Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 09:24:02 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary May 11, 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 ************************************************************ "Study Bolsters Those Backing Home Tests for the AIDS Virus" "'What Crisis?' (Cont'd)" "Accused Boasted of HIV Plot, Court Told" "Lifeline: Superhero Dies" "On the Fridge: Food & Friends" "Calcutta House Breaks Ground for New Residence for People with HIV/AIDS Friday, May 12, at 11 A.M." "Studies Found Plastic Condom Unsafe, yet FDA Cleared It for Market" "Dronabinol for Anorexia in AIDS" "The Second Wave" "Politics and Public Health Research: HIV Prevention Policy in the Schools" ************************************************************ "Study Bolsters Those Backing Home Tests for the AIDS Virus" Wall Street Journal (05/11/95) P. B3; Tanouye, Elyse A new government study indicates that HIV home tests would be used by people at risk who have not already sought testing. Although a home test is not yet available, both Johnson & Johnson and Chem Trak Inc. have submitted applications to the Food and Drug Administration. Home testing for HIV has been controversial for years, but has gained support in recent years because most people at risk for the virus have not been tested despite the availability of testing services, says an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. Opponents claim that HIV home tests are inadequate because they lack the appropriate counseling and referral services. A survey of about 21,000 people found that 29 percent of all respondents and 42 percent of those at risk said they would probably use a home test if one were available. A total of 63 percent of those at risk for HIV had never been tested. Also, people with less access to health care and HIV testing were more likely to say they would use a home test. "'What Crisis?' (Cont'd)" Washington Post (05/11/95) P. A22 Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry claims that the city is no longer experiencing a crisis. Mayor Barry should take a look at D.C. General Hospital's AIDS Center, which only has one doctor for 800 patients, write the editors of the Washington Post. For the past few years, this clinic--with its specialized facilities--has been the place that many poor AIDS patients have turned to. But according to one doctor at the hospital, more than a third of patients with appointments at the clinic were rescheduled this week because the director and an AIDS specialist quit, fearing they would eventually lose their jobs in hospital cutbacks. D.C. General Hospital's Linda Ivey is actively recruiting replacement doctors for the center and volunteers for the whole hospital. But for now, the clinic must cope with one just doctor and the hospital's emergency room, and the real losers are those who can least afford the cost, the editors conclude. "Accused Boasted of HIV Plot, Court Told" Toronto Globe and Mail (05/10/95) P. A1; Feschuk, Scott According to a former confidante of Marilyn Tan, who is accused of injecting her long-time lover with HIV-infected blood, Tan plotted for weeks on how best to get back at Conrad Boland for breaking up with her. Rachel Deitch testified that Tan boasted twice of injecting Boland as part of her revenge. She told the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench that Tan urged her to ask two friends who had AIDS if they would give her some of their blood. When Deitch rejected this request, Tan arranged for her sister--who is a nurse in a California hospital--to send several vials of HIV-infected blood to Deitch's house. Deitch also stated that she gave Tan two syringes that she had bought to inject medication into her sick bird. Tan is charged with aggravated assault, conspiring to administer a noxious substance, administering a noxious substance, and making death threats. The first three offenses each carry a maximum penalty of 14 years and the last has a maximum five-year penalty. "Lifeline: Superhero Dies" USA Today (05/10/95) P. 1D; Vigoda, Arlene In installment 18 of the adventures of Shadowhawk, which are published by Image Comics, the superhero dies of AIDS. Unlike Superman, who died in 1992 but was revived the next year, Shadowhawk will remain dead, says spokesman Randy Chalenor. AIDS "is very serious and he (artist Jim Valentino) didn't want it to be shaken off," adds Chalenor. "On the Fridge: Food & Friends" Washington Post (05/10/95) P. E3 On Monday, Food & Friends will hold its fifth annual Chef's Best at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. The event will feature 60 of the D.C.