Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 11:31:56 -0500 From: "JOHN FANNING, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary December 19, 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 Virus Claims Fourth Dental Patient" "Man Claims He Uses Pot to Fight AIDS" "In the Name of AIDS Prevention, They Break the Law" "Health Journal: Embrace Risk Reduction" "AIDS Vaccine Tests Set for Thailand, Brazil" "200 Protest Church Ban on AIDS Victims" "Functional Association of Cyclophilin A with HIV-1 Virions" "Bacterium Guards against HIV" "The Brighton Conference and HIV Prevention" "Marked Man" ************************************************************ "AIDS Virus Claims Fourth Dental Patient" New York Times (12/19/94) P. A14 Barbara Webb, a retired schoolteacher whom medical experts believe became HIV-infected from a dentist, died of AIDS on Saturday. Webb was the fourth of Dr. David Acer's patients to die of the disease. She had joined Kimberly Bergalis--the first of Acer's patients to die from AIDS--in advocating the testing of health care workers. The only health professional known to have transmitted HIV to patients, Acer died of complications due to AIDS in 1990. Related Stories: Washington Post (12/19) P. B6; Washington Times (12/19) P. A6; USA Today (12/19) P. 3A "Man Claims He Uses Pot to Fight AIDS" Washington Times (12/19/94) P. C6 Jerome Mensch, a 43-year-old dairy farmer, will argue at a preliminary hearing today that he needs marijuana to help fight the effects of HIV. When Mensch was arrested in November 1993 for possession of marijuana, he told officers he needed the drug to combat the nausea and weight loss associated with his illness. His lawyer will present testimony showing that marijuana is the most effective medicine Mensch can find. To be allowed to use the defense, the lawyer must prove that his client's life is at risk, that there were no reasonable alternatives, and that the use of the drug is not disproportionate to his medical needs. Dr. Douglas Ward, who says he wishes he could prescribe marijuana to all his AIDS patients, says that he has seen an improvement in Mensch's condition since he began smoking the drug. "What it does is, it makes him better able to respond to other medications," said Ward. Mensch began using marijuana in 1992 after having taken AZT and another anti-viral drug--both of which caused symptoms such as numbness, diarrhea, nausea, and appetite loss. For Mensch, the marijuana has eliminated the nausea, helped him regain weight, and allowed him to return to working 15 hours a day on his farm. "In the Name of AIDS Prevention, They Break the Law" Philadelphia Inquirer (12/19/94) P. B2; Urgo, Jacqueline L. An unnamed underground effort in Atlantic City--illegal in New Jersey and eight other states--is geared toward preventing the spread of AIDS through the use of contaminated needles among intravenous drug addicts. As other organizations have done in the Northeast, the group last week began their needle distribution effort. The sale or possession of syringes without a prescription is illegal. The group roams the streets armed with plastic "works" bags--consisting of a syringe, a small bottle of bleach, alcohol swabs, condoms, and informational brochures. The members plan to go out on a weekly basis to build trust between the group and the drug community. Jon Stuen-Parker, founder of the Boston-based National AIDS Brigade--the nation's first needle exchange program--praised the group. "The laws that ban needle distribution were made before we had a problem with AIDS being spread by IV drug users," he said. "The laws will never change unless they are challenged." "Health Journal: Embrace Risk Reduction" Wall Street Journal (12/19/94) P. B1; Chase, Marilyn Among resolutions for a healthier 1995, health gurus hope for an AIDS vaccine. Until a safe, effective vaccine is developed, the most inexpensive, low-tech HIV barriers are condoms and needle-exchanges. They are not, however, broadly promoted because they are too controversial. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently joined others to call for sterile needles to slow the spread of HIV from addicts to their families. HIV prevention will require enormous acts of medical statesmanship. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop should be redrafted because Americans were never closer to consensus on issues such as sex, drugs, and death than when Koop was in charge. "AIDS Vaccine Tests Set for Thailand, Brazil" Boston Globe (12/17/94) P. 15 Newly appointed leader of the United Nations AIDS program, Dr. Peter Piot, announced on Friday that heterosexual male drug users in Thailand and homosexual men in Brazil will be the key volunteers of the first human tests of two AIDS vaccines. Women will also be included in the initial tests, particularly in northern Thailand. