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1995-01-26
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AIDS Daily Summary
January 26, 1995
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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
************************************************************
"Russia May Require HIV Tests for Visitors"
"Malaysians to Get AIDS New Year Message"
"L. Berner, 54, AIDS Activist"
"Health-Conscious Latinos Tune in to Voice of Authority"
"Celgene Opens San Francisco Clinical Site For Phase II Study of
Thalidomide for Cachexia"
"Judge Throws Out Suit Against AIDS Educator"
"PSICOR Announces Participation in Hyperthermia Trials for AIDS
Patients"
"Briefs: HIV-Infected Teacher Takes Leave"
"Studies in Subjects with Long-Term Nonprogressive Human
Immunodeficiency Virus Infection"
"Viral Dynamics in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
************************************************************
"Russia May Require HIV Tests for Visitors"
USA Today (01/26/95) P. 4D; Sloan, Gene
In addition to the $20 fee that U.S. citizens will have to pay in
order obtain a visa to go to Russia, the country is considering
whether to test all incoming visitors for HIV. Those who test
positive would be immediately deported. The proposed law has
been approved by one house of the Russian parliament, but still
needs approval from the other house and from President Yeltsin.
Currently, 42 countries require HIV tests for at least some types
of visitors, although most of the requirements only apply to
visitors seeking work or arriving for extended stays.
"Malaysians to Get AIDS New Year Message"
Reuters (01/26/95)
Malaysians visiting Thai bordertowns during the Chinese New Year
holidays next week will receive the traditional "ang pow"
packets. This year, instead of the money given by Chinese to
children and single people for good luck, the packets will
contain the message "Beware of AIDS." Malaysians are some of the
biggest customers of the many brothels that thrive in Thai towns
across the Malaysian border.
"L. Berner, 54, AIDS Activist"
Philadelphia Inquirer (01/26/95) P. B7
Lawrence Berner, an American with AIDS who publicized his
condition to promote AIDS awareness in Japan, died on Wednesday
in a Tokyo hospital from AIDS-related complications. Last year,
Berner, an English teacher, became one of the few AIDS patients
in Japan to publicly announce his condition. He counseled AIDS
patients and hoped to change the fact that most HIV-infected
Japanese hide their condition because of the prevalent
discrimination against people with HIV. He said that his boss at
an unidentified international organization tried to fire him
after he announced he had AIDS. A native of Arkansas, Berner
went to Japan in 1984 after working as a volunteer AIDS counselor
at the Lesbian and Gay Counseling Agency in San Francisco.
"Health-Conscious Latinos Tune in to Voice of Authority"
Washington Post--Montgomery Weekly (01/26/95) P. Md.1;
Constable, Pamela
Elmer Huerta is easily the best-known and most trusted Latino
physician in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. A
full-time physician specializing in cancer prevention at the
Washington Hospital Center, Huerta is the host of the weekly
radio show, "Cuidando su Salud," or "Taking Care of Your Health,"
on Radio Borinquen in Laurel, Md. Officials at Borinquen
estimate that 180,000 people listen in to Huerta's daily
messages. Huerta's health spots deal with topics ranging from
proper condom use to avoiding miracle-cure quacks. One spot on
AIDS prevention featured a popular song with a woman insisting
that her reluctant date "put on his sombrero." Last July, Huerta
was hired by the Washington Cancer Institute to run its new
screening clinic for Latinos. The clinic now has a three-month
waiting list, and more than 80 percent of the patients said they
came because they heard Huerta on Radio Borinquen.
"Celgene Opens San Francisco Clinical Site For Phase II Study of
Thalidomide for Cachexia"
PR Newswire (01/25/95)
Celgene Corp. has announced that it will begin enrolling patients
in a Phase II study of thalidomide against cachexia to be
conducted at San Francisco General Hospital. The other three
centers are The Rockefeller University in New York City, Thomas
Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and Marin County Specialty
Clinic. Celgene holds an exclusive license for thalidomide use
against disease states linked to tumor necrosis factor alpha.
This study is thought to be the first double-blind,
placebo-controlled study in the United States testing thalidomide
as a corporate-sponsored investigational new drug. Cachexia is
an emaciating condition that results in significant weight loss
in patients with advanced AIDS.
