NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/sci/med/aids/2274

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 14.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!opl.com!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!agate!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!usenet
From: [e-mail] (Billi Goldberg)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: CDC Summary 1/27/93
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 27 Jan 93 15:08:37 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Mr Usenet)
Organization: unspecified
Lines: 214
Approved: [e-mail] (David Dodell)
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Nntp-Posting-Host: sole.cs.ucla.edu
Archive-Number: 44


                       AIDS Daily Summary
                        January 27, 1993
 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.  Copyright 1992, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
=======================================================================
 "Japan Plans Gene Therapy Research for AIDS" Reuters (01/26/93)
     Tokyo--Japan will launch a long-term research effort into gene
therapy as part of its anti-AIDS campaign, according to a health
ministry official.  Shigeki Shiiba of the ministry's health  science
division said the group will allot 150 million yen ($1.2  million) this
year to begin basic research on gene therapy.   "Gene therapy is a
highly promising area ... but it will take a  long time, say more than
10 years, before it becomes practical,"  said Shiiba.  The therapy is a
controlled experimental treatment  which involves the introduction of
new genes into the body to  correct an inherited or acquired condition.
In a separate  announcement, the ministry's AIDS Surveillance Committee
said  Tuesday that Japan reported 10 newly diagnosed AIDS cases and 59
new HIV-positive individuals in the November-December period.   The
committee said that Japan's reported cases of full-blown AIDS totaled
543, in addition to 2,551 people infected with HIV during the period
that ended on Dec. 31, 1992.  Japan's cumulative death toll from AIDS is
298.  Among the 69 new cases diagnosed in  November-December, more than
40 were women from Southeast Asia  working in the entertainment
industry, said a committee  spokesman.  Previously, most Japanese viewed
AIDS as a disease  that primarily affected foreigners, especially
homosexuals and  IV-drug users.  Now, most of the Japanese that contract
HIV do so through heterosexual contact.
=======================================================================
"BRF--AIDS-Watches" Associated Press (01/25/93)
     Washington--AIDS activists gave members of Congress broken
wristwatches on Monday to signify that time is running out for
aggressive action against the disease.  A letter delivered to the 540
members of Congress by ACT-UP said, "For the past 12 years,  Congress
has collaborated with the Reagan-Bush administrations in their criminal
neglect of the AIDS crisis."  In addition to the  letter, about two
dozen ACT-UP members who had driven from New  York delivered broken
wristwatches to the congressional offices.  The organization is
requesting that Congress form a "Manhattan  Project" for AIDS research
and spend another $500 million for  prevention and education, said Scott
Sawyer, an ACT-UP spokesman.
=======================================================================
"Iran Says 219 Infected With HIV, 45 Died of AIDS" Reuters (01/25/93)
     Nicosia--Iran revealed Monday that there have been 219 reported
cases of HIV infection, and 45 AIDS patients have already died of the
disease.  The Iranian news agency (IRNA) cited an official  from an
anti-AIDS group who told a seminar in Tehran that if the  Iranians were
not educated about the risks of the disease, the  "problem would be much
greater in the future."  Deputy Health  Minister Saeed Namaki said in
December that 42 people had already died of AIDS, and 169 others had the
disease.  The official said, "Restricting sex to its religiously
established forms would offer the surest way for harnessing the epidemic
in Iran."  Previously, Iranian officials said AIDS was not a severe
problem in the  country, which has a population of 60 million people.
Clerical  leaders said Islamic ethics helped control the spread of HIV
in  Iran.  In December, Iran said it was introducing mandatory HIV
testing for foreigners wishing to stay in the Islamic republic  for more
than three months.