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently completed a master plan for the tests of two vaccines, said Piot. While other vaccines are being developed, they are still only in the laboratory or are being tested on animals and will not be tested on humans for years, he added. WHO said that the test groups were selected because they were very likely to be exposed to a strain of HIV for which a vaccine had been developed, and also because researchers could track them. Christopher Powell, spokesman for WHO's Global Program on AIDS, said that the vaccines to be tested, called GP-120, were safe to use on humans and had already been tested in small-scale trials in the United States and Europe. The vaccines, Powell said, produce a limited number of antibodies and do not have a long-lasting effect. "200 Protest Church Ban on AIDS Victims" Philadelphia Inquirer (12/17/94) P. B1; Macklin, William R. Approximately 200 people gathered outside the Old Ship of Zion church in North Philadelphia to protest it's ban on people with AIDS. The protesters denounced the pastor as "a fool," a "false prophet," and "an idiot." They also demanded that a sign warning visitors that "to join you must have had an AIDS test and it must come back negative" be removed. The controversy began two weeks ago when Philadelphia AIDS activist Dan Estes learned about the church during a meeting with other AIDS patients. He distributed a flier, which carried the words of the sign and called for a peaceful candle-lit vigil "in defense of the dignity and rights of people living with AIDS." When asked if he was aware that AIDS cannot be contracted through casual contact, Bishop Nathan Giddings laughed. "Scientists lie," he said, adding that AIDS patients should be happy to meet him "because I know how to cure AIDS: Repent and turn to the Lord." "Functional Association of Cyclophilin A with HIV-1 Virions" Nature (11/24/94) Vol. 372, No. 6504, P. 363; Thali, Markus; Bukovsky, Anatoly; Kondo, Eisaku et al Thali et al report that viral particles formed by HIV-1 Gag polyprotein p55(gag) contain significant amounts of cyclophilin A. Sequences in the capsid domain of p55(gag) are both necessary and adequate for the virion-association of cyclophilin A. Cyclosporin A, as well as SDZ NIM811 ([Melle-4]cyclosporin)--a non-immunosuppressive analogue of cyclosporin A, inhibited the association of cyclophilin A with HIV-1 virions in a dose-dependent manner. Drug-induced reductions in virion-associated cyclophilin A levels were accompanied by reductions in virion infectivity, which suggests that the correlation is functionally relevant. In addition, SDZ NIM811 inhibited the replication of HIV-1 but was inactive against SIV(MAC), a primate version of HIV which does not incorporate cyclophilin A. "Bacterium Guards against HIV" Science News (11/26/94) Vol. 146, No. 22, P. 360; Fackelmann, Kathy A. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are trying to convert the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes into an HIV vaccine. While L. monocytogenes can cause illness in people with unhealthy immune systems who eat contaminated food, HIV-infected people appear relatively resistant to the bug. It was discovered that when a specific HIV gene was injected into L. monocytogenes' chromosomes, the genetically engineered bacteria used the information encoded by the HIV gene to construct one of the virus' protein products. After studying mice injected with the transformed bacterium, the researchers believe that once the bacterium is established in a cell, it begins to produce the HIV protein. The cell would then recognize the foreign protein and bring it to the surface of the cell at the attention of killer T cells. Such a process, researchers hope, will yield protective immunity against HIV. "The Brighton Conference and HIV Prevention" Focus (11/94) Vol. 9, No. 12, P. 5; Marks, Robert The strongest presentations at the Conference on Biopsychosocial Aspects of HIV Infection focused on prevention strategies for gay men and drug users. In response to continuing relapse from safer sex, and the emergence of new populations who do not recognize their risk, researchers challenged assumptions about HIV prevention, especially in gay men. Citing four studies of gay men who had relapsed into unsafe sex, Ron Gold of Deakin University in Australia, found that many gay men have accepted the "safe sex culture;" that links to the gay community do not, however, encourage all men to do so; and that safe sex campaigns that emphasize information and exhortation are no longer useful. He concluded that directly targeting the arguments that some gay men use to "give themselves permission" when they participate in unsafe sex might lead to risk reduction. The session on alcohol, drugs, and unsafe sex among gay men accented the need for researchers and educators to be specific about the context in which a behavior--such as drug and alcohol use--occurs. It also might be effective to develop state-specific interventions--strategies that reach people when they are in the state they are usually in, sober or intoxicated, when they have sex. Finally, after studying injection drug users in Brooklyn, New York researcher Sam Friedman found that the shape and size of drug use networks played a major role in determining the extent of HIV infection in network members. "Marked Man" Advocate (11/29/94) No. 669, P. 6; Fuller, Matt Matt Fuller, a volunteer for the People With AIDS Coalition, describes his experiences after he had the words HIV-POSITIVE along with a pink triangle tattooed on his arm. The only time he says he felt threatened by someone's reaction to the tattoo was by a large man on a New York City subway. When Fuller responded affirmatively to the man's inquiry as to whether the tattoo was real, the man whispered, "Me too." One reason Fuller says he got the tattoo was to force people to face their own fears about AIDS. "I am less concerned with making others feel comfortable than I am with trying to save lives, including my own. If that makes people angry, upset, or confused, at least they are talking and thinking about AIDS," he writes.