Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 10:00:16 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/02/96 AIDS Daily Summary October 2, 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 ****************************************************** "Japan's New Growth Industry: Schoolgirl Prostitution" "High Court to Say If the Dying Have a Right to Suicide" "Haitian Radio Program Claims AIDS Doesn't Exist" "Animal Study Points to HIV Risk With Progesterone Contraceptives" "HHV-6 a Possible Cofactor in AIDS Retinitis, Maybe in AIDS Itself" "Lafepe Produces Anti-AIDS Drug" "Glaxo Wellcome Foresees Twenty New Drug Launches" "Perinatal HIV Transmission Declines" "Ballot Propositions: Medical Marijuana" "Sweet Charity" "HIV/AIDS Prevention for Teens-- Video Satellite Broadcast" ****************************************************** "Japan's New Growth Industry: Schoolgirl Prostitution" Wall Street Journal (10/02/96) P. A14; Reitman, Valerie A growing number of schoolgirls in Japan are turning to prostitution so they can afford such expensive designer items as a $500 Prada purse or $350 Louis Vuitton wallet. This materialistic reason forms a sharp contrast to a similar rise in countries such as Thailand, where the growth is born of poverty. Japanese police have called the increase an epidemic--last year they picked up 5,481 girls under 18 for prostitution and related activities, a 38 percent jump since 1995. Yoshikatsu Nakamura, Tokyo Metropolitan Police's deputy director of the juvenile division, said, "It seems that prostitution is the fashion for kids. Kids want brand-name clothes like Chanel; their friends have them, and their parents don't give them the money," and they turn to prostitution. Tokyo Metropolitan University sociologist Shinji Miyadi predicted that 8 percent of schoolgirls across Japan, and one-third of all girls not headed for college, have joined the sex industry. Furthermore, men are turning increasingly to younger girls. One factor related to the increase in schoolgirl prostitution in Japan is that health officials there do not express much concern about the rates of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases among this population. The number of cases of AIDS, HIV, and venereal disease in Japan are admittedly fairly low, but some health officials believe that the diseases could be underreported because many people are not tested for them. "There is a possibility that many more teenagers are carriers and aren't reflected in the statistics," said Taku Kato, director of an AIDS research team at the Ministry of Health. "High Court to Say If the Dying Have a Right to Suicide" New York Times (10/02/96) P. A1; Greenhouse, Linda The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to rule on whether the Constitution allows terminally ill patients the right to doctor-assisted suicide. The case was brought through appeals by the states of New York and Washington, which both recently decided that mentally competent people who were terminally ill had a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide. In its acceptance of the appeals, the Supreme Court has placed itself in the center of a debate that has deeply divided the country. The Supreme Court ruled six years ago that a Missouri woman in a vegetative state that was being kept alive had the right to die, but its decision was a tentative one. It acknowledged only a mild "liberty interest" in preventing unwanted treatment, based on the 14th Amendment's statement against depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." Based on the decision in that case, as well as different constitutional extrapolations, the two appeals courts said that there was no real difference between ending medical treatment that is artificially prolonging life and taking steps to hurry the moment of death. The challenge to the New York law against assisted suicide, which dates from the 19th century, was brought in Federal District Court in 1994 by three physicians and three terminally ill patients, two of whom were in the final stages of AIDS. "Haitian Radio Program Claims AIDS Doesn't Exist" Richmond Times-Dispatch (10/02/96) P. A2 At least four Haitian AIDS patients have reportedly stopped seeing their doctors after a popular Miami-based Haitian radio talk show panel told listeners that AIDS does not exist. Psychologist Henri-Claude Saint-Fleur; Haitian physician Francelot Moise, who is not licensed to practice in Florida; and talk show host Claude Aubry argued that AIDS was created by U.S. pharmaceutical companies bent on boosting business and stifling Haitian population growth, and that therefore, people should discontinue their use of both medication and condoms. The show has been airing on Miami's WLQY-AM for the past three years. "Animal Study Points to HIV Risk With Progesterone Contraceptives" Reuters (10/01/96) New research reported in the October issue of Nature Medicine indicates that progesterone treatment increased the risk of vaginal transmission of SIV in monkeys by thinning the vaginal epithelium. "Progesterone treatment also increased the number of SIV DNA-positive cells in the vaginal lamina propria," the researchers report, noting that the findings suggest that "women may be at greater risk of HIV infection from vaginal intercourse when exposed to high levels of endogenous or exogenous progesterone." The actual amount of increased potential risk, however, cannot be determined. "HHV-6 a Possible Cofactor in AIDS Retinitis, Maybe in AIDS Itself" Reuters (10/01/96) Two new studies provide evidence that human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) plays a role in AIDS-associated retinitis, and may even be a cofactor with HIV in the pathogenesis of