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1995-01-27
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AIDS Daily Summary
January 27, 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
************************************************************
"Wellcome Rejects Bid by Glaxo"
"Lifeline: AIDS Vaccine"
"Hemophiliacs Urge New Jersey to Allow AIDS Suits Against
Pharmaceuticals"
"Latent AIDS More Dangerous Than Thought"
"UCSF Study Identifies Helpful and Unhelpful Behaviors for
Friends and Family of Persons With AIDS"
"More Pregnant British Women Found With AIDS Virus"
"Indonesia Transvestites Think of Fun Not AIDS"
"Virologic and Immunologic Characterization of Long-Term
Survivors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
"Rapid Turnover of Plasma Virions and CD4 Lymphocytes in HIV-1
Infection"
"Effective Response to Emerging Diseases Called an Essential
Priority Worldwide"
************************************************************
"Wellcome Rejects Bid by Glaxo"
New York Times (01/27/95) P. D1; Stevenson, Richard W.
Calling the bid inadequate, Wellcome PLC Thursday rejected the
$14 billion takeover offer made Monday by rival drugmaker Glaxo
PLC. Wellcome acknowledged that it had no realistic hope of
remaining independent because its largest shareholder, the
Wellcome Trust, suddenly decided to sell its 39.5 percent stake.
The company said that it was now putting itself up for sale in
the hopes of attracting a better offer. While analysts said
Wellcome's decision was certain given the board's legal
responsibility to seek the best price for shareholders, they said
Glaxo is likely to prevail because few other pharmaceutical
companies have the desire or financial strength to exceed the
offer. The combination of Glaxo and Wellcome would create the
world's largest pharmaceutical company. Glaxo is best known for
Zantac, an ulcer treatment. Wellcome's leading drugs are
Zovirax, a herpes treatment, and AZT, or Retrovir, which combats
AIDS. Related Stories: Wall Street Journal (01/27) P. A3;
Washington Post (01/27) P. F2
"Lifeline: AIDS Vaccine"
USA Today (01/27/95) P. 1D; Vigoda, Arlene
A scientific advisory panel urged the Food and Drug
Administration Thursday to heed AIDS patients' pleas for wider
testing of the country's first therapeutic vaccine. The Immogen
vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the first
polio vaccine, and is intended to keep HIV-infected people
healthier longer. Related Story: Wall Street Journal (01/27) P.
A1
"Hemophiliacs Urge New Jersey to Allow AIDS Suits Against
Pharmaceuticals"
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (01/27/95); Shaw, Donna
Advocates for hemophiliacs asked a New Jersey state legislative
committee on Thursday to approve a bill permitting lawsuits
against drug companies whose medicines were once contaminated
with HIV. The bill would exempt one year from the state's
statute of limitations, allowing hemophiliacs or their estates to
sue the drug companies despite the ten years or more since
infection. The government estimates that 8,000 to 10,000
hemophiliacs were infected with HIV in the late 1970s and early
1980s as a result of contamination in their blood-clotting
medications. Elena Bostick, executive director of the Hemophilia
Association of New Jersey, explained that "patients were
frequently advised that HIV was not clinically significant and
would not necessarily cause any disease."
"Latent AIDS More Dangerous Than Thought"
Reuters (01/26/95); Kenen, Joanne
There is increasing evidence that HIV is involved in a subtle
struggle with the human immune system from the beginning of
infection and is reproducing so abundantly that mutations form,
creating drug-resistant variations. The immune system eventually
surrenders. John Coffin, the author of a new study on the
"latent" stage of HIV infection, said this is the bad news from
the study. The good news, he said, is that a better
understanding of the disease can guide researchers toward
treatments that may be able to boost the immune system and enable
it to hold off the virus. Coffin is a professor of molecular
biology and microbiology at Tufts University Medical School in
Boston. His research team came up with a model that shows that
HIV is more dynamic in its earlier stages than previously
thought. The work expands on research recently published in the
journal Nature, which shattered some beliefs about AIDS and
prompted experts to start thinking about new and earlier
treatments. "It seems the real disease caused by HIV occurs
during the period when almost nothing seems to be happening,"
wrote Coffin in the journal Science. AIDS does not suddenly
happen after years of uneventful HIV infection, he said, but is
the product of years and years of accumulated damage.
"UCSF Study Identifies Helpful and Unhelpful Behaviors for
Friends and Family of Persons With AIDS"
Business Wire (01/26/95)
A new study from the University of California at San Francisco
(UCSF) has found that the friends and family of AIDS patients can
be invaluable sources of support and strength for the patient,
but they can also unintentionally say or do things that are
unhelpful or offensive. Often, the friends and family members
are uncertain or confused about how they can provide the most
support to their loved ones. The UCSF study identifies helpful
and unhelpful behaviors from the point of view of a person with
AIDS, and provides guidance for those who care but are not sure
how to offer support to an AIDS patient. Some of the unhelpful
behaviors include avoiding interaction, acting embarrassed or
ashamed, breaking confidentiality, and criticizing one's medical
care. Helpful behaviors include expressing love or concern,
interacting naturally, and offering practical assistance.
