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The Arsenal Files Collection #8 (Arsenal Computer) (1996).ISO
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ad960916.txt
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1996-09-24
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AIDS Daily Summary
September 16, 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
******************************************************
"Agouron Pharmaceuticals to Give Away Experimental AIDS Drug to
Some People"
"HIV Home Test Kit Picks up on Market"
"In Changing Face of Illness, an Optimistic Prognosis Emerges"
"Drug War Isn't About Marijuana as Medicine"
"AIDS Patients Slipping Through Safety Net"
"AIDS Claims Five Each Day in Northern Thailand"
"White House Releases Clinton Health Information"
"Botswana Faces Serious Threat of AIDS"
"Frequent Infection of Peripheral Blood CD8-Positive
T-Lymphocytes With HIV-1"
"Drug Therapy: Ganciclovir"
******************************************************
"Agouron Pharmaceuticals to Give Away Experimental AIDS Drug to
Some People"
Wall Street Journal (09/16/96) P. B6; Rundle, Rhonda L.
Patients in the advanced stages of AIDS will be eligible to
receive the experimental protease inhibitor Viracept (nelfinavir)
free of charge under an expanded-access program to be announced
today. Agouron Pharmaceuticals will offer the drug, which has
not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, to AIDS
patients who have stopped using the three commercially available
protease inhibitors. The number of patients expected to enroll
in the program is estimated to be between several hundred and
several thousand. Patients and doctors should call
1-800-621-7111 for information about the program.
"HIV Home Test Kit Picks up on Market"
USA Today (09/16/96) P. 4B; Wells, Melanie
While Johnson & Johnson's home HIV test kit, Confide, is now
becoming available at stores outside of Texas, its introduction
has not been widely advertised due to a conflict in the company.
J&J has been ordered to relinquish its rights to the test to its
creator, Elliott Millenson, who was fired by the company in 1993.
In the meantime, the company has filed a lawsuit, but has limited
advertising of the test since it does not have much of an
incentive to kick off a huge campaign--one which some say could
have cost $20 million. Some commercials have appeared, and J&J
says more national advertising is coming soon.
"In Changing Face of Illness, an Optimistic Prognosis Emerges"
Washington Post (09/16/96) P. A3; Brown, David
Deaths from infectious diseases will continue to decline
between now and 2020, while deaths from noncommunicable diseases
and accidents will rise, according to a new report from the World
Health Organization. Although the rate of AIDS has not yet peaked
in some countries, the fraction of deaths caused by infection,
childbirth, and malnutrition, is expected to drop by more than half
by 2020. The authors of the study assumed that the AIDS epidemic
will reach a plateau in 25 years, with regional death rates
attributed to the disease about half of what they are now. The
trend is expected due to changes in demographics, economics, and
technology.
"Drug War Isn't About Marijuana as Medicine"
New York Times (09/16/96) P. A14; Szasz, Thomas
Financier George Soros' support for the medical use of
marijuana appears inconsistent with his efforts to support the
war on drugs, claims Dr. Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist at the
State University of New York. In a letter to the editor of the
New York Times, Szasz says that legalizing marijuana for medical
use would shift the responsibility to the physician who would
prescribe it. Marijuana would simply become another "dangerous
drug" controlled by the government, he concludes.
"AIDS Patients Slipping Through Safety Net"
New York Times (09/15/96) P. 24; Kolata, Gina
Due to increased demand for new AIDS drugs, and the high
cost of the treatments, government programs designed to provide
the drugs free to needy patients are failing. The AIDS Drug
Assistance Program was established by Congress to give states
money to provide the drugs to uninsured or underinsured people.
Recently, however, states have been forced to limit the drugs they
provide, or make applicants wait for treatment. Nearly half of
all states are limiting, or are expected to limit, access to the
new protease inhibitors. A lobbying group for AIDS patients
estimates that the $190 million appropriated for the program in
the 1996 budget is less than half of what is needed.
"AIDS Claims Five Each Day in Northern Thailand"
Xinhua News Agency (09/15/96)
In northern Thailand, five AIDS patients die each day, and
100,000 people in the country contract HIV each year, the
Population and Community Development Association reports. The
two provinces hardest hit by the disease are Chiang Mai, with
6,370 patients, and Chiang Rai, with 4,802. An estimated 900,000
people in Thailand have AIDS, 70 percent of whom are between the
ages of 15 and 24.
"White House Releases Clinton Health Information"
Reuters (09/13/96)
In response to challenges from Republican presidential
candidate Bob Dole, the White House released on Friday President
Clinton's medical records. The documents included a report that
Clinton, as part of an insurance physical, tested negative for
HIV in 1990. The medical summary also said Clinton "has no
history of hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis, sexually
transmitted disease, cancer, stroke, or heart disease."
"Botswana Faces Serious Threat of AIDS"
Xinhua News Agency (09/13/96)
Botswana's growing AIDS rate has prompted the government to
urge people to change their sexual attitudes and habits. Last
year, an estimated 12 percent of the country's 2 million people
were thought to have AIDS. Doctors are struggling to handle the
increase in demand from the disease; some 40 percent of the
hospital beds in the country are occupied by AIDS patients,
according to Botswana President Ketumile Marire.
"Frequent Infection of Peripheral Blood CD8-Positive
T-Lymphocytes With HIV-1"
Lancet (09/07/96) Vol. 348, No. 9028, P. 649; Livingstone, W.J.;
Moore, M.; Innes, D.; et al.
Patients infected with HIV-1 suffer the loss of CD4 T-cells,
which are critical to the body's immune system. However, while
CD4 cells have been identified as the main target for HIV-1, the
extent of infection of other immune cell types remains unknown.
Scottish researchers, along with the Edinburgh Heterosexual
Transmission Study Group, studied both the types of cells
infected in 16 HIV-infected individuals and the relation of viral
load to disease progression. In seven of the eight patients who
were asymptomatic for AIDS, CD4 T-cells were the main reservoir
of HIV. In five of the eight patients with AIDS, infection of
CD8 cells accounted for 66 percent to 97 percent of the total
proviral load. This finding contradicts previous studies which
found that CD8 cells remain uninfected. The authors say their
results provide evidence that HIV-1 more broadly infects
different cell types in vivo than described in laboratory tests.
They suggest that the decline in CD8 cells may be attributed to
HIV's impact as AIDS develops.
"Drug Therapy: Ganciclovir"
New England Journal of Medicine (09/05/96) Vol. 335, No. 10, P.
721; Crumpacker, Clyde S.
In the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Clyde S.
Crumpacker, of Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Mass., discusses
ganciclovir, the first antiviral drug effective against
cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. CMV retinitis is a common and
potentially blinding infection in AIDS patients. In a study of 157
AIDS patients, CMV retinitis was the initial AIDS-defining
opportunistic infection in 3 percent, and it developed later in an
additional 26 percent. The disease progressed from unilateral to
bilateral in 60 percent of patients who did not receive
ganciclovir. Among 18 patients with unilateral disease, none
progressed to bilateral disease while taking the drug. Studies
with AIDS patients with CMV retinitis have found that ganciclovir
and foscarnet are equally effective, and that a combination of the
two drugs is superior against the disease, but neither therapy
offered a clear survival benefit. Oral and intravenous ganciclovir
were found to be similarly effective for maintenance therapy.
Moreover, those AIDS patients in whom disseminated CMV infection is
associated with weight loss have gained weight while taking
ganciclovir. Oral ganciclovir has also shown promise in preventing
CMV disease in AIDS patients.