Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 09:36:16 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary March 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 ************************************************************ "Fewer New HIV Cases Reported in 1994" "Partner's Exit Hurts Immune Response Stock" "India to Become AIDS Epicentre, Conference Told" "Gingrich's Sister Lobbying on AIDS" "Difficult Custody Decisions Being Complicated by AIDS" "New Life Torn Asunder by Drugs, AIDS, Murder" "Pope to Receive French 'Red Cleric' Bishop" "MDI Signs Definitive Agreement with Investor" "Treatment of Cytomegalovirus Retinitis With an Intraocular Sustained-Release Ganciclovir Implant: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial" "Dingell: Can't Vouch for 'Gallo Report'?" ************************************************************ "Fewer New HIV Cases Reported in 1994" Washington Times (03/06/95) P. C8 Although the number of new HIV infections reported in Virginia in 1994 was the lowest in five years, state officials say it is too early to tell whether the decline marks the beginning of a trend. In 1994, there were 1,124 new cases of HIV infection--down from 1,484 in 1993. As more infected people are becoming sick, however, the demands of AIDS service agencies has continued to grow. "From a public-health standpoint, the decrease in new infections is wonderful," said Heidi Villanueva, a coordinator of statistics and data management with the Virginia health department. "But statistically, I don't think we can say that much yet." Related Story: Richmond Times-Dispatch (03/04) P. B3 "Partner's Exit Hurts Immune Response Stock" Wall Street Journal (03/06/95) P. B5; Rundle, Rhonda L. Immune Response Corp.'s stock dropped 19 percent on Friday's Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday after Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. dropped out of a joint venture to develop a vaccine against HIV infection. Immune Response said it is negotiating with potential partners to help finance continued development of the vaccine. Securities analysts say Rhone-Poulenc's withdrawal raises questions regarding the vaccine's commercial potential. Rhone-Poulenc SA said the move would allow the company "to focus on core therapeutic areas and key technologies." "India to Become AIDS Epicentre, Conference Told" Reuters (03/04/95) In five years, India will be the region most affected by AIDS, an Australian population conference was told on Saturday. India will overtake Africa as the "epicentre of AIDS" and will probably have more HIV-infected people than the rest of the world combined, said Roger Short, a Monash University biology professor, speaking at the meeting of Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population. Short also said that during the next 30 years, AIDS will rapidly spread into Asian countries, especially India. The disease, he added, will have little impact on the world's population levels. The National AIDS Control Organization estimates that 1.62 million of India's 850 million citizens are infected with HIV--up 60 percent from 1993. "Gingrich's Sister Lobbying on AIDS" New York Times (03/06/95) P. B7; Seelye, Katharine Q. In her first official role as a representative of gays and lesbians, Candace Gingrich has come to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress on behalf of AIDS programs. Of her homosexuality, she said she has not discussed it at all with her brother, House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In an article in the Washington Blade last November, Mr. Gingrich likened homosexuality to alcoholism, saying, "I think our position should be toleration. It should not be promotion, and it should not be condemnation." Ms. Gingrich, however, often says that she thinks her brother is more concerned about her being a Democrat who favors abortion rights and gun control than about her being a lesbian. Because of that comment, the Human Rights Campaign Fund and its new executive director, Elizabeth Birch, decided to talk to Ms. Gingrich about becoming a spokeswoman for a national coming-out project and about being a part of this week's lobbying effort. "Difficult Custody Decisions Being Complicated by AIDS" New York Times (03/04/95) P. 1; Lee, Felicia R. Caseworkers and judges, who must already make difficult custody decisions in drug abuse and neglect cases, now face the task of deciding such cases when the parents also have AIDS or HIV. The cases include choices of whether children in a loving foster home should be put through a wrenching separation when the parent is likely to die in the near future and whether attempts to find housing and drug treatment should be expedited for parents with terminal illnesses such as AIDS. Court administrators say the judges weigh each case carefully to protect the children's interests and to make reasonable efforts to reunite families. Advocates for the parents, however, claim that although there are laws protecting HIV-infected people from discrimination, there is often a reluctance to return children to mothers with AIDS or HIV. "They have contempt for these women and the fact they have HIV," said Theresa M. McGovern, executive director of the HIV Law Project. Some lawyers have also said that, in addition to being openly pressured to give up their