Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 10:13:10 -0500 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 11/04/96 AIDS Daily Summary November 4, 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 Delays AIDS Drug's Distribution in Pharmacies Until Sometime in 1997" "The Changing Face of AIDS" "Foreman and Morrison Earn the Right to Fight Again" "Science Votes No on California's Marijuana Plan" "Louisiana Race for Senate Going Down to the Wire" "Morrison Raising Funds, Questions" "India-Health: Illegal AIDS Vaccine Test Worries..." "HIV Prevention in Developed Countries" "Grievance Filed in TB Case" "Kemped Out" ****************************************************** "Merck Delays AIDS Drug's Distribution in Pharmacies Until Sometime in 1997" Wall Street Journal (11/04/96) P. B6; Tanouye, Elyse Merck's new AIDS drug Crixivan will not be available in retail pharmacies at the end of this year, as the company had planned, due to production limitations and higher-than expected demand. Wider distribution of the drug, which was approved in March, will be delayed until sometime next year. Merck announced Friday that the drug is being approved in foreign countries more quickly than expected, and that demand in the United States also exceeded the company's expectations. Merck initially distributed Crixivan only through a retail mail-order service, a plan that was criticized by AIDS activists and retail pharmacists. "The Changing Face of AIDS" New York Times (11/04/96) P. A26 The AIDS rate is rising in the black community, and will continue to be a serious threat until black leaders and citizens recognize the problem, according to an editorial in the New York Times. Black leaders met at a conference last month to address the problem and the denial among many in the black community. AIDS now kills more blacks aged 25 to 44 than any other cause, more than homicide, heart disease, and accidents combined. By the end of the year 2000, blacks are expected to account for more than half of all new AIDS cases, while whites will make up about 30 percent. While white gay men were actively fighting AIDS early in the epidemic, the black community was denying it, the editors claim. At the conference, participants called for a national emergency effort to curb the spread of the disease among blacks as well as an end to the silence within the community. "Foreman and Morrison Earn the Right to Fight Again" New York Times (11/04/96) P. C7; Pollack, Andrew Both George Foreman and the HIV-positive heavyweight Tommy Morrison beat their opponents, Crawford Grimsley and Marcus Rhode, respectively, in Sunday's fights in Tokyo. Morrison said the fight will improve acceptance of HIV-positive boxers. "This is a dangerous thing, no doubt about it," he said. "But we're trying to prove to people that it can be a positive thing as well, and I think we did that tonight." Rhode said he was never worried about contracting HIV in the ring. Morrison returned to boxing to raise money for his foundation, Knockout AIDS, to benefit children with HIV. He said he is willing to fight again to raise money for the cause and suggested that Foreman could be his next opponent. "Science Votes No on California's Marijuana Plan" New York Times (11/04/96) P. A26; Rosenthal, Mitchell S. The legalization of marijuana for medical use is not supported by scientific evidence and could be dangerous, contends Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House, a drug treatment facility in Los Angeles. In a letter to the editor of the New York Times, he says that there is no scientific proof that marijuana benefits patients with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis any more than other treatments. He points to his experience treating young drug addicts and says that "fully 40 percent of the teenagers who are in treatment have abused nothing more potent than pot." "Louisiana Race for Senate Going Down to the Wire" USA Today (11/04/96) P. 12A; Hall, Mimi In Louisiana, Republican Louis "Woody" Jenkins, a former state representative, is facing Democrat Mary Landrieu, former state treasurer, in one of the closest Senate races this year. In a recent debate, Jenkins said he opposed increased AIDS funding because 90 percent of the problem would be eliminated if gay people would "stop engaging in the acts they're engaging in." "Morrison Raising Funds, Questions" Boston Globe (11/02/96) P. G2; Borges, Ron Tommy Morrison defends his decision to return to boxing, despite the fact that he has HIV, based on the fact that he feels healthy. "It's a dormant virus. It's not doing anything to me. I feel perfectly fine, but people expect me to be 120 pounds and dying," he said. Although Morrison said he initially felt hopeless against the virus, his attitude improved when he started learning about HIV and decided to start a foundation to raise funds to help children with AIDS. For Morrison, the easiest way to raise money for the cause was to fight again. "India-Health: Illegal AIDS Vaccine Test Worries..." IPS Wire (10/31/96) An illegal clinical trial of an AIDS vaccine in India, made public by a newspaper reporter a year ago, has been more fully described in a citizen's report by an AIDS discrimination group. The trial was conducted by a U.S.-based doctor of Indian origin with the aid of a controversial Indian physician who works with prostitutes in Mumbai. Indian medical officials in Mumbai were not aware of the trial in which 10 HIV-positive patients received a vaccine, known as Manisyl, that they were told would cure them. One of the patients has died, another is dying of blood cancer, and two of the remaining eight have not been located. One of the patients has filed suit against the doctors, and the AIDS organization is demanding a judicial inquiry into the "bovine immunodeficiency vaccine" trials. "HIV Prevention in Developed Countries" Lancet (10/26/96) Vol. 348, No. 9035, P. 1143; Coates, Thomas J.; Aggleton, Peter; Gutzwiller, Felix; et al. While significant advances have been made in treating AIDS, strategies to prevent the spread of HIV remain critical to combating the disease. Dr. Thomas J. Coates, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues review, in the Lancet, the successes and failures of HIV prevention strategies throughout the developed world. Prevention programs implemented early have proven successful in developed countries, especially those that targeted injection drug users and homosexual men. Cities that began early to offer treatment for drug use, clean syringes, and outreach, for example, maintained low HIV prevalence compared to cities that did not offer these services. Likewise, low HIV incidence has been achieved in cities where gay communities initiated HIV prevention strategies. Meanwhile, heterosexual transmission, which is attributed mainly to transmission from injection drug users to their sexual partners, is increasing in the United States, Europe, and Canada. The authors suggest that prevention strategies are needed to target this group, as well as heterosexuals that do not use injection drugs. The authors conclude that, despite the considerable success of prevention efforts, failures are occurring because of political barriers to effective strategies and because more effective strategies are needed to reach the groups most at risk. "Grievance Filed in TB Case" Federal Times (10/28/96) Vol. 32, No. 38, P. 4; Rivenbark, Leigh A prison union local claims that management at an Allenwood, Pa., federal prison was negligent in protecting employees from an inmate with tuberculosis (TB). Last March, eight employees at the facility tested positive for exposure to the disease. However, the exposure was only recognized after an inmate was admitted to a local hospital and found to have a tubercular mass in his lung. The American Federation of Government Employees local at Allenwood has charged that the prison management depended on the hospital to provide masks for the guards, adding that the masks were not the kind required to protect wearers from contracting TB. The Bureau of Prisons and the warden claim that they reacted as quickly as possible to the threat. The warden rejected a grievance filed by the local, and the matter will go to arbitration next year. Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the prison both for failing to offer follow-up care to employees who tested positive for TB and for failing to provide the proper masks to employees. "Kemped Out" Village Voice (10/29/96) Vol. 41, No. 44, P. 8; Schoofs, Mark Despite the GOP's depiction of Jack Kemp as an advocate for the poor, AIDS activists remember his role in barring people with AIDS from federal housing programs for the handicapped in 1990. Under Kemp's leadership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development refused to include AIDS as a disability, making people with the disease ineligible for federal housing programs for the disabled. The reason cited was that HIV killed too quickly to qualify as "an impairment which is expected to be long-continued and indefinite duration." Activists appealed to Kemp, who failed to respond.