Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 09:45:01 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 08/03/95 AIDS Daily Summary August 3, 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 ************************************************************ "AIDS Law on Trial in N.D." "At 4, She Has Made Her Mark on World" "Indonesian Moslem Chief Seeks Curb on Condoms" "FDA Oks First Baboon-to-Human Bone Marrow Transplant for AIDS Patient, Despite Potential Health Risks" "The Pop Life: A Death from AIDS Makes a Rap Group Examine Its Priorities" "Sacrificing Babies on the Altar of Privacy" "Healthcare Technologies Reports Record Quarterly Results" "Atovaquone (Mepron) Suspension Approved by FDA" "Resisting AIDS: Another Vaccine Approach" "Compensation for French Haemophiliacs" ************************************************************ "AIDS Law on Trial in N.D." USA Today (08/03/95) P. 3A; Pesce, Carolyn AIDS activist Cyndi Potete is the first person charged under a six-year-old law in North Dakota that makes it illegal for people with AIDS to transfer body fluids without disclosing their illness and then using protection. Potete, who faces 20 years in jail after having sexual intercourse with a former boss who she claims raped her, is scheduled to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing on the charge. Although it is not known whether the man she had sex with, Timothy Martin, has tested positive for HIV, proof is not necessary for a conviction. The case has attracted attention across the country because of the controversy over state laws passed in the late 1980s to stem the spread of HIV. Many AIDS activists contend that the laws are discriminatory because they classify people with HIV and AIDS as criminals, but ignore others with communicable diseases. The incident took place when Potete, an alcoholic who had been sober and was on probation for drunken driving, went on a drinking binge with Martin and woke up in his camper naked and unable to remember what happened. Potete was arrested after a friend who knew that Potete was infected saw her and Martin have sex reported the incident to Potete's probation officer. "At 4, She Has Made Her Mark on World" Washington Post (08/03/95) P. D.C.1; Parker, Lonnae O'Neal Precious Thomas, age 4, has appeared at numerous AIDS awareness functions--including a World AIDS Day program at the General Services Administration, where she was a guest speaker. Precious, who was adopted by Rocky and Michael Thomas, was diagnosed with HIV at age 1. Her birth mother was a drug addict. "I have a bad bug in my body, and it makes me sick. It attacks my immunity system," is how Precious describes her illness. Rocky Thomas said her daughter was constantly in the hospital in 1992 and 1993 due to upper respiratory infections. Precious' doctors and teachers discovered that she has a talent for remembering facts and figures, and it was at that point that Rocky Thomas began an AIDS awareness campaign and started letting Precious do motivational speaking. Thomas said that her daughter is asked to give speeches at church or civil rights benefits every week. "I'm not keeping my mouth closed about her being HIV-positive," Thomas explained. "Indonesian Moslem Chief Seeks Curb on Condoms" Reuters (08/03/95) Indonesia's Council of Ulemas (MUI) has urged that condoms only be sold to married couples through limited markets, the Antara news agency reported. "It would be better if the government only allowed dispensaries to sell condoms to married couples with prescriptions from general practitioners," said Hasan Basri, the MUI chairman. Basri said the MUI could not support any effort for the use of condoms as an AIDS prevention measure, because this would mean they would be sold freely at kiosks and shops. This would also mean that the MUI endorsed free sex in the predominantly Moslem country, which he said was prohibited by Islam. Basri said that condoms were not needed to prevent the spread of HIV, noting that strong religious convictions would stop people from having extramarital sex. "FDA Oks First Baboon-to-Human Bone Marrow Transplant for AIDS Patient, Despite Potential Health Risks" Business Wire (08/02/95) According to the biotechnology daily BioWorld Today, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) will proceed with a bone-marrow transplant from a baboon into a human with advanced AIDS. The newspaper learned late Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the transplant on July 27, less than two weeks after a public hearing was held to examine the possible health risks of xenotransplantation. The FDA removed a "hold" from the investigational new drug application held by researcher Suzanne Ildstad and professor Steven Deeks, provided that certain conditions are met. One condition is that the researchers make a good faith effort to locate a baboon that does not have foamy virus, a particularly virulent disease that is fatal to most baboons. "The Pop Life: A Death from AIDS Makes a Rap Group Examine Its Priorities" New York Times (08/03/95) P. C12; Strauss, Neil Released last week, "E. 1999 Eternal," the first complete album by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, is one of the most interesting new rap albums of the year. It is also important because its executive producer was Eazy-E (Eric Wright), who died of AIDS earlier this year. Layzie Bone, a member of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, said that the rapper was the first of the group's friends to die from AIDS. "That was the first time that we ever ran across anything like that...