Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 09:50:01 -0500 (EST) From: "JOHN FANNING, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary November 21, 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 ************************************************************ "Glaxo to Pursue Development of 3TC, Drug to Treat AIDS and Hepatitis B" "AIDS Bill Hurts Russian Tourism" "Niger Muslims Protest Anti-AIDS Campaign" "Needle Sticks Drop at VA" "AIDS Toll on Elderly: Dying Grandchildren" "Zamora Memorial" "U.S. AIDS Doctor Dismisses New Treatment" "Ex Vivo Therapies Acquires Caremark Interest In..." "College HIV Rate Holds Steady, but Risk of Exposure Remains High" "Around the World: Australia/Colombia/Switzerland" ************************************************************ "Glaxo to Pursue Development of 3TC, Drug to Treat AIDS and Hepatitis B" Wall Street Journal (11/21/94) P. B5; Moore, Stephen D. Glaxo Holding PLC plans to continue development of its AIDS and hepatitis B drug, 3TC. Citing promising results, Glaxo will apply for regulatory approval of 3TC as an AIDS treatment in combination with AZT or Retrovir early next year. Recent trials show that the combination of 3TC and AZT/Retrovir reduced by as much as 99 percent the amount of HIV in blood cells. Wellcome, the maker of AZT, called the combination treatment "the most effective drug regimen studied to date in suppressing the replication of [HIV] and boosting the body's own infection-fighting capabilities." The combination drug data was announced Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland, at the Second International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection. Related Stories: Financial Times (11/21) P. 16; Washington Times (11/21) P. A12; Baltimore Sun (11/21) P. 4A "AIDS Bill Hurts Russian Tourism" Wall Street Journal (11/21/94) P. A12 Tourism in Russia has already been affected by the Russian legislative bill to require AIDS tests of all foreigners entering the country. The tourism agency said, "We faced a flood of cancellations of trips" after lawmakers began debating the bill. If the bill becomes law, said AO Intourist--a large Russian tour operator--the number of foreign business and tourist visits could decrease by at least 40 percent next year. Supporters of the measure want to avoid the costs of treating people with AIDS. "Niger Muslims Protest Anti-AIDS Campaign" Washington Times (11/21/94) P. A16 Thousands of Muslims protested the Nigerian government's AIDS education and prevention campaign. The year-old media and poster campaign was denounced as promoting adultery. "The radio and the television belong to the people of Niger, and we will not tolerate the Western destruction of the moral and religious codes of our society," said representatives of Islamic groups. The groups are especially upset by the campaign's promotion of the use of condoms to prevent AIDS. "Needle Sticks Drop at VA" Washington Times (11/21/94) P. A5 Amid increased fear of contracting AIDS or hepatitis from patients' blood, a study has found that needle injuries to staff at Veterans Affairs hospitals have decreased 19 percent. The report, prepared by the General Accounting Office (GAO) for Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said that VA officials do not know if the decrease is due to universal precautions, safer devices, underreporting of injuries, or a combination of the three. Congressional investigators, however, said that not all VA medical centers have the safer needles that can greatly reduce the risk of accidents. Ninety of the 158 VA medical centers spent more than $1 million last year to buy safer needles and other blood-gathering devices. The GAO estimates that out of the 16,749 patient with HIV or AIDS that were treated in VA medical centers in fiscal 1993, there were at least 71 needle injuries to VA staff involving HIV-infected blood. No VA worker has reported getting HIV or AIDS from a needle injury. The risk of infection from an accidental needle stick containing HIV-infected blood is only three-tenths of 1 percent, but the GAO estimates that one VA worker every five years is likely to become infected due to a needle injury. "AIDS Toll on Elderly: Dying Grandchildren" New York Times (11/21/94) P. A1; Lee, Felicia R. Grandmothers across the United States are increasingly being presented with a new role--they are caring for adult children dying of AIDS and for the grandchildren--who might also be infected--who are left behind. Experts estimate that 125,000 children could lose their mothers to AIDS by the year 2000. The children are frequently