on Aging, the number of new AIDS cases fell three percent among patients under age 30, but leapt 17 percent among elderly patients. Gay male sex is the primary mode of transmission among this group, but an increasing number of cases are the result of heterosexual sex--particularly among widowed men who visit prostitutes. In response to AIDS among the elderly, educators are campaigning to reach older people--particularly in South Florida, which includes a large retirement population. They are also educating physicians, who sometimes dismiss AIDS symptoms as common signs of aging. "World AIDS Conference Concentrates on Prevention" Washington Times (08/09/94) P. A13; Witter, Willis Despite more than a decade of research and the billions of dollars spent on prevention, a record 6,000 people acquire HIV each day, Dr. Michael Merson of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS told more than 10,000 experts attending the 10th International Conference on AIDS. The agency predicts that the number of infections will more than double in the next six years, most of them in Asia. Given the grim forecast, the focus of the summit shifted to prevention--the only effective strategy for halting the disease. Merson urged Asian leaders, whose countries' AIDS efforts are plagued by social and cultural barriers, to "Do whatever you need to overcome denial and fight discrimination. Provide your most vulnerable citizens the information and means, including condoms, to protect themselves." Related Story: USA Today (08/09) P. 1D "Old Drugs May Have Value Against AIDS" United Press International (08/08/94); Kelly, Janis At the Tenth International Conference on AIDS, Dr. Robert Gallo from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, Dr. Jay Levy from the University of California, and Dr. Luc Montagnier of France's Institut Pasteur all recommended the study of "old" drugs as potential treatments for the AIDS virus. Gallo urged the study of a hormone associated with pregnancy (human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG) because it may suppress Kaposi's sarcoma. Levy and Gallo both advocated testing anti-AIDS drugs with older drugs, saying that the combination of the anti-AIDS drug ddI with hydroxyurea (HU) is 10 times more effective than ddI alone. Montagnier also encouraged the study of antioxidants, because people infected with HIV appear to have problems handling "oxidative stress," which causes a shortage in the supply of certain chemicals needed by white blood cells. "Medarex Bispecific Neutralizes Broad Variety of Clinical HIV Strains" HealthWire (08/08/94) Scientific collaborators of Medarex, Inc. announced on Monday the results of their study with Dr. Herve Raoul, Dr. Aloise Mabondzo, and colleagues in the laboratory of Professor Dominique Dormont of the Laboratoire de Neuropathologie Experimentale et Neurovirologie of C.E.A. in France. The results, presented at the Tenth International Conference on AIDS in Yokohama, Japan, showed that MDX-240, the company's Bispecific antibody product for AIDS, neutralizes infection of CD4 positive immune cells by clinical isolates--strains of HIV taken from infected patients. On August 3, Medarex announced the enrollment of subjects for Phase I/II clinical trials of MDX-240 to take place at two university hospitals in Europe. Medarex is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in treatments that enhance the body's natural immune system. "Registration Lags for Japan's AIDS Meeting" Science (07/29/94) Vol. 265, No. 5172, P. 595 It appears that the 10th annual AIDS conference taking place Aug. 7-12 in Yokahama, Japan, will be less populous than ones held in recent years. At the end of July, not even 6,000 had registered--compared to the 14,000 people who participated at last year's conference in Berlin. The downturn in attendance is especially noticeable in representation from the United States. American registrants, who have previously accounted for about one-third of crowd, totaled only about 1,000 when Science went to press. The decline in attendance can be attributed to the cost of traveling to Japan and the dollar's weakness against the yen, say researchers.