Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 10:25:16 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 12/27/95 AIDS Daily Summary December 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 ************************************************************ "Epitope Inc.: Stock Jumps 34 Percent on News FDA Approved HIV Test" "Fears, Suits and Regulations Stall Contraceptive Advances" "The Overselling of Gene Therapy" "AIDS Cases Reported in Two Beijing Colleges" "India Urged to Seek New Ways to Combat Oldest Job" "Elusive HIV-Suppressor Factors Found" "Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Infects Endothelial and Spindle Cells" "HCFA to Help Women Protect Infants from HIV" "Living on the Edge" "Health Insured?" ************************************************************ "Epitope Inc.: Stock Jumps 34 Percent on News FDA Approved HIV Test" Wall Street Journal (12/27/95) P. 14 Epitope Inc., Beaverton, Ore., received an approvable letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the marketing of the company's Western blot confirmatory test for use in HIV-1 testing with its OraSure oral-specimen-collection product. Following that news, the company's shares soared $4.50, or 34 percent, to $17.875. Epitope said that the FDA letter indicates that the agency will approve the test upon submission of additional data. The Western blot test is an HIV-testing method that is wholly based on an oral specimen. Related Stories: USA Today (12/27) P. 1D; Investor's Business Daily (12/27) P. B8 "Fears, Suits and Regulations Stall Contraceptive Advances" New York Times (12/27/95) P. A1; Lewin, Tamar There are several factors involved in the delay in creating new contraceptive devices, family planning experts say. Lawsuits, a lengthy government approval process, and fears on the part of both consumers and drug companies have led experts to predict that it will be years before any new methods are made available in the United States. Many public health experts are worried about the lack of momentum in contraceptive research because some of the available products have disturbing side effects and many do not help prevent sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV. "A lot of companies have dropped out," notes Dr. Nancy Alexander, chief of the contraceptive development branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Development. Currently, research is being conducted on a number of barrier methods that would include both spermicides and chemicals that could block viruses like HIV and herpes. "The Overselling of Gene Therapy" Washington Post (12/26/95) P. A23; Greenberg, Daniel S. In an editorial in the Washington Post, Daniel S. Greenberg, editor and publisher of Science & Government, discusses the recent criticism of gene-therapy by a committee of physicians and scientists appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH report, directed to researchers and biotechnology companies, decried the overselling of gene therapy, which has so far produced no actual cures and a lot of positive press coverage. Like the NIH scientists, Greenberg believes the dangers of overselling gene therapy include a misled public and the possibility of a later backlash against further support for gene therapy. He warns the public to "be wary of claims of medical miracles, regardless of their origin." "AIDS Cases Reported in Two Beijing Colleges" Reuters (12/25/95) Ten students at two colleges in Beijing have AIDS, according to the Yangcheng Evening News. "It is extremely urgent to spread the program of prevention of AIDS on China's university campuses," the paper quoted AIDS expert Zeng Yi as saying. The 10 students were found positive in spot tests, though it is not clear whether they have HIV or AIDS. More than 50 percent of China's AIDS cases are among people aged 20-29, while those aged 16-19 represent nearly 9 percent. "India Urged to Seek New Ways to Combat Oldest Job" Reuters (12/26/95); Vaughan, Lisa An increasing number of women in India are turning to prostitution in order to survive, social workers and activist claim. Jyotsna Chatterji, director of the Delhi-based Joint Women's Program, told a conference on women in prostitution that the pressures of liberalization, urbanization, and migration are stimulating the sex trade. India must therefore find new methods to deal with the problems of women and children in prostitution. Activist K.K. Mukherjee said that some 200 Indian women and girls go into prostitution each day. Health workers noted that prostitution is also a primary method of HIV transmission in the country. Representatives of grassroots organizations said that the focus should be on helping to rehabilitate prostitutes with employment, health, and education. "Elusive HIV-Suppressor Factors Found" Science (12/08/95) Vol. 270, No. 5242, P. 1560; Balter, Michael Former National Cancer Institute researcher Robert Gallo recently announced that a team led by himself and Italian scientist Paolo Lusso found three closely related polypeptides that shut down production of many strains of HIV-1, HIV-2, and SIV in laboratory cultures. The three so-called chemokines--known as RANTES, MIP1-(alpha), and MIP1-(beta)--work together to produce the Levy effect, named after virologist Jay Levy who first reported that these