Date: Tue, 8 Aug 1995 09:45:45 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary August 8, 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 ************************************************************ "AIDS Containment Seen as Attainable" "Zambia Frees Prisoners with AIDS Virus" "Animals over AIDS" "Across the USA: California" "Combination Treatment and Single Drugs: Interview with Margaret Poscher, M.D." "In Whose Care and Custody? Orphans of the HIV Epidemic" "FDA Announces Public Workshop and Advisory Subcommittee Meeting on Current Issues in AIDS Clinical Trials" ************************************************************ "AIDS Containment Seen as Attainable" Washington Times (08/08/95) P. A8 Although there will be an increasing number of AIDS-related deaths in the 1990s, this decade may also be a time of containment of the disease due to global prevention programs, the head of the U.S. government's foreign assistance agency said on Monday. Currently, more than 19 million individuals, including over 1 million Americans, are HIV-positive, said J. Brian Atwood, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development at a conference of AIDS experts. Therefore, it is estimated that between 300,000 and 600,000 people will die from AIDS in 1995. By the year 2000, the number of AIDS deaths is expected to reach 1.5 million to 3 million. Related Story: Baltimore Sun (08/08) P. 10A "Zambia Frees Prisoners with AIDS Virus" Reuters (08/08/95) One hundred HIV-infected Zambian prisoners have been liberated to stem the spread of the virus in jails, officials report. "Inmates with AIDS are released on the recommendation of medical officers because prisons are not places for keeping terminally ill people," said a Department of Prisons spokesman. "Releasing them also ensures that the spread of the epidemic is limited." A 1993 study conducted by the ministry of health revealed that as many as 16 percent of the inmates were infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Two factors that contributed to HIV's spread were homosexuality and the sharing of razor blades. Zambia, which has one of the highest number of recorded cases of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa, has diagnosed an estimated 30,000 cases of full-blown AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. "Animals over AIDS" Washington Times (08/08/95) P. A2 In a New York Post commentary, Maryland lawyer Carl Kapanke assails Hollywood's latest cause. "For 14 years I've carried the label 'HIV positive' and all the baggage that goes with it," he writes. Kapanke explains that the red ribbon that is worn in support of AIDS efforts always gave him hope. But now, he says, there is a new cause--animal rights--so "don't let the sea of red ribbons at the Academy Awards fool you." Kapanke argues that the "animal rights agenda at its core is incompatible with finding cures for AIDS and other deadly diseases." "Across the USA: California" USA Today (08/08/95) P. 5A In San Diego, Calif., AIDS patient Regina Hope Edwards has been granted early release from jail. Edwards, a three-time offender, is serving time for petty theft. "Combination Treatment and Single Drugs: Interview with Margaret Poscher, M.D." AIDS Treatment News (07/07/95) No. 226, P. 2; James, John S. In an interview with AIDS Treatment News, internist Margaret Poscher--a professor and the director of HIV Clinical Services at the University of California Mt. Zion--discusses combination treatment for HIV. Poscher says her preferred combination is AZT and 3TC--which she believes will be the initial therapy when 3TC is approved. The only patients she has on monotherapy are a few receiving d4T. Poscher occasionally uses the triple combination of AZT, 3TC, and ddI; this regimen is based on a report from Dr. St. Clair at the Second National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections. The difference, she explains, between therapy naive patients and those who have been on AZT for a long time is "like night and day; it is significantly different." The drug 3TC, however, is the exception because "you can add it to AZT and still get some mileage out of the AZT." In terms of other antivirals, Poscher describes herself as "pro acyclovir," ambivalent about oral ganciclovir for cytomegalovirus prophylaxis, and encouraged by the renewed access to thalidomide for the potential treatment of wasting. "In Whose Care and Custody? Orphans of the HIV Epidemic" AIDS Clinical Care (08/95) Vol. 7, No. 8, P. 66; Levine, Carol Most young people who survive the AIDS death of a parent are at high-risk for economic loss, as well as both behavioral and developmental problems. As teens, they are likely to engage in high-risk activities related to HIV transmission. Some of these children require new sources of financial assistance, shelter, food, and medical care. David Michaels, an associate professor at the City University of New York Medical School, estimates that by the year 2000, between 72,000 and 125,000 U.S. children and teenagers will have lost their mothers to HIV/AIDS. One study found that almost 60 percent of the children whose mothers had died went to live with their grandmothers or aunts. HIV-infected parents report feelings of extreme isolation and anxiety about their own and their children's health, as well as the financial toll of illness. A study of HIV-infected families headed by single mothers found that they were "overextended with caregiving responsibilities and confronting multiple stressors." One very difficult task for HIV-infected parents is planning for the future custody of their children. Often, for example, if a parent names guardian in a will, the choice may not be honored by the family court judge or surrogate. If a parent selects a guardianship petition, she relinquishes critical decision-making rights and perhaps actual custody of her children while she is alive. "FDA Announces Public Workshop and Advisory Subcommittee Meeting on Current Issues in AIDS Clinical Trials" U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (08/01/95) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding a public workshop on current issues in HIV clinical trials on Sept. 6 and 7, 1995. At the workshop--to which registration is required--members of the industry and the public will be able to discuss issues regarding the design and conduct of clinical trials of drugs for the treatment of HIV, as well as propose strategies for overcoming known obstacles. A major challenge to developers of HIV treatments is the successful design and conduct of clinical confirmatory trials, which are needed to provide the data used to confirm the clinical benefit of drugs that have received accelerated approval. The workshop will be followed by a joint meeting on Sept. 9 of subcommittees of the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee and the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development. The subcommittees will hear summary presentations from the workshop, and will discuss recommendations on the scientific design of future HIV clinical trials. For more information, call the AIDS Clinical Trial Information Service at (800) 874-2572.