Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 09:38:52 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary July 31, 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 ************************************************************ "New AIDS Treatments Lift Hopes" "Organ Transfers Across Species Spark Debate" "Senate Committee Starts Reshaping House Budget Bill" "Fire Destroys Building Set for Renovation" "Talking Sex to Generation X" "Inside TV: Linda Hamilton Trades in Buffed Bod for AIDS Role" "Worried about AIDS? Call a Cab" "Top Scientists Come to Defense of AIDS Research Office" "AZT Resistance Mutations Predict Poor Outcome" "Hot Frog!" ************************************************************ "New AIDS Treatments Lift Hopes" Washington Post (07/31/95) P. A1; Gillis, Justin Leading scientists in AIDS research labs across the country have developed new, experimental treatments that they claim demonstrate significant short-term effects. Although they caution that the findings are still early, the pervasive gloom surrounding AIDS research has begun to lift. "I have a higher level of genuine optimism now than I've had for the past 15 years," said Jerome Groopman, head of an AIDS research lab at Harvard University. By late 1996, there will likely be several more AIDS drugs on the market, a rapid proliferation which will complicate some issues of AIDS treatment. For example, experts say that the way to learn how to best combine antivirals will probably require complex trials with large numbers of subjects. In the meantime, the potential market for each drug is decreasing, while more and more drugs become available. AIDS researchers readily admit that the new treatments may not work, particularly considering HIV's rapid ability to become drug-resistant and the high cost of research. One drug that has met with success is interleukin-2, which when it works boosts immune cells directly. The drug, however, appears to work best in people with fairly high CD4 counts to begin with, and researchers caution that the treatment is not ready for widespread use due a lack of knowledge of its potential problems and interactions with other therapies. "Organ Transfers Across Species Spark Debate" Wall Street Journal (07/31/95) P. B1; Fried, Lisa The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently used an HIV-positive man's request for baboon bone marrow to assert regulatory control over xenotransplants. Last month, an FDA advisory panel recommended that Jeff Getty be able to receive the bone marrow on the condition that he is the only recipient and that scrupulous observations be recorded for future operations. Many researchers say that xenotransplants could relieve a growing organ shortage in the country. The success of the transplants, however, is measured in gains of hours, not years, in patients' lifespans. So far, the longest survival of any primate-organ transplant is less than a year. Some scientists even predict that the baboon bone marrow will hasten Getty's death, not delay it. The primary technical barrier to xenotransplants is the immune system's rejection of a foreign organ. AIDS patients are at the forefront of such research in part because their immune systems are already so compromised. One of the main arguments against the transplants is that xenozoonoses--potentially deadly viruses, both known and unknown--could be transplanted to humans through nonhuman tissue. "Senate Committee Starts Reshaping House Budget Bill" New York Times (07/31/95) P. A1; Wines, Michael The Senate has quietly begun stripping a $23.2 billion House-approved spending bill of its most controversial provisions, including one concerning AIDS education. Although the House's efforts garnered much attention, much less notice was given nearly one week later when the Senate Appropriations Committee picked up the House bill and cut several provisions and spending by more than $175 million. The multi-billion bill, which finances many general government agencies, arrived from the House bearing an amendment that prohibited federal employee training programs seeking to change "values of life style," or providing more than medical and legal information about AIDS. The House and Senate must completely agree on the 13 bills at issue before they go to the President. The Clinton Administration, however, has threatened to veto five of the 11 that the House has approved thus far, unless the Senate vastly modifies them. "Fire Destroys Building Set for Renovation" New York Times (07/31/95) P. B5 An empty factory that was going to be turned into 24 apartments for the poor was ruined by a suspicious fire on Sunday, according to fire officials. On Friday, the State Bond Commission granted $1.5 million to the St. Vincent DePaul Society to convert the four-story wood-and-brick building in Meriden, Conn., into two dozen one-bedroom apartments. One half of them were set aside for people with AIDS, recovering drug addicts, and the mentally ill, while the rest would be available to the working poor. The city, however, opposed the plan, claiming the project would lower the neighborhood's property values. "Talking Sex to Generation X" USA Today (07/31/95) P. 4D; Painter, Kim Sari Locker, 25, wants to teach her generation how to succeed at sex. "AIDS hit my generation as soon as we hit puberty. Most of us have heard since before we were sexually