Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 09:46:38 +0500 From: gharaghs{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/gharaghs}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 12/28/95 AIDS Daily Summary December 28, 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 ************************************************************ "Risk of H.I.V. Infection Is Low in Transfusions, a Study Finds" "Thalidomide: Old Horrors Clash with New Hope" "In Brief: Abbott Laboratories" "Rendell Is Hosting 2 Benefits" "The Legacy of a Journalistic Giant" "Authorities Patrolling Cyberspace for Crime" "A Preliminary Trial of Lamivudine for Chronic Hepatitis B Infection" "Debate Over 'The Pill' Resurfaces in Japan" "Causes of Death in Florida Prisons: The Dominance of AIDS" "From Love to AIDS: The Death & Life of General Idea" ************************************************************ "Risk of H.I.V. Infection Is Low in Transfusions, a Study Finds" New York Times (12/28/95) P. D19 A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that only some 24 of the 12 million pints of blood used in transfusions every year are tainted with HIV. This risk is about half as great as previous estimates. HIV-infected individuals produce antibodies that circulate in their blood, but the body does not produce these antibodies in the first few weeks after infection. CDC officials say that about one in every 360,000 blood donations made during this roughly 25-day window when infected blood can evade detection. Still, up to 42 percent of this blood is thrown away because it does not pass other tests. Furthermore, because donations are divided, the average blood recipient gets blood from more than 5 donors and the risk that a patient getting blood will become HIV-infected is between one in 83,000 and one in 122,000. Related Stories: Wall Street Journal (12/28) P. B2; Washington Post (12/28) P. A4; USA Today (12/28) P. 1D; Baltimore Sun (12/28) P. 3A "Thalidomide: Old Horrors Clash with New Hope" New York Times (12/28/95) P. A1; McLarin, Kimberly J. New insight into the functions of thalidomide--a drug that was banned throughout the world some 30 years ago for causing severe birth defects--has led to widespread testing of the drug for use against many diseases, including tuberculosis and a number of AIDS-related disorders. Scientists are also investigating whether the drug blocks growth of HIV. The renewed hope in the drug has caused anger and fear in many of the people affected by the drug. But scientists and officials from drug companies maintain that thalidomide may be able to reduce some patients' discomfort and extend many people's lives. "In Brief: Abbott Laboratories" Investor's Business Daily (12/28/95) P. A1 Abbott Laboratories has received regulatory approval to market its drug Biaxin for the prevention of bacterial infections in persons with advanced AIDS. "Rendell Is Hosting 2 Benefits" Philadelphia Inquirer (12/28/95) P. B2; McCoy, Craig R. Philadelphia Mayor Rendell announced Wednesday that he will throw two parties on Jan. 5, four days after his second mayoral inauguration. One of the parties will be a $2,500-per-ticket dinner for his campaign fund, and the other is a $100-per-person charity ball, called the "AIDS/Arts Inaugural Gala." The AIDS event is hoped to raise some $100,000. The proceeds will be divided equally between From All Walks of Life, an umbrella fund-raising group for 60 AIDS organizations, and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, a nonprofit organization that donates money to local arts and cultural societies. "The Legacy of a Journalistic Giant" Wall Street Journal (12/28/95) P. A7; Hunt, Albert R. James Reston, a legendary New York Times columnist who died earlier this month, left a permanent mark on journalism as well as the country, writes columnist Albert R. Hunt in the Wall Street Journal. Another notable loss in 1995 was that of 13-year-old Matthew Allen, who died of AIDS and was the main character in "Burden of a Secret," a book written by his grandfather, Jimmy Allen. Matthew contracted HIV from a blood transfusion given to his mother just before his birth. Afterward, his father was fired from his job at a Colorado church and Matthew was denied entry into numerous Sunday schools. But Hunt notes that in this moving book, Jimmy Allen--the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention--describes a tale of personal courage and shows how the religious community can help out with such problems. According to Hunt, although Reston's old-fashioned virtues were unfamiliar with the new world of diseases like AIDS, moral responsibilities were at the center of this man who graced the field for nearly 50 years. "Authorities Patrolling Cyberspace for Crime" Reuters (12/27/95); Fillion, Roger Federal law enforcement officials are trying to crack down on crime on the Internet--searching for fake get-rich-quick plots, AIDS cures, investment scams, gambling, and child pornography. These "cybercops" act on tips and patrol potential crime scenes, just as they would do on the street. But the Internet also offers criminals anonymity and creates jurisdiction issues for law officers because of the global