From root@aspensys.com Fri Apr 7 06:29:23 1995 Received: from qrd.rdrop.com (qrd.rdrop.com [199.2.210.245]) by abacus.oxy.edu (8.6.10/8.6.11) with ESMTP id GAA13880 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 06:29:17 -0700 Received: from casti.com (vector.casti.com [204.91.98.64]) by qrd.rdrop.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) with ESMTP id GAA02704 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 06:26:02 -0700 Received: from aspensys by casti.com (8.6.9/NX3.0M) id JAA20250; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 09:29:52 -0400 Received: by aspensys (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA17805; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 09:29:16 +0500 Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 09:29:16 +0500 Message-Id: <9504071305.AA14697@aspensys> Errors-To: martha_vander_kolk@smtpinet.aspensys.com Reply-To: aidsnews@aspensys.com Originator: aidsnews@cdcnac.aspensys.com Sender: aidsnews@aspensys.com Precedence: bulk From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com To: qrd@vector.casti.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/07/95 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse Content-Length: 11510 X-Lines: 214 Status: RO 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. 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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "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" ************************************************************ "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.