Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 09:40:04 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 11/20/95 AIDS Daily Summary November 20, 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 ************************************************************ "Epidemiology: Warding Off the AIDS Virus" "Budget Bill Dismisses Moderates' Input, Aimed to Soften Most Conservative Plans" "Obituaries: John Rico, Republican Activist" "Genentech's Brewer Resigns and Jennings Will Be Reassigned" "Latin American Women Face Rising AIDS Risks" "Mother Theresa to Set Up AIDS Hospice in New Delhi" "Ability of Primary Care Physicians to Recognize Physical Findings Associated with HIV Infection" "Research Shows AZT and Either ddI or ddC Better than AZT Alone" "Sociodemographic Characteristics and Sexual Behavior of Bisexual Men in France: Implications for HIV Prevention" "Would Xenotransplants Produce Epidemics Worse than AIDS?" ************************************************************ "Epidemiology: Warding Off the AIDS Virus" Washington Post (11/20/95) P. A2 An experimental drug called PMPA completely protected monkeys in a situation similar to that in which health care workers are exposed to HIV. PMPA is extremely close to AZT, the oldest AIDS drug, yet it works faster and is 100 times less toxic. After eight months, all 25 simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-injected monkeys who were treated with intravenous PMPA were not infected with SIV and experienced no side effects. The 10 animals that did not receive the drug did become infected. Researcher Che-Chung Tsai of the University of Washington Regional Primate Center said the next step will be to determine whether PMPA works as well in humans. "Budget Bill Dismisses Moderates' Input, Aimed to Soften Most Conservative Plans" Wall Street Journal (11/20/95) P. A16; Georges, Christopher The final compromise between House and Senate Republicans in the ongoing battle of the seven-year budget overhaul indicates that House conservatives were able to ignore Senate moderates' endeavors, especially those concerning welfare and Medicaid. With Medicaid, for example, the final compromise version of the bill eliminates Senate provisions to maintain federal nursing home standards and to guarantee aid for all disabled poor individuals who qualify. "Obituaries: John Rico, Republican Activist" Washington Post (11/20/95) P. B4 Republican party official and political strategist John Rico died of AIDS on Saturday at age 45. In 1979, Mr. Rico ran Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign headquarters in Los Angeles. He later moved to Oregon, where he became chief of staff for the then-Republican state Senate from 1985 to 1991. Mr. Rico went public with the fact that he had AIDS, after learning he was infected in late 1991, and served on Oregon Gov. Booth Gardner's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. According to Mr. Rico, it was his "responsibility to help put a personal face on this disease, as well as homosexuality in general." "Genentech's Brewer Resigns and Jennings Will Be Reassigned" Wall Street Journal (11/20/95) P. C12 Genentech Inc. has announced the resignation of Richard Brewer, a high-ranking executive in charge of the biotech firm's marketing operations. An 11-year veteran of the company, Brewer had sparked anger among federal regulators and others for his aggressive marketing methods, but a Genentech spokesperson said that he was leaving for personal reasons and denied that any housecleaning was being undertaken. In addition, vice president of sales Edmon Jennings has been reassigned to a position not involving sales. Jennings was recently acquitted of allegations that he bribed physicians to prescribe more of a Genentech human growth hormone. "Latin American Women Face Rising AIDS Risks" Reuters (11/17/95); Orgill, Margaret Health experts announced on Friday that Latin American housewives have among the region's greatest risk of AIDS because of infection from husbands having affairs or using drugs. "The most important risk factor for a Latin American woman is being married," said Fernando Zacarias, coordinator of the Pan American Health Organization's regional program on AIDS. Zacarias added that many married women are unable to persuade their husbands to wear condoms. Health workers report that oftentimes those women who do try to make their spouses wear the prophylactics risk violence or suspicion that they are having an affair. "The Rise in AIDS among normal women breaks the myth [that] it only affects prostitutes and drug-users," commented Jadira Rodriguez, who runs a health program for women workers in Puerto Rico. "Prostitutes know how to protect themselves," she said. "Mother Theresa to Set Up AIDS Hospice in New Delhi" Reuters (11/17/95) Mother Theresa will establish an AIDS hospice