Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 09:43:25 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary June 6, 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 ************************************************************ "FDA Aims for a Safer Blood Supply" "Young People Confronting AIDS" "AIDS Virus Is Very Fragile" "TB and HIV Have Formed Deadly Link" "AIDS Walk Makes Strides" "Pope Pays Homage to Father Damien of the Lepers" "ProCyte Scientists Discover New Molecular Design Tool" "Providers Not Diagnosing HIV in Older Women" "Cyclosporin A" "Join the DOTS" ************************************************************ "FDA Aims for a Safer Blood Supply" Washington Post (06/06/95) P. A6 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon require blood banks to report errors in handling blood products more quickly, and has already implemented a warning system to alert centers of potential problems. According to an audit by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, the moves would increase the safety of the nation's blood supply. Currently, the FDA requires most blood centers to report accidents, but there is no deadline. The audit found that, in 1993, facilities took an average of four months after an error to notify the agency of the problem. Spokesman Larry Bachorik said that the FDA this winter will issue new regulations demanding faster reports from every blood facility. Also, this month the agency began sending the results of the error reports to blood centers to warn them of potential problems. "Young People Confronting AIDS" New York Times (06/06/95) P. C16; O'Connor, John J. "The Goods Presents: Think Positive," which is being aired tonight on both MTV and VH-1, focuses on young people who are HIV-positive or have developed AIDS. The program also features three grassroots organizations that deal with AIDS. Members of Stand-Up Harlem, for example, arrange prevention workshops for the young people in their community. "The Goods" is MTV's home shopping service. During the promotional breaks for the program, model Claudia Schiffer will ask viewers to buy a $46 package put together by the AIDS event "Seventh on Sale: The Return to New York." The collection includes a Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt and baseball cap and a CD six-pack featuring top recording artists such as Elton John and Aretha Franklin. "AIDS Virus Is Very Fragile" Baltimore Sun (06/06/95) P. 5D; Wilson, Modena; Joffe, Alain In response to a question about whether HIV could become airborne in the future, Drs. Modena Wilson and Alain Joffe write that the answer is "no" in almost all circumstances. HIV is very fragile--it cannot live outside the body for long periods of time and is sensitive to heat and drying. For this reason, the two major methods of transmission remain sexual intercourse and the sharing of needles. Both of these methods permit the exchange of body fluids--which protect the virus--from one person to another. HIV is also not very infectious, which is one explanation why the virus is not transmitted by kissing. Saliva does not contain enough virus particles. Finally, HIV cannot penetrate unbroken skin. Instead, it must gain direct access to the bloodstream through cuts and open sores. In conclusion, the known properties of HIV explain why the routes of infection are so predictable--large quantities of the virus must gain direct access to the bloodstream. "TB and HIV Have Formed Deadly Link" Philadelphia Inquirer (06/04/95) P. D5 The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) have formed a fatal partnership. The two diseases have characteristics that can be deadly when both are present. By the end of the decade, the United Nations agency said, TB will hasten the deaths of one-third of AIDS patients. Furthermore, the predicted explosion of AIDS cases--particularly in Southeast Asia--will probably increase the spread of TB, the WHO said. "This co-epidemic complicates efforts to care for AIDS patients and to identify and treat TB victims," said Anthony Harris, a doctor in Malawi who attended a three-day meeting at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva. The agency organized the meeting of experts to devise a strategy to fight the diseases. The participants agreed to increase coordination between the two sectors; try to improve TB diagnosis; increase TB prevention efforts among AIDS patients; and do more to persuade TB patients to seek care. "AIDS Walk Makes Strides" Boston Globe (06/05/95) P. 16; Daly, Gavin More than 35,000 people participated in the 10th annual AIDS pledge walk in Boston on Sunday. This weekend's walk, however, was very different from the first trek in 1986. At that time, only one out of every 50 people knew someone with AIDS, said Larry Kessler, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee. The ratio is now one out of three. In 1986, there were 792 AIDS cases diagnosed in Massachusetts. Today, there are more than 10,000 HIV-infected Massachusetts residents, according to event organizers. The greatest difference over the years, they say, is the number of corporate sponsors who have donated money to the walk which, according to event manager Louis Cappella, raises 30 percent of the AIDS Action Committee's