Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 10:23:05 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 02/06/96 AIDS Daily Summary February 6, 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 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 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "AIDS Conference Offers Reasons for Hope" "New AIDS Therapies Arise, But Who Can Afford the Bill?" "Pharmacia & Upjohn to Cut 10 Percent of Jobs" "A Week of Dramatic Ups and Downs on the AIDS Front" "AIDS-drug Lottery: Life-and-Death Contest" "New Drug Cut AIDS Deaths in Trial" "Letters to the Editor: Magic Shouldn't Compete in 1996 Olympics/Drop All This Paranoia/Not a Real Comeback" "NIH Budget Trouble for AIDS Office?" "N.Y. Professor Puts Discredited AIDS Theory in Book" "Infections Making a Deadly Comeback" ************************************************************ "AIDS Conference Offers Reasons for Hope" Washington Post--Health (02/06/96) P. 7; Brown, David The Third Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held in Washington D.C. last week, offered new hope for AIDS treatment. Studies revealed new drugs, new tests for measuring how the drugs are working, and a new understanding of HIV. Researchers learned that a combination of drugs is more effective than a single one and that some drugs appear to stop HIV from growing. They also found that the amount of virus in the blood predicts a patient's future health better than tests used before, that women with small amounts of the virus are less likely to transmit it to their children, and that lowering the amount of virus in the blood helps patients. While saying that the studies are only preliminary, the University of Pittsburgh's John Mellor said that the conference was "a major milestone" in the 15-year history of AIDS. "New AIDS Therapies Arise, But Who Can Afford the Bill?" New York Times (02/06/96) P. A1; Altman, Lawrence K. Researchers revealed promising results for combination therapy with new AIDS drugs at a scientific meeting in Washington last week. But combining the drugs costs $12,000 to $18,000 a year, making the total bill for advanced AIDS patients as high as $70,000. Private health insurance covers drug costs for some patients, and the Ryan White CARE Act covers drug expenses for others. While Medicaid pays for the drugs for still others, the number of individual drugs covered each month may be limited. Dr. Harold W. Jaffe, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who also treats patients at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, said that while the clinic has gone from one drug to two for initial treatment, "we have a fixed pharmacy budget, so what are we going to not supply in order to accommodate these new drugs?" AIDS advocates have asked drug companies to lower the costs of new drugs and have called on the federal government to increase funding for the drugs. "Pharmacia & Upjohn to Cut 10 Percent of Jobs" New York Times (02/06/96) P. D4 Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. has confirmed that it intends to reduce its workforce by about 10 percent and set up headquarters near London. According to company president John Zabriskie, the pharmaceutical firm also plans to launch 28 products for the treatment of several conditions, including AIDS, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and central nervous system disorders. Related Stories: Financial Times (02/06) P. 18; Washington Post (02/06) P. C2; USA Today (02/06) P. 2B "A Week of Dramatic Ups and Downs on the AIDS Front" USA Today (02/06/96) P. 3D; Painter, Kim Over the past week, both good and bad news has been reported on the AIDS front. New drugs were reported to offer the most promising treatment yet. Earvin "Magic" Johnson returned to professional basketball after retiring four years ago when he learned he was HIV positive. President Clinton said he would sign a bill forcing all HIV-positive military members to be discharged. AIDS activists say they are optimistic about the new studies, but claim that Clinton's signing of the defense bill will ruin what would otherwise be a rare positive period in the fight against AIDS. "I've never been so happy and so bitter at the same time," said Mike Shriver, director of policy at the National Association of People With AIDS. Seeing Johnson return to the court bolstered the hopes of many people with HIV. His return "demonstrates that people with AIDS and HIV are people," said AIDS activist Mary Fisher. "AIDS-drug Lottery: Life-and-Death Contest" Miami Herald (02/05/96) P. 1A; Otto, Mary Thousands of people with AIDS have entered a drug lottery, hoping to be selected to receive Abbott Laboratories' experimental drug Norvir (ritonavir). The lottery system was devised to make new drugs available to some while drug companies wait for marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. People with advanced AIDS cases were able to enter the lottery, and in the end, 2,000 people were chosen. Bob Chapman, a volunteer for Project Inform AIDS hotline in San Francisco, is opposed to the system, which, he says, "is playing with people with terminal illness and putting people in competition with each other." "New Drug Cut AIDS Deaths in Trial" Toronto Globe and Mail (02/03/96) P. A3; Immen, Wallace Canadian doctors are calling for the approval of a new AIDS drug after a clinical trial indicated that it cut the death rate from AIDS by nearly half. Dr. William Cameron, of the University of Ottawa, presented results of a study of ritonavir, one of a new class of protease inhibitors, which limit the activity of HIV. The study enrolled 1,090 advanced AIDS patients, and found that of the 550 that received ritonavir, 26 died, compared to 46 in the group that did not receive the drug. In addition, the rate of recurrent infections was decreased by some 50 percent. Cameron said Friday that "the major question is getting the drug on the shelves in a timely manner." "Letters to the Editor: Magic Shouldn't Compete in 1996 Olympics/Drop All This Paranoia/Not a Real Comeback" USA Today (02/06/96) P. 10A; Keshner, Terry; Stoller, Freddie; Peirce, Jerry R. In three letters to the editor, readers of USA Today voice their feelings about Magic Johnson's return to professional basketball. Terry Keshner writes that while his return to the sport is a good example of how HIV-positive people can lead active lives, Johnson should not be on the 1996 Olympic team because he should allow a new young player to participate. Another writer, Freddie Stoller, says that the paranoia surrounding Johnson's return is unfounded and discriminatory. Furthermore, reader Jerry Peirce takes issue with the paper's comparison of Johnson's comeback to that of Mario Lemieux, who returned to the National Hockey League after undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's disease. "NIH Budget Trouble for AIDS Office?" Science (01/29/96) Vol.271, No.5247, P. 281 Congress has voted to fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through 1996, but the fate of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR), which distributes NIH's AIDS funds, remains unknown. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), who chairs the House panel in charge of NIH funding, passed a measure in the House to give AIDS money directly to each institute. The Senate bill, however, calls for the OAR's funding authority to be sustained. The NIH funding bill passed on Jan. 5 leaves the question of the OAR unanswered. President Clinton has said he would protect the OAR. NIH Director Harold Varmus says the matter "is unresolved." "N.Y. Professor Puts Discredited AIDS Theory in Book" American Medical News (1/22/96-1/29/96) Vol.39, No.4, P. 23 Peter Duesberg, who lost the science community's respect in 1987 when he published his theory that HIV does not cause AIDS, is promoting his ideas in a new book. "Inventing the AIDS Virus," co-authored by Bryan Ellison, will go on sale in February. Duesberg contends that the identification of HIV as the virus that causes AIDS was determined too quickly and never properly challenged. His theory has been repeatedly rejected by the AIDS research community. Phyllis Kanki, a virologist at the Harvard AIDS Institute, said attention to Duesberg's theory could "impede the progress of education and intervention programs." Duesberg, however, says the book is the best chance he has for people to reconsider his theory. He says theories like his are important to science, because "innovation does not come from a majority in science. It always comes from someone considered an outsider." "Infections Making a Deadly Comeback" Science News (01/20/96) Vol.149, No.3, P. 38; Seachrist, L. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that infectious diseases are making a comeback, despite the fact that scientists once thought such diseases would be wiped out by vaccines and antibiotics. Ebola, HIV, hantavirus and antibiotic-resistant bacteria are examples of the microbes that are still uncontrolled. From 1980 to 1992, death from infectious disease increased by 58 percent. Infections caused by a strain of penicillin-resistant bacteria increased by 14 percent from 1991 to 1994. "Despite historical predictions that infectious diseases would wane, that hasn't been the case," said Robert W. Pinner, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers urge better global monitoring of outbreaks and more prudent use of antibiotics.