Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 10:15:12 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 09/11/95 AIDS Daily Summary September 11, 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 ************************************************************ "D.C. AIDS Clinic Makes Deal with Insurance Buyer" "Across the USA: Utah" "World's Youth Face AIDS, Unemployment, Illiteracy" "Chronicle: For Rosie Perez, a 10-Kilometer Act of Penance In Memory of a Friend" "Complaint Launched over Blood Records" "Over 8,000 AIDS Cases in Western Pacific--WHO" "SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals Receives Approvable Letter for DOXIL" "Oral Ganciclovir as Maintenance Treatment for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis in Patients with AIDS" "Laying Out the Rules for AIDS Vaccine Trials" "Your Health: AIDS Guidelines" ************************************************************ "D.C. AIDS Clinic Makes Deal with Insurance Buyer" Washington Post (09/11/95) P. A1; Pan, Philip P. The Whitman-Walker Clinic, Washington, D.C.'s largest AIDS services provider, and New York-based Life Entitlements Corp., a viatical settlement firm, have established a financial relationship which opponents claim raises several ethical issues. Under the agreement, the clinic will receive 3 percent of the face value of all life insurance policies purchased within 100 miles of the city by Life Entitlements. In return, Whitman-Walker will permit the insurance company to use its name in advertisements and brochures. Jim Graham, executive director of Whitman-Walker, said the move was made in part because of the clinic's financial problems, which reflect $1.2 million in late payments from the city government. Although many people say there is nothing wrong with the arrangement, others claim it is immoral for a health clinic to be linked to a business profiting from a person's death. Some also say there is a conflict of interest for Whitman-Walker, which often helps people with AIDS with their financial arrangements. "Across the USA: Utah" USA Today (09/11/95) P. 10A LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, has created a hotline and is offering free HIV testing to anyone who may have received incorrectly screened blood from its blood bank during the past eight years. "World's Youth Face AIDS, Unemployment, Illiteracy" Reuters (09/11/95); O'Neill, Mark At the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, much attention was focused on the bleak future of millions of young women across the world. "Half of those exposed to the HIV virus are under 25," said conference secretary-general Gertrude Mongella, a former Tanzanian parliamentarian. She said she felt "saddened...by the horrifying spectre of HIV and AIDS, with the young most at risk." Other issues discussed included illiteracy and child prostitution. "Chronicle: For Rosie Perez, a 10-Kilometer Act of Penance In Memory of a Friend" New York Times (09/11/95) P. B12 Actress Rosie Perez described her participation in Sunday's AIDS Walk Colorado, a 10-kilometer trek which benefits AIDS service agencies, as an act of penance. Perez said her desire to fight the disease came after the death of a friend whom she had been too scared to see. "I kept saying, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll be there,' but when I finally showed up he'd died the day before," she explained. "Complaint Launched over Blood Records" Toronto Globe and Mail (09/08/95) P. A8 Canadian Information Commissioner John Grace will launch an investigation this week into the destruction of records associated with the tainted-blood scandal, Alan Leadbetter, deputy information commissioner, said last Thursday. Evidence recently presented at the inquiry into the country's blood system revealed that the Canadian Blood Committee agreed to destroy all transcripts and audio tapes of its meetings six years ago, at which time an estimated 1,500 people had been infected with HIV from tainted blood or blood products. The evidence indicated that the documents were destroyed so that they could not be obtained under the Access to Information Act. Grace is investigating the Health Department because it managed the secretariat that held the records, Leadbetter said. "Over 8,000 AIDS Cases in Western Pacific--WHO" Reuters (09/08/95) There are 8,401 cases of AIDS in 26 of the 36 nations in the western Pacific region, a new survey from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows. Eighty-five percent of the total number came from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand, said WHO regional director S.T. Han. Countries showing a significant increase in HIV and AIDS cases include Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines--a trend which the WHO attributes to commercial sex activity, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and injection drug use. According to Han, the number of AIDS cases would further increase once HIV begins developing into full-blown AIDS among infected people, although "the absolute number of fresh HIV infection cases will be minimized or reduced because of education." "SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals Receives Approvable Letter for DOXIL" Business Wire (09/08/95) SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced on Friday that it had received a letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which says that its DOXIL Injection (pegylated-liposomal doxorubicin HCI) is approvable for the treatment of AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma patients in whom combination therapy has failed because of either disease progression or toxicity. L. Scott Minick, SEQUUS President and Chief Operating Officer, said that marketing approval of DOXIL would be granted pending the company's response to issues in the FDA letter concerning labeling, chemistry, manufacturing, and control of the drug. "Oral Ganciclovir as Maintenance Treatment for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis in Patients with AIDS" New England Journal of Medicine (09/07/95) Vol. 333, No. 10, P. 615; Drew, W. Lawrence; Ives, David; Lalezari, Jacob P. et al. Drew et al. assessed the efficacy of oral ganciclovir in a randomized trial of AIDS patients with newly diagnosed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis for the Syntex Cooperative Oral Ganciclovir Study Group. A total of 123 subjects received maintenance therapy with either the oral or the intravenous form of the drug. The patients were then followed for up to 20 weeks. In the 115 patients for whom efficacy could be evaluated, the average time to progression of retinitis was 62 days in the intravenous ganciclovir and 57 days in the oral ganciclovir group. However, ophthalmologists' funduscopy determined that the mean time to disease progression was 96 days for those in the intravenous ganciclovir group, compared to 68 days for those receiving oral ganciclovir. The two groups had similar rates of survival, changes in vision, incidence of viral shedding, and incidence of adverse gastrointestinal problems. The intravenous ganciclovir recipients were more likely to experience such difficulties as neutropenia, anemia, and sepsis. As maintenance therapy, the authors conclude, oral ganciclovir is both safe and effective for the treatment of CMV retinitis, and is more convenient for patients than the drug's intravenous form. "Laying Out the Rules for AIDS Vaccine Trials" Science (08/25/95) Vol. 269, No. 5227, P. 1037 The National Institutes of Health's decision to halt large-scale testing of two potential AIDS vaccines caused many biotech firms to wonder what it would take to re-obtain governmental support of the expensive efficacy trials. Now, in a move toward repairing the rift, Anthony Fauci--director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)--has ordered staffers to list the criteria that AIDS vaccines must meet before the institute will back them. Fauci hopes that by establishing guidelines for each candidate AIDS vaccine, NIAID can make its expectations "very, very clear" and thus "get people more confident that we are proceeding rather than just floating around." He notes, however, that NIAID should not be blamed for delaying Genentech Inc.'s and Biocene Co.'s trials last year because when the studies began, there were so many unknowns about AIDS vaccines in general that setting criteria would have had little value. According to Fauci, the new guidelines should be available by the end of the year. "Your Health: AIDS Guidelines" Industry Week (08/21/95) Vol. 244, No. 15, P. 19 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now has a toll-free hotline that provides the latest information on approved drug treatments and guidelines for HIV-positive individuals. The HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service has both English- and Spanish-speaking staff at 800-HIV-0440.