From: "Flynn Mclean" Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 10:35:30 -0400 Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/18/96 AIDS Daily Summary October 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 ****************************************************** "Ten Leading Nationally Notifiable Diseases--United States, 1995" "Questions on Ethics Lead to Review of Needle-Exchange Study" "Biotech Firms Find Structure of Protein for Hepatitis C" "Merck Looks to Attack Price Variations in EU With Launch of AIDS Treatment" "Ten-Year-Old Fraud Suit Settled for $14.5 Million" "Hospitals Keep Drug Packs in Case of AIDS Accidents" "PM's Brother Testifies at Blood Probe" "Inside Politics: Dating Clinton" "Physicians Try Unusual Drugs to Fight Cryptosporidium" "Tosoh Says It Has Created Way to Count Viral Particles in Blood" ****************************************************** "Ten Leading Nationally Notifiable Diseases--United States, 1995" Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (10/18/96) Vol. 45, No. 41, Last year, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) represented 87 percent of all cases of the 10 most frequently reported infectious diseases in the United States, federal researchers report. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 10 most prevalent infectious diseases in the United States in 1995 were, in descending order: chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV/AIDS, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, shigellosis, tuberculosis (TB), syphillis, Lyme disease, and hepatitis B. Rates for HIV/AIDS and TB were significantly higher among men than women, with more than four times as many AIDS cases reported in men than in women, and twice as many TB cases. "Questions on Ethics Lead to Review of Needle-Exchange Study" New York Times (10/18/96) P. A22; Leary, Warren E. Amid charges that a proposed needle exchange study in Alaska is unethical, the National Institutes of Health announced Thursday that it would review the plan. The $2.7 million, three-year study at the University of Alaska at Anchorage was slated to begin recruiting patients in December. The researcher will attempt to determine whether injection drug users can reduce their risk of viral infection by exchanging their used needles and syringes for clean ones. The Washington-based Public Citizens' Health Research Group said the study was unethical because it would deny access to clean needles to half of the drug users, those in the control group. A spokeswoman for the NIH said that the study had been approved by two ethics boards, but that it would be reviewed again soon. Dennis G. Fisher, the researcher leading the study, has defended it. He pointed out that the control group would be told where to go for needles and how to get them. He explained the study design is necessary to prove that needle exchanges work. "Biotech Firms Find Structure of Protein for Hepatitis C" Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. B3; Johannes, Laura Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Agouron Pharmaceuticals have separately identified the structure of a protein necessary to the reproduction of the hepatitis C virus, sparking a more intense competition between the two to find a drug for the treatment of hepatitis C. The discovery, published in separate articles in the Friday edition of the journal Cell, provides a starting point to develop a drug that would interfere with the protease that helps the virus to replicate. The research builds on the success of HIV protease inhibitors, but the hepatitis C virus protease may well be a more difficult target than the HIV protease, because its working end is "broader and more open," notes Agouron CEO Peter Johnson. Analyst Rachel Leheny of Hambrecht & Quist, meanwhile, predicts that an effective drug for the treatment of hepatitis C could bring in $2 million to $3 million in annual revenue. "Merck Looks to Attack Price Variations in EU With Launch of AIDS Treatment" Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. A13A; Moore, Stephen D.; Murray, Shailagh Merck is introducing its AIDS drug Crixivan in the European market, hoping to prevent "parallel trading" of the drug between countries by selling the drug at a fixed price across the European Union (EU). The legal practice of parallel trading, buying goods in the cheapest EU states and selling them for higher prices in other places, is opposed by drug companies because it harms the market and denies patients a steady supply of medicine. While pharmaceutical makers have opposed such trade for years, they now have on their side AIDS activists, who are demanding access to powerful new drugs like Crixivan. However, EU officials have not yet been persuaded that parallel-drug trading is as detrimental as the industry claims. "Ten-Year-Old Fraud Suit