Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 09:40:06 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary June 9, 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 Threatens to Widen Child Prostitution" "AIDS Hemophiliac Probe Widens in France" "NovaDx Forms Partnership with Tera Biotechnology to Develop Breakthrough Core Technology" "Mississippi to Showcase Seafood at D.C. Charity Ball" "Food Drive Helps Project Open Hand" "Fewer New York Surgeons Reporting Needlesticks" "HIV Risk-Related Behaviors among Injection Drug Users in Rome: Differences between 1990 and 1992" "Artificial Blood May Be a Heartbeat Away" "Time after Times" "Digging into TB's History with Genetics" ************************************************************ "AIDS Threatens to Widen Child Prostitution" Reuters (06/08/95); Phythian, Nicholas Torild Skard, a regional head of UNICEF, warned on Thursday that AIDS may increase child prostitution as men search for girls who are not infected with HIV. "This is flagrant exploitation which must stop," she said, noting that as many as half of the prostitutes in Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, were under the age of 18. Many children in West and Central Africa have had to turn to begging or prostitution to survive, according to a statement issued by Skard's office. Skard acknowledged that putting children to work was a fact of life for many poor families, however, she added that greater effort was needed to ensure that those children who do work receive proper care and are not exploited. Skard highlighted the problems faced by children in areas such as Liberia or Sierra Leone, where an estimated 20 percent of the children work. "AIDS Hemophiliac Probe Widens in France" Reuters (06/08/95) On Thursday, a doctor was added to the list of suspects involved in the HIV infection of more than 1,000 French hemophiliacs with tainted blood products during the mid-1980s. Now, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Brunet--a former adviser to the General Health Directorate--is being investigated for complicity in poisoning, his lawyer said. It is alleged that in 1985, Brunet waited two months after learning that Paris blood stocks were likely contaminated with HIV before alerting his superiors to the danger. Twelve people are now under investigation in what is considered one of France's worst public health scandals. More than 400 hemophiliacs have died because of the HIV-contaminated transfusions they received when officials used up tainted stocks rather than use imports that had been disinfected by a new heating technique. "NovaDx Forms Partnership with Tera Biotechnology to Develop Breakthrough Core Technology" PR Newswire (06/08/95) NovaDx Inc. and Tera Biotechnology Corp. have united to develop a technology which will significantly reduce the time it takes to identify disease markers in the blood. In general, researchers spend between five and 10 years searching for disease markers, or proteins that signal diseases. The companies, however, hope to find a method that produces results in months. The technology, which will be used in discovery research for drugs, has potential uses in several areas, including AIDS, cancer, and arthritis. "Mississippi to Showcase Seafood at D.C. Charity Ball" Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (06/09/95) The Mississippi table at Saturday's annual Taste of the South charity ball in Washington, D.C., will feature the true flavors of the region. The selection will include marinated crab claws from La Font Inn in Pascagoula and boiled shrimp from D'Luke Seafood, Golden Gulf Coast Packing Co., and Weems Brothers Seafood in Biloxi. "The Mississippi restaurateurs and suppliers have been very gracious in their donations," notes Mississippi committee member Anna Burnett. This year's event--one of the most popular charity balls in the nation's capital--will benefit ChildKind, an Atlanta-based group that locates homes for HIV-infected children. "Food Drive Helps Project Open Hand" PR Newswire (06/08/95) A one-month canned food drive to benefit Project Open Hand, which provides daily hot meals and nutrition counseling to more than 2,000 HIV-infected clients in San Francisco and Alameda counties, will kick-off on June 12. "It is very important that people realize the importance of nutritious foods in fighting for the health of people with symptomatic HIV and AIDS," said Project Open Hand's Tim Nolan. When at Cala/Bell supermarkets, shoppers will be able to select from products--including Skippy Peanut Butter, Golden Grain Pasta, and Prego Spaghetti Sauce--whose vendors are supporting the event. Project Open Hand volunteers will be located outside the stores to remind shoppers of the food drive. In addition to Cala/Bell Supermarkets and eight major food vendors, the campaign will be supported by KCBS television station. "Fewer New York Surgeons Reporting Needlesticks" AIDS Alert (06/95) Vol. 10, No. 6, P. 81 The significant reduction of New York surgeons reporting occupational injuries appears to be the result of new technology, the risk of HIV, and improved technique. An updated survey published in the journal AIDS compared the incidence of percutaneous injuries by more than 300 doctors in 