From listmgr@aspensys.com Fri Apr 14 09:39:22 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 JAA19580 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 09:39:14 -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 JAA01262 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 09:33:28 -0700 Received: from aspensys by casti.com (8.6.9/NX3.0M) id MAA05245; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 12:39:50 -0400 Received: by aspensys (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA01292; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 12:39:00 +0500 Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 12:39:00 +0500 Message-Id: <9503147978.AA797886663@smtpinet.aspensys.com> 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: awilson@smtpinet.aspensys.com (Wilson, Anne) To: qrd@vector.casti.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/13/95 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse Content-Length: 10983 X-Lines: 201 Status: RO 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. 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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "'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" ************************************************************ "'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.