left in the care of relatives, family friends, and social agencies. Up from 865,000 in 1992, more than 1 million children were being raised by their grandparents last year. Rene Woodworth, coordinator of the Grandparent Information Center of the A.A.R.P., said that while she didn't have any statistics on the impact of AIDS on grandparents forced to raise orphaned children, "you're dealing with the issue of loss, maybe some guilt, maybe some shame. Their biggest concern is taking care of their grandchildren." Support groups, such as Project DEAR, in which older women who take care of their children and grandchildren with AIDS, are being developed through hospitals, foster care groups, and organizations for AIDS and for children. "Zamora Memorial" USA Today (11/21/94) P. 1D; Thomas, Karen On Sunday, more than 1,000 people attended a memorial service for AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, who died from AIDS-related complications on Nov. 11. Zamora co-starred in MTV's "Real World," which followed the lives of a group of young people sharing a house. Gay rights activists and Christian-right protesters clashed at the service held in Miami Beach. "U.S. AIDS Doctor Dismisses New Treatment" Reuters (11/17/94) Passive Immune Therapy (PIT) has been dismissed as having "minimal benefit" by Dr. Michael Gottleib, the American doctor who discovered AIDS. "I think it's very likely that people with HIV will have their hopes dashed; people are going to flounder (and) not know what to believe," he said. PIT involves monthly transfusions of plasma taken from healthy HIV-infected individuals. Dr. Abraham Karpas, the man who discovered PIT, defended his research saying, "It is not a cure. But [AIDS patients] could have...a far longer life and a far better quality of life." The Medical Research Council (MRC) in Britain also doubts PIT and has refused to fund a full clinical trial of the treatment. "Ex Vivo Therapies Acquires Caremark Interest In..." Business Wire (11/17/94) Applied Immune Sciences Inc. (AIS) announced on Thursday that Ex vivo Therapies (ExVT) has purchased Caremark International's 50-percent interest in a joint venture with AIS for the commercialization of AIDS therapies in North America. Ex vivo is a joint venture between AIS and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. AIS also reported the completed facility validation of ExVT's first commercial cell processing center in California, the site of an upcoming AIS Phase III trial in metastatic kidney cancer. ExVt will also develop cell processing centers for AIS and RPR Gencell, a division of Rhone-Poulenc devoted to the development of therapies for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and nervous system disorders. "College HIV Rate Holds Steady, but Risk of Exposure Remains High" AIDS Alert (11/94) Vol. 9, No. 11, P. 153 Recent results of the largest study of HIV seroprevalence at U.S. colleges show that transmission among students is rare. Health officials, however, say that more counseling and testing is needed at some colleges. "There is a lot of sex, a lot of sexual experimentation, and there is the potential [for HIV transmission]. So just because the news is reassuring, we don't need to be complacent," said Dr. Scott Holmberg, section chief in the division of HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Citing the results as evidence, the CDC estimates that between 10,000 and 35,000 of the 13 million college students in the United States are HIV-infected. The seroprevalence rates were not dependent on reasons why students went to the campus health centers. This suggests that many students do not know that they are infected and thus, health care providers cannot accurately determine which students are at risk of infection. The two-phase study, which began in 1988, was discontinued because the trend showed that transmission on campuses was not increasing. "Around the World: Australia/Colombia/Switzerland" Advocate (11/01/94) No. 667, P. 20 Health officials in Melbourne, Australia, ordered an HIV-positive man to be detained in a hospital Sept. 17. The man violated two restraining orders by engaging in behavior that placed the public at risk for HIV, officials said. In other international AIDS-related news, an HIV-infected Colombian man--convicted of selling his blood to a hospital--was sentenced on Sept. 21 to 11 years in prison. In one other AIDS-related story, the supreme court of Switzerland rejected an 18-month prison term given to man who knowingly exposed his girlfriend to HIV. The Swiss court called for a longer prison term for the man.