Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/13/95

From: [email-masked] (Wilson, Anne)
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 12:39:00 +0500

AIDS Daily Summary 
                       April 13, 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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"'Julio and Marisol' Campaign May Get Last Subway Ride"
"The Times Ignores the Value of AIDS Education"
"Blood Agency, Red Cross Sign Deal"
"Bringing It All Together"
"China Says 1,774 Have HIV Virus, 65 Have AIDS"
"Unemployment, Poverty to Blame for TB--Studies"
"IRIS Patents Simple White Blood Cell Enrichment Method"
"Released Report Says Needle Exchanges Work"
"Pathogenicity of Live, Attenuated SIV after Mucosal Infection of
Neonatal Macaques"
"Mothers March Against AIDS, May 7; Congressional Visits May 8"
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"'Julio and Marisol' Campaign May Get Last Subway Ride"
New York Times (04/13/95) P. B3;  Stout, David
     A romantic cartoon series displayed in the New York City subway 
system has ended after a dispute involving the New York City 
Health Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority 
(MTA), and an advertising agency.  The campaign featured a young 
man and woman named Julio and Marisol who argued about AIDS and 
safe sex.  However, Gannett Outdoor, the MTA's advertising 
agency, recently began a new policy that restricts advertising in
80 percent of the system's cars to one or two large advertisers. 
Under this policy, the series could have continued in the 
remaining 20 percent if the Health Department had agreed to it.  
But Ann Sternberg, the acting assistant health commissioner, said
the Health Department has "categorically refused to occupy that 
space," and added that she did not want the series appearing 
among ads geared toward hemorrhoid sufferers or people with 
foot-odor problems.
      
"The Times Ignores the Value of AIDS Education"
Washington Times (04/13/95) P. A18;  Graham, Jim
     The Washington Times' latest assault on the gay and lesbian 
community was an unprovoked attack of the Federal Workplace AIDS 
Education Initiative, writes Jim Graham, director of the 
Whitman-Walker Clinic Inc., in a letter to the paper.  The 
initiative, one of the most effective public health measures in 
history, Graham writes, serves more than 2 million federal 
employees.  The article is problematic because it connects AIDS 
education programs to a "gay agenda," and because it does not 
mention that not all workplace AIDS education programs follow the
training procedures criticized in the article.  Whitman-Walker's 
Technical and Training Assistance Program does not address 
religion and does not encourage its instructors to deflect 
homophobic comments.  The program does, however, target select 
audiences, such as gay men, churches, and government agencies.  
The core message for each group is that AIDS is a preventable 
disease.  Instead of attacking efforts to educate people about 
AIDS, the Washington Times should understand how critical this 
education is, concludes Graham.
      
"Blood Agency, Red Cross Sign Deal"
Toronto Globe and Mail (04/11/95) P. A1;  Coutts, Jane
     On Monday, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) and its funding agency 
signed an agreement that is supposed to end their "adversarial" 
working relationship--which experts say puts the blood supply at 
risk.  The relationship stems from the CRC's refusal to accept 
direction from the Canadian Blood Agency (CBA).  Previously, 
neither organization was willing to admit the authority of the 
other.  Now, the two organizations see themselves as equal 
partners.  Under the new agreement, the CBA is the purchaser and 
the CRC is the supplier.  The CBA is in charge of setting policy.
William Dobson, the CBA's director, said the agreement gives the 
agency the option to go elsewhere for blood and blood products if
it cannot reach agreement with the CRC on prices, operations, or 
quality.  The CBA can go somewhere else only for products 
produced by the CRC once it opens a plasma processing plant, 
which is expected in about five years.
      
"Bringing It All Together"
Chicago Tribune (04/12/95) P. 2-1;  Petrakos, Chris
     The new Spectrum Center for Integrated Care in Chicago will 
provide AIDS patients with all their treatment needs--primary 
care, alternative therapies, medications, nutrition, and 
counseling--under one roof.  The clinic is the result of much 
planning and research by Kristin Hayes, who first conceived the 
plan when she attended the Nation AIDS Update Conference in San 
Francisco.  The conference inspired Hayes, who was operating a 
home health-care agency for MacNeal Hospital, to consider an 
ideal treatment program for people with AIDS.  With funding from 
MacNeal Hospital, Hayes chose a site for the clinic and then 
worked closely with the architect to create a space that did not 
resemble most health-care clinics.  The integration of therapies 
and services comes at a time when alternative therapies are 
gradually being accepted into traditional health-care arenas.  
This acceptance is due to many factors, particularly the speed at
which many patients are adopting such therapies.
      
