Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 09:19:33 -0500 (EST) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" Subject: CDC AIDS DAILY SUMMARY 03/25/94 AIDS Daily Summary March 25, 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 "BioChem Forms Partnership for AIDS Drug" Toronto Globe and Mail (03/24/94) P. B1; Gibbon, Ann Montreal-based BioChem Pharma Inc. and Glaxo Holdings PLC have formed an agreement with Britain's Wellcome PLC to sell Biochem's 3TC drug for the treatment of HIV infection. The move is engineered to take advantage of the large sales network Wellcome has already put in place for marketing of its own AIDS drug, AZT. Under the terms of the deal, Wellcome has the option to develop and sell 3TC, which is still being tested and has not been approved, everywhere but in Canada. Biochem will retain all rights to the drug in Canada, where the market for such therapies is estimated at up to $17 million a year. If Wellcome decides to exercise its option--depending on the results of clinical trials--it will market 3TC under a different brand name and pay royalties to Glaxo, which will pay royalties to Biochem. The partnership is the latest example of how major drug companies are beginning to collaborate rather than compete in the race to quickly market AIDS drugs. It follows a pact last spring in which the world's 15 largest pharmaceutical companies vowed to collaborate on clinical research for AIDS therapies. Related Story: Journal of Commerce (03/25) P. 6B "Man With AIDS Virus Gets 5 Life Terms in Rape Case" Los Angeles Times--Washington Edition (03/25/94) P. A5; Clary, Mike In what is believed to be the first American case in which a person was convicted of attempted murder for using HIV as a deadly weapon in a rape, 32-year-old Ignacio A. Perea Jr. was sentenced yesterday to five consecutive life terms. Perea, aware that he was infected with the deadly virus, kidnapped and raped an 11-year-old boy. The Miami man was convicted on Feb. 8 of kidnapping, lewd and lascivious assault, sexual battery, and attempted murder in a case that has broken new legal ground. "This is basically new terrain," said University of Miami law professor Bruce Winick. "It's not criminalizing the disease, but criminalizing someone with the disease who rapes." Perea's defense attorney called the charges and the sentence "overkill." He said that his client was on the brink of full-blown AIDS and that "five years would be a death sentence." Perea's attorneys said they will appeal. The American Civil Liberties Union and some AIDS activists expressed concern about the precedent, arguing that the defendant's medical condition has no bearing on other alleged crimes, and tends only to fuel the social stigma already attached to HIV. Related Story: Baltimore Sun (03/25) P. 9A "AIDS--Grants" Associated Press (03/24/94) Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala yesterday awarded close to $333 million in grants to provide health services for Americans with AIDS. The grand total includes $160 million in supplemental grants to the 34 cities with the highest reported AIDS cases, and $162.7 million in formula grants to all 50 states, the nation's capital, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories. The formula grants are based on the number of AIDS cases reported during a two-year period beginning Oct. 1, 1991, and ending Sept. 30, 1993. The funds were made available through the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency, or CARE, Act of 1990, and were funded under the 1994 fiscal budget of the Department of Health and Human Services. Total Ryan White funding for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 amounts to $579.4 million--a 66 percent increase over last year's funding. President Clinton's 1995 budget proposes to further boost Ryan White spending by another 16 percent. "Survey Finds AIDS Symptoms Without HIV Virus" Reuters (03/24/94) Symptoms of AIDS disease can occur in patients who demonstrate no evidence of infection with HIV, the virus generally thought to cause the disease, reported Australian researchers. The team had surveyed physicians throughout Australia who were interested in diseases affecting the immune system. They found seven people who appeared to have AIDS, yet did not have HIV. The patients lacked blood cells that fight infection, a main marker of AIDS. Most of them also had cryptococcosis, a fungal infection that is often linked to AIDS. Although earlier studies have argued that cryptococcosis itself lowers immune response, the Australian research team said it did not have enough information to determine whether this was the case with the five patients. Only one of the patients, who had received multiple blood transfusions in the early 1980s, gave a history of exposure to a factor associated with increased risk of HIV infection, said the researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. "Pharmacy Dedicated to AIDS Patients Opens in N.Y." Reuters (03/24/94); Fitzer-Schiller, Gail On Wednesday, New York opened the doors of its first pharmacy dedicated expressly