AIDS. Anne-Marie Fillet and her colleagues in Paris suspected the presence of "an etiological link between HHV-6 and AIDS-associated retinitis" because of the "ubiquitous nature of HHV-6 and its genomic relationship with cytomegalovirus." They report in the Journal of Medical Virology that HHV-6 was found to be present in three cases of AIDS-associated retinitis, but not in a control group and concluded that "HHV-6 infects the retina but ... does not have an exclusive causative role in AIDS-associated retinitis. Meanwhile, another group of researchers, led by Donald R. Carrigan, report in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology that their research shows that "at the time of autopsy every patient with AIDS has an active infection with HHV-6 in essentially every tissue." The researchers conclude, therefore, that HHV-6A, a particular strain of the virus, is a necessary, but not sufficient, component in the pathogenesis of AIDS. "Lafepe Produces Anti-AIDS Drug" SABI Wire Service (10/01/96) Lafepe has initiated production of ganciclovir, a drug for the treatment of AIDS. The laboratory, which is owned by the government of Pernambuco state, is also a supplier of another anti-AIDS drug, AZT, to the Brazilian drugs agency Ceme. About $600,000 was provided by Ceme for research and development of ganciclovir. The domestic drug will cost almost half the amount of the imported version. "Glaxo Wellcome Foresees Twenty New Drug Launches" Reuters (09/30/96) As part of its strategy to offset declining sales of the anti-ulcer drug Zantac, Glaxo Wellcome plans to introduce 20 new drugs onto the market by the end of the century, reports Glaxo CEO Richard Sykes. He added that the six main areas where the company aimed to strengthen its leadership were in HIV/AIDS, herpes, asthma, viral, migraine and epilepsy drugs. Sykes noted that while Glaxo products for the treatment of asthma already have a 25 percent share of the worldwide market, the drug maker still sees room for growth in that area. "We are still underrepresented in the U.S. market, which we split with Schering-Plough." New drugs to treat herpes also have potential, said Sykes, since a large number of herpes patients are still treated with OTC drugs. "Perinatal HIV Transmission Declines" AIDS Alert (09/96) Vol. 11, No. 9, P. 108 Perinatal transmission of HIV has decreased in the past two years, but improvements in prenatal care may be necessary for further progress, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows that such transmission dropped from 21 percent to 10 percent after the agency developed guidelines for treating HIV-positive mothers with AZT. About 1,600 infants are infected with HIV each year in the United States. To lower the rates of perinatal transmission further, more prenatal care early in pregnancy will be necessary, says CDC Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention Helene Gayle. The use of AZT therapy varies among doctors and hospitals, although it is readily available at many hospitals, the CDC said. "Ballot Propositions: Medical Marijuana" California Journal (09/96) Vol. 27, No. 9, P. 13; Bathen, Sigrid Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that would provide seriously ill patients with access to marijuana, will be decided by California voters in November. Advocates say the drug benefits patients suffering from cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, and other illnesses. Patients would be able to use the drug only if they have approval from a licensed physician. Californians for Medical Rights, a group that includes doctors and nurses, has organized a media campaign to win support for the measure. One registered nurse who supports the measure gave her dying husband marijuana to ease the nausea he was experiencing as a result of chemotherapy. The measure is opposed by Gov. Pete Wilson and law enforcement groups, who contend that it would lead to the legalization of the drug. "Sweet Charity" Movieline (09/96) Vol. 13, No. 1, P. 46; Campbell, Virginia Actress Sharon Stone, the new spokesperson for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), says she is using the position to remind people of their commitment to ending AIDS. She was chosen as the organization's Chair of the Campaign for AIDS Research after delivering a speech at an AmFAR event at the Cannes film festival in 1995. Stone says she tries to persuade people to support AIDS research by telling them that the disease should not be a legacy for the next generation. Since last fall, Stone has helped raise almost a third of her three-year goal of $76 million for AmFAR. The foundation funded some of the early work that led to the development of protease inhibitors, and it continues to support research on the use of the drugs. "HIV/AIDS Prevention for Teens-- Video Satellite Broadcast" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET) (10/02/96) On December 12, 1996, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm EST, this life saving program for teachers of grades 6-12, health educators, community leaders, counselors, and administrators will be broadcast via video satellite. The program, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET), is hosted by experts from the Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Harvard AIDS Institute, Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Cambridge Cares about AIDS, and the AIDS Action Committee. It offers up-to-date resources on prevention strategies and provides participants the opportunity to speak to presenters during the broadcast. For more information, registration, or transponder coordinates for down-link sites, call MCET Customer Service at 1-800-556-4376. Registration deadline is November 5, 1996.