Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 10:55:03 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 02/09/96 AIDS Daily Summary February 9, 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 ************************************************************ "Baboon Cells Fail to Thrive, But AIDS Patient Improves" "2 of 6 Who Got HIV from Dentist are Alive" "New Proposals On Health Care Help New York" "Amtrak Passenger with TB Dies" "AIDS Takes New Directions" "A Cure For FDA-Induced Pain" "HIV...and Service in the Military" "New Strain of HIV Identified in India" "Detection of Virus in Vertically Exposed HIV-Antibody-Negative Children" "Monkeys Are Not Men" ************************************************************ "Baboon Cells Fail to Thrive, But AIDS Patient Improves" New York Times (02/09/96) P. A14; Altman, Lawrence K. Doctors say that the baboon bone marrow cells transplanted into AIDS patient Jeff Getty have failed to grow and function. They are surprised, though, that Getty's health has improved anyway. The doctors would not have announced the results until they were published in a scientific journal, but they wanted the public to know that Getty's improved health was not a result of the transplant. The procedure is still considered successful, because it showed that the radiation and drug therapy used to prepare the patient was safe. Experts now say the doses may have been too low. Getty's doctors say they will explore the use of radiation for AIDS treatment, since it seemed to have a positive impact. "2 of 6 Who Got HIV from Dentist are Alive" Washington Times (02/09/96) P. A7; Price, Joyce Of the six patients infected with HIV by Florida dentist Dr. David Acer, only two survive. The case is the only documented instance of dentist-to-patient transmission of the virus, although a dentist in Massachusetts is now being sued by a patient in a similar case. In that case, James Sharpe, who has AIDS, accused his dentist, Anthony Breglio, who does not have AIDS, of not sterilizing his equipment. The two patients of Acer, who has died of AIDS, do not have the disease and are relatively healthy, but have low immunity due to the infection. One of the patients, Lisa Shoemaker, said she makes educational presentations at schools about abstaining from sex to prevent the spread of HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that while Acer did in fact infect his patients with HIV, the route of transmission remains unknown. "New Proposals On Health Care Help New York" New York Times (02/09/96) P. A1; Fisher, Ian The Medicaid and welfare proposals recently presented by U.S. governors would be the best financial deal for New York. The state, for example, would be able to decide for itself which of the 100,000 New Yorkers with AIDS are considered disabled and entitled to government aid. Advocates for the poor are concerned that the new policies could result in less money being spent on the impoverished when the state is low on cash. New York would also no longer require federal approval for its plans to force poor individuals into managed care systems. The governors' federal Medicaid proposal would add $2 billion more than the plan offered by Congress, over the next seven years. The plan would also increase the federal share of New York's Medicaid spending from 50 percent to 60 percent. "Amtrak Passenger with TB Dies" Washington Post (02/09/96) P. B4 An Amtrak passenger with tuberculosis who traveled from Chicago to Washington to Miami has died. The 22-year-old man was removed from the train in northern Florida on Jan. 21 because he was coughing up blood and mucus. He was operated on at the JFK Medical Center near West Palm Beach. Doctors found large holes in his lungs, and say his bronchial artery had eroded and bled. State health officials and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the chance of transmission to other passengers was low, but that those thought to be at risk should be tested for the disease. "AIDS Takes New Directions" Richmond Times-Dispatch (02/08/96) P. E1; Orndorff, Beverly The Virginia state health department has reported a new trend in the type of people becoming infected with HIV and the mode of transmission of the virus. The first cases were mostly among white males, but now more women and blacks are becoming infected. Homosexual sex between men was the most common mode of transmission, followed by injection drug use. Now male-to-male transmission is decreasing, as injection drug use and heterosexual contact are increasing as ways Virginians are getting the virus. AIDS first became a reportable disease in Virginia in 1983, and doctors have been reporting cases of HIV infection since 1989. Injection drug use accounted for 10 percent of the state's reported AIDS cases between 1982 and 1988. Last year, 20 percent of the cases were attributed to such drug use. Meanwhile, sex between