nature of the technology. In one instance, a woman promoted on CompuServe a product called "germanium," a substance which has been banned because it can cause permanent kidney damage. The woman had indicated that the product could help people with such diseases as AIDS and cancer. "A Preliminary Trial of Lamivudine for Chronic Hepatitis B Infection" New England Journal of Medicine (12/21/95) Vol. 333, No. 25, P. 1657; Dienstag, Jules L.; Perrillo, Robert P.; Schiff, Eugene R.; et al. A randomized, double-blind preliminary trial of oral lamivudine in 32 patients with chronic, replicative hepatitis B reveals that therapy with the drug is well tolerated and can reduce hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA to immeasurable levels. Fifty-three percent of the patients had never received interferon, which is effective in just 40 percent of patients. Dienstag et al. report that HBV DNA levels became undetectable in 70 percent of the patients who received a 25-mg dose of lamivudine and in all those patients who received either 100-mg or 300-mg doses. Traces of HBV reappeared in most patients after therapy, though nearly 20 percent experienced continued HBV DNA suppression as well as normalization of alanine aminotransferase levels. According to the researchers, the results of the 12-week lamivudine therapy and subsequent follow-up merit larger, controlled trials of the drug. "Debate Over 'The Pill' Resurfaces in Japan" Nature Medicine (11/95) Vol. 1, No. 11, P. 1115; Nathan, Richard Concern that the use of a low-dose contraceptive pill might further the spread of HIV by encouraging promiscuity and reducing condom use has prompted the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare to commission a study looking into the matter. Researchers on the three-year project found no link between use of the pill and the spread of HIV in the United States or Europe but did find some correlation between the two events among a group of prostitutes in Africa. Currently, a riskier high-dose pill is officially approved in Japan only for uses other than contraception, such as difficulties associated with menstruation. An official estimate of women prescribed the pill places it at 1 percent, but unofficially it is believed that 200,000 to 800,000 women are taking the drug. Political issues, including Japan's falling birth rate and aging population are also at play in addition to lobbying from manufacturers of condoms and physicians who make good profit from performing abortions. Doctors are now concerned, however, that a new product liability law could leave them liable for negative side-effects resulting from the high-dose pills when they are prescribed for off-label uses like contraception. "Causes of Death in Florida Prisons: The Dominance of AIDS" American Journal of Public Health (12/95) Vol. 85, No. 12, P. 1710; Amankwaa, Adansi A. In a letter to the editor of the American Journal of Public Health, Adansi A. Amankwaa of the Florida Department of Corrections, Bureau of Planning, Research, and Statistics presents the findings of an investigation of mortality in the Florida prison system as evidence of the significant impact of AIDS on prison mortality. Data on prisoners' causes of death was reviewed for the period between 1987 and 1992. AIDS was the primary cause of death in 1987, and remained the main source of mortality throughout the five-year study, accounting for more than 50 percent of the Florida prison deaths in 1992. The data also indicate a systemic increase in AIDS-related deaths, as compared with all other causes of death, and a concentration of prison AIDS deaths among young black men. This study reflects a critical need for AIDS education among inmates, as well as a need for government and prison administrators to reconsider their AIDS-among-prisoners policies. "From Love to AIDS: The Death & Life of General Idea" Village Voice (12/05/95) Vol. 40, No. 49, P. 31; Indiana, Gary AIDS has brought General Idea, a Toronto-based art collaboration that attempts to put bizarre content into familiar institutional forms, to a premature end. Two of the three founding members, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, have died of the disease within the past two years. The group's best-known project is FILE, an offbeat magazine that combined reproduced artworks, art-world gossip, manifestos, and other projects. But according to surviving member A.A. Bronson, the group's first real success was an AIDS logo they showed as part of the American Foundation for AIDS Research's first benefit. The painting was done in the same colors and same design as Robert Indiana's LOVE, and its success led to numerous other AIDS-related projects. General Idea's work began to focus more on the epidemic as the disease increasingly affected Partz and Zontal, who learned they were HIV-positive in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The major opus from that time is "One Year of AZT One Day of AZT," an installation piece based on the former five-pill-a-day standard dose of the drug. Bronson explains that he cannot continue General Idea "because it was a collaboration." The group's work will be preserved at the Art Gallery of Ontario.