[His death] makes you think about whether some things are really worth it, and what we've really got in the world," he said. The band has recorded a single, called "In Memory of E," which will be on the B-side of an upcoming single. Eazy-E was best known as a member of the rap group N.W.A, from which the top-selling rappers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre emerged. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's "E. 1999 Eternal" will enter the Billboard chart next week at No. 1. "Sacrificing Babies on the Altar of Privacy" Wall Street Journal (08/03/95) P. A8; Ledeen, Barbara J. Each year, some 2,000 infants in America test positive for HIV--although many are false positives because they have their mother's antibodies, but not the actual virus--writes Barbara J. Ledeen, executive director of the Independent Women's Forum, in the Wall Street Journal. These babies, however, are still at risk because they can also get the virus through breast feeding, she warns. Currently, federal policies ensure that parents are not informed of the babies' disease. AIDS activists and establishment feminists claim that the "privacy" of AIDS patients should be maintained at any cost. The solution to the problem, Ledeen proposes, is to directly and routinely test pregnant women, tell them the results, and teach them how to behave in the future. Recently introduced legislation in Congress would require HIV testing of all newborns whose mothers were not tested for the virus, informing the parents or guardians of the results, and counseling them about how to help their children. But this is not enough, Ledeen declares. If we can insist upon testing for hepatitis and syphilis, why not for HIV? she asks. Although privacy is an important principle of our society, other principles should supercede it if its blind application threatens the health and survival of women and infants, Ledeen concludes. "Healthcare Technologies Reports Record Quarterly Results" Business Wire (08/02/95) On Wednesday, Healthcare Technologies Ltd. announced record sales and earnings for the second quarter of 1995. Revenues for the three months increased 15 percent to $2,313,000 from the $2,015,000 recorded one year ago. Overall sales for the first six months rose by 16 percent to $4,415,000, compared to $3,814,000 in the corresponding period in 1994. Company president Dr. Yeshayahu Yakir said the increases were in part due "to growth in sales volume of Sero ELISA, Chlamydia kits, Diaslide, [and] the initial sales of HIV kits in a number of countries." "Atovaquone (Mepron) Suspension Approved by FDA" AIDS Clinical Care (07/95) Vol. 7, No. 7, P. 62; Cotton, Deborah Atovaquone (Mepron) suspension has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of non-severe Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in patients who are unable to tolerate trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX). A test of the suspension form of the drug produced a two-fold increase in bioavailability, compared to the previously licensed tablet. At this time, atovaquone is not licensed for prophylactic use for PCP or for salvage therapy in patients not responding to other treatments. In addition, a comparison of TMP-SMX and atovaquone for the treatment of mild to moderate PCP showed significantly more deaths in the atovaquone group. Although it has not been explained, one possible reason for the difference is atovaquone's lack of a broad antibacterial spectrum. "Resisting AIDS: Another Vaccine Approach" Technology Review (07/95) Vol. 98, No. 5, P. 23; Shearer, Gene M.; Clerici, Mario Seeking evidence of cellular response to HIV, Shearer and Clerici's team at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) studied a group of high-risk people who showed no traditional signs of infection with the virus. They found that between 35 and 65 percent of the various subsets of the group showed evidence in their white cells of "cellular immune activity." The team then tried to determine whether an AIDS vaccine should depend on the body's cellular immune response, instead of the antibody response. Several labs--including the one at NCI--have noted changes in the types of cytokines produced before an HIV-infected person progresses to full-blown AIDS. Cytokines are the proteins that regulate the immune system. The NCI lab found that production of the type of cytokines that primarily promote a cellular immune response falls before a person develops AIDS, while the output of cytokines that enhance an antibody response increases. It was also found that most of the HIV-infected people who progress to AIDS quickly produce more of the second type of cytokines, whereas long-term nonprogressors produce far more of the first type. The concept of a type 1-to-type 2 shift in most HIV-infected individuals has prompted researchers to consider treating them with type 1 cytokines, with other molecules that cause the body to increase type 1 cytokine production, or with antibodies to type 2 cytokines. "Compensation for French Haemophiliacs" Lancet (07/22/95) Vol. 346, No. 8969, P. 243 In Strasbourg, the Court of Human Rights reports that the French government has agreed to "friendly settlements" in cases filed by hemophiliacs who became infected with HIV via transfusions. The decision was made based on the premise that the length of proceedings violated the European Convention on Human Rights.