From listmgr@aspensys.com Fri Apr 14 11:15:13 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 LAA20380 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 11:14:59 -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 LAA01358 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 11:09:12 -0700 Received: from aspensys by casti.com (8.6.9/NX3.0M) id OAA06687; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 14:15:32 -0400 Received: by aspensys (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA05786; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 14:14:46 +0500 Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 14:14:46 +0500 Message-Id: <9503147978.AA797888056@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 04/14/95 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse content-length: 10319 Status: R 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 ************************************************************ "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" ************************************************************ "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.