From: "ANNE WILSON, CDC NAC" <[email-masked]>

AIDS Daily Summary 
                        May 25, 1994

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD

"Southern Virginia AIDS Service Agencies Prepare to Join Forces"
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (05/25/94);  Stratton, Jim
     Two Southern Virginia AIDS service agencies, the Peninsula AIDS 
Foundation and the Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce, will 
consolidate over the next several months.  The merger of the 
non-profit organizations will create a new agency to provide 
financial, medical, and other support services to the entire 
Hampton Roads area.  According to Ivory Jefferson, board chairman
of the Peninsula AIDS Foundation, the consolidation will improve 
efficiency by allowing the groups to channel more resources into 
client services.  He also said it would tap the strengths of each
organization.  For example, the Peninsula AIDS Foundation has a 
strong network of physicians willing to donate their 
time--something the Tidewater group would like to imitate, 
according to Tidewater's executive director, Giles Norrington.  
The Tidewater organization, however, is a high-profile 
organization that adds to the merger name recognition and a track
record of successful fund-raising.  Officials also believe that 
uniting the two agencies into a larger one will make them more 
competitive in receiving state and federal grants.  "There's a 
feeling that grants will be handed out in the future to regions 
rather than small agencies," says Jefferson.  "And this could 
give us considerable clout."  When the merger is complete, the 
new agency will have about 25 employees, an estimated $1 million 
budget, and a client base approaching 1,000.
      
"Ivory Coast AIDS Center Takes Practical Turn"
Reuters (05/24/94)
     U.S.-funded AIDS researchers in Ivory Coast--which has the 
highest reported rate of HIV infection in West Africa--are 
shifting their focus from studying the disease to determining 
what can be done, in the absence of a cure, to alleviate its 
effects.  "We're moving from description to intervention, finding
out what infectious diseases HIV patients catch and what can be 
done about them," says Alan Greenberg, director of AIDS 
laboratory Retro-CI.  "It's a challenge: without a cure, what do 
you do?"  Ivory Coast, one of the 10 countries on the African 
continent most affected by AIDS, has reported 16,670 cases since 
1985.  A regional transit center with a high number of immigrant 
workers, Ivory Coast fosters conditions ideal for the spread of 
the disease.  Most African patients are unable to access the 
expensive treatments available in Europe or the United States 
but, according to Greenberg, research is continuing into 
administering drugs to prevent development of the most common 
conditions which kill AIDS patients.  The consensus is that 
education is the key to fighting the disease in Africa, which 
accounts for nearly 10 million of the 15 million infected people 
worldwide, according to World Health Organization statistics.
      
"Botanists Study Philippines Plants"
United Press International (05/24/94);  Kelsey, Dick
     Botanists from around the globe have convened in Texas for a 
three-day workshop to plan the final phase of an inventory of 
plants in the Philippines, where undiscovered potential cures for
AIDS and other diseases are near extinction.  Scientists 
calculate that roughly 2,500 square miles of undisturbed forest 
remain in the Philippines, and much of that is jeopardized by 
population growth, agriculture, and industry.  "Some of these 
endangered species could hold the secret to curing AIDS or other 
diseases," says Dr. S.H. Sohmer, director of the Botanical 
Research Institute of Texas, which is hosting the workshop.  He 
says that the project has already screened hundreds of species 
for AIDS and 60 types of cancer.
      
"WHO Says Worldwide Controls Needed to Counter TB"
Reuters (05/24/94)
     Tuberculosis will kill more and more people in the coming years 
unless countries muster the political will to control the deadly 
disease, warned World Health Organization specialists.  During 
the 1990s, TB will infect an estimated 90 million people, and 30 
million more will die as a result of the infection, they said.  
The health agency predicted that the number of new TB infections 
will climb from 7.5 million in 1990 to 10.2 million in 2000, 
while deaths from the disease would jump from 2.5 million in 1990
to 3.5 million at the end of the century.  HIV will factor into 
some 8 million new TB cases and 2.9 million TB deaths during the 
decade, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.  
An aging population and HIV infection will cause TB in the United
States to rise, according to Dr. Mario Raviglione, a WHO 
epidemiologist.  TB was once thought to be under control in most 
of the world.  "We must realize that tuberculosis remains an 
important problem, and if we don't stop it, it will just get 
worse," said Raviglione.  He noted that while some countries are 
committed to the effort to curb TB, the majority are not.  China,
Benin, Malawi, and Tanzania are a few of the nations that do have
major TB control programs.
      
