Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 04/14/95

From: [email-masked] (Wilson, Anne)
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 14:14:46 +0500

AIDS Daily Summary 
                       April 14, 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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"Condoms for Convicts Draw Fire"
"Anti-AIDS Effort Puts Prophylactics in Parole Offices"
"Activists Demand Firing of AIDS Czar"
"China to Boost Blood Testing to Prevent AIDS"
"Dollar's Fall a Life-or-Death Issue in Africa"
"Biogen Inc."
"Study Shows Success With New AIDS Drug"
"Gonorrhea May Be Making a Come-back in U.S."
"Hispanic Physician Group Aims to Improve Level of HIV Care"
"Dementia Associated with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome"
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"Condoms for Convicts Draw Fire"
Washington Times (0414) P. C4;  Seigle, Greg
     The District of Columbia is one of about five prison systems in 
the nation that distributes prophylactics to prisoners--even 
though sex in jail is illegal.  Although the city's corrections 
officials have passed out 150,000 condoms in less than two years,
they do not know how many inmates are using them or whether they 
have affected the spread of AIDS in the prisons.  Officials said 
they do not want to promote sex in the jails, but that they do 
want to control sexually transmitted diseases because they cannot
keep the 11,000 inmates from engaging in sexual activities.  
Others, however, are not satisfied that proper controls are in 
place.  When 150,000 condoms have been distributed since May 
1993, says D.C. Council member Kevin Chavous, "that brings into 
question [the department's] monitoring abilities."  The lack of 
controls also troubles the Rev. Lou Shelton, chairman of the 
Capitol Hill-based Traditional Values Coalition.  "It does not 
appear, even with the scare of the HIV virus, that they are 
seeking to instill moral values," he comments.  Officials 
estimate that 10 percent of incoming prisoners are HIV-infected.
      
"Anti-AIDS Effort Puts Prophylactics in Parole Offices"
Washington Times (04/14/95) P. C5;  Naylor, Janet
     For the fiscal year ending June 30, the Maryland Department of 
Health and Mental Hygiene spent $30,000 on an AIDS education 
program that includes making condoms available in the state's 60 
Parole and Probation Department offices.  The condoms, which are 
not distributed in the state's prisons, are available free of 
charge and cost Maryland about five cents each.  The condom 
program is popular in a number of Parole and Probation Department
offices in the Washington, D.C., area.  But Sgt. Fred Gus, 
president of the Prince George's County Correctional Officers 
Association, said, "I don't want the public to think that sexual 
activity is being condoned," particularly among sex offenders.  
State officials, however, say the program is necessary to reach 
ex-offenders, many of whom are in high-risk groups for 
contracting HIV.  The program also has an outreach specialist who
trains agents to talk to clients about HIV infection.
      
"Activists Demand Firing of AIDS Czar"
Washington Times (04/14/95) P. A5
     On Thursday, AIDS activists urged President Clinton to fire AIDS 
policy chief Patsy Fleming for "bowing to the right wing" and for
eliminating mandatory AIDS education for all federal employees.  
"This is just another example of the Clinton administration 
caving in to right-wing pressure at the expense of people with 
AIDS," said Steve Michael of ACT UP.  Michael said that the AIDS 
education requirement was dropped after just 18 months because of
pressure from Republicans who said the training was promoting 
homosexuality.
      
"China to Boost Blood Testing to Prevent AIDS"
Reuters (04/14/95)
     China has established a special committee to manage blood 
products nationwide.  The purpose of the National Blood Products 
Management Committee is to prevent the spread of AIDS through 
contaminated blood products, Health Ministry officials said.  Of 
the 1,774 people diagnosed as HIV-positive in China, 65 developed
AIDS and 45 had died by the end of 1994.  Chinese authorities 
have warned that because of the HIV contamination of China's 
largely unscreened blood supply, the number of AIDS cases could 
quadruple during the next decade.
      
"Dollar's Fall a Life-or-Death Issue in Africa"
Washington Times (04/14/95) P. B7;  Nesbit, Jeff
     According to a draft AIDS policy guidance document from the U.S. 
Agency for International Development (AID), the AIDS epidemic 
could kill a significant part of the adult population in several 
African countries, writes Jeff Nesbit in the Washington Times.  
There are 17 million HIV-infected people in Africa.  "Up to 30 
percent of urban adults in Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Rwanda, and 
Uganda are infected," the AID says.  The epidemic is also 
beginning to grow significantly in Latin America and Asia.  The 
AID awarded a grant to an American health group which launched a 
much-needed AIDS education program through the churches in Kenya.
In the past year, however, the dollar has been devalued against 
the Kenyan shilling some 40 percent and the organization is faced
with a choice either of closing, or of paying its medical team 
for a much shorter time and hoping more funding comes in.  The 
export of successful American AIDS education and prevention 
programs to Africa is just now beginning--and is about to be cut 
short by the falling dollar, Nesbit concludes.
      