parental rights, HIV-infected parents are frequently not served with papers or told where their children are living. "New Life Torn Asunder by Drugs, AIDS, Murder" Los Angeles Times (03/05/95) P. A3; Douthat, Strat Although Edna Diaz has lived in Connecticut for only 19 of her 35 years, she says it seems more like forever. Diaz spends much of her time thinking about the sunny days of her childhood in Puerto Rico, trying to forget the heartache of the past 10 months, in which one son died and another was charged with murder. She says she never would have imagined how terrible things would be, including the fact that the strong, vital man by her side would get AIDS from using intravenous drugs. Diaz also says that the gangs and drugs in Hartford create a terrible temptation for its youths and a constant heartache for their parents. "Pope to Receive French 'Red Cleric' Bishop" Reuters (03/04/95) Pope John Paul has said he is ready to receive Bishop Jacques Gaillot, who was dismissed in January for his liberal views. In a statement, the headquarters of the French church said that the Vatican wanted to help Gaillot "exercise his ministry with the rights and duties that this entails." The statement also said that the Pope listened at length to a report by Monsignor Joseph Duval, president of the French Bishops' Conference, on the reaction of French Catholics to Gaillot's removal as bishop of Evreux. Thousands of people protested after Gaillot was fired for defying Vatican doctrine. Among other things, Gaillot advocated the use of condoms to fight AIDS, spoke in favor of allowing priests to marry, and called for greater tolerance of homosexuality. Officially, Gaillot is now the head of a diocese in Partenia, a city in southern Algeria which has not existed since the Middle Ages. "MDI Signs Definitive Agreement with Investor" PR Newswire (03/03/95) Medical Discoveries Inc. (MDI), an early-stage research company that is developing technology for fighting viruses such as HIV, on Friday signed an agreement with Trust Management Co. in California for the investment of up to $5 million in exchange for 5 million shares of common stock. The Trust regularly makes investments in promising businesses and technologies. As a result of the investment, the Trust will own approximately 23 percent of MDI's outstanding stock. "This investment will be a significant milestone for MDI," said Marlin Toombs, MDI's vice president of Corporate Affairs. "MDI needs this money to fund its continuing research of its anti-viral technology." The company has filed a pre-investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for the use of its anti-viral technology against HIV. The money from the Trust agreement will primarily be used for continued research and clinical trials in this field. "Treatment of Cytomegalovirus Retinitis With an Intraocular Sustained-Release Ganciclovir Implant: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial" Journal of the American Medical Association (03/01/95) Vol. 267, No. 9, P. 682e In a randomized controlled clinical trial of the safety and efficacy of a ganciclovir implant, AIDS patients with newly diagnosed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis were either treated immediately with the implant or deferred treatment. Of the 26 patients (30 eyes), the average time to progression of retinitis was 15 days in the deferred treatment group--compared to 226 days in the immediate treatment group. A total of 39 primary implants and 12 exchange implants were placed in immediate-treatment eyes, deferred-treatment eyes, or contralateral eyes that developed CMV retinitis. In 34 of 39 eyes, final visual acuity was at least 20/25. The risk of developing CMV retinitis in the other eye was 50 percent after six months. Eight patients developed biopsy-proven visceral CMV disease. The researchers concluded that the ganciclovir implant is effective for the treatment of CMV retinitis. Patients with unilateral CMV retinitis, who are treated with the implant, will likely develop the disease in the other eye, and some patients will develop visceral CMV disease, the study concluded. "Dingell: Can't Vouch for 'Gallo Report'?" Science (02/17/95) Vol. 267, No. 5200, P. 951 In a recent letter to National Institutes of Health Director Harold Varmus, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)--former chair of a House investigatory committee--said he was unable to "vouch for the authenticity or accuracy" of a highly critical draft report on AIDS researcher Robert Gallo. The report, written by Dingell's staff, was leaked to the press in January. Dingell also said that the report was "not reviewed, much less evaluated, by the staff director, the chairman, or any other member of the subcommittee." A member of Dingell's staff said that his boss remains concerned about the role Gallo played in the discovery of HIV, and how the government handled allegations that Gallo's lab has "misappropriated" a virus given to them by French AIDS researchers. Varmus received the draft report from scientific "fraudbusters" Ned Feder and Walter Stewart. According to Stewart, they want Varmus to take on the responsibility of ferreting out inappropriate behavior in science and, as they wrote in a letter to Varmus, to "bring the enclosed report to the attention of the appropriate authorities."