Settled for $14.5 Million" Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. B5 ICN Pharmaceuticals reports that it has settled a 10-year-old class action investor lawsuit for $10 million in cash and $4.5 million in common stock. According to an attorney for the plaintiffs, the suit alleged that ICN had defrauded investors by making claims about possible effects on patients of its AIDS drug ribavirin. A New York jury rejected seven of 13 claims made in the case, but was deadlocked over the remaining six and a new trial date needs to be scheduled. A spokesman for the drug maker notes that the company "has consistently maintained that the allegations upon which it was based were false." "Hospitals Keep Drug Packs in Case of AIDS Accidents" Toronto Globe and Mail (10/17/96) P. A7; Coutts, Jane Hospitals in Toronto are starting to prepare for the accidental exposure of health-care workers to HIV by keeping drugs to treat such exposures on hand. The plan is based on recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July, which call for treating HIV-exposed workers with a combination of antiviral drugs that includes a protease inhibitor. Studies in the United States have found that immediate treatment can reduce a worker's risk of developing AIDS by 70 percent. The CDC recommends that the drugs, which cost about $1,200 per person, are used only in very high-risk cases, like a deep prick from a needle that has been used on an AIDS patient. The agency said the level of risk should be balanced against the effects of the drug. The government of British Colombia has stocked every emergency room in the province with five-day starter packs of the drugs, to be available for anyone accidentally exposed to HIV. "PM's Brother Testifies at Blood Probe" Toronto Globe and Mail (10/17/96) P. A12; Grange, Michael Concerns about the possibility of HIV being transmitted through the blood supply had diminished by 1987, testified Michel Chretien, co-chairman of a study about the disease with Justice Horace Krever in 1987-1988, on Wednesday. Chretien, the brother of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, was called by the province of Ontario to testify at the federal inquiry into the country's tainted blood scandal. Ontario is one of the parties that could be cited for misconduct in Krever's final report for failing to take precautions to protect the blood supply from HIV. The Ontario government called Chretien to show that little was known about AIDS, or how to protect the blood supply, at the time. "Inside Politics: Dating Clinton" Washington Times (10/18/96) P. A6 Members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, have placed an ad in the Washington Blade, Washington, D.C.'s gay newspaper, urging AIDS activists not to support President Clinton. "He keeps toying with our affections. Do we really want another date with this man?" asks the ad. "Physicians Try Unusual Drugs to Fight Cryptosporidium" American Medical News (10/07/96) Vol. 39, No. 37, P. 19 Creative new therapies are being developed to treat cryptosporidiosis, the diarrhea-causing infection for which nearly 100 potential drugs have been tried. NTZ, a drug initially developed for dogs with worms, will enter final testing at the National Institutes of Health in November. AIDS patients are demanding the drug, and are importing supplies from Mexico, where it is used to treat both humans and animals. Moreover, of the first 29 U.S. AIDS patients given NTZ, one-third experienced at least some benefit. UniMed Pharmaceuticals is offering NTZ to 150 patients as an experimental therapy. Another drug is being developed using the milk produced by cows just after giving birth. The mothers' antibodies are thought to attach to Cryptosporidium and help block its spread through the intestines. Meanwhile, the biotechnology firm GalaGen is pretreating 250,000 cows to increase their antibody production. About half of the 21 AIDS patients treated in initial testing have reported significant declines in diarrhea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dan Colley noted, "We need to be cautious," though "we clearly need to think outside the normal" drug therapies, which have failed. "Tosoh Says it Has Created Way to Count Viral Particles in Blood" Nikkei Weekly (10/07/96) Vol. 34, No. 1743, P. 10 Tosoh Corp., a Japanese chemical maker, has developed a new method for measuring the number of viral particles in a blood sample. The test, which uses a special ion-exchange resin to isolate viral genes, may be used to diagnose viral infections and has the potential to be automated. The company has reported that the test can detect as few as 100 viral particles and is able to give a count if at least 10,000 particles are present. The new assay has been successfully tested on blood samples that contained HIV and cytomegalovirus, Tosoh said.