Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 09:37:07 -0400 (EDT) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 01/13 AIDS Daily Summary January 13, 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 1993, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD "Selling Safe Sex" Washington Post (01/13/94) P. C5 (Stepp, Laura Sessions) Confronted with the fact that young women are now the fastest-growing category of the AIDS population, safe-sex parties are gaining popularity in low-income communities across the nation. Sponsored by Planned Parenthood, they are designed to teach reproductive health and disease prevention to women over age 18, although young girls may attend with a parent's permission. The safe-sex parties emerged about five years ago in response to frustration that low-income women were not attending community health workshops, says Sherry Norfleet, education director of Planned Parenthood's southeast Virginia chapter. "If you can't get the people to come to you, you go to the people," she says. According to Hope Witter, who was appointed AIDS coordinator last May, many of the women who attend the safe-sex parties know alarmingly little about their own bodies but, in a familiar setting and surrounded by friends, they are comfortable enough to ask questions that they would probably not ask at a health clinic. A typical party would include discussions about first sexual experiences, a videotape on AIDS, instruction on how to sterilize needles, and a demonstration on how to put a condom on a man, as well as the distribution of pamphlets and condoms. Norfleet estimates that some 4,000 women in the Hampton/Newport News region have participated in safe-sex parties. Self-reporting surveys indicate that among those who participated in 1992, 45 percent said they discussed AIDS with their partners after the party; 40 percent reported using a condom all the time; and 28 percent said they underwent AIDS testing. The main cloud over the program is its cost of about $42,000 a year. "AIDS--Brain" Associated Press (01/12/94) New York--New evidence supports the theory that a single protein shed from the cells of HIV-infected human cells may damage brain cells, causing the impaired thinking and movement observed in some infected patients, report scientists. Strains of mice made to produce the protein gp120 in their brains displayed brain abnormalities similar to those found in humans infected with the AIDS virus, they say. The mice should be helpful in evaluating drugs to combat such damage from HIV, suggest the scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the University of California at San Diego, and the Boston University School of Medicine. Several drugs claim to reduce cell damage from gp120, and tests in humans are currently underway, according to Dr. Stuart Lipton of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "Thailand Could Top AIDS List in Eight Years" United Press International (01/12/94) Bangkok--Within the next eight years, Thailand will replace African countries at the top of the list of countries reporting the greatest number of AIDS cases, predicts Virasit Sithitrai, director of the Red Cross AIDS Project in Thailand. By that time, he speculates, Thailand will have more HIV carriers than any other country in the world, including those in Africa, where the disease is currently most prevalent. The official said that, among Thailand's 57 million people, there are between 600,000 and 800,000 HIV cases, and that the ratio of infected female to male patients is two to one. Virasit attributed the rise in infection to a general acceptance of promiscuity among the Thai population. The country's booming sex industry and intravenous drug use have also been blamed for the soaring AIDS rates, despite ambitious AIDS awareness programs. Virasit notes that the Red Cross is campaigning in some 2,000 schools throughout Thailand in an effort to change teen attitudes toward the epidemic, but says that television and radio campaigns aimed at curbing the spread of AIDS have been less successful than originally hoped. "Cancer, AIDS Drugs to Enter Latter-Stage Testing" United Press International (01/12/94) San Francisco--Liposome Co. Inc., a biotechnology firm based in Princeton, N.J., said it will initiate pivotal, latter-stage testing of three promising new drugs, two of which are for the treatment of AIDS-related conditions. One drug, ABLC, is a treatment for a variety of fungal infections, which have deadly potential among people with weakened immune systems, such as AIDS patients. Earlier trials concluded that ABLC is more effective and safer than currently available therapies. The other AIDS drug entering Phase III clinical trials is Maitec, a treatment for an incurable, lethal bacterial illness known as "MAI" infection that affects as many as half of all AIDS patients. Preliminary study results have demonstrated that Maitec reduces symptoms without toxicity. "Midler Raises $250,000 to Fight AIDS" Reuters (01/10/94) San Francisco--A Bette Midler concert on New Year's Eve in San Francisco generated $250,000 to benefit one of the city's AIDS service groups. