Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 16:19:05 +0500 From: gharaghs{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/gharaghs}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: FW: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 11/30/95 This is being resent due to technical difficulties. AIDS Daily Summary November 30, 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 ************************************************************ "Another German Trial for H.I.V.-Tainted Blood" "Criticism Delays Plan to Boost AIDS Funding" "New AIDS Ads Aim for Young Adults" "D.C. Doctors Offer to Aid Inmate Care" "Lifeline: Airtime for AIDS" "Candlelight Procession to Mark World AIDS Day" "Zimbabwe AIDS Group Folds Through Lack of Cash" "Decreased Expression of AMPA Receptor Messenger RNA and Protein in AIDS: A Model for HIV-Associated Neurotoxicity" "Multipronged Approach Reveals Conformation of Key AIDS Peptide" ************************************************************ "Another German Trial for H.I.V.-Tainted Blood" New York Times (11/30/95) P. A4 Dr. Gunter Kurt Eckert, the co-owner of the German drug laboratory Aprath, went on trial on Wednesday, charged with almost 6,000 counts of murder or attempted murder for selling HIV-contaminated blood products. Prosecutors claim that in 1986 and 1987, Aprath issued nine batches of unscreened blood donated by an HIV-infected drug user. Three of the 14 patients who received those blood products have died of AIDS-related causes, and two more are infected with HIV. Eckert is also said to have distributed some 5,800 batches of frozen blood products to German hospitals, despite the fact that up to 90 percent had not been tested for the virus that causes AIDS. Separately, a court in Koblenz is scheduled to announce a verdict on Friday for four officials at UB Plasma, another manufacturer of blood products, who are charged with infecting three individuals with HIV. "Criticism Delays Plan to Boost AIDS Funding" Philadelphia Inquirer (11/30/95) P. B1; Collins, Huntly Undercounting of Philadelphia's AIDS cases has caused the city to miss out on some $2.7 million in federal funding during the past two years, city health officials said Wednesday. The number of AIDS cases there was undercounted by as much as 28 percent. Still, a proposal from the Health Department to guard against future undercounts was criticized by community groups Wednesday who said the plan would endanger the privacy rights of AIDS patients. "More money might not be the top consideration," noted Joe Cronauer, education director of We the People Living with HIV/AIDS. The plan would use lab reports to remind doctors to report the cases. Pennsylvania law states that doctors must report the name of anyone diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, yet city officials describe the reporting as infrequent or late. The Health Department therefore wants medical laboratories to report the name of anyone whose CD4 level is less than 200. The city's AIDS surveillance officers would subsequently call that patient's physician to determine whether the individual had AIDS, and if so, then enter that person's name into the city's registry. The criticism voiced at the "community advisory meeting" caused city Health Commissioner Estelle Richman to postpone implementing the plan, saying she needed "to digest" everything she had heard. "New AIDS Ads Aim for Young Adults" USA Today (11/30/95) P. 4D; Painter, Kim A new federal AIDS prevention campaign geared toward 18- to 25-year-olds carries the theme "Respect yourself. Protect yourself." The television and radio commercials show young adults discussing abstinence, safer sex, sobriety, and communication. One ad features a man who says, "If you don't practice safe sex, and I do, then we're not made for each other, honey. It's not that hard to get those words out." Dr. Helene Gayle of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained that compared to a more explicit 1994 campaign, the new commercials highlight "a more diverse array of messages" that young adults in focus groups considered important and persuasive. "D.C. Doctors Offer to Aid Inmate Care" Washington Post (11/30/95) P. C5; Goldstein, Amy The Medical Society of the District of Columbia has offered to help redesign medical and psychiatric services in the city's Department of Corrections, calling the quality of health care provided to District inmates "appalling," according to a new report from the organization. The report marks a rare occasion in which the city's private medical community has reached out to help formulate public health policy. The medical group is providing the most recent source of outside pressure to try to safeguard the health of Washington prisoners, who have extremely high rates of AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and drug addiction. The insufficient care was highlighted last summer when a resident of the Lorton Correctional Complex who had AIDS was neglected by medical staff for days and died while tied to a wheelchair with a bedsheet soaked with urine. The medical society's 17-page report found, among other things, that inmates are not tested for such infectious diseases as HIV and TB, and that they therefore pose a health risk to the community at-large once they are released, mainly because they receive minimal follow-up care. "Lifeline: Airtime for AIDS" USA Today (11/30/95) P. 1D; Willis, Kim On Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, a minimum of 165 cable networks and local television stations will air AIDS-related programs and public service announcements. The movies "Longtime Companion," "And the Band Played On," and "Philadelphia" will be broadcast on Bravo, HBO, and Showtime, respectively. "Candlelight Procession to Mark World AIDS Day" Baltimore Sun (11/30/95) P. 4B Maryland residents will unite in honor of World AIDS Day on Friday at a candlelight march around the Statehouse, marking 15 years of the AIDS epidemic. "Zimbabwe AIDS Group Folds Through Lack of Cash" Reuters (11/29/95) The AIDS Counselling Trust (ACT), Zimbabwe's primary non-governmental anti-AIDS organization, will shut down operations on Dec. 1 due to a lack of cash, reported executive director Elizabeth Matenga on Wednesday. Matenga added, "This comes at a time when the AIDS (epidemic) is at its peak in Zimbabwe, with 300 to 400 people dying of the incurable disease every week." Established six years ago, ACT provided counseling for HIV-infected individuals on how to live positively and also conducted AIDS-prevention efforts. "Decreased Expression of AMPA Receptor Messenger RNA and Protein in AIDS: A Model for HIV-Associated Neurotoxicity" Nature Medicine (11/95) Vol. 1, No. 11, P. 1174; Everall, Ian Paul; Hudson, Lance; Al-Sarraj, Safa; et al. Infection with HIV can result in extensive neuronal loss and severe dementia, and although the reasons behind the neurotoxicity are unclear, interruption of glutamate-linked calcium entry has been suggested as one cause. Everall et al. present a study in which they demonstrate a reduction in HIV-infected brains of the expression of messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein of the GluR-A flop subtype of (alpha)-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptor in cerebellar Purkinje cells. A total of 68 percent of Purkinje cells had detectable mRNA for GluR-A flop in the control group, but only 35 percent did in the HIV group--a figure which marks decreased gene expression. In addition, a similar reduction was seen in the detectable protein, falling from 42 percent of Purkinje cells to just 26 percent. According to the researchers, these findings clearly show that HIV in the cerebellum does not cause neuronal loss. However, the observed disturbance of AMPA receptors may play a role in the neurotoxic process in other vulnerable areas of the brain and in the clinical development of dementia. "Multipronged Approach Reveals Conformation of Key AIDS Peptide" Chemical & Engineering News (11/13/95) Vol. 73, No. 46, P. 32 Investigators at the National Institutes of Health used a multipronged approach to determine that portion of glycoprotein 120 (gp120) that is thought to bind to human cells as the first phase of HIV infection is probably found in the intact protein as an (alpha)-helix. The critical peptide, called C4, is one of the few areas of gp120 that is common to the various strains of HIV-1. Because synthesized C4 has no biological activity, Frank A. Robey, chief of the National Institute of Dental Research's peptide and immunochemistry division, and his colleagues synthesized a cross-linked polymer of C4, which produces antibodies that react with both native and recombinant gp120. According to the scientists, this process of making a polymer of a peptide to investigate the structure of a peptide's parent protein can be used in other systems to obtain information that cannot be found using NMR and X-ray crystallography.