Date: Mon, 02 May 1994 09:19:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" Subject: CDC AIDS DAILY SUMMARY 05/02/94 AIDS Daily Summary May 02, 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 "Herpes Drug Lengthens AIDS Patients Lives--Study" Reuters (05/02/94) High doses of Acyclovir, a drug used to treat herpes infection, can significantly prolong the survival of people with AIDS, according to a study by one of Australia's leading research institutions for the disease. The 1992 study indicated that compared to placebos, Acyclovir could lengthen survival time in AIDS patients. "The study has shown that Acyclovir can extend life by around six months, a significant advantage in this serious disease," said David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the University of New South Wales. The Health Department of the Australian government is considering licensing Acyclovir as a therapeutic drug in the battle against AIDS. "Congress--AIDS" Associated Press (05/02/94); Kramer, Gene Arguing that the United States must continue to provide leadership in the global battle against AIDS, the Clinton administration wants to head off any move by Congress to withdraw U.S. financial aid to other countries fighting the epidemic. According to State Department Counselor Timothy E. Wirth, who appealed to Congress last week, any cessation of U.S. aid would encourage other nations to take AIDS less seriously and trigger "a crumbling of commitments made around the world" to support measures to check the spread of AIDS. He noted that the $120 million in U.S. foreign aid currently allocated for global AIDS prevention represents more than half of all assistance to developing nations. More than 15 million people around the world have contracted HIV, said Wirth, and that number is expected to reach 30 to 40 million by the end of the decade. "Call Him Activist, By Any Name" Philadelphia Inquirer (05/02/94) P. B2; Collins, Huntly A few months ago, Luke Michael Montgomery officially had his legal name changed to Luke Sissyfag. The homosexual young man, although not himself infected with HIV, has made AIDS his personal crusade. He has recently gained national attention for his repeated disruptions of public appearances by President Clinton. The president has not been the sole target of Sissyfag's wrath; he has badgered other public officials and even other AIDS activists for not doing enough to halt the epidemic. "I don't care what anybody says, the AIDS activist movement is dead--dead on arrival," Sissyfag declares. "We need to revive it." His strategy for doing just that is to run for mayor of Washington, D.C., an announcement he intends to make on May 31. His campaign slogan will be "AIDS Is The Issue." Sissyfag does not expect to win, but to make a point. "What I really hope to do is energize the community," he explains. The 20-year-old activist insists that AIDS activism must focus on a solitary goal: finding a cure. "Not needle-exchange, not prevention, but a cure," he stresses. "Univax Biologics Takes On an AIDS Battle" Washington Post (Business) (05/02/94) P. 5; Day, Kathleen Univax Biologics is one of about a dozen companies across the nation that are scrambling to develop a vaccine to protect people who have never been exposed to HIV, and an immunization to prevent people who have been exposed from getting AIDS. The Rockville, Md., biotech firm says it has made significant progress in both areas, and that its research is encouraging. In collaboration with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Univax hopes to initiate testing within a year for an immunization that would provide people with long-term inoculation. Designed to protect individuals never exposed to the virus, the vaccine is based on Walter Reed's simian AIDS research. This "active" inoculation works by activating the body's natural defenses. In conjunction with biotech giant Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, Univax is also working on a passive inoculation that it hopes will protect people who have already been exposed to HIV. While the chances for success are slim in AIDS research, and Wall Street remains skeptical, the potential prize will mean a big payoff for the company that successfully develops a vaccine. Analysts say the market for a vaccine to protect people never exposed to HIV is worth $1 billion or more per year, and the market for an immunization that can inoculate a person within 18 hours of exposure has a potential market of $100 million. "AIDS by Insemination" Associated Press (05/01/94); Hastings, Deborah More than a dozen years into the AIDS epidemic, the increasingly popular artificial insemination business continues to go unregulated and unmonitored even though its very business is semen, long known to be one of the primary modes of HIV transmission. Only a handful of states--including New York, California, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan--require sperm donors to undergo HIV testing. Although medical and public health experts concede that there is a group of tens of thousands of heterosexual women who have never publicly been warned about their risks for AIDS, they contend that the risk is, in fact, low. "All women should be aware that this could be a potential hazard and that they should be tested," says Dr. Lauren Mascola, head of infectious diseases for the Los Angeles Health Department. "In general, the risk is low." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents the cases of five women in the United States who have been infected with HIV through artificial insemination with donor sperm. Two of the five have filed lawsuits. "We think adequate safeguards are in place now," says CDC spokesman Kent Taylor, adding that mass testing of women who received donor sperm is probably not warranted. Those guidelines include testing donors for HIV, quarantining frozen semen for six months, then retesting the donor. "AIDS Activists" Associated Press (04/30/94); Gleason, Bucky During a two-day conference this weekend in Philadelphia, AIDS activists vowed to reorganize and find avenues to get the government to fight harder against the disease that has killed more than 220,000 Americans. Activists expressed concern that people may be tired of hearing news about AIDS, and that too many may still believe that the disease affects only homosexuals and intravenous drug addicts. "People tend to turn a deaf ear to what's happening," said David Acosta, a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP). "There's still the mentality that patients bring it on themselves." ACT-UP, which was founded in New York City in 1987, has seen the great power it once wielded dwindle in the face of leadership that has, literally, died. Many of the group's loudest voices have been succeeded by leaders who abandon the confrontational strategies and civil disobedience that once characterized the group. "We need to define goals and begin to coalesce across the country. We need to target," Acosta said. "We're still a formidable force, and we're not going anywhere." The conference also addressed the need for national health care and ways of housing AIDS patients. "Hotel's HIV Fears Cloud Gay Games" Crain's New York Business (04/11/94) P. 4; Gault, Ylonda Kenneth Walles, General Manager and Vice President of New York's Hotel Pennsylvania, headquarters for Gay Games IV, says fear of exposure to HIV has made his employees wary of serving the gay visitors. During the event, scheduled for June 18-26, the hotel will occupy 75 percent of its 1,700 rooms with homosexual guests. Walles is concerned that many of the property's 600 staff members may call in sick the week of the competition, leaving the financially strapped hotel in a bind. While no others have publicly expressed concern, Walles insists that several colleagues have similar worries, and he does not want his hotel singled out for "negative publicity because of a common concern." Amid increasing excitement for the event and the $100 million it is expected to bring to New York, Walles asked the Hotel Association of New York to outline a formal policy on the matter. "I don't know if it [the policy] should be that workers wear gloves or what," says Walles. The association declined his request, saying that matters of guest relations and operations are left to the discretion of individual property managers. Gay groups quickly offered to help. "We'd be happy to provide training sessions for the workers and provide medical experts to deal with the issues," says Marlin Collingwood, director of communications for the event's organizers. "Twentieth-Century Plagues" Newsweek (04/18/94) Vol. 123, No. 16, P. 56; Seligmann, Jean; Cowley, Geoffrey The latest in a series of discouraging reports about AIDS research came in the form of the Concorde trial, a Anglo-French study of the antiviral drug AZT. The study, which published preliminary results a year ago, followed 1,749 asymptomatic HIV patients. It reported that, after one year, patients receiving AZT fared better than those receiving a placebo. After three years, however, there was no benefit from the drug, as 18 percent of both groups had developed symptoms of AIDS. In terms of mortality, 8 percent of the AZT patients died, compared with only 6 percent of the placebo sample. The study is scheduled to continue for another 15 months. Although AZT has been shown to fend off the worst stages of AIDS disease in patients already exhibiting symptoms, it is accompanied by adverse side effects, including nausea, vomiting, and anemia. Ian Weller, the senior British member of the Concorde research team, says that taking AZT is not worth those risks for asymptomatic HIV patients. "AIDS Federal Lobbying: Washington, May 22-24; Local Districts May 29-June 6" AIDS Treatment News (04/15/94) No. 197, P. 8 This year's AIDSWatch lobbying days are scheduled for May 22-24 in the nation's capital, and are "dedicated to securing greater AIDS program funding in Congress during the appropriations cycle, with a focus on health care that will be beneficial for people living with HIV disease." Organizers hope to see representation from every Congressional district. Those who cannot be in Washington for the federal events can help on the local level by lobbying their U.S. Representatives and Senators during the congressional recess. The project is being coordinated by the National Association of People With AIDS and sponsored by leading AIDS service organizations such as AmFar, AIDS Action Council, AIDS Project Los Angeles, the National Minority AIDS Council, and the Whitman-Walker Clinic, among others.