Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 10:24:33 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 07/19/96 AIDS Daily Summary July 19, 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 National AIDS Clearinghouse, or any other organization. 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 ****************************************************** "Merck's Sales Boosted Net 13% in Quarter" "Firm Wilts on Positive News on AIDS Fight" "Some With AIDS May Be Told to Shun Measles Vaccine" "Asian Members Seek "Functional Cooperation" " "American Lung Association Calls for Global Effort to Control TB" "Scientist Calls for New Process to Accelerate Progress Toward an AIDS Vaccine" "Rifabutin Shows Efficacy in Treatment of AIDS-Related M. avium Infection" "Microsporidia Linked to Malabsorption and Wasting in AIDS Patients" "NAC: First Controlled Trial, Positive Results" "Court Rules That Tainted-Blood Commissioner Can Investigate Misconduct" ****************************************************** "Merck's Sales Boosted Net 13% in Quarter" Wall Street Journal (07/19/96) P. B3; Naj, Amal Kumar Strong sales of several Merck products, including its new AIDS drug Crixivan, helped boost the company's second-quarter profit 13 percent to $972.1 million. Sales for the quarter increased 19 percent to $4.91 billion, meeting Wall Street analysts' projections. Crixivan, Merck's new protease inhibitor, has already been prescribed for 30,000 patients since it became available two months ago and has generated $27 million in sales. The company also reported strong sales for its Varivax chicken pox vaccine; Fosamax, an osteoporosis drug; and two cholesterol-lowering drugs, Mevacor and Zocor. "Firm Wilts on Positive News on AIDS Fight" Houston Chronicle (07/18/96) P. 2C Shares of the viatical settlement company Dignity Partners fell 77 percent after it announced late Tuesday that it would no longer buy life insurance policies from AIDS patients due to advances in treating the disease. The San Francisco business was the first public company to specialize in viatical settlements, and more than 95 percent of its customers were people with HIV or AIDS. The company said that progress in AIDS treatment presented at the XIth International Conference on AIDS last week could hurt its profits, which depend on being able to assess how long a person will live. "Some With AIDS May Be Told to Shun Measles Vaccine" Reuters (07/18/96) Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday that they were considering telling some people with AIDS to avoid getting measles vaccinations. The concern arose after it was discovered that a 20-year-old man whose immune system was weakened by HIV died from pneumonitis caused by the measles virus. The man did not become ill until a year after he received the vaccine, and the cause of his illness was not discovered until last year, though he died in 1993. The CDC reported that this was the first known case of a serious complication from measles vaccination in an HIV-infected person with severely weakened immunity. The agency said that, for now, HIV-infected individuals who are not severely immunocompromised should continue to receive the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. "Asian Members Seek "Functional Cooperation" " Journal of Commerce (07/19/96) P. 4A Countries in Southeast Asia plan to improve cooperation in such programs as scientific development and AIDS prevention and control, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Thursday. Alatas said that the standing committee of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would call for Asian foreign ministers to adopt a framework to give "functional cooperation" between member states a higher priority. "American Lung Association Calls for Global Effort to Control TB" Reuters (07/18/96) Global cooperation is needed to prevent and control the spread of tuberculosis (TB), delegates to the American Lung Association Conference on Re-establishing Control of Tuberculosis in the United States reported. The group said that health departments should have greater legal authority to monitor and control TB, including the detention of unmanageable patients. Other recommendations included improved communication between TB and HIV treatment programs, and development of a new TB vaccine. Meeting notes were published in the July issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "Scientist Calls for New Process to Accelerate Progress Toward an AIDS Vaccine" Reuters (07/18/96) Richard T. Mahoney of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea, asserts that current AIDS vaccine development efforts are insufficient and that a comprehensive management system is necessary to yield results. In a commentary in the Spring issue of the AIDS and Public Policy Journal, he writes that current research should receive greater funding and that the "most appropriate system to accelerate development of an HIV vaccine is the consultative-group model." Currently, about $25 million is being spent each year on vaccine development, but Mahoney says that some $200 million to $300 million a year will have to be invested to produce a single new vaccine. "Rifabutin Shows Efficacy in Treatment of AIDS-Related M. avium Infection" Reuters (07/18/96) French researchers report that rifabutin is active against Mycobacterium avium alone and makes a significant contribution to combination therapy for the treatment of disseminated M. avium infection in AIDS patients. Dr. Bertrand Dautzenberg et al. at the Groupe Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris report their findings in the July issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Their study of 10 AIDS patients with M. avium infection found that rifabutin was effective after two weeks in seven of the individuals. "Microsporidia Linked to Malabsorption and Wasting in AIDS Patients" Reuters (07/18/96) Microsporidia infection is related to malabsorption and malnutrition in AIDS patients with chronic diarrhea, say researchers at the New England Deaconess Hospital. Christine A. Wanke and colleagues report in the journal AIDS that patients with chronic diarrhea and microsporidia infection had more severe malabsorption compared to those patients with diarrhea who had no microsporidia or identified pathogen. Wanke said that HIV-positive patients with chronic diarrhea may find relief by adding low-fat, simple carbohydrates to their diet. "NAC: First Controlled Trial, Positive Results" AIDS Treatment News (07/05/96) No. 250; P. 1; James, John S. Results of the first controlled trial of NAC (N-acetylcysteine), a low-cost potential treatment for certain non-HIV medical uses, were released in May. NAC is a popular "alternative" treatment that has been sold by AIDS buyers' clubs in the United States for years. The trial, which started in 1993 at Stanford University, was not able to determine if NAC improves patient survival. The trial did show, however, that NAC could increase levels of glutathione--an antioxidant needed for energy metabolism and cell functions, and that low levels of glutathione predict poor survival. Most people in the U.S. AIDS community believe NAC is not well-absorbed by the blood, but the Stanford trial found that glutathione levels did increase in the 27 patients who received NAC. The trial also found that low glutathione levels in CD4 T-cells were associated with increased risk of death. NAC was found to be safe, and the therapy was associated with increased survival. "Court Rules That Tainted-Blood Commissioner Can Investigate Misconduct" Lancet (07/06/96) Vol. 348, No. 9019; P. 52; Kondro, Wayne Justice Horace Krever, the commissioner of Canada's tainted-blood inquiry, has been cleared by the country's Federal Court to make misconduct findings against 17 Red Cross and federal government officials. The court ruled that Krever did not act in "bad faith" or over-step his authority in issuing notices of potential misconduct against 64 individuals involved in the blood system's slow response to the contamination of donated blood. Krever says he will issue misconduct findings against 17 people, including George Weber, former secretary-general of the Canadian Red Cross Society (CRCS) and current director of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The CRCS says it may appeal the ruling, which would delay Krever's final report even longer.