Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 11:38:35 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 08/07/96 AIDS Daily Summary August 7, 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 ****************************************************** "FDA Approves First Urine Test for Detection of the AIDS Virus" "Drug Research Isn't Free" "Getting HIV Drugs to Those in Need" "HIV Home Tests Off to Slow Start in Texas" "Doctor May Pay High Price for Efforts" "Hepatitis A Vaccines to Be Free for Gay Men" "Man's Sex Life and Cancer in Wife Linked" "Uganda, Britain Agree on AIDS Research" "Citation Analysis Reveals Leading Institutions, Scientists Researching AIDS" "Agenda: Unprotected" ****************************************************** "FDA Approves First Urine Test for Detection of the AIDS Virus" Washington Post (08/07/96) P. A8 The first test to detect HIV antibodies in urine samples was approved Monday by the Food and Drug Administration. The test, developed by Calypte Biomedical of Berkeley, Calif., is safer and easier than HIV blood tests because it does not require needles or special training to administer, and because urine poses no risk of infection. The test is not as accurate as blood tests, however, and positive results must be confirmed by a blood test. The urine test is expected to miss one or two HIV infections in every 100 people tested, and falsely identify the virus in one or two healthy people. "Drug Research Isn't Free" Journal of Commerce (08/07/96) P. 7A; Schwartz, Harry In a commentary in the Journal of Commerce, Harry Schwartz, a medical writer and former New York Times editorial writer, warns that the new political and economic policy of forcing drug companies to make drugs affordable to everyone will stymie further drug advances. For example, Schwartz points to the demand for the makers of protease inhibitors to lower the price so that the powerful HIV drugs will be available to all who need them. He specifically cites a New York Times Sunday Magazine article in which AIDS activist Larry Kramer criticized the pharmaceutical industry for being greedy and suggested that they operate outside of legal bounds. Schwartz points out that Merck researchers shared critical information that led to the development of the first protease inhibitor, allowing other companies to benefit from their work, and he concludes by saying that drug research, a lot of which does not lead to new drugs, requires support from investors. "Getting HIV Drugs to Those in Need" Wall Street Journal (08/07/96) P. A13; Sumaya, Ciro V. Dr. Ciro V. Sumaya, of the Health Resources and Services Administration, responds in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal to a July 3 article about the government's programs to provide protease inhibitors to poor AIDS patients. He notes that his agency has distributed more than $700 million for health care and support services for people with HIV and AIDS through the Ryan White CARE Act. The organization has also quickly made available an additional $52 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), Sumaya says, and is trying to ensure that the funds do not help those who already have private health insurance, since ADAP is meant to be "the payer of last resort." "HIV Home Tests Off to Slow Start in Texas" USA Today (08/07/96) P. 1D; Painter, Kim Some Texas pharmacists, who have offered Johnson & Johnson's Confide home HIV test kit for sale for six weeks, say the product is not selling well. Experts, however, claim that it is too early to evaluate the demand for the home tests, which supporters hope will increase the number of people who get tested for the virus. A similar test was also recently made available by Home Access Diagnostics, and both firms also sell the kits by phone. The Confide kit may soon be available in stores outside of Texas, and the Home Access test will be in stores nationwide by the end of August. "Doctor May Pay High Price for Efforts" Toronto Globe and Mail (08/06/96) P. A1; McIlroy, Anne Lawyers for the 17 people who may be held responsible in Canada's tainted blood tragedy are scheduled to begin explaining how they will respond to the allegations brought in the federal inquiry led by Justice Horace Krever. The 17 individuals include Norbert Gilmore, the unpaid chairman of the National Advisory Committee on AIDS from 1983 to 1989, two federal officials, and 14 Canadian Red Cross Society officials. Supporters of Gilmore say it is unfair that he may be blamed while senior bureaucrats and politicians have not been. Gilmore resigned from the committee in 1989, criticizing the government for its failure to take action to deal with the AIDS epidemic. However, he was notified in February that he might be assigned blame, because the advisory committee "failed to adequately fulfill its mandate." "Hepatitis A Vaccines to Be Free for Gay Men" Toronto Globe and Mail (08/06/96) P. A4; Picard, Andre Due to a rapid increase in the number of cases of hepatitis A in gay men, Montreal public health officials are urging the population to receive the vaccine for the virus. The public health directorate reported a four-fold rise in the number of cases of hepatitis A in the past two years. The government will spend $750,000 on an advertising campaign and to provide free vaccinations to gay men. The virus is not sexually transmitted but can be contracted by handling soiled condoms and through analingus. A free vaccine against hepatitis B, which is spread in bodily fluids, will be offered at the same time. "Man's Sex Life and Cancer in Wife Linked" New York Times (08/07/96) P. A9 Women are at increased risk for cervical cancer if their husbands frequent prostitutes or have several sexual partners, researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report. The cancer is linked to the human papilloma virus, which is spread by sexual intercourse. Keerti Shah led the study, which appears today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The research indicates that the risk of cervical cancer was 11 times higher for wives of men who had 21 or more other sex partners and eight times higher for wives of men who frequented prostitutes. "Uganda, Britain Agree on AIDS Research" Xinhua News Agency (08/06/96) The first AIDS research center in southern Africa has been established through a cooperative effort between the governments of Uganda and Britain. The $2.85 million center will focus on the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. "Citation Analysis Reveals Leading Institutions, Scientists Researching AIDS" Scientist (07/22/96) Vol. 10, No. 15, P. 12 Based on a list of more than 34,000 AIDS research papers which were published between 1993 to 1995, the newsletter Science Watch ranked institutions and scientists studying AIDS by the total number of citations and the citations per paper. The institutions were grouped according to those that had more than 250 papers and those that had between 100 and 249 papers. The National Cancer Institute was the leader in the total citations ranking, as it had been in a similar survey in 1993, while the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had the most citations per paper. NIAID director Anthony S. Fauci was the author with the greatest number of citations and, with his colleagues, is credited for the most-cited paper in AIDS research during the three-year period. This report, published in the journal Nature in 1993, described the activity of HIV in lymphoid tissue and has been cited nearly 500 times. David D. Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center was the second-most-cited author, and an author of the most-cited paper in 1995, a Nature article on viral and immune system dynamics in HIV-1 infection. This report is one of two last year that has already been cited more than 100 times. "Agenda: Unprotected" Advocate (07/23/96) No. 712; P. 18 In Washington state, Dr. Federico Cruz-Uribe, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, has suggested the incarceration of HIV-positive individuals who have unprotected sex. Cruz-Uribe would also halt services specifically for AIDS patients, including them in general medical care. AIDS activists note many practitioners do not know enough about the disease to treat it adequately.