=======================================================================
"HemaCare Begins Construction of Plasma ..." HealthWire (01/25/93)
     Los Angeles--HemaCare Corp. announced Monday that it has taken a
significant step in furthering its efforts to develop a series of
hyperimmune, gamma globulin, pharmaceutical products to treat  AIDS and
other conditions.  The company has leased a building in  Valencia,
Calif., which will house a plasma fractionation  facility.  The first
application of the facility will be to  transform the human plasma being
used in the company's Passive  Hyperimmune Therapy (PHT) AIDS
therapeutic research project into  intravenous gamma globulin or
antibody concentrate.  Dr. Joshua  Levy, HemaCare's medical director and
principal investigator of  its PHT clinical research, said, "The
construction of the  fractionation facility is a major step in
HemaCare's development  of a safe and effective AIDS therapy.  The gamma
globulin  concentrate obtained by fractionation will have greater drug
purity and stability and be more widely accepted by the medical
community than the current whole plasma product."  He added, "We  expect
that the pilot plasma fractionation facility will be  completed in six
months and that intravenous gamma globulin may  be produced by the end
of 1993.  By utilizing self-contained,  modular, independent,
manufacturing units, other plasma products  in addition to the initial
HIV antibody plasma product may be  produced in this facility."
=======================================================================
"Israel-AIDS" Associated Press (01/26/93)
     Jerusalem--The Israeli government will require immigrants from
Western nations and all foreign workers to be tested for HIV  before
entering Israel, the Health Ministry announced Tuesday.  A ministry
statement indicated that HIV-positive immigrants would  have their cases
reviewed but did not say whether they would be  rejected.  The new
policy, developed by the health and interior  ministers, will be
instituted Monday.  Critics claim that the  mandatory tests are unfair
because they single out groups from  certain countries when Israel is
supposed to be a haven for all  Jews around the world.  However, Yehuda
Weinraub, a spokesman for the Jewish agency that deals with immigration,
said the country's policy of citizenship to Jews can exclude those who
are a threat  to public health.  The statement by the ministry did not
list the countries included in the category "Western nations."  It said
immigrants from the former Soviet Union and developing countries, in
addition to tourists, foreign embassy staff, and journalists,  are
exempt from the mandatory tests.  Those individuals account  for most of
Israel's immigrants.  Since 1989, more than 400,000  Jews have come from
the former Soviet Union, and about 50,000  have come from Ethiopia since
the mid-1980s.  Weinraub said about 1,500 Jews a year immigrate from
France and England, but did not  have any figures for other Western
European nations.  Ira Cohen,  a spokesman for the Association for
Americans and Canadians in  Israel, said about 3,000 immigrants come to
Israel from North  America every year.
=======================================================================
"Ohio Officials Fear TB Increase" United Press International (01/26/93)
     Cleveland--Ohio health officials are monitoring a nationwide rise
in tuberculosis cases and believe the state might be on the brink of a
similar increase.  For the third consecutive year, Ohio has  reported a
constant rate of TB cases.  There were 378 identified  TB cases in Ohio
during 1991, the most recent statistics  available.  Dr. Frits van der
Kuyp, director of the Cuyahoga  County tuberculosis control service at
MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, said that Ohio doctors may also
be increasingly  confronted with multi-drug-resistant TB.  Eight cases
of  drug-resistant TB transpired statewide in 1991.  However, state
public health officials said the number could be higher because  only
half of the total tuberculosis cases were examined for  resistance.  As
many as 500,000 Ohioans may be infected with TB  bacteria, but for most,
the disease remains dormant.  Dr. George  Hurst, assistant chief of the
Ohio Department of Health's  division of preventive medicine, said,
"There is a direct link to declining resources and increases in TB
cases.  In Ohio, we have  the opportunity to avoid the epidemic increase
the others are  experiencing."  Ohio uses a $350,000 federal grant for
TB  tracking, education, and for four nurse outreach workers who  manage
all the TB patients and guarantee that those patients take their
medications, said Hurst.  However, he projects that it will cost as much
as $1.5 million to attack Ohio's TB problem.
=======================================================================
"Senate Committee Approves Family Leave, NIH Reauthorization" United
Press International (01/27/93)
     Washington--The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee has
approved the National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill.  The
legislation was vetoed by former President Bush because it  allowed the
use of fetal tissue in medical research.  But  President Clinton, by
executive order, has already approved the  use of fetal tissue for such
research.  The bill supports women's health research, funds cancer and
heart research, provides  support for fighting AIDS, and guarantees
freedom of medical  research.