"China Says 1,774 Have HIV Virus, 65 Have AIDS"
Reuters (04/12/95)
     On Wednesday, the Guangming Daily reported that by the end of 
1994, China had diagnosed 1,774 people with HIV, of whom 65 have 
full-blown AIDS and 45 had died.  More than 70 percent of the 
HIV-infected people contracted the virus through drug abuse, said
Health Minister Chen Meizhang at an AIDS conference in Beijing.  
The number of people who became infected through sexual activity,
however, is increasing and some cases were caused by exposure to 
infected blood, he said.  Experts say the official figure is 
incorrect because of poor surveillance, inefficient reporting, 
and misdiagnosis.  They estimate the actual number of 
HIV-infected individuals in China is more than 10,000.
      
"Unemployment, Poverty to Blame for TB--Studies"
Reuters (04/12/95)
     Although the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is increasing in 
Britain and other developed countries, two often cited 
causes--immigration and overcrowding--are not specifically to 
blame, doctors have found.  Two studies reported in the British 
Medical Journal discovered that the causes are related more to 
poverty and unemployment.  "Overall, notification rates fell in 
boroughs with small increases in unemployment and increased in 
boroughs with large increases in unemployment," wrote Dr. Punam 
Mangtani of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 
and his colleagues.  During the past five years, reported cases 
of TB have increased about 12 percent, and some studies have 
associated it with AIDS.  Dr. John Moore-Gillon and his 
colleagues at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London learned that 
poverty was a significant factor.  TB was 10 times more common in
the poorest 10 percent of boroughs and districts in England than 
in the most affluent 10 percent.  The increase in TB cases was 
concentrated in the poorest regions.
      
"IRIS Patents Simple White Blood Cell Enrichment Method"
PR Newswire (04/12/95)
     International Remote Imaging Systems Inc. (IRIS) was recently 
granted a U.S. patent for a method of enriching white blood cells
by rapid and simple separation of red blood cells from blood.  
The patent describes the combination of an osmotic agent which 
changes the density of red blood cells and a rouleaux-forming 
aggregator which causes rapid gravitational settling of red blood
cells.  An automated version of the method has been incorporated 
into The White IRIS leukocyte differential analyzer.  The 
procedure may also be useful in the preparation of specimens for 
flow cytometry, an important operation in the diagnosis and 
monitoring of AIDS and other white blood cell disorders.
      
"Released Report Says Needle Exchanges Work"
Journal of the American Medical Association (04/05/95) Vol. 273, 
No. 13, P. 980;  Marwick, Charles
     The results of a study sponsored by the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC) show that needle exchange programs 
are effective in reducing HIV infection and do not encourage drug
use, said the study's principal investigator Peter Lurie.  A 
member of the University of California, San Francisco Center for 
AIDS Prevention Studies, Lurie spoke at a recent forum on needle 
exchange programs held by The Foundation for Drug Policy.  
Although the study was completed in 1993, it has not been 
released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and
there has been no action to implement its suggestions.  The 
foundation obtained the final report of the study, copies of 
which have been circulating for months.  The foundation has also 
released copies of a memorandum from CDC Director David Satcher 
to the HHS in which he states his agreement with the report's 
conclusions by recommending that the federal government end the 
ban on federal funds for needle exchange programs.
      
"Pathogenicity of Live, Attenuated SIV after Mucosal Infection of
Neonatal Macaques"
Science (03/24/95) Vol. 267, No. 5205, P. 1820;  Baba, Timothy W.;  
Jeong, Yong Seok;  Penninck, Dominique et al.
     Adult macaques do not develop disease after having been infected 
with a nef deletion mutant of the simian immunodeficiency virus 
(SIV).  These macaques are also protected against infection from 
pathogenic SIV.  Baba et al., therefore, proposed using 
nef-deleted viruses as potential AIDS vaccines.  Neonatal 
macaques, however, developed high levels of viremia after oral 
exposure to an SIV nef, vpr, and negative regulatory element 
deletion mutant.  The researchers observed severe hemolytic 
anemia, thrombocytopenia, and CD4 T cell depletion, which 
suggests that neither nef nor vpr determine pathogenicity in 
neonatal macaques.  The authors claim that nef principally 
affects viral replication and that any factor augmenting viral 
replication in adults could make using nef-deleted virus 
hazardous if used as a vaccine.
      
"Mothers March Against AIDS, May 7; Congressional Visits May 8"
AIDS Treatment News (03/24/95) No. 219, P. 8
     Mothers March Against AIDS is planning a march in Washington, 
D.C., on May 7.  "We want to impress upon our leaders, our 
nation, and the entire world that we will not tolerate the loss 
of another generation," they said.  For May 8, Mothers' Voices is
organizing visits to key members of Congress, particularly those 
from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Oregon, 
Texas, and Virginia.