The Arsenal Files 6/The Arsenal Files 6 (Arsenal Computer).ISO/health/ad960125.zip/AD960125.TXT

Text File | 1996-01-27 | 10KB | 189 lines

                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      January 25, 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 not be sold, and the CDC
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Israel Dumps Blood From Ethiopians"
"House Compromises on Defense; White House Still Sees Problems"
"Illinois Officials Want HIV List"
"Mozambique Estimates Six Percent of Population Have HIV"
"Taking a Big Risk for a Cure"
"CD8 Cells: Suppressive Factors Discovered"
"Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis: Still No Silver Lining"
"Danes' AIDS Education Criticized"
"Ghanaian Research Center Tackles Tough Health, Environmental
Problems"
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"Israel Dumps Blood From Ethiopians"
Washington Post (01/25/96) P. A1;  Gellman, Barton
     Israel's national blood bank system--which has been accepting
donations from Ethiopian immigrants but automatically discarding
the blood for fear of HIV contamination--has aroused intense
controversy.  Ethiopians are angered by the news, which was
reported in the daily newspaper Maariv and was confirmed by
government officials Wednesday.  Adiso Masala, head of the
Organization of Ethiopian Immigrants, called the action racist
and said "We are blood brothers with the Israelis but our blood
is thrown in the garbage because we are black."  The head of the
government's National AIDS Committee defended the policy,
however, saying the rate of HIV in Ethiopians is 50 times higher
than in the general population.  Israeli health officials cited
the American practice of refusing donated blood from Hatian
immigrants, which took place from 1983 to 1990.  The practice was
discontinued when health experts determined they could eliminate
almost all infected blood donations by asking donors about their
sex and drug-use habits.

"House Compromises on Defense; White House Still Sees Problems"
Washington Times (01/25/96) P. A4
     The House passed a new version of the defense authorization bill
Wednesday after removing some provisions opposed by the White
House.  The bill kept a measure that requires military personnel
with HIV to be discharged, which Clinton objected to.  The
provision was offered by Rep. Robert Dorman (R-Calif.), a
conservative presidential candidate who asserted that military
readiness is harmed by the current policy that prevents
HIV-positive service members from joining in overseas deployment.
Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) said that to be fair all service
members should be discharged if they have any sickness that would
prevent them from being deployed.  Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
called the provision "gratuitous cruelty."

"Illinois Officials Want HIV List"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (01/24/96) P. A1;  McDermott, Kevin
     Some Illinois health officials want to expand the state's
confidential list of people who have AIDS to include those who
test positive for HIV.  Dr. John Lumpkin, director of the
Department of Public Health, says the policy would make it easier
to locate patients for counseling and treatment.  Thirty other
states, already keep such a list.  AIDS activists say the policy
would backfire, and prevent people from getting needed care
because of fear of being stigmatized.  State officials say they
have succeeded in the past at keeping confidential records from
the public.  Under the proposal, hospitals, private clinics, and
other non-state facilities would not be allowed to test
anonymously, but state-run clinics would continue to do so, the
reason being that the state would know that appropriate treatment
services were being given to patients who test positive at state
clinics.

"Mozambique Estimates Six Percent of Population Have HIV"
Reuters (01/24/96)
     An estimated one million people, six percent of the population of
Mozambique, have been infected with HIV, the Health Ministry
reported Wednesday.  Avertino Barreto, director of the ministry's
anti-AIDS program, told the state news agency that 2,652 cases of
AIDS were confirmed, and another 16,000 cases are suspected.  The
worst-hit areas were the central provinces of Manica and Tete.
Mozambique's estimate is still relatively low for the region.
Zimbabwe and Uganda have an estimated 10 percent infection rate.

"Taking a Big Risk for a Cure"
Time (01/15/96) Vol.147, No.3, P. 59;  Gorman, Christine
     Jeff Getty, once a self-described yuppie, learned he was HIV
positive in 1985, and a few years later retired from his job as
an administrative analyst at the University of California at
Berkeley, to become an AIDS activist.  He took up immunology,
retrieved experimental therapies from Mexico, and joined protests
for the government to speed up approval of new AIDS drugs.  Getty
also recently became the first AIDS patient to receive a bone
marrow transplant from a baboon, after spending more than a year
fighting for approval of the procedure.  The Food and Drug
Administration approved the transplant--for Getty only--in
August, but the experiment was postponed until December because
Getty developed potentially fatal pneumocystis pneumonia.  He
left the hospital recently, but doctors will not know if Getty's
immune system has accepted the foreign material for months.  Most
doctors say that Getty does not have a very good chance of
success.