"Judge Throws Out Suit Against AIDS Educator"
Boston Globe (01/25/95) P. 20; Rakowsky, Judy
A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two
Chelmsford, Mass., high school students and their parents, who
filed suit against school officials, members of a parent-teacher
organization, and an AIDS educator in August. The judge said
that the students, who attended a school assembly on AIDS in
1992, and their parents did not have a viable First Amendment
claim that their rights to the free exercise of religion had been
violated. U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Keeton found that
a one-time exposure to a speech or set of ideas deemed offensive
by the students does constitute a violation of their
constitutional rights.
"PSICOR Announces Participation in Hyperthermia Trials for AIDS
Patients"
Business Wire (01/25/95)
PSICOR Inc. announced on Wednesday that it will assist
HemoCleanse Inc. and its marketing partner, IDT, in the clinical
trials of HemoCleanse's BioLogic-HT system in the whole body
hyperthermia treatment (WBHT) of AIDS patients. PSICOR provided
clinical services to Hemocleanse for its initial feasibility
study in July 1994, and will continue for the treatments in the
new study, which will begin on Feb. 15, 1995. Unlike other
therapies using WBHT, which is designed to simulate the body's
fever reaction to help fight infection by inducing a high
artificial fever in AIDS patients, the BioLogic-HT system
controls blood chemistries on a real-time basis. This eliminates
chemical imbalance problems associated with other WBHT efforts,
and allows for a safer procedure. The Food and Drug
Administration recently granted conditional approval of the
study, which will involve 20 treated patients and a control group
of 10 patients.
"Briefs: HIV-Infected Teacher Takes Leave"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (01/25/95) P. 3B
A teacher who has taught at Mehlville High School for more than
two decades informed St. Louis County school district officials
that he has advanced HIV, and has taken medical leave. Officials
announced the teacher's situation on Tuesday, in accordance with
district policy. This is the fifth instance in the past decade
that HIV infection has been reported among students and educators
in the St. Louis County school districts, said Dr. Linda Fisher,
chief medical officer for St. Louis County. "AIDS is not easily
transmittable, and students are not at risk of becoming infected
because of their classroom contact with a teacher," she stressed.
"Studies in Subjects with Long-Term Nonprogressive Human
Immunodeficiency Virus Infection"
New England Journal of Medicine (01/26/95) Vol. 332, No. 4, P.
209; Pantaleo, Giuseppe; Menzo, Stefano; Vaccarezza, Mauro et
al.
Pantaleo et al. compared 15 subjects with long-term
nonprogressive HIV infection--defined by seven or more years of
documented HIV infection, with more than 600 CD4 T cells per
cubic millimeter, no antiretroviral therapy, and no HIV-related
disease--and 18 people with progressive HIV disease. Lymph nodes
from the nonprogressors had significantly fewer of the
hyperplastic features, and none of the involuted features,
characteristic of nodes from subjects with progressive disease.
In nonprogressive subjects, plasma levels of HIV-1 RNA and the
viral burden in peripheral-blood mononuclear cells were
significantly lower than those in the progressors. While HIV
could not be isolated from the plasma of the nonprogressors--who
also had higher titers of neutralizing antibodies than those with
progressive disease--there was viral replication. HIV-specific
cytotoxic activity was found in all seven persons with
nonprogressive infection who were tested. The researchers
concluded that although the viral load is low in HIV-infected
persons who remain disease-free for many years, viral replication
persists. Their lymph-node architecture and immune function
appear to stay intact.
"Viral Dynamics in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
Nature (01/12/95) Vol. 373, No. 6510, P. 117; Wei, Xiping;
Ghosh, Sajal K.; Taylor, Maria E. et al
Researchers studied 22 HIV-1-infected patients with CD4 counts
between 18 and 251 to determine the dynamics of HIV-1 replication
in vivo, which are largely unknown and are critical in order to
understand disease pathogenesis. The subjects were treated with
ABT-538; L-735,524, or NVP--experimental drugs that are potent
inhibitors of viral replication. The drugs revealed that the
combined lifespan of plasma virus and virus-producing cells is
surprisingly short. After 14 days, the wild-type virus in plasma
was almost completely replaced by drug-resistant variants. This
shows that HIV-1 viraemia is primarily sustained by a dynamic
process including continuous rounds of de novo virus infection,
replication, and rapid cell turnover.