Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 09:26:27 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary February 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 ************************************************************ "Injections Delay Progress of AIDS" "Children's AIDS Study Finds AZT Ineffective" "Decoding the AIDS Numbers" "A San Francisco Talk Show Takes Right-Wing Radio to a New Dimension" "Why I Want to Be Surgeon General" "Infected by Man with HIV, Women Get $25,000 Each" "Blood Transfusion Safety Breakthrough" "AIDS Drug Is Searle's Last Hope" "Making Global Blood Safety a Priority" "Friendly Fire on the Upper West Side" ************************************************************ "Injections Delay Progress of AIDS" New York Times (02/14/95) P. C13; Altman, Lawrence K. A team of French researchers lead by J.J. Lefrere of the Hopital Saint-Antoine in Paris has reported that repeated injections of plasma from HIV-infected people into AIDS patients slowed progression of the disease. Lefrere's findings were published in Tuesday's issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The injections delayed the appearance of opportunistic infections, wasting, cancer, and encephalopathy frequently associated with AIDS. Drs. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Harold W. Jaffe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both said these results could lead to a new drug for AIDS patients. "Children's AIDS Study Finds AZT Ineffective" New York Times (02/14/95) P. C13; Altman, Lawrence K. Federal health officials have halted a large study on AZT in children with AIDS because the drug appeared to be ineffective in slowing the disease's progression. In addition, AZT was associated with a higher-than-expected incidence of adverse effects, such as bleeding and biochemical abnormalities. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said that experts should meet soon to decide whether HIV-infected children should receive ddI alone or in conjunction with AZT. The study was sponsored by NIAID and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "Decoding the AIDS Numbers" Washington Times (02/14/95) P. A19; Fumento, Michael The key to the seemingly inconsistent stories and statistics about AIDS is understanding that, compared to most fatal diseases, there is a huge lag time between infection, diagnosis, and death, writes Michael Fumento in a Washington Times commentary. It is important to remember that the statistics on death from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, are from 1993. This means that the infections occurred on average in the early 1980s, before AIDS even had a name. Also, the change in the definition of AIDS last year caused a significant increase in the number of reported AIDS cases. Using consistent definitions, AIDS cases would have increased 3 percent, according to the CDC. This is approximately the same rate as last year, and the year before. Thus, the epidemic has been flat for three years. The AIDS doomsayers, however, have taken "a snapshot of the early past of the epidemic and extrapolated it forward." This allowed predictions of a disease that would make the Black Death "seem pale by comparison," according to former Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Brown. "A San Francisco Talk Show Takes Right-Wing Radio to a New Dimension" New York Times (02/14/95) P. A10; Tierney, John In San Francisco, Hot Talk KSFO-AM is a station taking right-wing radio to new levels. The 24-hour talk station recently replaced its young, liberal hosts with conservatives. Topics of discussion have centered around such questions as whether American citizens should be paid a bounty to shoot illegal immigrants, and whether President Clinton is controlled by a coven of Communist lesbian members of the Trilateral Commission. The most outspoken host, J. Paul Emerson, stirred up the city by suggesting that a quarantine should be considered to protect the public against people who spread HIV by coughing droplets of blood into the air--a mode of infection that medical experts have dismissed as implausible. "We believe that Mr. Emerson's speech has crossed the line from enlightening the listener to inciting," said Edwin M. Lee, the executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, an advisory board that has been investigating complaints against KSFO. The station's hosts, however, have relished the controversy as an opportunity to reinforce their audience's solidarity. "Why I Want to Be Surgeon General" Washington Post (02/13/95) P. A21; Foster, Henry In a Washington Post editorial, surgeon general nominee Henry Foster comments on the close scrutiny of his life before he had even said anything at his confirmation hearings in the Senate. The obstetrician-gynecologist said he wished to solve health problems ranging "from the epidemic of violence to the spread of AIDS to the terrible problem of substance abuse." Foster also said, however, that he will give top priority to fighting teen pregnancy, which President Clinton has called "our most serious social problem." He said that it is ironic that his work to fight teen pregnancy has been obscured by his opponents' talk about abortion. The one lesson he has emphasized to the young people he works with in Nashville is that there is a reward for sacrifice. Earning that reward has the added benefit of allowing an individual to give something