Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 09:23:06 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary April 27, 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 ************************************************************ "DePazzo Questions Program for AIDS Patients, Cites 'Privileged Class'" "The Reliable Source" "Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Begins Clinical Trial..." "S. Korean Teacher Kills Daughter Over AIDS Worry" "Benetton Wins German Case" "Proposal: Monitoring Program for Early Rapid Testing of New AIDS Treatments" "A Movable Institute: the AIDS Dream Team" "Congressman Uncovers the HIV Conspiracy" "Patterns of Initial and Acquired Antituberculosis Drug Resistance in Karonga District, Malawi" "In Vivo Emergence of HIV-1 Variants Resistant to Multiple Protease Inhibitors" ************************************************************ "DePazzo Questions Program for AIDS Patients, Cites 'Privileged Class'" Baltimore Sun (04/27/95) P. 3B; Carson, Larry Baltimore County Councilman Louis L. DePazzo on Tuesday commented that a bill allocating $32,819 in federal money for the psychiatric treatment and transportation of HIV-infected patients to medical appointments seems to treat these patients as a "privileged class," while the medical needs of other sick people are overlooked. In defense of the bill, which was proposed by Congress under the Ryan White Act, Dr. Joan M. Colfer--director of the health department's Bureau of Disease Control--stated that it is "cheaper to get them [AIDS patients] to their medical appointments than to call an ambulance in the middle of the night." "The Reliable Source" Washington Post (04/27/95) P. D3; Romano, Lois An AIDS educational video featuring Pedro Zamora, an activist and MTV star who died from AIDS last November, is being released today in the nation's capital. The video will be distributed in all District junior high and high schools. "Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Begins Clinical Trial..." PR Newswire (04/26/95) Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. have announced the beginning of a Phase I clinical trial in Japan for VX-478, Vertex's orally administered protease inhibitor treatment for HIV infection and AIDS. The study is part of an international clinical development program for the compound sponsored by Kissei, Burroughs Wellcome Co., and Vertex. Kissei is developing Vertex's HIV protease inhibitors in Japan and China--with options for other countries in the Far East--and has marketing rights to the products. Vertex has a separate deal with Burroughs Wellcome, under which it markets and develops the drugs in the United States, Europe, and other countries outside the Far East. "S. Korean Teacher Kills Daughter Over AIDS Worry" Reuters (04/26/95) A physical education teacher in South Korea killed his daughter and tried to kill himself after finding red spots on her skin and his own. According to police, Hwa Yong-min thought the spots were symptoms of AIDS. He suffocated his 4-year-old daughter and buried her on a mountain earlier in the month, then tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by taking sleeping pills. When tested at a hospital, Hwa was found to be free of the virus that causes AIDS. "Benetton Wins German Case" New York Times (04/27/95) P. D12 Under order of a German state court, retailer Hanna Voss must pay Italian clothing company Benetton more than $505,000 for merchandise she received from the firm. Voss had refused to pay for the clothing in protest of Benetton's advertising. Billboard advertising for Benetton has included images of a dying AIDS patient and the blood-soaked clothes of a dead Croat soldier. Benetton says the ads were intended to raise the public's social awareness. In Germany, however, the advertisements offended some retailers and led to calls for a boycott. Voss claimed that the ads were responsible for a 30 percent decline in revenues at her stores, but Benetton says retailers cannot use the ads as an excuse not to pay for merchandise. "Proposal: Monitoring Program for Early Rapid Testing of New AIDS Treatments" AIDS Treatment News (04/07/95) No. 220, P. 5; James, John S. To reduce the time and cost of obtaining information about the effects of new treatments and treatment strategies in AIDS patients, AIDS Treatment News proposes a program for careful, consistent monitoring of experimental treatments already being used by patients and physicians, writes John S. James in the publication. A research group could implement a monitoring program for the systematic collection, analysis, and reporting of treatments of interest which are already being tried. Studying treatments which doctors and patients have already decided to use would significantly reduce the cost of research, while increasing its relevance. Under the proposal, a protocol for a trial would not specify the treatment to be used because the doctors and patients would chose it in each case. While the protocol might include formal selection criteria for the treatments and patients to be considered, inclusion/exclusion criteria does not need to be severe because patients' results will not usually be averaged together. To avoid any question of selective reporting, all patients accepted for the study would be given a sequence number and be accounted for in published reports--even if they never received the tests or used the intended treatment. A working monitoring program will mean that as soon as the first patient is ready to try a treatment, that treatment can be used, with almost immediately available results, concludes James. "A Movable Institute: the AIDS Dream Team" Science (04/14/95) Vol. 268, No. 5208, P. 191 The National Cancer Institute's Robert Gallo, the virologist whose lab first showed the HIV causes AIDS, is trying to become to become the head of a new Institute of Human Virology. Given his way, Gallo would operate the lab, while NCI epidemiologist William Blattner would oversee population biology research and clinician Robert Redfield of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research would handle the clinical work. The three are negotiating with the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland, and an undisclosed institution in Philadelphia. "Nothing is going to distract [me] from what I've been interested in doing for a long time--better therapies and vaccine development," Gallo says. He expects to have chosen a home for the "Dream Team" by the end of April. "Congressman Uncovers the HIV Conspiracy" Science (04/14/95) Vol. 268, No. 5208, P. 191 In a recent letter sent to eight government scientists and authorities who influence AIDS research and policies, freshman Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) challenges the "HIV=AIDS hypothesis and its inability to come up with a cure, vaccine, or effective treatment." His question echoes the arguments of retrovirologist Peter Duesberg, who claims that HIV is harmless. The federal AIDS effort "will be seen as the greatest scandal in American history and will make Watergate look like a no-fault divorce," says Gutknecht's senior legislative assistant, Brian Harte. If the response of the government officials who received the letter reflects the views of the scientific community, Harte says that Gutknecht will push for hearings by the House basic research subcommittee, of which Gutknecht is a member. "Patterns of Initial and Acquired Antituberculosis Drug Resistance in Karonga District, Malawi" Lancet (04/08/95) Vol. 345, No. 8954, P. 907; Glynn, J.R.; Jenkins, P.A.; Fine, P.E.M. et al. Glynn et al. studied patterns of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in northern Malawi--the site of the Lepra Evaluation Project (LEP), a large epidemiological study of leprosy and TB. Out of 373 new cases of TB, 44 patients--or 11.8 percent--experienced initial resistance to at least one drug. Thirteen were resistant to streptomycin, 13 to isoniazid, and 17 to more than one drug. Resistance was not associated with age, sex, or HIV status. There was also no indication of geographic grouping of the resistant strains or of an increased risk of resistant strains in homes with prior TB cases. During follow-up, 5 of 329 patients acquired resistance to documented initially fully sensitive strains. The lack of an increase in drug resistance is encouraging for the control program, the authors concluded. It also underscores the need to collect data from many sources before assuming that increases in antituberculosis drug resistance are occurring worldwide. "In Vivo Emergence of HIV-1 Variants Resistant to Multiple Protease Inhibitors" Nature (04/06/95) Vol. 374, No. 6522, P. 569; Condra, Jon H.; Schleif, William A.; Blahy, Olga M. et al. Condra et al. present the case of HIV-1 variants that are resistant to HIV-1 protease inhibitors. The variants were isolated from patients being treated with MK-639, a potent and selective inhibitor of the HIV-1 protease. Five of the variants showed cross-resistance to a panel of six protease inhibitors. The finding indicates that combination therapy with multiple protease inhibitors may not guard against the loss of antiviral activity resulting from resistance selection. Previous treatment with one compound may negate the benefit of subsequent therapy with a second inhibitor.