Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 10:06:32 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 08/08/96 AIDS Daily Summary August 8, 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 ****************************************************** "New Regimens Found for AIDS-Related Ailment" "Across the USA: Montana" "Eyes on Your Files" "Congress Calls for Improved Standards for U.S. Blood Supply" "HIV in Cervicovaginal Secretions: No Correlation With Plasma HIV" "Tanzania: Government Announces New AIDS Policy" "4,000 Contract HIV in Ethiopian Region" "HIV-1 Prevalence Still Low in Slovakia" "Seroconversion to Antibodies Against Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Related Latent Nuclear Antigens Before the Development of Kaposi's Sarcoma" "Japanese AIDS Expert Files Law Suits for Damages" ****************************************************** "New Regimens Found for AIDS-Related Ailment" Washington Post (08/08/96) P. A32 Advances in treating Mycobacterium avium, a common bacterial infection in AIDS patients, appear in three separate reports in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The first study, conducted by researchers from the University of Alberta, found that a combination of three drugs--rifabutin, ethambutol, and clarithromycin--was effective against the infection in 78 percent of the patients, compared with 40 percent of the patients who received a four-drug regimen. The second study, from scientists at Vanderbilt University, found that the risk of infection could be decreased with the regular use of clarithromycin. In the third study, meanwhile, researchers at the University of California at San Diego report that only 7.6 percent of patients who took azithromycin developed the infection, versus 15.3 percent who took rifabutin. "Across the USA: Montana" USA Today (08/08/96) P. 10A A federal grant for $129,000 to provide AIDS drugs to residents of Montana will be depleted next month. "Eyes on Your Files" Washington Post (08/08/96) P. A30 Medical privacy could be endangered by the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care bill, a Washington Post editorial warns. The legislation includes a provision to create a national network of patients' medical information in a standardized form. The writers say that safeguards need to be added to protect the unauthorized release of information and suggest that Congress act quickly to provide this protection. "Congress Calls for Improved Standards for U.S. Blood Supply" Reuters (08/07/96) A congressional committee has issued a report calling for improved national standards to make the blood supply safer. The report, from the House of Representatives' Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee, recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services ensure that "patients who received transfusions before 1990 be notified of their risk of infection so they can seek diagnosis and treatment." "HIV in Cervicovaginal Secretions: No Correlation With Plasma HIV" Reuters (08/07/96) The amount of HIV-1 found in women's plasma is not related to the presence or absence of the virus in cervicovaginal secretions, according to researchers at the University of Southern California. In the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Suraiya Rasheed and colleagues report that they compared the virus' replication in blood and cervicovaginal samples from 63 HIV-positive women. In 26 percent of the women who had no detectable levels of HIV in their plasma, significant levels of the virus were found in their cervicovaginal secretions. Also, 17 percent of the women with significant plasma HIV levels had no detectable HIV in their cervicovaginal secretions. "Tanzania: Government Announces New AIDS Policy" Africa Information Afrique (08/06/96) To combat the pervasive attitude in Tanzania that AIDS patients should be separated from the rest of society, the government has published a proposal to ban AIDS discrimination. The new policy prohibits the testing for or inquiring about anyone's HIV status for employment, insurance, or other purposes. AIDS discrimination has been problematic in Tanzania since the first AIDS death was reported in 1983. The World Health Organization estimates that 250,000 people in the country are infected with HIV. A 1994 survey by the National AIDS Control Program found that 10 percent to 12 percent of Tanzanians thought the virus could be contracted by casual contact and 20 percent thought the disease only affected prostitutes, barmaids, prominent people, and long distance truckers. "4,000 Contract HIV in Ethiopian Region" Xinhua News Agency (08/07/96) In Ethiopia's southern region of Oromiya, 23 hospitals report that the number of HIV cases has increased by more than 4,000 over the past 12 months. The area has a total of 50,000 AIDS cases, and more than 100,000 people are infected with HIV. Experts estimate that there are 350,000 AIDS patients and 1.7 million HIV-positive individuals in the country as a whole. "HIV-1 Prevalence Still Low in Slovakia" Reuters (08/07/96) Slovokia is still thought to have one of the lowest rates of HIV infection, researchers at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava report in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. V. Zachar and colleagues found that, along with low incidence, HIV-1 infections in the country appear to be limited to subtype B, the strain most common in North America and Western Europe. New reports of HIV transmission by heterosexual contact suggest that the epidemic is changing, however. Previously, the virus was found almost exclusively in the homosexual population in the western part of the country. "Seroconversion to Antibodies Against Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Related Latent Nuclear Antigens Before the Development of Kaposi's Sarcoma" New England Journal of Medicine (07/25/96) Vol. 335, No. 4, P. 233; Gao, Shou-Jiang; Kingsley, Lawrence; Hoover, Donald R.; et Gao, Shou-Jiang To determine whether Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) causes Kaposi's sarcoma, researchers at Columbia University compared antibody tests for AIDS patients with and without Kaposi's sarcoma and other patients with and without HIV. Shou-Jiang Gao et al. report that, of 40 patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, 32 had antibodies for KSHV, compared to seven of 40 homosexual men who did not have the disease just before they developed AIDS. Out of 122 blood donors, 22 patients with Epstein-Barr virus, 20 HIV-positive patients, and 20 HIV-positive men with hemophilia, none had the KSHV antibodies. Over the study period, 21 of the 40 patients with Kaposi's sarcoma seroconverted six to 75 months before the clinical appearance of the disease. The median time between antibody seropositivity and the diagnosis of Kaposi's sarcoma was 33 months. The authors conclude that most patients with Kaposi's sarcoma and AIDS develop antibodies against KSHV before they develop signs of the disease. They say that this supports the link between KSHV infection and Kaposi's sarcoma. "Japanese AIDS Expert Files Law Suits for Damages" Nature (07/25/96) Vol. 382, No. 6589, P. 292 In lawsuits claiming damages for media reports blaming him for Japan's tainted blood scandal, the former head of a government AIDS study group is seeking a total of $720,000 from three different parties. Takeshi Abe has been severely criticized for his role in the spread of HIV among thousands of Japanese hemophiliacs between 1983 and 1985. He is suing a major daily newspaper, a popular weekly magazine and a lawyer, as well as a former television journalist who wrote a book about the blood scandal. It has been reported that Tokyo prosecutors have established that a hemophiliac patient of Abe's became infected with HIV in 1985, after Abe had treated him with non-heat-treated blood products.