Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 09:07:43 -0400 (EDT) From: "JOHN FANNING, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary October 06, 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 ************************************************************ "President Clinton's National Service Program Selects Philadelphia Project Site" "Hybridon Advances GEM 91 to Phase 1B/II in AIDS Trials in U.S. and France" "New Wellcome Antiviral Compound Shows Promise As..." "Atlanta Women Have New Option for Safer Sex; Unconventional Campaign Kicks Off Arrival of New Weapon in Battle Against AIDS" "Argentine Homosexuals Complain of Police Brutality" "AIDS Spawns Viatical Settlement Industry" "Medical Briefs: Gender and AIDS" "Trend Watch: HIV Testing at Home?" "Around the Nation" Correspondence: Tests for HIV in Lupus" "Correspondence: Withdrawal of Conclusion: False Positive Tests for HIV in a Woman With Lupus" ************************************************************ "President Clinton's National Service Program Selects Philadelphia Project Site" PR Newswire (10/05/94) AmeriCorps-VISTA, President Clinton's national service program, has selected Philadelphia Health Management Corporation as a project site. Five VISTA volunteers will be assigned to projects that concern AIDS prevention and relapse prevention for women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Four of the volunteers will work with the West Philadelphia Women's Health Improvement Project, educating residents about HIV and AIDS and developing a volunteer network of residents, businesses, religious leaders, and community groups. "[The volunteers] will be providing a critically needed service in some of the poorest areas of West Philadelphia," said Lisa Bond, PHMC Project Director. Volunteers for AmeriCorps-VISTA, a federally funded full-time volunteer organization, make one- or two-year commitments to projects that concern public safety, health, education, or the environment. "Hybridon Advances GEM 91 to Phase 1B/II in AIDS Trials in U.S. and France" PR Newswire (10/05/94) Hybridon, Inc. says it will begin Phase 1B/II clinical trials of GEM 91, its antisense compound for the treatment of HIV-1 and AIDS, in the United States and France. The trials will be the first human trials to measure antiviral activity of a systematically administered antisense compound. Hybridon is also reporting this week on their findings in Phase 1A studies with GEM 91. No clinically significant side effects were found when a single dose infusion of GEM 91 was administered to 30 HIV-infected patients. In a University of Alabama at Birmingham Phase 1A study, radiolabeled GEM 91 was given to six HIV-positive patients and was well tolerated by all, which confirms the results of the Phase 1A trial in France. Hybridon believes that the pharmacokinetics and tolerance study is the first systemic use of a radiolabeled antisense oligonucleotide. "New Wellcome Antiviral Compound Shows Promise As..." PR Newswire (10/05/94) Scientists from Burroughs Wellcome Co. on Wednesday presented findings on the company's investigational anti-HIV compound 1592U89 at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The scientists found that the compound was powerful and selective against clinical HIV isolates, and showed synergy with Retrovir brand zidovudine. Findings also suggested that 1592U89 is not cross-resistant to Retrovir-resistant virus and that 1592U89 resistance is very slow to develop in vitro. The scientists reported that the compound had very good oral bioavailability with no significant side effects at doses much higher than the proposed clinical doses. "Atlanta Women Have New Option for Safer Sex; Unconventional Campaign Kicks Off Arrival of New Weapon in Battle Against AIDS" PR Newswire (10/05/94) The Female Health Company on Wednesday, Oct. 12 will announce its unusual approach for the introduction of the Reality female condom in Atlanta. The female condom is the first means of protection with which women can shield themselves from AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy. The Campaign for Women's Health and the American Social Health Association say that women are at least 10 times as likely to become HIV-infected during a single act of unprotected heterosexual sex with an infected partner than men are. "Argentine Homosexuals Complain of Police Brutality" Reuters (10/05/94) In a news conference Wednesday, Argentine homosexuals complained that they are frequently the target police brutality, which the government and courts ignore. Gays for Civil Rights told members of Amnesty International attended the press meeting that repressive police edicts which allow systemic detention of gays and transvestites facilitate the abuse. The group presented Amnesty with a list of violations it has denounced since September 1992. The most recent violation occurred on Tuesday when a man with AIDS was beaten up by the police because of his condition. Since 1991, Amnesty has considered gays arrested because of their sexual preference as "prisoners of conscience." "AIDS Spawns Viatical Settlement Industry" Washington