cells can suppress HIV replication. There has been considerable enthusiasm for Gallo's discovery, yet Levy himself has voiced his dissent. "I'm gratified that people are turning to look at what we have been working on," Levy said. "But if they say it's the factor I've been working on for the past five years, they've got the wrong ones." Levy and other researchers showed in 1989 that CD8 cells suppressed replication by secreting a "factor," which no one has been able to identify. In a recent interview with Science magazine, Levy noted that he had previously tested the three proteins as potential "factor" candidates and had rejected them. Still, Levy agreed that the three chemokines may be useful in antiviral therapy for HIV-infected individuals. Gallo claims his discovery is in fact Levy's factor because his team followed Levy's published protocols in preparing their own experiments. "Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Infects Endothelial and Spindle Cells" Nature Medicine (12/95) Vol. 1, No. 12, P. 1274; Boshoff, Chris; Schulz, Thomas F.; Kennedy, Margaret M.; et al. Sequences of a new human herpesvirus, called Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)/human herpesvirus-8, have been identified in HIV-related and classical Kaposi's sarcoma. To identify the cell types infected in KS tumor tissue with this virus, Boshoff et al. used polymerase chain reaction in situ hybridization (PCR-ISH) in 11 subjects to prove that KSHV/HHV-8 is located in the endothelial and spindle cells of all forms of KS--classical, post-transplant, and AIDS-related. The researchers conclude that these findings indicate that KSHV/HHV-8 exists in the kinds of cells that are thought to represent neoplastic cells in KS lesions. "HCFA to Help Women Protect Infants from HIV" Nation's Health (12/95) Vol. 25, No. 11, P. 5 The Health Care Financing Administration will work with Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Rhode Island to help pregnant women protect their unborn children from HIV. Using material based on National Institutes of Health research, the programs will attempt to educate women about the benefits of HIV counseling and voluntary testing and inform HIV-infected women about AZT therapy, which reduces the risk of disease transmission. The agency said that the four states were selected because of their high number of Medicaid recipients and high rates of HIV infection among women of childbearing age. "Living on the Edge" Advocate (12/26/95) No. 697, P. 25; Simmons, Todd Australian scientists reported in November that eight Australians failed to develop symptoms of AIDS despite having been infected with HIV for at least 15 years. The researchers determined that the group shared a genetically flawed strain of HIV, a finding which could prove useful in the development of future AIDS treatments and potential vaccines. Still, the majority of nonprogressors do not know why they remain healthy. One prevailing theory is that there are mutant strains of HIV that cannot reproduce as well as others. Overall, the amount of research conducted on nonprogression is quite small, according to Yvonne Bryson, a pediatrician at the AIDS Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles. Bryson notes that "it's only been recently that a lot of interest has cropped up in this area," adding that "there is only a small percentage of [infected] people...who fall into this category." But that figure is increasing as the epidemic continues year after year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gradually changed its early 1980s estimate of when most individuals would get sick from within 12 to 18 months of infection to within 10 to 15 years. Some researchers say that nonprogressors illustrate the theory that HIV itself does not cause AIDS. Instead such cofactors as drug abuse or hepatitis impair the immune system, thus enabling HIV to cause physiological problems and then AIDS, they claim. Most scientists, however, maintain that HIV will almost always cause AIDS--a sentiment that is evidenced in their preferred phrase "slow progressors," instead of nonprogressors. "Health Insured?" POZ (12/95-01/96) No. 11, P. 28; Hanssens, Catherine There are numerous legal issues which can arise for an HIV-infected person seeking, or trying to keep, private health insurance. Currently, employers and insurers are in court, attempting to limit the Americans with Disabilities Act's (ADA's) protections against insurance discrimination. Both the ADA's and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) guidelines state that employer-provided health benefits are included in the "terms, conditions, and privileges of employment" under which employers cannot single out HIV patients for separate treatment. Since the enactment of the ADA, the EEOC has successfully pursued several cases of employer-provided health benefit plans with AIDS limits. The ADA also enables advocates to argue that plans which do not cover only AIDS care are in violation of the law's protection against discrimination in public accommodations. A New England federal appeals court ruled in 1994 that the ADA's public accommodations protections are not restricted to actual physical structures, but federal courts in Ohio and Tennessee have reached opposite conclusions this year.