men was reported as the mode of transmission for 70 percent of the AIDS cases between 1982 and 1988, but dropped to 48 percent during last year. Heterosexual contact was the reported mode of transmission for 4 percent of the cases in the 1980s and for 13 percent now. "A Cure For FDA-Induced Pain" Wall Street Journal (02/08/96) P. A14; Driscoll, James James Driscoll, an AIDS activist and national policy advisor to the Log Cabin Republicans, contends in a Washington Post that Sen. Nancy Kassebaum's (R-Kan.) proposed overhaul of the FDA is essential, since the federal agency "cannot be trusted to reform itself." According to Driscoll, Kassebaum's bill would make the FDA accountable and would help life-saving drugs to reach needy patients sooner. Driscoll supports a provision that would require the FDA to answer to the judiciary and defend its delays and "retaliations" in court. Furthermore, he states that scientific and medical advances have made the drug development process safer and less in need of regulation. "HIV...and Service in the Military" Washington Times (02/08/96) P. A17; Summers, Harry G., Jr. In a Washington Times commentary, Harry Summers, a retired Army colonel and syndicated columnist, disagrees with claims about the Defense Department's official position on the proposed discharge of HIV military members. Summers wonders about the identities of the officials who supposedly oppose the provision, and states that they must not be anyone actually involved in defending the United States. He says that the bill makes sense based on the fact that HIV-positive service members burden others in the military because they cannot serve overseas. He suggests that the military's policy be changed to discharge all non-deployable service members, including those with chronic but not debilitating diseases such as asthma, cancer, and heart disease. Summers holds that the Army was designed to be a fighting force, and that those incapable of fighting should not be allowed to serve. He also notes that when people are excused from battle because of illness, morale suffers substantially. "New Strain of HIV Identified in India" Reuters (02/08/96) A new strain of HIV has been found in India, report scientists at the National Institute for AIDS Research in Pune, India. According to an article in AIDS Weekly Plus, the new C-subtype strain has been found in most of the people with HIV in the country. The strain is especially troublesome because it is resistant to the vaccines now being developed for the virus. Dr. Max Essex of Harvard University said there are two HIV epidemics, one in the West which is slowing down, and one in Asia and Africa, which is growing. Nearly 90 percent of the AIDS cases in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were transmitted by heterosexual contact, while about 90 percent of the cases in the West were the result of homosexual contact or injection drug use. The World Health Organization predicts more than five million people in India will be HIV-infected by the year 2000. "Detection of Virus in Vertically Exposed HIV-Antibody-Negative Children" Lancet (01/27/96) Vol.347, No.8996, P. 213; Newell, Marie-Louise; Dunn, David; De Maria, Andrea; et. al. Women with HIV can infect their children in utero and through delivery, called vertical transmission. In a European study of 264 children born to HIV-infected women, nine were born with HIV but later cleared the infection. In all nine, the virus was detected before the children became antibody-negative. The virus was detected in two children after seroreversion. Based on only the children who had two or more positive virological tests, Newell et al. estimate that 2 percent to 7 percent of children born to HIV-infected women clear or tolerate the virus. The authors say the findings "suggest that the detection of virus or viral DNA in 'uninfected' children is rare and is not associated with clinical disease or immunological abnormalities." The unknown mechanism of how the HIV-positive children became uninfected could provide insight into virus clearance, which may help in vaccine development. "Monkeys Are Not Men" POZ (02/96-03/96) No.12, P. 20 Results of a study--conducted by the University of Washington and the National Institutes of Health--reveal that the drug PMPA was able to protect 25 monkeys against simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a virus related to HIV. The drug, developed by Gilead Sciences, acts like AZT in that it inhibits the reverse transcriptase enzyme necessary for the virus to reproduce. Unlike AZT, PMPA does not need to be absorbed by the body's cells, and can protect both infected and uninfected cells as soon as it enters the body. Monkeys who were injected with PMPA 48 hours before, four hours after and 24 hours after being infected with SIV, exhibited no sign of infection 8 months later and suffered no apparent side effects.