Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 09:42:22 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 08/01/96 AIDS Daily Summary August 1, 1996 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 National AIDS Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ****************************************************** "Surviving With AIDS: Now What?" "Thailand Condom Campaign Found to Halve HIV Infections" "Across the USA: Washington" "Activists Split Over Kevorkian AIDS Ads" "Pitcher Draws Criticism for Actions at AIDS Event" "Dance Notes: Doing Something About AIDS" "Indonesia Gives 1.44 Million Condoms to Cambodia" "Science & Health Bulletin: Angola--AIDS Training" "Chemokines Share Center Stage With Drug Therapies" "AIDS For Africa" ****************************************************** "Surviving With AIDS: Now What?" New York Times (08/01/96) P. C1; Dunlap, David W. As promising new AIDS drugs become available, people with the disease are facing the reality of longer life and having to adjust to the idea. While the news is good, it is also disturbing for those who had been preparing themselves for early death. Carol Sipporen, a 50-year-old AIDS patient who was diagnosed in 1990, expected to die by 1996. Now she is taking antiviral drugs, including a protease inhibitor, and leading a much more active life. While the new drugs offer people with AIDS a new lease on life, they are expensive, they must be taken according to a strict regimen, and no one knows how long they will work. Yet the drugs offer hope for now, allowing AIDS patients to make professional and personal plans for the future. "Thailand Condom Campaign Found to Halve HIV Infections" Baltimore Sun (08/01/96) P. 14A Doctors report that the rate of HIV infections in young men in Thailand has been reduced by half over the past five years, thanks to a condom campaign targeted at prostitutes. Dr. Kenrad E. Nelson and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University present the results in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The Thai government began the campaign in 1990, providing condoms to brothels and educating men about unprotected sex with prostitutes. "Across the USA: Washington" USA Today (08/01/96) P. 13A In Washington, enrollment in a program that provides prescription drugs for poor people with HIV or AIDS has been partially reopened by Gov. Lowry. "Activists Split Over Kevorkian AIDS Ads" Washington Times (08/01/96) P. A8; Price, Joyce The appearance of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the "suicide doctor," in public service announcements about AIDS has upset some AIDS organizations. Steve Michael, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C., chapter of ACT UP, an advocacy group for people with HIV and AIDS, claims, "Kevorkian's a death merchant, and we're trying to empower people to stay alive." The public service announcements, originally used in an ABC television AIDS special, are scheduled to air later this year. Kevorkian and his lawyer presented the segments to journalists at a National Press Club luncheon Tuesday to show the media that Kevorkian has some good qualities. James Millner, spokesman for Washington's Whitman-Walker Clinic, said the shock value of the segments, which link unsafe sex with suicide, may be what is needed. "Pitcher Draws Criticism for Actions at AIDS Event" New York Times (08/01/96) P. B16 A pitcher for the San Francisco Giants who would not participate in a pre-game show of support with AIDS volunteers is being criticized by some gay leaders. In addition, player Mark Dewey, a fundamentalist Christian, also wore his red AIDS ribbon sideways during "Until There's a Cure Day" on Sunday, making the ribbon look like the Christian fish symbol. Jon Pevna, a volunteer with the AIDS support group Project Open Hand, wrote a letter to team president Peter Magowan to object to Dewey's actions. The event has been held before a Giants game each year since 1993. For every ticket sold to the game, one dollar is contributed to AIDS care and research. "Dance Notes: Doing Something About AIDS" New York Times (08/01/96) P. C14; Dunning, Jennifer "Dances From the Heart," a series of AIDS fund-raising events planned by the group Dancers Responding to AIDS, will begin this weekend and end in October with a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Works by ballet and modern-dance choreographers who died of AIDS will be performed during the event, which coincides with an exhibition of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The organization, founded by Hernando Cortez and Denise Roberts in 1991, is now an adjunct of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. "Indonesia Gives 1.44 Million Condoms to Cambodia" Reuters (08/01/96) Cambodia's Health Ministry received a donation of 1.44 million condoms from Indonesia Thursday, with the hope that the gift would help the government reach its HIV prevention goals. In Cambodia, where HIV is thought to be spreading faster than in any other country, the government is aiming to make 90 percent of the population aware of HIV prevention measures. The United Nation's World Health Organization estimates that 100,000 to 150,000 of Cambodia's 10.5 million people are infected with HIV and that 1,500 to 2,000 have AIDS. As recently as November, the estimate was between 50,000 and 90,000. "Science & Health Bulletin: Angola--AIDS Training" PANA Wire Service (07/31/96) In Angola, more than 1,100 people will be trained in AIDS education and prevention and sent to 430 villages in the country's northern Uige province later this year. The Association for Combatting the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome will provide the training in two sessions, starting on Aug. 20. So far this year, the organization has sponsored debates on AIDS in schools, workplaces, and military and police units. Uige is believed to have a large number of people infected with HIV. "Chemokines Share Center Stage With Drug Therapies" Science (07/19/96) Vol. 273, No. 5273, P. 302; Cohen, Jon Chemokines, chemical factors that have been found to play a critical role in HIV infection, are increasingly attracting interest among AIDS researchers. A debate continues, however, on whether chemokine research will ever result in improved HIV treatments or vaccines. The study of long-term nonprogressors, people who are apparently not affected by HIV infection, by University of California, San Francisco virologist Jay Levy, led to the search for a factor that inhibits HIV replication. Last December, Robert Gallo of the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore and Paolo Lusso of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute announced that they had identified three of the elusive chemokines. In June, five research groups published evidence that HIV must bind to a chemokine receptor, as well as to a previously identified surface protein, to enter cells. The work also showed that the chemokines Gallo identified inhibit HIV infection by blocking a chemokine receptor. Gallo's argument--that these laboratory findings are relevant to human treatment--hinges partly on a study which suggested that nonprogressors have higher levels of chemokines. Gallo hopes this research will eventually lead to inexpensive, synthetic blockers of chemokine receptors and is trying to determine whether vaccines will be able to increase chemokine levels or decrease receptor levels. "AIDS For Africa" Village Voice (07/16/96) Vol. 41, No. 29, P. 21; Schoofs, Mark Delegates from African countries who attended the 11th International Conference on AIDS raised a complaint common among poor nations: that the most basic prevention and treatment measures are too expensive for them. Steve Tusubire, a district health official from Uganda, said his district has a total annual health care budget of $360,000, or less than 30 cents per person. Delegates from Senegal, India, Malaysia, and other developing countries said that AZT is not available to most of their patients and that basic antibiotics are not even readily available in many Third World nations. Moreover, some prevention efforts and other services in Cameroon had to be stopped when the United Nations cut funding. Many of the Third World delegates expressed fears that while better AIDS treatments would continue to be made available for rich countries, the poor nations would not have access to them.