Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/ad950201.zip/AD950201.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-01 | 13KB | 233 lines

                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      February 1, 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


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"Herpes Might Aid HIV Shot"
"Researchers Link Sarcoma to New Virus"
"Clinton Tells Governors of Plan to Consolidate Federal Grants"
"Gym to Pay $35,000 to AIDS Victim's Estate"
"Bounty Amid Harsh Realities"
"Picower Institute Announces New HIV/AIDS Treatment"
"Gilead Sciences Presents Highly Statistically..."
"Chiron Vision Reports Interim Results From Clinical Trials of
Ganciclovir Implant for CMV Retinitis"
""The Duesberg Phenomenon": Duesberg and Other Voices"
"AIDS and Boundaries: Instinct Versus Empathy"
"CDC NAC Announces New Service"
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"Herpes Might Aid HIV Shot"
Washington Times (02/01/95) P. A6
     Researchers searching for a safe AIDS vaccine said on Tuesday
that they have created one with a built in time-bomb--a gene that
will cleanse itself from the body on cue.  It is believed that
the most effective AIDS vaccine is probably a live virus that
will prime the body to stage a spirited reaction to HIV.  Many
people, however, worry about giving healthy people even a
weakened form of HIV because it might cause cancer, immune
suppression, or even AIDS.  Led by Dr. Kuan-Teh Jeang, the team
from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
has come up with the novel strategy of a live yet weakened HIV
that can be destroyed once it performs its job.  The team created
a form of HIV that carries an extra gene taken from the herpes
virus.  The gene allows infected cells to be selectively
destroyed with ganciclovir, a widely available herpes medicine.
Dr. Stephen M. Smith, who presented the results at an AIDS
meeting sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology, said
the approach looks promising in the test tube, but much more
testing--including extensive testing in monkeys--will be
necessary before it can be tried on people.  Related Story:
Investor's Business Daily (02/01) P. A1.

"Researchers Link Sarcoma to New Virus"
New York Times (02/01/95) P. A22;  Altman, Lawrence K.
     Columbia University researchers Dr. Patrick S. Moore and his
wife, Dr. Yuan Chang, said on Tuesday that they had found very
strong evidence that a recently discovered virus causes Kaposi's
sarcoma (KS), a cancer that frequently occurs in AIDS patients.
The new KS agent belongs to the herpes group of viruses, which is
different from the group that includes HIV.  Moore and Chang said
they had tentatively named the agent Kaposi Sarcoma Associated
Herpes Virus, or KSHV.  While Moore refused to say flatly that
the new virus causes KS, other experts at Tuesday's
meeting--which was sponsored by the American Society for
Microbiology--did.  Dr. Steven Miles of the University of
California at Los Angeles, who was co-chairman of the session at
which Moore presented the advances his team had made since the
preliminary results were released in December, said that his team
in Los Angeles and others in the United States and in England had
confirmed the findings.  Moore's team found evidence of KSHV in
95 percent of the 21 patients with KS studied, while only one of
the 21 who did not have KS showed signs of KSHV--which he
believes resulted from a technical error.  The team also found
evidence of KSHV in tissue from 21 African adults and children
with KS.

"Clinton Tells Governors of Plan to Consolidate Federal Grants"
New York Times (02/01/95) P. A19;  Jehl, Douglas
     President Clinton said on Tuesday that the budget he will send to
Congress next Monday would propose collapsing 271 federal grant
programs worth $50 billion into just 27, and would give states
more latitude on issues from housing to health care.  The
proposal extends far beyond the reductions he recommended last
month.  The plan would consolidate federal grant programs within
the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban
Development, and Transportation into broad new funds.  It would
also reward states whose programs proved most effective.  While
not stating specifically what would be cut, a White House fact
sheet named the 27 broad funds that the president would establish
as "performance partnerships."  They include funds that make
money available to states to care for the homeless, to combat
drug abuse and AIDS, and to build highways.  Related Stories:
Wall Street Journal (02/01) P. A2; Washington Post (02/01) P. A4

"Gym to Pay $35,000 to AIDS Victim's Estate"
Philadelphia Inquirer (02/01/95) P. B4;  Vedantam, Shankar
     Center City's 12th Street Gym has agreed to pay $35,000 to the
estate of Irving Silverman, who had sued the gym for AIDS
discrimination.  Silverman's sister, however, said what she
wanted most of all was an apology.  "I resent the fact that they
ultimately used us as a PR campaign," she said on Tuesday.
Silverman, who died of AIDS on Dec. 10 at age 35, claimed that
the gym's owner, Robert Guzzardi, had thrown him out of the gym
last March 7.  Silverman had asked for a Band-Aid at the front
desk after he cut his finger.  According to Silverman, Guzzardi
said, "We don't want your kind in here.  You're careless.  You
could infect everybody."  As part of the settlement, the gym
accepted no liability for the incident.  The gym announced on
Tuesday that it is implementing a model training program for its
staff.  Managing partner Rick Piper added that the gym is also
instituting a policy for "handling hazardous body wastes, where
they could potentially pose a risk."

"Bounty Amid Harsh Realities"
Washington Times (02/01/95) P. C10;  Solomon, Goody L.
     While women make up about 15 percent of the AIDS cases in the
United States, they and children are the fastest-growing group of
people of AIDS, according to a report in the December issue of
the Journal of the American Medical Association.  The number of
new female AIDS cases in Washington, D.C., doubled between 1988
and 1993, when it reached 18 percent.  Now, almost 12 years into
the AIDS epidemic, a large-scale, long-term study of how women
react to HIV is under way.  Clinics nationwide, including some in
the Washington, D.C., area began enrolling in the Women's
Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) in the fall.  It will run in tandem
with a smaller study of women that was started in April 1993 by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The new study is
the first and largest of its kind in the country.  WIHS has a
budget of nearly $10 million for the first four years and will
follow 2,000 infected women and 500 women at high risk for
infection.