"Annual Walk Urges AIDS Education"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (05/23/94) P. 1B;  Nower, Lia
     St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. on Sunday joined other 
concerned citizens and local celebrities for the fifth annual 
"From All Walks of Life" fund-raiser for AIDS education.  
Participants trekked three miles around Forest Park, sharing 
prayers, collecting cash pledges, and enjoying the food and 
entertainment.  "I know AIDS is still controversial.  It 
shouldn't be discussed in front of children.  It shouldn't be 
discussed in polite company," Bosley told the crowd.  "Well, it's
time to stop being polite--our fathers and our sisters and our 
children are dying of AIDS.  We must respond with more than quiet
whispers."  The diverse group raised more than $45,000 by noon.
      
"AIDS Wrongful Death Claim Not Barred"
American Medical News (05/09/94) Vol. 37, No. 18, P. 18
     A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of a patient who 
contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion and died was not 
barred by the statute of limitations, ruled a federal trial court
for the District of Columbia.  The 58-year-old received multiple 
units of blood and blood products obtained from a blood bank when
he began to hemorrhage following an operation to correct a 
bleeding disorder.  One of the units he received was later 
identified as being contaminated with HIV.  The patient died in 
March 1991, and his estate filed suit one year later against both
the blood bank and the hospital.  The trial court, in response to
motions by the facilities, said the wrongful death claim was not 
barred by the statute of limitations because it was filed within 
a year of the patient's death.  In the period just before his 
death, the patient could not bring suit himself because three 
years had passed since October 1986, when he knew all he needed 
to know to start the limitations period running.  The claims he 
could have filed then are barred, but wrongful death claims by 
his survivors were not barred, the court ruled.
      
"Their Show of Shows"
Advocate (05/17/94) No. 655, P. 15
     "Last night fear entered the homes in the most remote corners of 
France, the fear of AIDS, " said French radio commentator 
Francois Henri de Virieu of a simultaneous AIDS broadcast aired 
by all seven of the country's major television networks.  "But 
the money stayed under the mattress."  Although the seven-hour 
broadcast of "All Against AIDS" was a ratings hit--the most 
watched television event in French history, in fact--it was a 
fund-raising failure.  Viewers pledged only $8.7 million, much 
less than the program's goal of $17 million.
      
"Persistent Colonisation of Potable Water as a Source of 
Mycobacterium Avium Infection in AIDS"
Lancet (05/07/94) Vol. 343, No. 8906, P. 1137;  Von Reyn, C.F.;  
Maslow, J.N.;  Barber, T.W. et al.
     The source of myobacterium avium infection in AIDS has not been 
identified; nor is it known whether most AIDS patients acquire 
the organism from recent infection or through reactivation of 
previous infection.  As part of an epidemiological study, von 
Reyn et al. isolated colonies of M. avium from AIDS patients and 
from potable water to which they had been exposed.  Of the 
isolates, which were analyzed with pulsed field gel 
electrophoresis, 29 of 39 patients were infected with one or more
unique clinical strains of M. avium and seven patients were 
infected with three groups of common strains.  Group 1 included 
three patients living in separate rural areas with no common 
exposures except for treatment at hospital A.  The same strain 
was isolated repeatedly over a 41-month period from a 
recirculating hot water system at hospital A.  Group 2 included 
two patients with no common exposure except for treatment at 
hospital B.  The same strain was repeatedly isolated over two 
years from a recirculating hot water system at hospital B.  
Patients in both groups had numerous possible exposures to 
hospital hot water.  Von Reyn et al. conclude that institutions 
may have hot water systems that are persistently colonized with a
particular strain of M. avium.  HIV patients who are exposed to 
such water sources can develop disseminated M. avium infection, 
they say.