to providing medication and services to AIDS patients, becoming one of the first cities in the country to offer such a facility. The store is sponsored by American Preferred Prescription (APP), a Farmingdale, N.Y., company that provides mail-order prescription services to AIDS patients. The company said its pharmacy will be staffed with pharmacists trained in HIV medication and, through in-store computers, will keep customers abreast of the latest developments in clinical trials, medication, and treatment. Another advantage, noted APP president Ellie Adiel, is that the pharmacy will have full inventory at all times of drugs prescribed for HIV infection and AIDS. "Patients can always rely on us having what they need. We have a staff that is HIV sensitive and very deeply involved in the community," she said. "And we are very protective of the privacy of every single person that walks in here. There is no lack of dignity and there is total respect." "AIDS Researcher Calls for More Preventive Measures" Reuters (03/22/94) Leading AIDS researcher Dr. James Curran stressed on Tuesday that education among both gay and heterosexual young people will be needed before the disease can be halted. Pointing out that HIV has no preventive vaccine and no vaccine on the near horizon, Curran, who is head of AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it is crucial that preventive interventions be made early and often among members of the populations most at risk for infection. Speaking at the Prevention '94 symposium, which drew public health researchers from across the nation, Curran identified the two preventive measures that have proven most successful in combatting the spread of HIV as condom use and needle-exchange programs. "There is no question that the correct use of condoms and needle exchange programs are successful in halting the spread of HIV from infected to uninfected sexual partners," he said. "But the best preventive measures are not 100 percent effective. It is also very difficult to change behaviors." He said needle exchanges need to be expanded beyond the small number of cities that now have them. "County to Offer HIV Test to Juvenile Detainees" Houston Chronicle (03/24/94) P. 1A; Greene, Andrea D. The juvenile board for Harris County in Texas voted on Wednesday to allow county health workers to conduct HIV testing on consenting juvenile offenders as they await court appearances. Teresa Ramirez, director of the Juvenile Probation Department, said her staff is worried that the large number of adolescents at the crowded Juvenile Detention Center may be infected, but they have no way of knowing who or how many. "We really need to get these youth to treatment because they are in the community," she said. "They are not so much a danger to other children, but their immune systems are weak and they are exposed to anything the other children have." The board will not require parental consent for fear that this would deter teens from testing, but the testing labs would notify Juvenile Probation Department officials who operate the detention center. Linda Forys, county Health Department spokeswoman, said the Texas Department of Health is funding the testing, which is to be performed in conjunction with AIDS education classes already offered at the center. "Puerto Rico" USA Today (03/25/94) P. 9A Heterosexual contact was identified as the means of virus transmission in 51 percent of Puerto Rican women with AIDS, reported Jose Toro, executive director of the AIDS Foundation. "Around the Nation: Colorado" Advocate (03/22/94) No. 651, P. 16 A bill that would have made it a felony to intentionally expose anyone to the risk of HIV infection was defeated 13-0 in the Colorado state House of Representatives' judiciary committee on Feb. 10. "Shunning the Innocent" Maclean's (03/07/94) Vol. 107, No. 10, P. 11; Came, Barry When the director of the Little Elves Day Care Center in southwest Montreal learned that one of her charges, two-year-old Jessica Dos Santos, was taking the anti-HIV drug AZT, the center asked that the child be pulled from the program. Public health officials were powerless. "We cannot legally force a day care to accept a child," said Sylvie Charbonneau, a representative for the Montreal regional health board. "There's really nothing we can do but educate and inform." In an effort to do so, board officials arranged a series of information sessions for the center's staff and parents of the 60 children enrolled there. Dr. Richard Masse, an expert on infectious disease, assured his audience that the risk of a healthy child contracting HIV from an infected child is "weak to minimal." He admitted, however, that "there is no honest doctor who can tell you the risk is zero." With that statement, most of the parents supported the decision to eject Jessica from the day care. Over half threatened to remove their children if Jessica were permitted to remain. The province, well aware of public fears about HIV, has offered to compensate any day care center that loses clients by accepting HIV-positive children, reimbursing funds up to a year.