annual budget. Sunday's walk raised more than $2.8 million. "Pope Pays Homage to Father Damien of the Lepers" Reuters (06/04/95); Lauwers, Bert On Sunday, Pope John Paul II beatified Belgian missionary Father Damien for his altruistic work with lepers, providing a symbol for people with incurable modern-day diseases such as AIDS. Father Damien, who spent his early years in the Flemish village of Tremelo in northern Belgium, later lived in quarantine with approximately 1,000 lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai until he died of leprosy in 1889. "Damien has always been our source of inspiration," said Belgian missionary Sister Paula. "The leprosy of then is the AIDS of now." She noted that much of her work involves caring for people infected with HIV. "ProCyte Scientists Discover New Molecular Design Tool" PR Newswire (06/05/95) Scientists at ProCyte Corp. have discovered a new method of creating copper-containing molecules which will contribute to the development of ligands. In a scientific paper published in Inorganic Chemistry, ProCyte senior scientist Dr. Alexander Pallenberg described the recent chemical discoveries that assist in the development and analysis of the copper-containing compounds. ProCyte scientists are currently studying a new class of potential therapeutic copper compounds for use in viral inhibitions and potential anti-inflammatory applications. These copper therapeutic compounds are intended for application in such human disease conditions as tissue damage and the inhibition of HIV. "Providers Not Diagnosing HIV in Older Women" AIDS Alert (06/95) Vol. 10, No. 6, P. 77 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta reports that 10 percent of all women diagnosed with AIDS by June 1994 were more than 50 years old. "These are the invisible victims of the disease," says Patricia Fleming, head of the reporting and analysis division of the surveillance branch at the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. Midlife-and-older women are not being diagnosed with AIDS until late in the disease process, sometimes not until death. According to Fleming, 43 percent of women over 65 with AIDS died within one month of diagnosis. A key factor for providers treating older women, she says, is to recognize that this group is now acquiring the disease through heterosexual contact, not just through transfusions. "Midlife and Older Women and HIV/AIDS" is the published report of an American Association of Retired Persons/Center for Women's Policy Studies seminar in 1993. The report raises the issues that--with older women and HIV--many behavioral and psychological risk factors are overlooked, diagnosis and treatment of HIV is complicated by other aging factors, and that socioeconomic and cultural factors limit patient access to care and treatment. "Cyclosporin A" Nature (05/18/95) Vol. 375, No. 6528, P. 198; Ho, David D.; Perelson, Alan S.; Shaw, George M. In response to letters to the editor of Nature, Ho et al. write that the letters' most important point concerns CD4 lymphocyte redistribution, rather than proliferation. Although lymphocyte re-trafficking is a possible explanation, several observations argue against it, the authors explain. First, the increases in CD4 levels were not temporary, but sustained as long as the antiviral effect was maintained. Second, studies have shown that increases in CD4 counts associated with viral suppression were associated with significant clinical improvement. Third, recent unpublished studies by the authors demonstrate that the surface-marker phenotypes of CD4 lymphocytes post-therapy differ greatly from those before treatment. Our preliminary findings reveal the expression of several activation markers on many of the CD4 lymphocytes after treatment--a finding which supports lymphocyte repopulation by cellular proliferation, but argues against lymphocyte redistribution, Ho et al. conclude. "Join the DOTS" Economist (05/20/95-05/26/95) Vol. 335, No. 7915, P. 81 In an unprecedented move two years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global emergency. Efforts to block its spread, however, have had only limited effects--in part because it is not seen as a high priority. In wealthy nations, the discovery of antibiotics and the spread of healthcare systems has greatly reduced the rate of TB since the 1940s. Its resurgence in the 1980s was due to several factors, including AIDS, damaged health-care systems, and drug-resistance. According to the WHO, if health workers ensured that drug regimens were followed--in a program known as "directly observed treatment, short-course" (DOTS)--the TB rate could fall significantly and drug resistance could be brought under control. In New York City, for example, about 40 percent of the city's caseload are under the DOTS regimen. Currently, there 3,000 TB cases--a 15 percent decline since 1992. In other parts of the world, however, counterproductive responses to the disease--such as the treatment of infected people with anti-TB drugs before they get sick, which breeds drug resistance; and ventilation systems, which spread the disease--are still being practiced. Although the DOTS strategy is an improvement over past anti-TB measures, it will not eliminate the disease.