Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:03:52 -0400 From: "Anne Wilson (CDC NAC)" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 05/21/96 AIDS Daily Summary May 21, 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 ************************************************************ "Clinton Signs Law Renewing Assistance for AIDS Patients" "The Democratization of AIDS" "Fanfare: Boxing" "Malaria, AIDS Are Killing Worldwide, Report Finds" "Across the USA: Florida" "Dialing Up an AIDS Cure" "Cyclists Bring Power on Wheels for AIDS Fight" "Agouron Cites Positive Viracept Data" "Drugstore Cowboys" "Sitting Priddy" ************************************************************ "Clinton Signs Law Renewing Assistance for AIDS Patients" Philadelphia Inquirer (05/21/96) P. A6; Ross, Sonya President Clinton signed a law Monday that will extend the Ryan White CARE Act for five years, providing funds to communities for home care, transportation, counseling, hospice care, and other support for people with HIV and AIDS. Since the law was passed six years ago, it has provided care for more than 300,000 people. The law allocates $738 million to AIDS services for fiscal 1996, up from $632 million last year. The law includes a provision calling for $10 million to be used to urge pregnant women to voluntarily seek counseling and HIV testing. States will receive $52 million to provide new AIDS drugs to patients who cannot afford them. "The Democratization of AIDS" Wall Street Journal (05/21/96) P. A23; Satcher, David; Gayle, Helene D.; Koop, C. Everett; et al. In a series of letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, health officials and others respond to a recent article which reported that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public education campaign exaggerates the risk of AIDS to the general public. Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Helene Gayle, director of its National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, write in a joint letter that the article was unbalanced and incomplete. They argue that the broad public education campaign was important in curbing the spread of HIV, noting the decline in the rate of AIDS in some groups. Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General, also objects to the "seriously flawed article." Koop writes that the government made the best decision it could--to educate the general public--because there was evidence that HIV would not be contained in high-risk groups, saying "it was the right thing to do in 1987. It is still the right thing to do." Meanwhile, William, M. London, of the American Council on Science and Health, applauds the article, adding that he has tried to spread the same message and has been criticized for it. "Fanfare: Boxing" Washington Post (05/21/96) P. E2 The California State Assembly passed a bill that requires boxers to test HIV-negative in order to be licensed in the state. The bill came in response to the announcement that former heavyweight Tommy Morrison has HIV. Seven states and Puerto Rico required yearly HIV tests before Morrison's announcement, and other states have since implemented the requirement. "Malaria, AIDS Are Killing Worldwide, Report Finds" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (05/20/96) P. 7A Malaria and AIDS claimed 17 million lives worldwide last year, including 9 million children, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Monday. Bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases, when grouped together, are the world's leading cause of death, responsible for one-third of all deaths. Tuberculosis was the deadliest infectious disease in 1995, claiming 3.1 million lives, up 400,000 from 1993. The agency says that a mix of international populations and disease organisms are partly responsible for the increases. The WHO report also contained some good news, however. Globally, life expectancy is longer, babies are healthier, and some infectious diseases have become controlled. Use of the tetanus vaccine prevented 700,000 deaths from the disease last year, and poliomyelitis has almost been wiped out. "Across the USA: Florida" USA Today (05/21/96) P. 9A In Apopka, Fla., health officials are suggesting HIV tests for up to 40 people who may have been exposed to the virus by a man who calls himself a "male slut." The man's 16-year-old girlfriend tested positive for HIV. "Dialing Up an AIDS Cure" Washington Post--Washington Business (05/20/96) P. 3; Rohn, Daniel T.; Patton, Scott; Ginsberg, Steven Bell Atlantic customers in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia now have the option of donating 1 percent of their monthly bill to support AIDS research at the Whitman-Walker Clinic. For the project, part of the company's Community Threads program, donations are paid by Bell Atlantic, based on the Bell Atlantic portion of the bill, and do not add to the cost to the customer. The project was started in April 1995 on a trial basis and made official in November. "Cyclists Bring Power on Wheels for AIDS Fight" Miami Herald (05/20/96) P. 1B; Cauvin, Henri E. The first-ever Florida AIDS ride ended on Sunday on Miami's South Beach, as 757 cyclists rode into Flamingo Park to celebrate the end of their three-day ride from Orlando and the $1.5 million they had raised for several AIDS organizations in the state. Riders had to raise at least $1,400 to participate in the event, which ended with much emotion and celebration. "Agouron Cites Positive Viracept Data" Reuters (05/20/96) Two pilot Phase II clinical trials of Agouron's drug Viracept have demonstrated its ability to reduce the level of HIV in infected patients, the company said. In the study, 36 HIV-positive patients received either Viracept in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb's drug Zerit or Zerit alone. HIV was reduced by more than 98 percent in three groups who received differing doses of Viracept with Zerit, and by a mean of 82 percent in those who received Zerit alone. CD4 T-cell counts rose more in the patients receiving both drugs than in those taking Zerit alone. "Drugstore Cowboys" Advocate (05/14/96) No. 707, P. 37; McAleavy, Teresa M. A black market for prescription drugs has been on the decline but may now resurge as demand for protease inhibitors rises. The AIDS drug black market, in which people who receive the drugs free from clinics sell them for a profit, is generally unprosecuted, since drug enforcement efforts are often focused elsewhere. David Gilden, of Gay Men's Health Crisis, notes that the black market for AIDS drugs has declined on its own in recent years, as the price of AZT has fallen. The new protease inhibitors, as well as cutbacks in funding for Medicaid and other programs that pay for AIDS drugs, may help to raise demand again, however. In addition, some small pharmacies are buying black-market drugs and selling them at retail prices to compete with larger stores. Drugs bought on the black market may not be safe due to improper storage. Furthermore, since most people buying black-market drugs are taking them without medical care, any side effects could go untreated. Thomas Staffa, assistant attorney general in the New York Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, says that AIDS drugs account for just a small portion of the black market for prescription drugs, claiming that it is "the high-priced drugs, like those for cancer, or Prozac, that command the most money." "Sitting Priddy" POZ (05/96) No. 14, P. 34; Grau, Rawley Laurie Priddy, who was fired from her job in 1991 after disclosing that she had HIV, says the anger she felt from the experience gave her the impetus to speak out as an AIDS activist. She now educates professional basketball players and their partners about HIV and AIDS through the NBA Players Association (NBPA) AIDS program. The program was organized through the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, following Magic Johnson's disclosure. She has also worked on the curriculum and training for the NBA's Winning Against AIDS program, in which NBA players educate inner-city kids about HIV at basketball camps. She frequently shocks people in her sessions, and helps them to see that anyone is vulnerable to the virus, by telling them she has HIV. She regrets the way gender and race have divided the activist community, fearing that the fight for funding and rights for people with HIV will suffer. Priddy's husband, whom she met after she was found to have HIV, is HIV-negative. They live in Baltimore, and when not working to fight discrimination, Priddy enjoys fishing and crabbing along the Chesapeake, and riding her motorcycle in rural Maryland.