Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 09:14:35 -0400 (EDT) From: "JOHN FANNING, CDC NAC" AIDS Daily Summary October 31, 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 ************************************************************ "Government Opens AIDS Hot Line" "City's Top AIDS Official is Reassigned Under Fire" "Lifeline: European AIDS Study" "Across the USA: Tennessee" "Russians Vote AIDS Test for Foreigners" "AIDS Group Urges Wider Use of Experimental Drug" "MCNC and U.S. Patent Office Launch Internet AIDS Patent Library" "Alkaline Phosphatase Band-10 Fraction as a Possible Surrogate Marker for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in Children." "FDA Proposes Financial Disclosure for Clinical Researchers" "Top Public Health Videos Tapped for APHA Filmfest" ************************************************************ "Government Opens AIDS Hot Line" Washington Times (10/31/94) P. A7 The HIV-AIDS Treatment Information Service is a free, confidential phone service that will provide treatment information to people with AIDS, their families, and health care providers. The service, which is provided by the federal government, will be staffed by health information specialists who are fluent in both English and Spanish. While advice will not be offered, callers will receive the latest information on research and treatment options. Related Story: Baltimore Sun (10/31) P. 7A "City's Top AIDS Official is Reassigned Under Fire" Philadelphia Inquirer (10/31/94) P. A1; Collins, Huntly Philadelphia Health Commissioner Estelle Richman will announce today the reassignment of Richard Scott, head the city's AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO). Scott has been accused by some leaders of minority groups of being insensitive to their needs. Most recently, Scott was accused of breaching the confidentiality rules of a citizen's advisory committee when he inadvertently listed the names, sexual orientation, and HIV status of the 35 committee members on a federal grant application. Richman said she was removing Scott from AACO because she wanted to avoid a power struggle that might harm the city's services to AIDS patients. Richman said that she will assume responsibility for the long-troubled AACO because "it doesn't make sense to get an interim [director] until I find the source of continual discontent." "Lifeline: European AIDS Study" USA Today (10/31/94) P. 1D; Vigoda, Arlene The Italian Study Group on HIV Heterosexual Transmission reported in the journal Epidemiology that HIV is transmitted twice as easily from men to women as the disease passes from women to men. One explanation for the difference is that HIV-infected sperm can travel throughout a woman's reproductive system. The researchers also say that a woman's vagina is a "more receptive contact surface" to infection than a man's penis. "Across the USA: Tennessee" USA Today (10/31/94) P. 10A Since schools started teaching family wellness in 1991, teen pregnancy in Nashville has decreased by 8 percent. Improved sex education, with an emphasis on abstinence and concern about AIDS, is credited with the change. "Russians Vote AIDS Test for Foreigners" Chicago Tribune (10/29/94) P. 1-19 The Russian Parliament has voted to make foreign residents take compulsory HIV tests. The Parliament also pledged to expel all of those residents who test positive. The law must still be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Boris Yeltsin. Even if the law is passed, logistical problems, such as Russian laboratory conditions and the potential alienation of powerful business partners, could still defeat it. Gay rights organizations complain that the proposed legislation would violate fundamental human rights. "We think it is senseless to test foreigners for AIDS because there are enough people infected in Russia as it is," said Nikolai Nedzelski of the Russian Names Fund. Related Stories: Boston Globe (10/29/94) P. 4; Philadelphia Inquirer (10/29) P. A5 "AIDS Group Urges Wider Use of Experimental Drug" Reuters (10/27/94); Trautman, Robert The Treatment Action Group (TAG) on Thursday urged the government and drug manufacturer Hoffmann La Roche, Inc. to provide greater access to saquinavir, a new AIDS drug. TAG told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Hoffmann--saquinavir's maker--that expanded use of the drug would provide greater knowledge of its safety and efficacy. Saquinavir is hoped to prolong the life of or delay the onset of AIDS in an HIV-infected person. The FDA said it supported expanded access to the drug, but questioned whether Hoffmann could make enough doses of saquinavir in addition to those currently being used in controlled access trials. A TAG spokesman--while indicating that, for expanded access, the manufacturer would have to seek FDA approval to give the drug to people not in the trial--said he thought Hoffmann was receptive to the idea. Expanded access would make saquinavir available to people critically ill with AIDS who are not part of Hoffmann's test group. "MCNC and U.S. Patent Office Launch Internet AIDS Patent Library" PR Newswire (10/26/94) Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC), a private, nonprofit corporation, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have introduced the United States' first Internet-accessible AIDS patent library. The system will bring the text and images of more than 1,500 AIDS-related patents to people throughout the world. "Alkaline Phosphatase Band-10 Fraction as a Possible Surrogate Marker for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in Children." Journal of the American Medical Association (10/19/94) Vol. 272, No. 15, P. 1152 A lymphocyte fraction of alkaline phosphatase (ALP band-10) activity in serum may be useful in predicting HIV-1 in children born to HIV-1 seropositive mothers. ALP band 10 in serum's presence correlated with HIV-1 infection status. HIV-1 positively identified in 31 samples from 18 patients, ages 0.1 to 10 years, while the absence of infection was noted in the 14 samples from 9 patients who made up the controls and whose serum samples did not show ALP band-10 activity. The ability of ALP band 10 to predict HIV-1 infection in children as young as two months may be useful as a surrogate marker for early identification in babies born to HIV-infected mothers long before maternal anti-HIV antibodies are approved. "FDA Proposes Financial Disclosure for Clinical Researchers" AIDS Treatment News (10/07/94) No. 208, P. 6; James, John S. A proposed Food and Drug Administration rule would require researchers conducting human trials of drugs or medical devices to reveal personal interests in the outcome of the trial if and when the data is submitted for FDA approval. The FDA is seeking public comment on the proposed rule, and asks that written comments be received by Dec. 21. The requirement would exclude employees of the sponsoring pharmaceutical companies, investigators conducting pre-clinical or laboratory studies, and investigators conducting human trials if they are not submitted to the FDA in support of marketing approval for a drug. The rule would not, however, prohibit specified arrangements for compensating investigators--but their disclosure would still be necessary. Independent researchers who run clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies trying to get marketing approval for their drugs would also have to comply with the rule. Payments to an investigator's spouse and dependent children would have to be reported, while payments to business partners would not have to be disclosed. "Top Public Health Videos Tapped for APHA Filmfest" Nation's Health (10/94) Vol. 24, No. 9, P. 7 Public health videos are the focus of the filmfest to be held during the American Public Health Association's Annual Meeting. Some of the selections include Reality Check: HIV Testing for Youth, HIV and AIDS, A Dangerous Affair: A Teenager's Story of AIDS, and Acts of Kindness--HIV/AIDS: Stories of Mutual Ministry. The meeting will be held from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, in Washington, D.C.