Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/18/96
From: "Flynn Mclean" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 10:35:30 -0400

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.