=======================================================================
"Data, Doubts Emerge From D.C. TB Tests" Washington Post (01/26/93), P.
D1  (Goldstein, Amy)
     One homeless resident out of four in Washington, D.C., is  believed
to have been exposed to tuberculosis, according to  District health
officials.  However, advocates for the homeless  claim that the
aggressive testing of more than 1,200 residents at homeless shelters
does not accurately portray the dimensions of  the public health threat.
D.C. Public Health Commissioner  Mohammad Akhter said that two weeks
after the campaign began,  which is the first systematic attempt by any
large American city  to detect and treat TB among the homeless, only
half of the 248  people who have tested positive for exposure to the
disease have  gotten the chest X-rays necessary to confirm whether they
have  active cases.  Operators of the 15 shelters and other advocates
for the homeless said they are unsure how the city expects to  track
down those exposed people, or how it plans to find more  than 200 other
homeless people who were given TB skin tests but  never returned to a
shelter to learn the results.  Akhter  conceded that the health-care
workers, in planning the effort,  had not been sensitive enough to
clients.  They failed to plan  ahead for some people who would be
afraid--and refuse--to board  vans to get X-rays at hospitals.  City
health officials plan to  reach as many as 5,000 men and women in all 43
shelters.  New  statistics show that 25 percent of the 983 shelter
residents  whose test results have been read so far are infected with
TB.   Among those who tested positive, 129 have gotten X-rays, which
show only three men have active cases and thus are contagious.   Janelle
Goetcheus, medical director of Health Care for the  Homeless, a
nonprofit group, said that the low infection rate  reported may reflect
problems in the tests.
=======================================================================
"AIDS Czar Issue: Report to President or Report to HHS?" AIDS Treatment
News (01/15/93) No. 167, P. 6
     ACT-UP/New York started a letter writing effort after reports
revealed that Donna Shalala, the new Secretary of Health and  Human
Services (HHS) wants the new "AIDS czar" promised by  Clinton to report
to her, rather than directly to the president.  Many believe that such a
position should report directly to the  president because there are many
facets involved in the AIDS  epidemic other than just those of the HHS.
A quote from the  ACT-UP/New York letter read, "The rationale for the
position  requires the immediate attention and direct access to the
president, with special powers to coordinate, across all  governmental
agencies and branches, the federal government's  response to AIDS.  It
also requires the full commitment of the  president to use his office as
a 'bully pulpit,' to ensure a  timely response to AIDS."  United for
AIDS Action has also joined the campaign to have an AIDS czar in the
Clinton administration.
=======================================================================
"National Institutes of Health: Top AIDS Official to Leave" Science
(01/15/93) Vol. 259, No. 5093, P. 303  (Cohen, Jon)
     Daniel Hoth, head of the AIDS unit at the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), has announced that he will soon resign after  serving 5
years with the unit.  Hoth told his staff and superiors at the Division
of AIDS (DAIDS), a branch of the National  Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), that he  feels he has achieved what he set
out to do at NIH.  Hoth, an  oncologist, came to DAIDS from the National
Cancer Institute in  1987.  Since his arrival, the DAIDS staff has
increased from 24  to 135 and the budget has tripled to $325 million.
Moreover,  Hoth's unit monitors more than 35 percent of the entire NIH
AIDS  budget.  Many fellow researchers commend Hoth for expanding the
AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), a nationwide network of  researchers
who test new treatments.  Hoth has also held a  primary role in the
decision to enhance the NIH's AIDS vaccine  effort, both in the United
States and abroad.  However, Hoth has  been widely criticized by AIDS
activists.  They say he allowed  the ACTG to concentrate too much
attention on AZT while ignoring  other encouraging treatments.
Activists have also accused DAIDS  of footdragging, of not involving
women and children in trials,  and of ignoring the regions hardest hit
by the epidemic.  Derek  Hodel of the Washington-based AIDS Action
Council said, "Hoth  presided over a tremendous and very painful growth
period in  DAIDS.  Now we have the chance to solidify and address the
problems with the organization we've identified."