Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 10:18:07 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 01/26/96 AIDS Daily Summary January 26, 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 ************************************************************ "President to Accept HIV Ban" "Suspect in Hypodermic Jabbing Is Declared Unfit to Stand Trial" "A New Drive For an AIDS Vaccine" "Grieving Siblings Need to Share AIDS Loss" "Man Wins New Trial After Court Faults Judge's AIDS Precautions" "Study Finds More Children "Cured" of AIDS" "Study Queries Claims that HIV Does Not Cause AIDS" "Protease Inhibitors Studies Probe HIV Resistance to Drugs" "English HIV and AIDS Projections Made" "AIDS and Suicide" ************************************************************ "President to Accept HIV Ban" Washington Post (01/26/96) P. A1; Priest, Dana President Clinton said he will sign a $265 billion bill for the Department of Defense, even though it includes a provision that calls for all HIV-positive service members to be discharged. He vetoed a previous version of the bill because of the measure, one that the Defense Department also opposed. It would affect 1,049 male and female service members, who would have to be discharged within six months. Representative Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) sponsored the provision, which also bars those discharged from receiving the medical benefits available to others who are forced to leave military service for medical reasons. Related Stories: Washington Times (01/26/96) P. A4; Philadelphia Inquirer (01/26/96) P. A13 "Suspect in Hypodermic Jabbing Is Declared Unfit to Stand Trial" New York Times (01/26/96) P. B7 Psychiatrists have determined that Angel Coro, the man charged with jabbing a 6-year-old girl with a hypodermic needle on a New York subway train, is unfit to stand trial. The girl's parents have asked a judge to have Coro tested for HIV, hepatitis and syphilis, although the tests are not permitted under the current law. Coro is to remain under psychiatric supervision until he is found competent or until he serves two-thirds of the maximum sentence for the charges of attempted assault and criminal possession of a weapon. "A New Drive For an AIDS Vaccine" Washington Post (01/26/96) P. E3; Mann, Judy The Rockefeller Foundation is leading an effort to stimulate research and development of an AIDS vaccine, a project which has been getting less than 10 percent of the $8.8 billion spent on AIDS worldwide. Seth Berkley, director of health sciences for the foundation, said he discovered in 1994 that drug companies had stopped research on a vaccine. The reasons, he said, were the high cost of the research, the liability problems associated with testing an HIV vaccine, the scientific risks of pursuing a vaccine that is not assured of success, and the uncertainty about its profitability. To deal with these problems, the foundation has organized three meetings of experts to put together a plan for an international effort to research a vaccine over seven years. "Grieving Siblings Need to Share AIDS Loss" Houston Chronicle (01/25/96) P. 5D; Herndon, Lucia People who lose siblings to AIDS suffer--in addition to their grief--the added problems of dealing with the stigma attached to the disease. Many siblings try to keep the cause of death a secret for fear of the reactions of family and friends. Linda Robinson lost a brother to AIDS and said keeping the cause of death secret kept her from grieving. She is conducting research interviews with surviving siblings of people who died of AIDS in an effort to help people cope with the loss and the special problems it may create. "Man Wins New Trial After Court Faults Judge's AIDS Precautions" Boston Globe (01/25/96) P. 25; Vigue, Doreen Iudica The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled Wednesday that precautions taken by Berkshire Superior Court Judge Charles Alberti Jr. to keep a defendant from using his AIDS-infected blood to escape or to cause a mistrial were too extreme. Alberti had ordered that the defendant be held in leg irons during his trial and that he be separated from his lawyer by a table and a stack of books. The Appeals Court set aside the conviction and ordered a new trial. The defendant told the woman he allegedly raped that he had HIV, but it was never confirmed. "Study Finds More Children 'Cured' of AIDS" Reuters (01/25/96) Results of a European study found that almost three percent of children born with HIV managed to purge the virus from their bodies, doctors reported on Friday. Researchers in four European cities noted that nine out of more than 200 children born with HIV did not have the virus when tested later. The nine children are now nearly nine years old and still healthy. The researchers say exploring how the children rid themselves of the virus could help in vaccine development. "Study Queries Claims that HIV Does Not Cause AIDS" Reuters (01/25/96) A group of doctors said Friday that their studies of the links between hemophilia and AIDS have cast further doubt on assertions that HIV does not cause AIDS. The argument against the connection, put forth by a few doctors, has never been accepted by the medical community. Dr. Caroline Sabin and colleagues at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London say results of their study indicate the theory that HIV could simply be a "passenger" virus is insupportable. They compared 17 hemophiliacs with HIV to 17 hemophiliacs without the virus and found that only those with HIV developed AIDS. "Protease Inhibitors Studies Probe HIV Resistance to Drugs" Chemical & Engineering News (01/96) Vol.74, No.1, P. 6; Zurer, Pamela Indinavir--the new AIDS drug from Merck that works by inhibiting the protease enzyme of HIV--must be given in doses high enough to completely suppress viral replication, like other protease inhibitors. If the dose is not high enough, HIV mutates into drug-resistant forms. Merck scientists presented these findings in December at the 1995 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies in Honolulu. Very ill AIDS patients treated with 2.4 grams of indinavir a day showed a dramatic decrease in the amount of virus in their bodies, while patients given a lower dosage of protease inhibitors developed resistance to the drugs. Giving a person a dose that is too low could make them resistant to any protease inhibitor. Paul Reider, a vice president at Merck, observed that efficiently synthesizing up to one million kg of indinavir a year would be an "incredible scientific challenge." A factory is currently under construction for the manufacture of the drug. The company will apply for FDA approval of indinavir by early spring, Reider said. "English HIV and AIDS Projections Made" Lancet (01/13/96) Vol.347, No.8994, P. 109; Ramsay, Sarah HIV transmission by exposure among homosexual males is occurring at "substantial levels" in Wales and England, possibly up to 1,000 new infections annually, a new report from the Public Health Laboratory Service says. The expert group that issued the report used data up to the end of 1994 to make projections for 1995 to 1999. The report says that since the late 1980s, there has been a reversal in trends in markers of unprotected sexual intercourse, like acute hepatitis B infection and rectal gonorrhoea, among homosexual and bisexual men. The group suggests that health agencies survey male homosexual behavior regularly and monitor changes in high-risk behavior patterns. "AIDS and Suicide" Journal of the American Medical Association (01/17/96) Vol.275, No.3, P. 172d; Kirchner, Jeffrey T. Various medical, neurologic, and psychiatric factors may contribute to the death of an HIV-infected patient. In this study, Kirchner presents the case of a 27-year-old man who committed suicide about 2 years after being diagnosed with AIDS, although he had no prior psychiatric history. The author emphasizes the importance for physicians to be aware of the mental health concerns related to AIDS. He suggests that a patient's suicide risk be evaluated during the regular office visit, when appropriate.