Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 12:42:25 -0400 From: "Vaux, Lenore" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary, 10/11/96 AIDS Daily Summary Friday October 11, 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 Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may ot be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ****************************************************** "L.A. Plan Allowing Drug Users in HUD Housing Raises GOP Ire" "Fla. Employee Fired Over AIDS List" "Japanese Aide Gains Favor by Fighting the Bureaucrats" "New Drugs Boost Results at Biogen, Biochem, Which Are Closely Watched" "AIDS Is Becoming a Black Disease" "Drug Combinations Found More Effective Against AIDS" "Florida Mother Who Fed HIV Baby Sues Hospital" "Varied Events Expected to Draw a Million Visitors to D.C." "Pediatric HIV Infection" "NCF Builds on AIDS Catalog's Success" ****************************************************** "L.A. Plan Allowing Drug Users in HUD Housing Raises GOP Ire" Washington Post (10/11/96) P. A3; Schwartz, John; Evans, Judith A pilot program in Los Angeles that will provide federally funded housing for AIDS patients, but will not evict those who use illicit drugs, even in the residence itself, is being attacked by Congressional Republicans who contend that the program conflicts with Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policies. The general HUD rule is that of "zero tolerance," and tenants are permitted to be thrown out for substance abuse. According to Fred Eggan, Los Angeles city AIDS coordinator, however, the program is not a "glorified crack house," but it is intended to offer a compassionate way of dealing with the complexities of AIDS patients who are addicted to drugs. The program will not condone drug use, he says, but will provide drug treatment, intensive therapy, and other services. Those who repeatedly abuse drugs, however, will be referred to other substance abuse centers. "Fla. Employee Fired Over AIDS List" Philadelphia Inquirer (10/11/96) P. A2; Perez, Evan William Calvert, a public health worker in Miami, was fired Wednesday for using a confidential list of almost 4,000 people with HIV and AIDS to check the status of potential dates. Calvert allegedly took the computer disks to a gay bar and offered to look up names for his friends. Calvert was turned in anonymously when someone sent copies of the disk and a letter to two Tampa Bay area newspapers and the Pinellas County Health Department. An employee of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services since 1988, Calvert admitted to using the database on a laptop at his home, bypassing password protection used to keep the files confidential, but he claims he did nothing wrong. The incident has raised questions about the security of such records, and AIDS patient advocates assert that it is evidence of the risks involved in keeping a list of the names of HIV and AIDS patients. "Japanese Aide Gains Favor by Fighting the Bureaucrats" New York Times (10/11/96) P. A12; WuDunn, Sheryl Naoto Kan, Japan's Health Minister, is popular among many of his countrymen for his role in taking on the Japanese bureaucracy and launching an investigation into the tainted-blood scandal. At least 400 Japanese, the majority of them hemophiliacs, have died of AIDS as a result of having contracted HIV from contaminated blood supplies. Kan's probe into the decade-old affair revealed that health authorities knew about the risk of the blood's contamination for several years before they banned its import. Several senior bureaucrats, pharmaceutical company executives, and a leading AIDS expert have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the scandal. "New Drugs Boost Results at Biogen, Biochem, Which Are Closely Watched" Wall Street Journal (10/11/96) P. B5A; Eisinger, Jesse Several small biotechnology firms performed well in the last quarter, due largely to new products, while some of the bigger biotechnology companies posted mixed results. Biogen, Centocor, and Biochem Pharma produced strong results, driven by the introduction of new drugs, including Biogen's multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex; Centocor's ReoPro, a platelet blocker; and Biochem Pharma's 3TC, an anti-AIDS treatment that is becoming a key component of the cocktail of medications used to treat AIDS, analysts say. Amgen and Genzyme, two more established firms, also had solid quarters, analysts believe, while Chiron is expected to report weaker third-quarter results. "AIDS Is Becoming a Black Disease" Washington Post (10/11/96) P. A25; Raspberry, William In a commentary in the Washington Post, columnist William Raspberry notes the growing incidence of AIDS and HIV among young African Americans as pointed out by Mario Cooper, a member of the Harvard AIDS Institute who is black, gay, and HIV-positive. Cooper cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed that AIDS has become the No. 1 killer of blacks between the ages of 25 and 44, and he also pointed out that of the 700,000 to 900,000 HIV-positive Americans, 50 percent to 60 percent are non-whites. He further noted that both the medical community and the African American community are acting as though AIDS was still predominantly affecting white gays and drug users. Cooper stated that the disease is hitting blacks and Hispanics the hardest just as evidence is becoming available that prevention works. Because AIDS is portrayed as a disease that can affect homosexuals and heterosexuals, more funding has become available, but Cooper fears that the education necessary