"Picower Institute Announces New HIV/AIDS Treatment"
Business Wire (01/31/95)
     Dr. Michael Bukrinsky and colleagues from the Picower Institute
for Medical Research announced yesterday that they have
discovered compounds which prevent HIV-1 infection of macrophages
and may slow the progression of AIDS.  The researchers
synthesized chemical compounds of methyl ketone, blocking the
signal in certain amino acids that facilitates infection.  Dr.
Anthony Cerami, president of Picower, said, "The new compounds
are as effective in reducing HIV-1 as AZT."

"Gilead Sciences Presents Highly Statistically..."
Business Wire (01/31/95)
     Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday reported positive results of
Phase II/III studies of VISTIDE, or cidofovir, against CMV
retinitis in AIDS patients.  Possible side effects of the drug
include proteinuria, neutropenia, peripheral neuropathy, and
creatinine increase.  An additional study is underway at 11
centers in the United States by the Studies for the Ocular
Complications of AIDS (SOCA) research group.  Dr. Howard S.
Jaffe, vice president of clinical affairs for Gilead, will
announce the findings of the first study at the Second National
Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections.

"Chiron Vision Reports Interim Results From Clinical Trials of
Ganciclovir Implant for CMV Retinitis"
Business Wire (01/31/95)
     Dr. Baruch D. Kupperman, an assistant professor at the University
of California, Irvine,  on Tuesday presented findings of a Phase
III clinical trial for Chiron Vision's intraocular ganciclovir
implant for AIDS patients with CMV retinitis.  In a presentation
at the National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related
Infections, Kupperman said the implant appeared to be more
effective than intravenous ganciclovir.  Chiron Vision expects to
file a marketing application for the implant after completing
data analysis.  The implant uses technology licensed from Control
Delivery Systems Inc. to release the drug slowly into the eye for
up to eight months.

""The Duesberg Phenomenon": Duesberg and Other Voices"
Science (01/20/95) Vol. 267, No. 5196, P. 313;  Duesberg, Peter
H.
     In a letter to the editor published in the journal Science,
virologist Peter H. Duesberg--who does not believe that HIV is
the cause of AIDS--responds to Science articles about the
"Duesberg Phenomenon" by Jon Cohen.  Duesberg offers two
experimental tests to find non-HIV causes for AIDS.  First, he
proposes to solve Cohen's "mystery" that "KS is almost
exclusively confined to male homosexuals."  Duesberg suggests
exposing animals to nitrite inhalants, the use of which are high
among some homosexuals.  He predicts the results would be
immunodeficiency, pneumonia, and pulmonary KS in animals.
Second, he suggests the comparison of the incidence of
AIDS-defining diseases in 3,650 homo- or heterosexual American
men--who are not under the influence of transfusions,
recreational drugs, or AZT--but are HIV-positive, to the
incidence in 3,650 HIV-negative men.  If the 3,650-day latent
period is right, writes Duesberg, then every two days one of the
HIV-positive men would develop AIDS.  Duesberg predicts that the
percentage incidence in the HIV-positive group will be the same
as in the HIV-negative group.

"AIDS and Boundaries: Instinct Versus Empathy"
Focus (01/95) Vol. 10, No. 2, P. 1;  Rosica, Thomas C.
     Boundaries are particularly important for clinicians working with
HIV, writes Thomas C. Rosica for Focus.  The emotional
considerations of therapy far outweigh all others, including
theoretical decisions and traditional treatment concerns, because
AIDS patients do not get better and because they die.  Rosica has
identified three principles about boundaries.  Therapists must
recognize and accept the instinctual responses that naturally
occur when working with AIDS.  The strong reflexive response to
such feeling can lead to hiding or erasing offensive thoughts or
feelings or to transforming the feelings, such as the desire to
abandon or to reject, into their opposites.  Finally, clinicians
need to find some middle ground within themselves that provides a
realistic, emotionally-grounded base to balance these strong
responses.  Because HIV places such strong emotional demands on
therapists, it is essential to recognize the need for outside
support and help.  The best position for the therapist, writes
Rosica, is tolerance of the very real conflicts that occur and
understanding of our emotional responses and humanity.

"CDC NAC Announces New Service"
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC National AIDS
Clearinghouse, February 1, 1995
     The Centers for Disease Contron and Prevention National AIDS
Clearinghouse is pleased to announce a new fax-back service.  Users
need only to call [phone] and select option 5 to access the
NAC FAX service.  Users will then have 2 options, press 1 to order a list
of available documents or press 2 to order documents if the document ID
number is known.  You must know the document number to request materials.
There are very simple instructions to follow to request documents, enter
a fax number and a personal extension.  You can access the service from
any phone; not specifically from a fax machine.  Documents currently
available include CDC Fact Sheets, Surveillance tables (the entire report
or individual tables), Pathfinders, and Information on other Clearinghouse
services.  Future documents may include are the remaining CDC Fact Sheets,
additional Pathfinders, CDC Hotline Training Bulletins, and the CDC HIV/AIDS
Prevention newsletter.  HIV/AIDS-related Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Reports may also be available.  NAC FAX is a 24 hours service and it's free.