Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/07/95

From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/[email-masked]
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 09:29:16 +0500

AIDS Daily Summary
                       April 7, 1995

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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD

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"Chinese Health Officials Say 23 Die of AIDS"
"FDA Announces New Set of Regulatory Reforms"
"Highly Infectious Types of AIDS Virus May Be in U.S., Specialist
Says"
"From Dying Teens, Words to Live By"
"Pasteur Merieux-Connaught Signs a Research Agreement with the
Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida"
"Early Results with Nevirapine and Atevirdine"
"Management of Late-Stage AIDS Grows More Complex"
"Mainstreaming HIV Care"
"El Salvador AIDS Activist Goes Underground"
"Database Lets Researchers Track Down Compounds"
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"Chinese Health Officials Say 23 Die of AIDS"
Reuters (04/07/95)
     By the end of last November, there were 43 official cases of
full-blown AIDS and 23 people had died from the disease in China,
a senior health official reported today.  The majority of the
cases were in men, who contracted HIV through the use of
intravenous drug needles, said Qi Xiaqiu, deputy director general
of the Ministry of Health's Department of Diseases Control.
Although the number of HIV-infected people in China was 1,550 by
the end of November, Qi said that unreported cases could total
more than 10,000.  Health officials credit the low official
figure to minimal surveillance, poor reporting, and misdiagnosis.
Chinese officials have cautioned that the number of AIDS cases
could quadruple during the next 10 years because of HIV
contamination of the country's primarily unscreened blood.

"FDA Announces New Set of Regulatory Reforms"
Reuters (04/06/95);  Trautman, Robert
     In a move to head off congressional attempts to cut back  the
Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) regulatory powers, FDA
Commissioner David Kessler on Thursday announced another set of
reforms to accelerate approval of new drugs and medical devices.
Kessler said the new reforms would reduce unnecessary burdens on
the industry and would save it $500 million a year.  Critics say
the FDA unnecessarily delays approval of drugs and devices for
which companies need timely approval to market and regain the
money spent in research.  It was a difficult balance, Kessler
said, between taking every precaution to ensure safety or easing
regulations in case of dire need--for example, the drugs that are
being approved quickly for AIDS.  The new reforms would allow
drugmakers to change the formula for an approved drug without new
approval, if the risk was negligible; harmonize international
standards for drug and medical service testing to end duplicate
tests and speed up approval; and increase the export of
unapproved drugs and medical devices to some industrialized
countries to open new markets for firms in the United States.

"Highly Infectious Types of AIDS Virus May Be in U.S., Specialist
Says"
Boston Globe (04/06/95) P. 8;  McFarling, Usha Lee
     On Wednesday, Max Essex--a leading AIDS scientist--recommended
nationwide screening to determine whether the extremely
infectious HIV subtypes that are causing epidemics of
heterosexually transmitted AIDS in Asia and Africa are also in
the United States.  "We don't really know if they are in the U.S.
It's logical to assume that they should be," said Essex, chair of
the Harvard AIDS Institute, at a conference on AIDS in New
England.  Essex said it is critical that the highly infectious
virus subtypes be identified because, otherwise, they may not
become evident until an epidemic is full-blown.  Several
officials at the conference said the most effective method of
slowing the spread of AIDS would be to give injection drug users
clean needles or to mandate that all needles be single-use and
disposable.  Patsy Fleming, the federal coordinator of AIDS
Policy, said she would fight against cuts in AIDS research
funding and for support and health care for AIDS patients.

"From Dying Teens, Words to Live By"
Boston Globe (04/06/95) P. 61;  Koch, John
     "In Our Own Words: Teens and AIDS," a short documentary
comprising the testimony of five HIV-infected young people,
emphasizes that anyone--regardless of race, age, gender, or
color--can get HIV.  The five young people offer their stories to
caution and teach other teenagers.  "No sexual experience is
worth having HIV for the rest of your life," says Kerry Carson,
the host of the film.  Carson, 22, died in January, five weeks
after the documentary was completed.  She contracted HIV from her
second sexual partner at age 15.  Two more of the five have also
died from AIDS.  They are Pedro Zamora, who was featured on MTV's
"The Real World," and David Kamens, who spoke of the loneliness
and lack of support he experienced.  Jeanne Blake, the writer and
producer of the film, feels the young people can reach their
peers more effectively than adults, who are often inhibited by
the anxiety and fear they feel around children when discussing
AIDS, sex, and death.

"Pasteur Merieux-Connaught Signs a Research Agreement with the
Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida"
PR Newswire (04/06/95)
     The Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida (ANRS), and
Pasteur Merieux with its North American affiliate Connaught
(Rhone-Poulenc group) have decided to extend their several years
of collaborative vaccine research, including research into
possible vaccines to prevent HIV infection.  The ANRS plans to
develop four kinds of vaccine vectors against HIV which are able
to stimulate different kinds of immunity.  Pasteur
Merieux-Connaught and the ANRS have agreed to develop vaccine
products concerning types A, B, and E viruses.  The two groups
will continue to collaborate in the field of vaccine trials and
possible immunotherapy.