for prevention is still not as widely available for the most vulnerable parts of the population. To remedy the situation, he is working on a major conference on Oct. 22 sponsored by the Harvard AIDS Institute, the National Minority AIDS Council, and the Balm in Gilead organization. He hopes that the conference will spur "a forthright acknowledgment by our political and community leaders--including the NAACP and the Urban League--that this disease has the potential to devastate our community in the next decade." "Drug Combinations Found More Effective Against AIDS" Reuters (10/09/96); Emery, Gene Adding either of two AIDS drugs, ddI (didanosine) or ddC (zalcitabine), to AZT therapy is better than the AZT alone for slowing the progression of AIDS, researchers at Harvard Medical school said Wednesday. Led by Dr. Scott Hammer, the researchers reported that the combination therapy slowed disease progression by more than 37 percent. In a related study, scientists at St. John Hospital in Detroit found that the additional drugs offered no benefit for patients whose immune systems were already damaged by HIV. An editorial published with both studies in the New England Journal of Medicine says the studies suggest that all HIV-infected individuals should receive drug therapy, especially after their CD4 cell count falls below 500. The studies also indicate that a viral load test, which measures the amount of virus in the blood, is the best way to evaluate the progress of HIV infection and to determine how well treatment is working. "Florida Mother Who Fed HIV Baby Sues Hospital" Reuters (10/10/96) A woman who was mistakenly given the child of an HIV-positive woman at a Florida hospital in place of her own to nurse has filed a lawsuit against the hospital. She claims that she has been unable to breast-feed her own daughter for fear that she contracted HIV and could pass it along, and has consequently suffered both fear and anxiety. The incident occurred in mid-April, when a nurse's aide brought the newborn to the woman while she was sleeping. She had already begun nursing before she realized the error, at which time her own baby was brought to her. She was not informed until the next day that the baby she had nursed was born to a woman with HIV, and the hospital suggested at that time that she stop breast-feeding her own child just to be safe. A lawyer for the hospital said the suit was frivolous because neither the mother nor the daughter were injured; but the woman's lawyer noted that the deprivation of a woman's right to nurse created a severe emotional impact. "Varied Events Expected to Draw a Million Visitors to D.C." Washington Post (10/11/96) P. B4; Wheeler, Linda More than 1 million people are expected to visit Washington, D.C., this weekend, as they come to the city to participate in any one of a number of events. Starting today, the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display, unfolding its mile-long quilt on the Mall. Along with the quilt will be a nine-member demonstration group that opposes the "homosexual agenda, following the quilt around the country and protesting at its various displays. Two other protest activities, a Latino March and ACT-UP's demonstration will also take place this weekend, potentially drawing thousands of participants alone. Other events taking place in the District this weekend include the Taste of D.C. festival and Whitman-Walker clinic's candlelight march on Saturday to commemorate those who have died of AIDS. "Pediatric HIV Infection" Lancet (09/28/96) Vol. 348, No. 9031, P. 863; Scarlatti, Gabriella About 1.5 million children had been infected with HIV by late 1994, according to the World Health Organization, with over 75 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa and developing countries in the Americas. Moreover, almost half of all adults with HIV are women of child-bearing age, making the need for programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission especially urgent. The rate of mother-to-child transmission varies from 13 percent to 42 percent, and is twice as high in Africa as in Europe. Studies of the timing of HIV transmission from mother-to-child have yielded evidence for both early and late in-utero transmission. Evidence has also been reported for postnatal transmission via breastfeeding, but mothers in some developing countries need to breastfeed to protect their children from other endemic diseases. Temporary HIV infection has been observed in newborns with a frequency ranging from 2.7 percent to 6.4 percent. This suggests that infants can clear the virus, which has implications for interrupting transmission and disease progression. While zidovudine therapy is useful to reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission, a simpler method of treatment is necessary. "NCF Builds on AIDS Catalog's Success" DM News (09/30/96) Vol. 18, No. 36, P. 8; Asato, Cathy The National Catalog Foundation, which has met great success with its National AIDS Awareness Catalog, is planning to publish a National Lesbian and Gay Pride Catalog for the 1996 holiday season. The circulation of the 2-year-old AIDS catalog is now 600,000. The NCF donates 100 percent of its profits to nonprofit organizations. The two catalogs will contain the same items but have different covers and different target audiences. The AIDS catalog is geared to anyone interested in fighting the disease, homosexual or heterosexual. The New-York-based NCF is hoping to raise $1 million in capital over the next two years and has made its list of 12,000 buyers and requesters available for rent.