Date: Mon, 30 Dec 96 09:11:17 EST From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 12/30/96 AIDS Daily Summary December 30, 1996 The CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC. 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 ****************************************************** "Marijuana for the Sick" "Animals Suffer, to No Benefit" "U.S. Will Encourage Doctors Not to Dispense Medical Pot" "Fighting a 'Hidden Epidemic'" "Number of People With HIV Reaches 466 in Indonesia" "Women Overrepresented Among Young Persons With AIDS" "Health Notes: Contraceptives and Low-Income Women" "Piloting the Meanders of AIDS Research" "Standards for Disease Control--Part 1" ****************************************************** "Marijuana for the Sick" New York Times (12/30/96) P. A14 The U.S. government's plan to fight state laws legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes is reasonable, but the value of such therapy should be considered, says the editors of the New York Times. The authors agree with the Clinton administration's plan to prosecute doctors who prescribe the drug, but they say that more research is needed on the value of marijuana for treating AIDS-related wasting, nausea in cancer patients, and glaucoma. Supporters of medical-marijuana use claim that drug enforcement officials have restricted such research for fear that marijuana use and abuse would become more widespread. "Animals Suffer, to No Benefit" Wall Street Journal (12/30/96) P. A13; Guillermo, Kathy; Menache, Andre; Tatchell, Peter; et al. In response to a Wall Street Journal article in which Dr. Michael DeBakey criticized animal rights groups for harming AIDS research, several animal rights supporters argue in letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal that AIDS research does not depend on animal research. Kathy Guillermo of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals notes, for example, that animal research has not produced a single drug or vaccine against AIDS and that the most promising treatment now available for HIV was first tried on humans. ACT-UP London's Peter Tatchell, meanwhile, cites various AIDS researchers who say animal research is not useful for the study of HIV, because the virus is specific to humans. "U.S. Will Encourage Doctors Not to Dispense Medical Pot" Washington Times (12/30/96) P. A3; Price, Joyce The federal plan to enforce anti-drug laws in Arizona and California, where the medical use of marijuana has been legalized, will focus on education rather than prosecution, U.S. drug chief Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey said Sunday. Under the White House's plan, to be released today, groups other than doctors, such as transportation workers and nuclear power plant operators, will be addressed. Federal officials will lead campaigns to inform "educators, parents, community coalitions and others" about the dangers of marijuana and other drugs. The American Medical Association, for its part, has called for more research into the medical benefits of marijuana. McCaffrey said, "We will open the door to examine any medicine, certainly to include marijuana, to see if it can demonstrate effectiveness." "Fighting a 'Hidden Epidemic'" New York Times (12/28/96) P. 26 Citing the recent Institute of Medicine report on the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States, a New York Times editorial supports new recommendations for a public education and awareness campaign against these diseases. The panel reported that for every $1 in government spending on prevention of STDs, $43 is spent on treatment. New prevention efforts targeted at teen-agers and women are needed, the report said, including open discussions with doctors. The editors also note the greater need for open discussion of sexual activity and its possible repercussions. "Number of People With HIV Reaches 466 in Indonesia" Xinhua News Agency (12/28/96) The number of HIV infections in Indonesia has reached 466, and 112 people have developed AIDS. A total of 128 foreigners were reported to have HIV or AIDS. Approximately 63 percent of the HIV cases were transmitted through heterosexual contact, and women were found to be more likely than men to contract HIV through sex with different partners. A majority of the infected individuals are between the ages of 15 and 59. "Women Overrepresented Among Young Persons With AIDS" Reuters (12/27/96) An analysis of the more than 37,000 AIDS cases diagnosed in New York City between 1984 and 1993 found that most of the young people diagnosed with AIDS were women and that women developed AIDS at a higher rate than young heterosexual men. Dr. Marcelo Pagano and colleagues at Harvard's School of Public Health reported that by 1993 the majority of AIDS patients under 30 were women, and that most of these young women had contracted the disease heterosexually. The researcher also noted a "youth-gender effect among black persons with AIDS," leading him to conclude that "women are overrepresented among younger persons with AIDS, particularly persons of color." "Health Notes: Contraceptives and Low-Income Women" United Press International (12/30/96) Although 80 percent of sexually-active, low-income women in the United States use contraceptives, they may not fully benefit from the methods they choose, a new report says. A survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that 75 percent of pregnancies in lower-income women are unplanned. Factors that improved the success of contraceptives in these women included an organized, courteous, and respectful clinic; a belief that women do not need permission from their partner to use contraception; and friends who share that concept. "Piloting the Meanders of AIDS Research" Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (12/96) Vol. 2, No. 12, P. 9; Mascolini, Mark At the 36th International Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, updates on trials of protease inhibitors were presented as well as data on even newer treatment options. Among the research topics covered were non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, a fusion inhibitor, and several new protease inhibitors. Researchers warned that clinicians should expect surprises as they treat patients with new, stronger antiretrovirals. As new research provides clinicians with a better understanding of HIV's pathogenesis, new drugs, and new ways to monitor drug efficacy, they should consequently be better prepared to treat the disease more strategically, noted Dr. Michael Saag of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Clinical trials, however, only provide information on how a therapy works in a controlled situation. "Real-world" answers to questions about efficacy, resistance, and side effects must be discovered through clinical practice. "Standards for Disease Control--Part 1" EDI World (12/96) Vol. 6, No. 12, P. 14; Engel, Wilson F. III EDI, or electronic data standards that are used for disease control, are essential in the battle against the worldwide spread of infectious diseases, according to Wilson F. Engel, III. The commercial development of EDI has recently gained momentum and has sparked conferences on electronic resources for disease control. Electronic standards for disease control will likely emerge within the next three to five years, and will combine the many different existing sets of public and private data. An appropriate place for this integration of information to begin would be the databases at the federal agencies that deal with disease information, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.