Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 10:17:39 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 01/25/96 AIDS Daily Summary January 25, 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 ************************************************************ "Israel Dumps Blood From Ethiopians" "House Compromises on Defense; White House Still Sees Problems" "Illinois Officials Want HIV List" "Mozambique Estimates Six Percent of Population Have HIV" "Taking a Big Risk for a Cure" "CD8 Cells: Suppressive Factors Discovered" "Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis: Still No Silver Lining" "Danes' AIDS Education Criticized" "Ghanaian Research Center Tackles Tough Health, Environmental Problems" ************************************************************ "Israel Dumps Blood From Ethiopians" Washington Post (01/25/96) P. A1; Gellman, Barton Israel's national blood bank system--which has been accepting donations from Ethiopian immigrants but automatically discarding the blood for fear of HIV contamination--has aroused intense controversy. Ethiopians are angered by the news, which was reported in the daily newspaper Maariv and was confirmed by government officials Wednesday. Adiso Masala, head of the Organization of Ethiopian Immigrants, called the action racist and said "We are blood brothers with the Israelis but our blood is thrown in the garbage because we are black." The head of the government's National AIDS Committee defended the policy, however, saying the rate of HIV in Ethiopians is 50 times higher than in the general population. Israeli health officials cited the American practice of refusing donated blood from Hatian immigrants, which took place from 1983 to 1990. The practice was discontinued when health experts determined they could eliminate almost all infected blood donations by asking donors about their sex and drug-use habits. "House Compromises on Defense; White House Still Sees Problems" Washington Times (01/25/96) P. A4 The House passed a new version of the defense authorization bill Wednesday after removing some provisions opposed by the White House. The bill kept a measure that requires military personnel with HIV to be discharged, which Clinton objected to. The provision was offered by Rep. Robert Dorman (R-Calif.), a conservative presidential candidate who asserted that military readiness is harmed by the current policy that prevents HIV-positive service members from joining in overseas deployment. Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) said that to be fair all service members should be discharged if they have any sickness that would prevent them from being deployed. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) called the provision "gratuitous cruelty." "Illinois Officials Want HIV List" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (01/24/96) P. A1; McDermott, Kevin Some Illinois health officials want to expand the state's confidential list of people who have AIDS to include those who test positive for HIV. Dr. John Lumpkin, director of the Department of Public Health, says the policy would make it easier to locate patients for counseling and treatment. Thirty other states, already keep such a list. AIDS activists say the policy would backfire, and prevent people from getting needed care because of fear of being stigmatized. State officials say they have succeeded in the past at keeping confidential records from the public. Under the proposal, hospitals, private clinics, and other non-state facilities would not be allowed to test anonymously, but state-run clinics would continue to do so, the reason being that the state would know that appropriate treatment services were being given to patients who test positive at state clinics. "Mozambique Estimates Six Percent of Population Have HIV" Reuters (01/24/96) An estimated one million people, six percent of the population of Mozambique, have been infected with HIV, the Health Ministry reported Wednesday. Avertino Barreto, director of the ministry's anti-AIDS program, told the state news agency that 2,652 cases of AIDS were confirmed, and another 16,000 cases are suspected. The worst-hit areas were the central provinces of Manica and Tete. Mozambique's estimate is still relatively low for the region. Zimbabwe and Uganda have an estimated 10 percent infection rate. "Taking a Big Risk for a Cure" Time (01/15/96) Vol.147, No.3, P. 59; Gorman, Christine Jeff Getty, once a self-described yuppie, learned he was HIV positive in 1985, and a few years later retired from his job as an administrative analyst at the University of California at Berkeley, to become an AIDS activist. He took up immunology, retrieved experimental therapies from Mexico, and joined protests for the government to speed up approval of new AIDS drugs. Getty also recently became the first AIDS patient to receive a bone marrow transplant from a baboon, after spending more than a year fighting for approval of the procedure. The Food and Drug Administration approved the transplant--for Getty only--in August, but the experiment was postponed until December because Getty developed potentially fatal pneumocystis pneumonia. He left the hospital recently, but doctors will not know if Getty's immune system has accepted the foreign material for months. Most doctors say that Getty does not have a very good chance of success. "CD8 Cells: Suppressive Factors Discovered" AIDS Treatment News (01/05/96) No.238, P. 5; James, John S. Scientists at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center reported 9 years ago that a substance produced by CD8 cells could inhibit HIV growth, even through a filter. Researchers were not able to identify the substance, however. Three such substances were identified in December 1995, by researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, then led by Dr. Robert C. Gallo. In the same month, a fourth substance was identified in separate work in Germany. The substances found in the U.S. are proteins, called chemokines. In laboratory tests, antibodies to the proteins were shown to block all the suppressive activity in cultures from three of four patients. In the fourth, they blocked 80 percent of it. The researchers do not know yet if the proteins themselves would be effective for treating HIV, but their identification offers potential for new-drug development. These substances might also be used as a marker for AIDS progression, or of the therapeutic effects of drugs. "Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis: Still No Silver Lining" Journal of the American Medical Association (01/10/96) Vol.275, No.2, P. 149; Young, Lucy H.Y. An editorial by Lucy H.Y. Young in the Journal of the American Medical Association examines treatment options for cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading cause of visual loss in AIDS patients. Left untreated, the disease--which affects about one-third of all people with AIDS--causes complete destruction of the retina. According to Young, ganciclovir and foscarnet provide a way to manage the disorder, but cannot eliminate CMV from an infected retina. Reactivation develops in nearly all patients over time, and as the patient's immunity weakens, the disease becomes harder to control. Foscarnet and ganciclovir are similar in their efficacy in controlling CMV retinitis, but more people switch from foscarnet to ganciclovir as a result of foscarnet's side effects. The number of patients with reactivated CMV retinitis is increasing with an increase in survival of patients with AIDS and further damage to the eye occurs with each relapse. Young advocates effective protocols for managing recurrences, and for simplifying and enhancing maintenance therapy. Young reports that some doctors switch drugs to treat a relapse, because viral strains have been found to develop a resistance to the drugs. She notes also that results of a recent study published in the January issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology suggest that a combination of foscarnet and ganciclovir is the most effective way to control the progression of the disease and that when the drugs are used alone their efficacy in controlling progression is about the same. "Danes' AIDS Education Criticized" Lancet (01/13/96) Vol.347, No.8994, P. 114; Skovmand, Kaare Rigsrevisionen, the Danish group of civil servants that controls public spending by the central administration has found fault with the National Board of Health. Among other things, the group says that a 20 minute AIDS video for schoolchildren was too expensive. The agency is also blamed for not putting the mandatory contract out for tender in the EC for an AIDS campaign it launched in 1994. "Ghanaian Research Center Tackles Tough Health, Environmental Problems" Chemical & Engineering News (01/01/96) Vol.74, No.1, P. 27; Ember, Lois R. The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, outside Accra, Ghana, built by the Japanese government to honor Hideyo Noguchi in 1977, is hindered by a lack of equipment and supplies and inconstant electricity. The Japanese government funds research on schistosomiasis--a disease caused by parasites in contaminated water as well as diarrheal diseases and HIV. Research is also conducted on malaria, river blindness, and nutrition. Japanese scientists come to work at the center, and it sends scientists to Japan for technical training. The center also receives building and staff support from the Ghanaian government and research funds from outside countries. The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) has given the center a research grant to study HIV. Francis A. Nkrumah, the institute's director, says it "is one of the major centers [in Africa] for the study of HIV."