Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 10:24:15 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 06/18/96 AIDS Daily Summary June 18, 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 ****************************************************** "CDC's Deceitful HIV Scare Campaign" "In Quests Outside Mainstream, Medical Projects Rewrite Rules" "Lifeline: Fur's Flying" "Why Do We Insist on Scaring Our Children?" "Health Notes: New Convenience in AIDS Drug" "Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Gets Preliminary Approval for AIDS Drug Trials" "More Than 100 Million Worldwide Predicted To Be HIV-Positive by Year 2000" "Agency Formed to Coordinate AIDS Vaccine Development" "Infection and AIDS in Adult Macaques After Nontraumatic Oral Exposure to Cell-Free SIV" "Japanese Minister Takes Pay Cut to Atone for HIV Contamination" ****************************************************** "CDC's Deceitful HIV Scare Campaign" Wall Street Journal (06/18/96) P. A23; Wright, Michael In a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, Michael Wright, of Scientific Social Research, criticizes previous letters written by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Wright claims that the letter from the CDC, written in defense of the agency's HIV education campaign, falsely claimed that in 1987 the agency did not know that certain groups were at higher risk for HIV than others. Calling those statements "indefensible," he cites a 1987 CDC report and other studies that specifically named high-risk groups and said that people not belonging to any of the groups had a lower risk of contracting HIV. Wright concludes that CDC officials should have recognized this disparity in risk and should be held responsible for the dishonest scare campaign they engineered. "In Quests Outside Mainstream, Medical Projects Rewrite Rules" New York Times (06/17/96) P. A1; Kolata, Gina The Office of Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, was founded in 1991 by Congress to determine the possible benefits of a variety of treatments not accepted by the conventional medical establishment. The office has not yet proven any alternative therapy to work or fail. Its budget is relatively small--$7,486,000 for fiscal year 1996--and some scientists have criticized the office for distributing money to researchers who have little experience with clinical research or clinical trials. A $920,000 grant was awarded to Leanna J. Standish, a neuropath at Bastyr University in Seattle, for a 1,500- to 2,000-person clinical trial evaluating alternative AIDS therapies. Standish hopes to determine which alternative treatments for HIV have the most potential. Richard Peto, a clinical trial expert, said the study would prove useless because, even as an exploratory program, it lacked a control group. "Lifeline: Fur's Flying" USA Today (06/18/96) P. 1D; Vigoda, Arlene Jeff Getty, the AIDS patient and activist that received a baboon bone marrow transplant last year, is joining other AIDS patients in Washington, D.C., this week for a counter-protest against animal rights activists. Getty has criticized People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups for delaying AIDS research. "Why Do We Insist on Scaring Our Children?" USA Today (06/18/96) P. 13A; Medved, Michael In a commentary on society's warnings to young people, film critic Michael Medved writes in USA Today that the negativism presented by the schools, the media, and parents concerning issues including AIDS, drugs, divorce, and crime is too strong and is undermining children's hope. He says that the trend toward warning children at younger and younger ages is new and is failing. Moreover, the critic points out that despite increased sex education programs, some schools report increases in unprotected sexual activity. Medved advocates optimism for children and says that scare tactics bring about increased self-pity and feelings of victimization. "Health Notes: New Convenience in AIDS Drug" United Press International (06/18/96); Milius, Susan The antibiotic Zithromax can now be taken by HIV-infected individuals once a week rather than every day. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the new dose formulation of the drug that can help prevent Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections in the blood. MAC, which the CDC estimates affects an estimated 25 percent of AIDS patients, causes fever, fatigue, diarrhea, and wasting. "Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Gets Preliminary Approval for AIDS Drug Trials" Knight-Ridder (06/18/96); Locke, Tom Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals has received approval from an advisory panel at the National Institutes of Health to move forward with plans for a clinical trial for an unnamed AIDS drug. The clinical trial will test a new treatment in which cells would be taken from a patient with HIV, treated with the drug, and then returned to the patient. The first phase of the trial may begin within a few months. "More Than 100 Million Worldwide Predicted To Be HIV-Positive by Year 2000" Reuters (06/17/96) A researcher at the University of Maryland Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore estimates that 20 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV and that 100 million people will have the virus by the year 2000. William Blattner reports that the pattern of HIV infection has shifted quickly and that more than 90 percent of those infected with HIV in the year 2000 will be in developing countries. In the June 1 issue of Internal Medicine News, he projects that the pandemic will become more prevalent in Asia than in Africa over the coming years. "Agency Formed to Coordinate AIDS Vaccine Development" Reuters (06/17/96) The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, was founded to work with non-profit, profit, and government groups to make AIDS vaccine research less risky for private-sector investors. The agency was described in the June 15 issue of the Lancet. Peggy Johnston, scientific director of the project, said the initiative will support research and development aimed at filling in gaps of current programs. She noted that it is especially important to consider the high prevalence of HIV infection in developing countries and to develop vaccines that target different HIV strains. "Infection and AIDS in Adult Macaques After Nontraumatic Oral Exposure to Cell-Free SIV" Science (06/07/96) Vol. 272, No. 5267; P. 1486; Baba, Timothy W.; Trichel, Anita M.; An, Li; et al. Reported cases of HIV-1 transmission by oral-genital exposure have been rare, and a quantitative assessment of the relative HIV risk of oral infection has not been possible. Infection of rhesus monkeys with SIV is the best system to model human HIV-1 transmission, viremia, and disease. Ruth M. Ruprecht, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and others exposed two rhesus monkeys to SIV orally, and both became infected. The researchers found that the minimum amount of virus required for infection from oral exposure was 6,000 times lower than that needed for rectal infection. They therefore suggest that infection from intrarectal exposure in humans is more common than infection from oral-genital exposure because rectal infection is facilitated by mucosal tears during sexual intercourse. According to the researchers, the findings do not imply that HIV-1 transmission is likely to occur through casual contact or that the risk for oral infection is limited to high viral levels, as found in blood or semen. The portal of virus entry after oral exposure should be studied further, the researchers suggest, noting that unprotected oral sex should be considered a risk behavior for HIV-1 transmission. "Japanese Minister Takes Pay Cut to Atone for HIV Contamination" Nature (06/06/96) Vol. 380, No. 6582; P. 460 Japan's Health and Welfare Minister Naoto Kan has announced that he and vice-minister Hiroshi Tada will take a 20 percent reduction in pay over the next two months in an attempt to atone for the government's role in the tainted blood scandal in the early- to mid-1980s. Kan only became minister in January, so he bears no responsibility for the disaster, which resulted in 2,000 Japanese hemophiliacs becoming infected with HIV from non-heat-treated blood products. He led efforts to expose the ministry's role in the scandal, but, according to Japanese tradition, Kan should take symbolic responsibility. Representatives of hemophiliacs were not satisfied with the action, saying the pay cut is not adequate atonement for the infection of so many people.