back. Foster writes that he wants "to give something back to a country that has rewarded my work and sacrifice." "Infected by Man with HIV, Women Get $25,000 Each" Toronto Globe and Mail (02/13/95) P. A3 The individual awards given to three women who contracted HIV from the same man have been increased from $15,000 to $25,000. On Friday, three judges rejected a decision of Ontario's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board--which ruled last year that the maximum award of $25,000 permitted under provincial law should be reduced by 40 percent, on the grounds that the women contributed to their predicament by engaging in unprotected sex. The judges ruled that the criminal injuries board "erred in law in demanding an unreasonably high standard of behaviour" from the women. The court said the board "wrongly assumed that the victims knew that there was a big risk, and that they had a significant degree of control with respect to unprotected sex." Although Charles Ssenyonga died of an AIDS-related illness before the court could rule whether he had committed a crime, the criminal injuries board concluded that his failure to disclose his condition while having unprotected sex constituted criminal negligence. "Blood Transfusion Safety Breakthrough" PR Newswire (02/13/95) On Monday, Advanced Medical Sciences, Inc. announced the results of a new study on Viralex, an investigational compound that was previously found to be extremely effective in inactivating hepatitis B virus and HIV without damaging red blood cells and platelets. The study confirmed earlier studies which found that Viralex can inactivate cell free Parvo virus. "This new data provides strong additional support that Viralex is the first broad spectrum antiviral agent for use against HIV, hepatitis "B," and Parvo viruses that has been shown to be biocompatible with red blood cells and blood platelets," said Terrence McGrath, chairman of Advanced Medical Sciences. "AIDS Drug Is Searle's Last Hope" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (02/13/95) P. 2BP; Steyer, Robert By the end of 1995, G.D. Searle & Co. will know whether one AIDS drug has passed an important test after the failure of other experimental products. Searle began a clinical test in Germany in 1993 and another test at several universities in the United States in 1994 for an experimental drug called a protease inhibitor. Protease is an enzyme needed by HIV to reproduce. Although the drug performed well in laboratory tests, it did not help patients. Tests were stopped in late October. In fall 1992, Searle began clinical tests of the last drug in its AIDS arsenal--a version of another of its experimental drugs, for which tests were stopped after three years because the drug caused severe diarrhea. The results should be known by the end of the year. "Making Global Blood Safety a Priority" Nature Medicine (01/95) Vol. 1, No. 1, P. 7; Butler, Declan In December, leading politicians from 42 countries promised at the Paris AIDS summit to make improving blood safety a priority. Many governments, however, still do not recognize the need to organize proper blood transfusion systems, enforce appropriate standards, and train staff. The international community has yet to make blood safety a priority and to take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate the cause of up to 10 percent of all HIV infections. Jean Emmanuel, head of the WHO's blood safety unit, notes that the international community does not need to spend huge amounts of money to make major changes in blood safety. Promoting voluntary and unpaid blood donations, and testing and retaining regular groups of healthy donors could significantly limit the damage in areas that lack the funding or facilities for screening. Still, without political commitment and funding from the international community and from governments in developing countries, such counsel will come to nothing. So far, little new money has been forthcoming for either the WHO's new blood unit or the alliance's programs, but WHO officials are optimistic that if the alliance can put forward solid proposals it will obtain funding. "Friendly Fire on the Upper West Side" Village Voice (02/07/95) Vol. 40, No. 6, P. 16; Schoofs, Mark Barbara Keleman, a member of the prominently liberal Upper West Side's Community Board 7 (CB7) in New York City, was appalled by a proposal to place a moratorium on the placement of homeless people with AIDS (PWAs) into the neighborhood's commercial welfare hotels. In supporting ACT UP's position, she said that closing the hotels to PWAs would be "just wrong." ACT UP's confrontational tactics at the CB7 committee meeting exposed the underlying stereotype of homeless PWAs as drug-abusing petty criminals, and challenged official callousness to the pain AIDS causes. The activists succeeded in revising the measure, which now urges the city to stop placing PWAs in "medically inappropriate and substandard commercial SROs [single-room occupancies]" wherever they might be. The change is designed to stress to the city that "dumping" ill people into seedy hotels with no services is inhumane and harms New York's general quality of life. ACT UP's B.C. Craig and others, however, say the revisions are only cosmetic. Meanwhile, AIDS activists and CB7 regard each other as enemies, although they are both angry with the city for the same reason--inadequate services for New Yorkers who have the disease.