Business Journal (09/23/94-09/29/94) Vol. 13, No. 9, P. 31; Keller, Amy The viatical settlement industry originated about five years ago as a result of the AIDS epidemic. Since then, more than 50 firms have opened nationwide, forming a $300 million industry. A viatical settlement refers to a process in which terminally ill people sign over their life-insurance policies to investors for a cash percentage that is usually 55 to 80 percent, based on the life expectancy of the policyholder. Although some other terminally ill patients receive viatical settlements, the industry targets people with AIDS because their typical life expectancy is more predictable than that of other patients, says Steve Simon, former president of American Life Resources Corp. Per Larson, a financial advisor to the terminally ill, recommends that people considering settlements get competitive bids from different brokers because "they are sick consumers, by definition, and many are getting less than the ideal offer (on their policies)." The insurance industry estimates that $7.8 billion has been paid in AIDS-related claims since 1986. "Medical Briefs: Gender and AIDS" Advocate (09/20/94) No. 664, P. 26; Cohan, Gary R. Authors of a study comparing rates of new AIDS-defining disease and mortality between the genders say that "there appears to be little difference between men and women in the clinical course of AIDS." The recent study of 2,554 participants--566 of whom are women--reflects similar survival times and similar prevalence of illness and mortality among the sexes. "Trend Watch: HIV Testing at Home?" Business Ethics (09/94-10/94) Vol. 8, No. 5, P. 13; Gaines, Susan Direct Access Diagnostics, a Johnson & Johnson unit, recently filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval to market a home access HIV testing and counseling service. Some AIDS activists are concerned over the 800 number method of informing people of the results, wondering if telephone counseling is adequate--regardless of whether the diagnosis is positive or negative. Marty Delaney, a leading AIDS activist, wrote, "For some people, having a face-to-face encounter with a stranger is simply not an attractive option for talking about HIV..." A 1992 National Centers for Disease Control Survey showed that 29 percent of the adult population would get tested for HIV if a home option were available. The kit will sell for about $30 over-the-counter, which is at least $10 less than federal reimbursement for public clinic HIV tests. "Around the Nation" Advocate (09/20/94) No. 664, P. 17 In California, the Catalyst Foundation for AIDS Awareness and Care filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against the KHJ radio station because of an on-air exchange during which host Herb Nero told Catalyst vice president Brian Maxey, "I hope you die of AIDS." In other AIDS-related news from across the country, state health department officials in Michigan expect that, in 1997, AIDS will surpass homicide as the leading killer of black men statewide. "Correspondence: Tests for HIV in Lupus" New England Journal of Medicine (09/29/94) Vol. 331, No. 13, P. 881; Soriano, Vicenc; Ordi, Josep; Grau, Josep In a letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Vicenc Soriano et al respond to Jindal et al's report on false positive HIV tests in a woman with lupus and end-stage renal disease, and question the patient's low CD4+ cell count. Soriano et al describe their own study of such patients, which found that only indeterminate patterns of reactivity for HIV-1, HTLV-1, and HTLV-II were seen sporadically and all samples were negative on the ELISA test. Their results do not confirm Jindal et al's hypothesis that autoantibodies in autoimmune disorders produce false positive results for HIV-1 with ELISAs and Western blotting. The authors conclude that it is difficult to exclude HIV-1 infection because false negative findings have been described for the polymerase-chain-reaction test, viral culture, and antigen testing in HIV-1-infected people and because the patient described by Jindal et al had a low CD4+ cell count. "Correspondence: Withdrawal of Conclusion: False Positive Tests for HIV in a Woman With Lupus" New England Journal of Medicine (09/29/94) Vol. 331, No. 13, P. 881; Povolotsky, Jacob; Polsky, Bruce; Laurence, Jeffrey et al In a letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jacob Povolotsky et al report his and Bruce Polsky's further findings in the study of the false positive HIV tests found in a woman with lupus and renal failure, originally studied by Jindal et al. Povolotsky and Polsky isolated HIV-1 on two occasions in peripheral-blood mononuclear cells and the polymerase-chain-reactions were positive for HIV-1 DNA sequences. The woman was informed of the results and counseled about appropriate therapy for HIV-1 infection. It is emphasized that the Western blot method of testing remains a reliable way of diagnosing HIV-1. The authors suggest that HIV-1 cultures may have to be studied longer than the standard period of 14-35 days, and that multiple PCRs may have to be performed in order to identify the virus.