"More Pregnant British Women Found With AIDS Virus"
Reuters (01/26/95)
A British government study has found that more pregnant women in
London are becoming HIV-infected, while homosexual men continue
high-risk behavior that puts themselves and others at risk.
Thirty percent of the heterosexual men found by clinics to have
HIV had already been diagnosed as HIV-infected, but 74 percent of
homosexual and bisexual men and 52 percent of heterosexual women
had previously been diagnosed. The health department report
showed that drug users and homosexual men were still the most at
risk from AIDS. The number of pregnant women diagnosed with HIV
in London jumped from one in 1,220 women in 1990 to one in 570 in
1993. There were 2.7 cases of AIDS per 100,000 population in the
United Kingdom in 1993, compared to 14.1 in Spain, 9.9 in France,
and 8.0 in Italy.
"Indonesia Transvestites Think of Fun Not AIDS"
Reuters (01/26/95); Pardomuan, Lewa
Last June, Indonesia--which has a thriving sex industry and an
increasing problem with AIDS--issued its National AIDS Strategy
with guidelines for matters such as preventive measures,
education programs, and blood testing. Health workers, however,
argue that the guidelines are not widely known, which leads to
ignorance in many people, particularly those with risky sexual
behavior. Transvestites are among those groups most at risk.
Many say they are aware of the danger of AIDS, but their
knowledge includes little more than trying to persuade their
partners to wear condoms. They frequently do not even bother.
Aid workers say that officials in predominantly Muslim Indonesia
want to publicize the danger of AIDS, but the fear of Muslim
pressure has limited education campaigns to low-key promotions of
condom use and reducing the number of sexual partners. By the
end of 1994, 67 people in Indonesia had AIDS, and 208 were
HIV-positive. Health officials claim the number of HIV-positive
individuals could be 200 times higher and could reach 500,000 by
the end of the year.
"Virologic and Immunologic Characterization of Long-Term
Survivors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
New England Journal of Medicine (01/26/95) Vol. 332, No. 4, P.
201; Cao, Yunzhen; Qin, Limo; Zhang, Linqi et al.
Although most HIV-infected people develop clinical or laboratory
evidence of immunodeficiency with 10 years of seroconversion, a
few infected people remain healthy and immunologically normal for
more than a decade. Cao et al. studied 10 seropositive people
who were asymptomatic and had normal and stable CD4 lymphocyte
counts despite 12 to 15 years of HIV-1 infection. Plasma
cultures were uniformly negative for infectious virus, but
particle-associated HIV-1 RNA was detected in four subjects.
Standard limiting-dilution cultures detected infectious HIV-1 in
peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in three patients,
while CD8-depleted culture found infectious virus in another. A
quantitative polymerase-chain-reaction showed that all 10
subjects had detectable, but low, titers of viral DNA in PBMC.
While there was no in vitro evidence of host CD4 lymphocyte
resistance to HIV-1 infection, long-term survivors had a
vigorous, virus-inhibitory CD8 lymphocyte response and a strong
neutralizing-antibody response. Cao et al. concluded that those
people who remain asymptomatic for many years despite infection
with HIV-1 have low levels of HIV-1 and a combination of strong
virus-specific immune responses with some degree of attenuation
of the virus.
"Rapid Turnover of Plasma Virions and CD4 Lymphocytes in HIV-1
Infection"
Nature (01/12/95) Vol. 373, No. 6510, P. 123; Ho, David D.;
Neumann, Avidan U.; Perelson, Alan S. et al
Although an increased viral load correlates with CD4 lymphocyte
depletion and disease progression, relatively little is known on
the kinetics of virus and CD4 lymphocyte turnover in vivo.
Researchers administered ABT-538, an inhibitor of HIV-1 protease,
to 20 HIV-1-infected patients to upset the balance between virus
production and clearance. They found that ABT-538 caused plasma
HIV-1 levels to decrease exponentially and CD4 lymphocytes to
increase significantly. Minimum estimates of HIV-1 production
and clearance and of CD4 lymphocyte turnover suggest that
replication of in vivo replication of HIV-1 is continuous and
highly productive, propelling the rapid turnover of CD4
lymphocytes.
"Effective Response to Emerging Diseases Called an Essential
Priority Worldwide"
Journal of the American Medical Association (01/18/95) Vol. 273,
No. 3, P. 189; Marwick, Charles
Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide.
New infectious agents and diseases once thought virtually
eliminated are reappearing as public health problems. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to counter
the threat of emerging diseases by implementing a number of
goals, such as collaborating more closely with states to execute
new surveillance systems and to improve existing ones. Funding
for surveillance, however, is largely limited to diseases that
have already been identified. Of the $40 million allocated to
states for infectious disease surveillance, for example, 95
percent goes only to tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted
diseases, and some vaccine-preventable diseases. "No one denies
that funds for AIDS are needed, but they have been taken from the
existing budgets of other public health programs. Our ability to
respond in other areas has been siphoned off," says Dr. Michael
T. Osterholm, state epidemiologist for the Minnesota Department
of Health. Public health officials claim that money spent now to
detect and prevent diseases before they become widespread is
justified by the money that could be saved.