"Early Results with Nevirapine and Atevirdine"
AIDS Clinical Care (04/95) Vol. 7, No. 4, P. 34
     Two trials of nevirapine and atevirdine, two non-nucleoside
reverse transcriptase inhibitors that act specifically against
HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, give reason for cautious optimism.
A phase I/II study tested varied doses of oral nevirapine
administered alone or with AZT.  About half of the subjects were
asymptomatic.  Most subjects experienced initial decreases in p24
antigenemia and small increases in CD4 count.  Drug resistance,
however, occurred after just eight weeks.  Four patients taking a
combination of AZT and 200 mg of nevirapine had continued p24
suppression for at least three months.  A second study tested a
combination of oral atevirdine and AZT in patients with AIDS or
AIDS-related complex (ARC).  Over a four-week period, the CD4
count of 47 percent of the patients increased by at least 50.
After 24 weeks, HIV isolates from eight of 13 subjects remained
sensitive to atevirdine in vitro.  Overall, the drug combination
was well tolerated.  The trials indicate that drug resistance
develops rapidly when non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase
inhibitors are used as monotherapy.  These drugs may, however,
play a role in combination treatments.

"Management of Late-Stage AIDS Grows More Complex"
AIDS Alert (04/95) Vol. 10, No. 4, P. 50
     As new research emphasizes the importance of early treatment for
HIV patients, the issue of what to do for late-stage AIDS
patients becomes more complex.  Treatment decisions for such
patients range from the cost and quality of life to toxicity and
multiple drug interactions, reported scientists at the Second
National Conference on Retroviruses and Related Infections.
Prophylaxis trials for opportunistic infections have shown
significant reduction in disease prevalence, but preventive
therapy has not been shown to increase survival to any
significant degree except when given for Pneumocystis carinii
pneumonia (PCP), said Dr. Judith Feinberg of Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine.  Studies presented at the
conference also offered new insight about how some opportunistic
infections predispose patients to future ones.  One study, for
example, found that patients with PCP had a fivefold increased
risk of developing Mycobacterium avium complex or cytomegalovirus
retinitis.  Finally, Dr. John Stancel--the director of AIDS
outpatient services at San Francisco General Hospital--addressed
quality of life issues, arguing that pain and depression are the
two most unappreciated and untreated complications in late-stage
disease.

"Mainstreaming HIV Care"
American Medical News (04/03/95) Vol. 38, No. 13, P. 9;  Shelton,
Deborah L.
     In the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, because a few unusual
infections and cancers were among the first identified symptoms
of AIDS, patients tended to seek care from a small group of
specialists.  As the AIDS rate has increased, however, the role
of the primary care physician has become more important.  "It's
my belief that we should mainstream the HIV/AIDS patient," says
Dr. Meryvn F. Silverman, president of the American Foundation
for AIDS Research.  "I don't think there are enough specialists
in [the right areas]."  Experts agree that even in urban centers,
there are too many AIDS cases to for specialists to handle.
Increased recognition of the importance of early intervention has
also spurred a rising demand for doctors with the necessary
skills and willingness to provide primary care for infected
people.  Yet studies show that a majority of primary care
physicians still feel uneasy about treating AIDS, in part because
of a lack of training and experience in HIV care.  Other
obstacles include prejudice toward infected groups, lingering
personal fears of contagion, and the fear that AIDS patients will
drive other patients away from a practice.

"El Salvador AIDS Activist Goes Underground"
Gay Community News (Winter 1995) Vol. 20, No. 4, P. 6
     "Wilfredo," a prominent AIDS activist in San Salvador, has been
in hiding since Nov. 5, 1994, after being threatened with death.
Two men confronted him twice within the same day, threatening to
kill him unless he stopped his AIDS work.  Wilfredo, who is
affiliated with the U.S.-based Oscar Romero AIDS Project, had
been distributing condoms and AIDS information in the poor
neighborhoods of San Salvador for months.  Amnesty International
is investigating the threats, and the International Gay & Lesbian
Human Rights Commission is calling on the Salvadoran government
to protect the activist's life.

"Database Lets Researchers Track Down Compounds"
Nikkei Weekly (03/27/95) Vol. 33, No. 1664, P. 10
     Pharmaceutical researchers have amassed a huge database of unused
compounds that did not succeed in a particular application.  Any
one of these may turn out to be useful for another purpose,
however.  Akiko Itai, a guest professor at the University of
Tokyo, has developed a system to search this database for drug
candidates.  In a demonstration, Itai used his system to select
200 compounds from a database of 110,000 that bind to a crucial
enzyme related to HIV.  Twelve of the compounds chosen have
already been analyzed, and half of these bind to the enzyme with
high affinity.