1993 to a similar report in 1988. About half as many injuries were reported in 1993, with reductions seen in all practice categories. Thus far, there are no documented cases of surgeons occupationally infected with HIV. The authors attribute the reduced number of injuries to the increased use of instruments instead of fingers to retrieve needles, two gloves instead of one, laparascopy, and to injury education causing greater caution during surgery. Lowenfels et al. also noted that the number of patients whose HIV status was known at the time of surgery increased from 11 percent in 1988 to 42 percent in 1993. "HIV Risk-Related Behaviors among Injection Drug Users in Rome: Differences between 1990 and 1992" American Journal of Public Health (06/95) Vol. 85, No. 6, P. 829; Davoli, Marina; Perucci, Carlo A.; Abeni, Damiano D. et al. The primary risk factor for HIV-1 infection and AIDS in Italy is injection drug use, accounting for about two-thirds of the total AIDS cases reported by the end of June 1994. Between 1990 and 1992, Davoli et al. analyzed injection drug users (IDUs) to better understand the temporal trends in HIV risk-related behaviors. An understanding of these trends may help in verifying the effectiveness of prevention activities, planning more appropriate education and treatment interventions, and providing estimates for the future of the epidemic. From 1990 to 1992, syringe-sharing decreased among self-reported HIV-infected IDUs, although there was no change in their sexual behavior. By the end of the study, fewer HIV-seronegative IDUs reported sharing needles than in 1990. There was, however, no change in the percentage of seronegative users using previously used syringes, and a reduction in condom use with primary partners was seen. The researchers concluded that there is still a great potential for HIV transmission among IDUs and from IDUs to the general public. "Artificial Blood May Be a Heartbeat Away" Business Week (06/05/95) No. 3427, P. 118; Stodghill II, Ron Northfield Laboratories Inc. may be close to its goal of creating an inexpensive, plentiful, and safe replacement for hemoglobin--which carries oxygen in red blood cells. Although several other companies are working on similar products, Northfield has pulled ahead and is now conducting Phase II trials of the efficacy and safety of its product, called PolyHeme. Unlike transfused blood, blood substitutes do not carry diseases, such as HIV, or need to be cross-matched. In theory, they can be stored safely for up to a year. The difficulty has been in retrieving and isolating the 280 million hemoglobin molecules contained in each red blood cell so they can be transfused no matter what a patient's blood type is. When removed from their protective cell casing, the molecules tend to leak through the blood vessel wall. And unless they are altered, these molecules can be toxic to almost every organ in the body. To solve this problem, Northfield scientists begin by removing red blood cells from donated blood that has passed its expiration date. The hemoglobin molecules are extracted and linked into polymers, the large size of which prevents the molecules from leaking. The resulting product is purified and bottled, giving it a long shelf-life. "Time after Times" POZ (04/95-05/95) No. 7, P. 28; Schoofs, Mark Although Tom Morgan is still proud of his significant accomplishments, he now sees himself differently than he did before he left The New York Times last July because of AIDS. "Leaving my job removed the obstacles to discovering who I am," he said. Morgan, who is the first and only openly gay president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote the Newspaper of Record's first story about ACT UP and has been published in the nation's most prestigious newspapers. Having AIDS, he says, has "emboldened" him to get into "the habit of talking to people about emotions." Lately, Morgan has been writing "just for [himself]," working on a potter's wheel, and serving on the board of an agency which provides health care to the homeless. "Digging into TB's History with Genetics" Science News (06/03/95) Vol. 147, No. 22, P. 346; Travis, John Two British researchers believe they have confirmed that a man who died more than 1,000 years ago had tuberculosis (TB). By studying the man's skeletal remains, they may have discovered how to solve a mystery surrounding the illness. Using written records from that time, scientists have concluded that TB raged through Europe during the Middle Ages. However, the only physical evidence that supports this theory comes from studies of skeletons taken from Middle Age cemeteries. The problem is that "the historical record suggests a much larger number [of cases] than the cemeteries indicate," noted molecular biologist Ronald A. Dixon of England's University of Bradford. Dixon and his colleague Charlotte Roberts isolated pieces of DNA from the bones of eight skeletons taken from a medieval graveyard. In the one skeleton with lesions indicating TB, they detected a sequence of DNA unique to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen responsible for the disease. Dixon and Roberts expect their method will reveal a higher incidence of medieval TB than bone studies have found.