active that sex can kill us," she says. While this has made twentysomethings matter-of-fact about safe sex and condoms, Locker says it has also dampened discussions of sexual pleasure. She therefore tells young people how to put on a condom, as well as how to be better kissers; how to have sex on the Internet; and how to see, taste, and smell more during sex. In her career, the successful sexologist has appeared on about 50 talk shows; enjoyed a two-year run as a call-in sex adviser to a radio station in New York City; traveled the country giving sex workshops for young people; and written a book, called "Mindblowing Sex in the Real World: Hot Tips for Doing It in the Age of Anxiety." "Inside TV: Linda Hamilton Trades in Buffed Bod for AIDS Role" USA Today (07/31/95) P. 3D; Johnson, Peter For her new USA Network movie, "A Mother's Prayer," actress Linda Hamilton lost 12 pounds to play a widowed mother with AIDS who tried to find a family for her son before she dies. Hamilton, who co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in both "Terminator" films, urges viewers to watch the movie on Aug. 2 because "it's something people need to see so that AIDS isn't an indictment of a lifestyle. It shows the other side of AIDS, through the eyes of a heterosexual woman." "Worried about AIDS? Call a Cab" Reuters (07/30/95) In Sri Lanka, AIDS awareness activists are targeting trishaw, or three-wheel taxi drivers, for a series of safe sex seminars. Worldview Sri Lanka hopes to educate 3,000 of the drivers about AIDS because hired vehicles are frequently used for "these purposes," according to the Sunday Island newspaper, likely referring to transporting prostitutes and their customers. Each driver who participates will be paid for his time and given a sticker and other AIDS information. "It is said that this sticker will provide each three-wheel driver with adequate knowledge to enlighten another person about AIDS," the newspaper reported. "Top Scientists Come to Defense of AIDS Research Office" Science (07/14/95) Vol. 269, No. 5221, P. 151 AIDS researchers are trying to persuade Congress to preserve an arrangement established just two years ago. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), chair of the House appropriations subcommittee that overseas the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has introduced a plan that would rescind the Office of AIDS Research's (OAR's) power to direct how NIH spends more than $1 billion a year on AIDS research. Leading the fight to preserve OAR's authority is Princeton University's Arnold Levine, chair of a working group recently established by NIH chief Harold Varmus and OAR head William Paul to evaluate AIDS research. In a recent letter to Porter, Levine argues that the power is "critical to the future of AIDS research" because it will allow OAR to act upon his group's recommendations. "No other mechanism will allow the elimination of unnecessary or outdated programs, streamline the research portfolios, and redirect limited resources to those areas with greater scientific promise," he says. In addition, David Baltimore of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote Porter that he was upset that there is a possibility of undoing the arrangement "just when it was getting into gear." "AZT Resistance Mutations Predict Poor Outcome" AIDS Clinical Care (07/95) Vol. 7, No. 7, P. 61 To further determine the relationship between resistance mutations and patient outcome, Japour et al. studied the prevalence of two HIV mutations that had caused AZT resistance in 188 patients. The subjects had taken AZT for a minimum of 16 weeks and were randomized to either continue AZT or to shift to ddI. After adjustment for confounders, the presence of mutations at reverse transcriptase codons 215 and 41 predicted HIV progression. However, a mutation at codon 215 alone did not predict outcome. In addition, not all viral isolates with the mutations had decreased susceptibility to AZT in vitro. As in previous tests, the patients who switched to ddI tended to have better outcomes--even when their HIV isolates did not have the mutations. This study supports the finding that AZT is a poor prognostic sign, particularly when mutations are found at both codon 41 and codon 215. "Hot Frog!" POZ (08/95-09/95) No. 9, P. 24; Eisenberg, Jana The recent eruption of the Ebola virus in Zaire has caused public health scares in the United States. Dr. Don Francis, who has conducted viral research for 25 years, feels the reaction to HIV is "blunted" by comparison. Although both Ebola and HIV have high mortality rates and are thought to come from Africa, Ebola rapidly burns itself out. "People can see the infected person and stay in appropriate isolation," notes Francis. With HIV, however, "people can't recognize the long incubation period and don't change their behavior as a result." The key link between the two viruses is mortality rate--which is between 70 and 90 percent for Ebola and, according to Francis, "in excess of 90 percent" for HIV. "There are few viruses which kill that large a proportion of people they affect," Francis says. Although he understands the human response to danger and change, Francis compares people's denial to the "frog syndrome," in which a frog tossed into boiling water will try to get out but a frog placed in cold water that is then heated will stay where he is.