"Biogen Inc."
Wall Street Journal (04/14/95) P. B2
     An independent arbitration panel has ruled in favor of Biogen 
Inc. in its dispute with SmithKline Beecham PLC concerning 
royalties on hepatitis B vaccines that SmithKline pays to Biogen.
In 1988, Biogen licensed its vaccine technology to SmithKline in 
exchange for royalties on sales.  Since 1990, however, the two 
companies have debated the royalty rate, which SmithKline said 
should be lower than it initially was.  Although Biogen refused 
to disclose the terms of the royalty agreement or why it was in 
dispute, a spokeswoman for the company said that roughly $18.4 
million of royalty payments since 1990 were in dispute.
      
"Study Shows Success With New AIDS Drug"
Reuters (04/13/95)
     Dr. Valerie Kitchen and colleagues have reported in the journal 
Lancet that the protease inhibitor saquinavir, manufactured by 
Hoffman-La Roche as Invirase, appears to be an effective 
treatment for HIV infection.  After four weeks, levels of the 
virus dropped in HIV-positive men who received the drug, said 
Kitchen.  However, the virus returned to its previous level 
within 16 weeks.  Earlier tests published in last week's issue of
the journal Nature showed that the virus recovered its original 
strength within several months after patients received protease 
inhibitors.
      
"Gonorrhea May Be Making a Come-back in U.S."
Reuters (04/13/95)
     Health authorities announced on Thursday that after two decades 
of decline, cases of gonorrhea have leveled off and could 
increase in the United States.  "We don't want to see...this 
leveling off, because we're not at a level where we should be 
leveling off yet," explained Dr. Allyn Nakashima of the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  In addition to 
causing urethritis in men and cervicitis in women, gonorrhea can 
also increase an individual's susceptibility to AIDS.
      
"Hispanic Physician Group Aims to Improve Level of HIV Care"
American Medical News (04/03/95) Vol. 38, No. 13, P. 11;  
Shelton, Deborah L.
     The Interamerican College of Physicians, a New York-based group 
with 39,000 members, is launching a program in the New York City 
area to improve the skills of primary care doctors treating 
HIV-infected Hispanics.  The project will train physicians to 
identify and screen high-risk patients, recognize early 
manifestations of immunodeficiency, treat patients with HIV and 
other sexually transmitted diseases, and counsel and refer 
patients with AIDS.  Free training will be conducted in four 
preceptive sessions at the doctors' own offices, according to Dr.
Miguel R. Sanchez, the project's principal investigator.  
Evaluation of the program will examine changes in the number of 
HIV tests ordered, the stages at which infections are identified,
and the willingness of doctors to serve HIV-infected patients.  
The project, which is being  conducted in collaboration with the 
AIDS program at Bellevue Hospital Medical Center and the Dept. of
Dermatology and Syphilogy of New York University School of 
Medicine, is funded by the federal Health Resources and Services 
Administration.
      
"Dementia Associated with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome"
New England Journal of Medicine (04/06/95) Vol. 332, No. 14, P. 
934;  Lipton, Stuart A.;  Gendelman, Howard E.
     Almost one-third of adults and half of children with AIDS have 
neurological complications which are directly attributable to 
HIV-1 infection of the brain.  The signs of HIV-1 infection in 
the central nervous system include widespread reactive 
astrocystosis; myelin pallor; and infiltration by blood-derived 
macrophages, resident microglia, and multinucleated giant cells. 
In the first stage of HIV-1 infection of brain macrophages, the 
viral coat of glycoprotein gp120 binds to a receptor on the 
surface of the macrophage.  During the second stage, the viral 
genome is integrated into the genome of the macrophage, and is 
followed by active viral replication.  The final common link of 
neuronal injury in AIDS involves the overactivation of two kinds 
of channels permeable to calcium ions--those that are 
voltage-dependent and those operated by N-methyl-D-aspartate 
(NMDA) receptors.  Two NMDA antagonists that have prevented 
neuronal injury in vitro, memantine and nitroglycerin, are 
particularly promising because they have a history of safe use in
patients with other diseases.