Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 11:06:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary June 30, 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 ************************************************************ "Followers of Indian Sex Guru Fear AIDS Not Future" "Cayman AIDS Treatment Exposed as Scam" "Indonesia Sets Up Commission to Fight AIDS" "Group Tackles Project to House AIDS Patients" "HemaCare and FDA Reach Accord on Virus Inactivation Studies Required for Immupath Clinical Trials" "VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Announces Johns Hopkins University to Begin Clinical Study with Hypericin" "AIDS Digest: ACT UP and NIH Meet to Discuss DNCB" "Critic Still Lays Blame for AIDS on Lifestyle, Not HIV" "The Role of State Health Departments in Formulating Policy: A Survey on the Case of AIDS" ************************************************************ "Followers of Indian Sex Guru Fear AIDS Not Future" Reuters (06/30/94); Manoharan, Moses Indian guru Bhagwan Rajneesh, or Osho, criticized religion and endorsed free sex to his worshipping followers. Now, four years after Osho's death, the fear of AIDS has lessened the frequency of orgies within his sprawling commune in the western Indian city of Pune. Poker-faced guards closely monitor the gate, allowing entry only to those carrying special passes that can be obtained only after testing HIV-negative. "You can now be part of the AIDS-Free Zone of the Commune," a commune pamphlet warns visitors. "But beware that you or any member of the commune may still be carrying the AIDS virus." The literature stresses the importance of avoiding oral and anal sex completely, as well as kissing. Local and commune doctors and health workers administer the AIDS test privately in a clinic located in front of the commune, and those diagnosed as virus-free are issued an entry pass. "Cayman AIDS Treatment Exposed as Scam" Reuters (06/29/94) Officials on the Cayman Islands in December quietly closed down a clinic offering a controversial AIDS treatment program because the treatment, available for the cost of $15,000, was approved by neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor medical regulators in the United Kingdom. Two little-known companies, Anti-Viral of America and a Cayman firm called International Laboratories Ltd., administered the treatment--a saline solution mixed with Vitamin C and colchichine, a drug used to treat gout. The solution is passed through an electric current that alters the salt in such a manner as to kill bacteria and virus, according to company literature. "It's a hoax," declared Dr. John Renner of the Consumer Health Information Research Institute in Kansas City, Mo. Recent newspaper accounts reported that the companies had advertised the treatment among American residents with AIDS, saying they could participate in a clinical trial for $15,000, and warning that the treatment "may be harmful and there could be complications." According to Renner, legitimate research programs do not charge fees. "Indonesia Sets Up Commission to Fight AIDS" Reuters (06/29/94) Confronted with explosive HIV growth, Indonesia will establish an inter-ministerial commission to coordinate the campaign against the disease. Involving at least nine ministers, the commissions will emphasize education and prevention, especially at the local level. Indonesia, home to 185 million people, last month confirmed that it had 263 documented HIV cases, but some ministers and health officials admitted that the actual figure could be 200 times higher. "Group Tackles Project to House AIDS Patients" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (06/27/94) P. 3B; Prost, Charlene A long-vacant landmark in the Central West End of St. Louis will reopen next year as a support residence for AIDS patients who are not sick enough to remain hospitalized, but are too sick to live alone. Doorways Interfaith Residence, a nonprofit group that provides housing for AIDS patients, plans to renovate the 99-year-old building to have 36 rooms with private baths. The residents will also have the benefit of a common kitchen where they will get needed food and nutritional supplements, laundry and housekeeping services, therapy, medications, and counseling, according to Lynn Cooper, Doorways' executive director. The organization says it can provide monthly support services at a cost that is less than a three-day hospital visit. It already has more than $1 million for the project, but needs much more. To raise money for furniture, supplies, and staff, Doorways is launching a "Brick by Brick" campaign, in which contributors can purchase bricks inscribed with names or messages in memory of those lost to AIDS. The bricks will then be used to pave a garden at the renovated building. "HemaCare and FDA Reach Accord on Virus Inactivation Studies Required for Immupath Clinical Trials" Business Wire (06/28/94) A barrier to clinical testing of anti-HIV hyperimmune plasma, Immupath, is close to being removed, according to the Food and Drug Administration and HemaCare Corp. While the FDA had not questioned the potential efficacy of Immupath in treating HIV, the agency was not convinced by HemaCare's virus-inactivation process used to prevent the possible transmission of HIV. The process had previously demonstrated its effectiveness, but in order to reconfirm the ability of the process to inactivate the virus, HemaCare agreed to undergo repeat studies involving the addition of greater amounts of HIV to normal plasma. With favorable completion of the study, the FDA indicated that it would lift the clinical hold on Immupath, and that Phase III trials could commence at that time. "VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Announces Johns Hopkins University to Begin Clinical Study with Hypericin" Business Wire (06/28/94) Johns Hopkins University was granted Institutional Review Board approval, and officially registered with the National Institutes of Health as the site of Phase I/II clinical trials for oral dosing of hypericin in HIV-positive volunteers. VIMRx is investigating the use of hypericin as a treatment for viral and retroviral diseases including HIV/AIDS, cytomegalovirus, dermatological disorders, and as an inactivator of viruses and retroviruses in blood collected for transfusions. "AIDS Digest: ACT UP and NIH Meet to Discuss DNCB" Washington Blade (06/24/94) Vol. 25, No. 26, P. 30; van Hertum, Aras Members of ACT UP/San Francisco met on June 8 with AIDS officials from the National Institutes of Health to discuss the experimental drug dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB), which some believe strengthens the immune system's defenses against opportunistic infections. Although the newsletter AIDS Treatment News claims the drug was so popular during the 1980s that it created a "social movement in the San Francisco area," there has been very little actual research on DNCB. "Critic Still Lays Blame for AIDS on Lifestyle, Not HIV" Nature (06/09/94) Vol. 369, No. 6480, P. 434; Dickson, David Kary Mullis, the California chemist who designed the polymerase chain reaction "HIV myth," contends that hemophiliacs who died of AIDS after receiving contaminated blood probably died of reasons unrelated to HIV exposure. In addition, he asserts, the deaths of HIV-positive children were caused by their regimen of AZT, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa was probably caused by malaria antibodies that resemble antibodies to AIDS. The only true cases of AIDS, according to Mullis, are in the large, gay communities like San Francisco and New York, and these probably stemmed from exposure to a great range of retroviruses through multiple contacts in bath houses. In fact, Mullis argues, HIV is not the probable source of AIDS, which he says is spread through the lungs, and not the genitals. Most members of the scientific community scornfully dismiss the Mullis camp's theories, but this does not appear to faze Mullis, who continues to spout his opinion despite complaints that his ideas are undermining the activities of AIDS health-workers around the country. "The Role of State Health Departments in Formulating Policy: A Survey on the Case of AIDS" American Journal of Public Health (06/94) Vol. 84, No. 6, P. 905; Robins, Leonard; Backstrom, Charles Public health departments have long been criticized for what is perceived as their failure to deal effectively with AIDS. To explore the attitudes and influence of public health officials on the epidemic, Robins and Backstrom surveyed state health department officials, state legislature health committee chairs, and hospital association directors and conducted interviews with key AIDS policymakers and observers in six states. They found that public health officials were considered to be the primary initiators of AIDS public policy--in their own eyes and in the eyes of legislative leaders and hospital association officials. Robins and Backstrom conclude that, contrary to the Institute of Medicine's 1988 report declaring the public health system to be in a state of disarray, state health departments are leaders in the fight against AIDS at the local level.