in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India said last week. The news service reported only that the 85-year-old nun said that at her center, which will be devoted to women and children, AIDS patients would receive "much needed" love. Mother Theresa, who termed AIDS patients in the 1980s as "the lepers of our times," has set up centers in the United States, and helped others in Haiti. "Ability of Primary Care Physicians to Recognize Physical Findings Associated with HIV Infection" Journal of the American Medical Association (11/01/95) Vol. 274, No. 17, P. 1380; Paauw, Douglas S.; Wenrich, Marjorie D.; Curtis, J. Randall; et al. Paauw et al. assessed the ability of 134 general internists and family practitioners to recognize HIV-related physical findings. Just over 25 percent of 89 physicians correctly diagnosed a patient with Kaposi's sarcoma, while nearly 23 percent of 97 doctors detected oral hairy leukoplakia and just 17 percent of 133 physicians identified diffuse lymphadenopathy. Overall, experience with HIV seemed to influence the ability to identify oral hairy leukoplakia, but such experience did not affect the physicians' ability to identify the other two disorders. Additionally, there were no differences observed between the two types of physicians; furthermore, the doctors' years of medical school graduation had no relation to their identification of physical findings associated with HIV. According to the authors, despite the limited nature of this study, the findings suggest that primary care physicians may often miss critical HIV-related physical findings during patient examinations. "Research Shows AZT and Either ddI or ddC Better than AZT Alone" Nature Medicine (11/95) Vol. 1, No. 11, P. 1113; Moran, Nuala Following the recently released conclusions of the Delta trial, Britain's Medical Research Council now recommends that people with HIV and AIDS receive a combination of two anti-AIDS drugs. The Delta trial stopped three months ahead of schedule when it became clear that a mixture of AZT with either ddI or ddC resulted in an average 38 percent reduction in death rates, versus taking only AZT. "Sociodemographic Characteristics and Sexual Behavior of Bisexual Men in France: Implications for HIV Prevention" American Journal of Public Health (11/95) Vol. 85, No. 11, P. 1543; Messiah, Antoine; Mouret-Fourme, Emmanuelle The French National Survey on Sexual Behavior, a large-scale random telephone survey, provided information about a small number of bisexual men in France. The survey revealed that these bisexual men had fewer sexual partners than homosexual men, more than heterosexual males, but a comparable number to multipartnered heterosexuals. In terms of their last sexual encounter, bisexuals were similar to heterosexuals in their frequency of unprotected anal or vaginal penetration; however, their rates of condom use in the past year were about the same as those of both homosexuals and heterosexuals. Still, bisexuals were about equidistant between the two groups in regard to having discontinued penetrative sex since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and they were about 50 percent less likely than gay men to have been tested for HIV. According to the authors, these findings indicate a need for HIV prevention campaigns specially adapted to the characteristics of bisexuals. "Would Xenotransplants Produce Epidemics Worse than AIDS?" Science News (11/04/95) Vol. 148, No. 19, P. 299; Travis, John The greatest concern about xenotransplantation may be whether it should be done, not whether it is feasible. According to virologist Jonathan S. Allan of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, the risk of introducing dangerous new viruses into the human population is real. Allan is concerned that baboons carry viruses similar to HIV and Ebola that scientists cannot eliminate from donor animals. In addition, baboons are extremely similar to humans, a factor which makes them perfect organ donors, but means that viruses which infect baboons may also take on humans. Other researchers and federal officials concede that xenotransplants do pose a risk of transmitting infectious organisms. An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, recently assessed the dangers involved in an operation in which baboon cells are transplanted into an AIDS patient. With Allan abstaining, the panel approved the single experiment, but one member of the research team said the experiment will likely transmit one known virus to the patient. Allan notes that investigators plan to transplant baboon hearts temporarily into young persons awaiting human hearts, who will probably survive their transplants and may spread viruses that go unrecognized for years. "You're going to pull the baboon heart out, but you're not pulling the baboon viruses out," Allan cautions.