"CD8 Cells: Suppressive Factors Discovered"
AIDS Treatment News (01/05/96) No.238, P. 5;  James, John S.
     Scientists at the University of California San Francisco Medical
Center reported 9 years ago that a substance produced by CD8
cells could inhibit HIV growth, even through a filter.
Researchers were not able to identify the substance, however.
Three such substances were identified in December 1995, by
researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute Laboratory of
Tumor Cell Biology, then led by Dr. Robert C. Gallo.  In the same
month, a fourth substance was identified in separate work in
Germany.  The substances found in the U.S. are proteins, called
chemokines.  In laboratory tests, antibodies to the proteins were
shown to block all the suppressive activity in cultures from
three of four patients.  In the fourth, they blocked 80 percent
of it.  The researchers do not know yet if the proteins
themselves would be effective for treating HIV, but their
identification offers potential for new-drug development.  These
substances might also be used as a marker for AIDS progression,
or of the therapeutic effects of drugs.

"Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Retinitis: Still No Silver Lining"
Journal of the American Medical Association (01/10/96) Vol.275,
No.2, P. 149;  Young, Lucy H.Y.
     An editorial by Lucy H.Y. Young in the Journal of the American
Medical Association examines treatment options for
cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading cause of visual loss in AIDS
patients.  Left untreated, the disease--which affects about
one-third of all people with AIDS--causes complete destruction of
the retina.  According to Young, ganciclovir and foscarnet
provide a way to manage the disorder, but cannot eliminate CMV
from an infected retina.  Reactivation develops in nearly all
patients over time, and as the patient's immunity weakens, the
disease becomes harder to control.  Foscarnet and ganciclovir are
similar in their efficacy in controlling CMV retinitis, but more
people switch from foscarnet to ganciclovir as a result of
foscarnet's side effects.  The number of patients with
reactivated CMV retinitis is increasing with an increase in
survival of patients with AIDS and further damage to the eye
occurs with each relapse.  Young advocates effective protocols
for managing recurrences, and for simplifying and enhancing
maintenance therapy.  Young reports that some doctors switch
drugs to treat a relapse, because viral strains have been found
to develop a resistance to the drugs.  She notes also that
results of a recent study published in the January issue of the
journal Archives of Ophthalmology suggest that a combination of
foscarnet and ganciclovir is the most effective way to control
the progression of the disease and that when the drugs are used
alone their efficacy in controlling progression is about the
same.

"Danes' AIDS Education Criticized"
Lancet (01/13/96) Vol.347, No.8994, P. 114;  Skovmand, Kaare
     Rigsrevisionen, the Danish group of civil servants that controls
public spending by the central administration has found fault
with the National Board of Health.  Among other things, the group
says that a 20 minute AIDS video for schoolchildren was too
expensive.  The agency is also blamed for not putting the
mandatory contract out for tender in the EC for an AIDS campaign
it launched in 1994.

"Ghanaian Research Center Tackles Tough Health, Environmental
Problems"
Chemical & Engineering News (01/01/96) Vol.74, No.1, P. 27;
Ember, Lois R.
     The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, outside
Accra, Ghana, built by the Japanese government to honor Hideyo
Noguchi in 1977, is hindered by a lack of equipment and supplies
and inconstant electricity.  The Japanese government funds
research on schistosomiasis--a disease caused by parasites in
contaminated water as well as diarrheal diseases and HIV.
Research is also conducted on malaria, river blindness, and
nutrition.  Japanese scientists come to work at the center, and
it sends scientists to Japan for technical training.  The center
also receives building and staff support from the Ghanaian
government and research funds from outside countries.  The U.S.
Agency for International Development (AID) has given the center a
research grant to study HIV.  Francis A. Nkrumah, the institute's
director, says it "is one of the major centers [in Africa] for
the study of HIV."