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which raises 70 percent of its annual $7 million budget from private contributions, said that Midler's donation was the largest-ever from an individual artist from a San Francisco concert. Although several thousand tickets were sold to the show, 500 of them were sold at $500 each, and the proceeds were then given to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Midler said that she was happy to raise funds for the fight against AIDS. "New Year's Eve was one of the best nights of my life," she said. "HIV Contamination of Pollovaccines" Lancet (01/01/94) Vol. 343, No. 8888, P. 52 (Arya, Subhash) In criticism of Garrett et al.'s conclusions that poliovaccines are not the origin of the AIDS virus, Raphael Stricker and Blaine Elswood of the HemaCare Corporation point out that Garrett et al.'s results run contrary to previous studies which did, in fact, find SIV--the simian equivalent of HIV--in the kidneys of monkeys. This discrepancy, they say, emphasizes the subspecies variation of SIV infection in monkeys, and renders the results difficult to interpret with respect to poliovaccine production. Subhash Arya of the Centre for Logistical Research and Innovation in New Delhi, India, speculates that even though Garrett's lots of poliovaccines did not indicate the presence of HIV or SIV in batches distributed from 1975 to 1984, a similar negativity can still be established for poliovaccine batches distributed in the 1950s and 60s, even though vaccines have been exhausted. Arya points to slides of monkey tissue used in the pre-licensing era of live poliovaccines, which are still housed at such national control laboratories as the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, which was involved in such testing in the 1950s. "Fiery Entrance for HIV Co-Receptor" Lancet (Great Britain) (01/01/94) Vol. 343, No. 8888, P. 49 (Thompson, Clare) A new co-factor for HIV infection has surfaced, amid substantial controversy. Callebaut et al. claim that CD26, a cell-surface molecule, helps HIV enter T cells and macrophages by interacting with the V3 loop of HIV and initiating transduction signals through the cell. The co-factor, also known as depeptidyl IV (DPP IV), cleaves sequences at specific motifs--such as those found in the highly conserved V3 loops of HIV. Callebaut et al. base this theory on the fact that genetically engineered CD4 expressed on previously uninfected mouse cells caused the binding protein gp 120 to attach to the cell, but prevented the virus from entering. They describe an experiment in which mouse cells not expressing CD4 and CD26 were transfected with the genes from the molecules, then challenged with HIV. Cells expressing just one of the two molecules were found to be only "slightly infectable." Cells expressing both CD4 and CD26, however, produced at a least a 30-fold higher level of virus, according to the team. They also found that CD26 sequences are highly specific to species. If these results can be confirmed, a new drug could possibly be manufactured that would inhibit the specific sequence of the HIV V3 loop that interacts with HIV, thus preventing the virus from entering the cell. The results are still controversial, however, due to other scientists' identification of important flaws in design of the experiment, as well as the media hype surrounding the information's release. "HIV Disease in Print: Relationship in Crisis" Focus (12/93) Vol. 9, No. 1, P. 4 (Silven, David) Using data from discussions with gay men, interviews with health care and service providers, as well as his own psychotherapy case notes, Dennis Shelby presents "If a Partner Has AIDS: Guide to Clinical Intervention for Relationships in Crisis." Using true accounts of gay men whose lovers have AIDS, Shelby provides a cohesive description of the progression of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors over time. These emotions cover from the point at which a man begins to wonder whether his partner is infected, to the partner's death, on to the mourning process, and, finally, the surviving partner's efforts to get on with his life. The author goes beyond simple description of the stages of coping, as he attempts to incorporate broad clinical theories to explain the stages and to arrive at clinical interventions. Unfortunately, Shelby is unable to successfully and clearly link the connections between theory and intervention. Another shortcoming is the fact that all but three of the 32 men interviewed are white, and none have experienced dire financial difficulties. Therefore, the generalization of his findings to a more diverse population of gay men is at best speculative. Nonetheless, Shelby's book is useful in understanding how people cope with the reality of an infected lover. Gay men in this situation will find comfort and validation in this book, as professionals will be enlightened with knowledge that may enhance their abilities to offer clients support, information, and direction. It is in paperback copy, with 267 pages, for $14.95.