-area's leading restaurant chefs. Since May 1989, the group has provided three freshly prepared meals per day to the housebound living with HIV/AIDS. As of March 31 of this year, the group had served a total of 637,397 meals over the years. All proceeds from the May 15 buffet dinner and auction will go to the Food & Friends program. "Calcutta House Breaks Ground for New Residence for People with HIV/AIDS Friday, May 12, at 11 A.M." PR Newswire (05/10/95) On Friday, May 12, Philadelphia officials, community leaders, and others will gather for the ground breaking for Calcutta House's new home for people with HIV or AIDS. In response to the desperate need for more housing for persons with AIDS, the new $1.4 million facility will include a 12-bedroom residence for men and women in the late stages of AIDS, as well as four one-bedroom apartments for HIV-infected persons who are still independent. Funding for the project has been received from several public and private sources, including a $485,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Studies Found Plastic Condom Unsafe, yet FDA Cleared It for Market" AIDS Alert (05/95) Vol. 10, No. 5, P. 61 Long before Avanti--the first male polyurethane condom--went to market last fall, government-sponsored studies showed that it broke at such high rates that health authorities decided not to use it in a contraceptive efficacy trial. Funded primarily by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD), five studies found that Avanti condoms broke more than four times more frequently than latex condoms--9.6 percent for Avanti compared to 1.6 percent for the latex. Avanti received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1991, before the agency required manufacturers of medical devices to perform extensive clinical testing prior to marketing. According to the FDA, Avanti was "substantially equivalent" to latex condoms and exempt from the rigorous clinical testing required for the female condom. FDA officials now admit that allowing the condom on the market without clinical efficacy data was a mistake, and have requested that both the manufacturer and the NICHHD retest it. Currently, the condom's only proven benefit recognized by the FDA is its safety for latex-allergic couples. "Dronabinol for Anorexia in AIDS" AIDS Clinical Care (05/95) Vol. 7, No. 5, P. 43 In a six-week controlled trial, Beal et al. tested dronabinol as a treatment for anorexia and poor appetite in 139 AIDS patients. Dronabinol, or Marinol, is a form of tetrahydrocannabinol, and has been used to treat nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients. The efficacy analysis focuses on the 88 patients who took at least 75 percent of planned doses and who did not violate protocol by using marijuana, megestrol acetate, or corticosteroids. At follow-up, the dronabinol group had significantly greater improvements than the placebo group in appetite and nausea. They also showed a trend toward greater weight stabilization. Side effects, however, were common. The most frequent were mild-to-moderate euphoria, dizziness, thinking abnormalities, and sleepiness. "The Second Wave" Advocate (05/16/95) No. 681, P. 32; Simmons, Todd Increasingly, many researchers and activists see the future of the AIDS epidemic made up of drug users, the homeless, and heterosexual women--similar to present-day Miami. "Miami very much represents the way the epidemic is headed in the United States," says Catherine Lynch, executive director of Miami's Health Crisis Network, an AIDS counseling and education center. Although the city ranks only 23rd nationally in population, Miami is third in total AIDS cases among women; second in pediatric AIDS cases; third in annual incidence of AIDS; and fourth in total AIDS cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers say a greater range of factors drives the disease in Miami than in other cities, including immigration from countries where heterosexual AIDS transmission is prevalent and a drug culture in which sex is often traded for drugs. "Politics and Public Health Research: HIV Prevention Policy in the Schools" American Journal of Public Health (05/95) Vol. 85, No. 5, P. 738; Melese-d'Hospital, Isabelle; Colman, Shoshana S. In a letter to the editor published in the American Journal of Public Health, Melese-d'Hospital and Colman challenge Donald Francis's assumption, printed in the May 1994 issue, that public health can be separated from political forces, especially in regards to HIV prevention research and policy. Francis suggested establishing boards of health to protect public health from political influences. The authors, however, recommend the formalization of the policy guideline development process with an emphasis on community consensus building. The 1988 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "Guidelines for Effective School Health Education to Prevent the Spread of AIDS" particularly needs to be reevaluated. An effective policy requires close collaboration with young people, parents, teachers, community leaders, and others, such as HIV-infected people. The authors agree with Francis that health departments need to take over in instances when local organizations are hindered by opposition groups, but they feel that the inevitable conflicts of policy formation and implementation can be facilitated and reduced when there has been consensus building throughout.