Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 10:49:48 +0500 From: "Martha Vander Kolk" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 11/06/95 AIDS Daily Summary November 6, 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 ************************************************************ "FDA Sees Promise in New Anti-AIDS Drugs" "Scientists Battle Funding for Gallo" "Man Alive! The She Was a He" "W. Ross Milstead, 34, Delivered AIDS Talks" "Cambodia's AIDS Campaign 'Set Back'--U.N. Report" "NZ Man Robs Bank with Blood-Filled Syringe" "Indonesia Said to Be Among Biggest AIDS Countries" "Indonesia Warns Athletes over AIDS in Sea Games" "Paris Meeting Spotlights TB/HIV Co-Infection" "A Randomized Controlled Trial of an HIV Sexual Risk-Reduction Intervention for Young African-American Women" ************************************************************ "FDA Sees Promise in New Anti-AIDS Drugs" Washington Post (11/06/95) P. A4; Schwartz, John The Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will discuss combination therapies and protease inhibitors this week. Today, the panel will concentrate on the nucleoside analog lamivudine (3TC), for which recent studies have shown that it "appears to restore sensitivity to AZT" when the two drugs are used in combination, according to David W. Feigal, director of the antiviral drug division of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The hearings on Tuesday will focus on protease inhibitors, particularly saquinavir, which would be marketed under the brand name Invirase by F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler said, "As a group, [protease inhibitors] are the most active compounds that we have seen against [HIV]." Kessler's uncharacteristically positive statement made prior to the review of an advisory panel indicates that the FDA hopes to move quickly on getting this new, potent class of anti-AIDS drugs to market. "Scientists Battle Funding for Gallo" Baltimore Sun (11/04/95) P. 1A; Bor, Jonathan; Birch, Douglas Four government scientists have launched an aggressive campaign to withhold state funds for a virology institute in Baltimore from Dr. Robert C. Gallo, renewing claims that the researcher took too much of the credit for major AIDS-related findings. The scientists say that a number of documents, computer disks, and tapes of a British television report show that Gallo committed serious ethical lapses. Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening has pledged the planned institute $9 million in taxpayer dollars. Dr. Suzanne W. Hadley, a former investigator for the National Institutes of Health, and three scientists at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases--Dr. William Hagins, Dr. Shuko Yoshikami, and Dr. Philip Ross--have united to stop Gallo from receiving the funds. Hagins filed suit against the governor last week in a Maryland circuit court, requesting an order that would make available any documents related to the Gallo center. "Man Alive! The She Was a He" Washington Post (11/06/95) P. D1; Kurtz, Howard An Aug. 25 story in the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate told the emotional tale of a woman and her battle with AIDS. Eventually, however, it was discovered that the woman was in fact a man living as a woman. "We were duped...we're really not in the business down here of trying to dupe our readers into thinking that males are females," said Managing Editor Jim Whittum. But the paper has not run a follow-up story because the reporter promised not to tell the man's secret. "Rather than break the reporter's word, we chose not to correct it," Whittum explained, adding that the reporter, Laurie Smith Anderson, should not have made such a promise. Anderson claims that the man would not agree to the interview unless she promised to not to disclose his true gender. Whittum said that the feature was considered newsworthy because it dealt with contracting HIV in a heterosexual relationship. He added that while he might have printed an article on a man infected by his late homosexual partner, "it's not the story we had portrayed." "W. Ross Milstead, 34, Delivered AIDS Talks" Baltimore Sun (11/06/95) P. 5B; Engle, Donna R. W. Ross Milstead died on Friday, just two days before his 35th birthday, after fighting numerous AIDS-related infections for more than a decade. Mr. Milstead began speaking publicly about his illness and what it meant to live with AIDS in 1989. He became a volunteer speaker with the Health Education Resources Organization, and thus sent his message to thousands of students in Baltimore City and Howard and Baltimore County schools. When Mr. Milstead was scheduled to speak at a Howard County middle school three years ago, opponents lobbied the school board to prohibit his lecture. But, "in the front line of this battle, he made a difference in the Howard County education system by putting himself on the line despite all the negativity and animosity that came from a few people," said his speaking partner Lenwood Green. "Cambodia's AIDS Campaign 'Set Back'--U.N. Report" Reuters (11/06/95) A United Nations human rights representative said in a report that Cambodia's anti-AIDS campaign has been "set back" by the mandatory closure of brothels and officials' harassment of sex workers. Michael Kirby added that the effort had also been hampered by the removal of condom-promoting posters. Cabinet secretary-general Nady Tan said that the authorities were not "harassing" the sex workers but were attempting to "contain and control" them. He added that the Cambodian government never ordered the removal of posters and that it had initiated an "intensive" campaign against AIDS which involved the radio, television, and newspapers. "NZ Man Robs Bank with Blood-Filled Syringe" Reuters (11/06/95) A thief carrying a blood-filled syringe stole about NZ$2,000, or US$1,300, from a New Zealand bank. The man absconded with the money by threatening three bank employees with the syringe, which they feared was filled with HIV-infected blood, Television New Zealand reported. A police squad has searched the residence of one suspect, but have not found the man. "Indonesia Said to Be Among Biggest AIDS Countries" Reuters (11/03/95) Some 2 million Indonesians may be HIV-infected by the year 2000, the Antara news agency quoted an Indonesian professor as saying on Friday. "HIV-positive tested cases in Indonesia by 2000 may reach 2 million to occupy [the] third position in the world following Thailand and India," said Dede Oetomo, a professor at the Airlangga university in Surabaya. As of October, there were 346 cases of HIV and AIDS reported in 15 of Indonesia's 27 provinces, though Oetomo said the number of unreported cases could be 100 to 200 times the official count. "Indonesia Warns Athletes over AIDS in Sea Games" Reuters (11/03/95) Indonesian athletes and sports authorities were cautioned on Friday not to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes during December's Sea Games in Thailand. Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Azwar Anas noted that the number of cases of HIV in Thailand, particularly among prostitutes, is "quite high" and that the athletes and officials will be told "to avoid sexual contacts there." According to Anas, the number of Indonesians with HIV or AIDS increase from 346 in September to 355 in October--an increase that he called "too fast." "Paris Meeting Spotlights TB/HIV Co-Infection" TB Monitor (10/95) Vol. 2, No. 10, P. 119 This year's annual meeting of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) devoted particular attention to persons co-infected with tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. According to Larry Geiter, a Washington, D.C.-based research officer for IUATLD, there was a great deal of discussion about whether TB accelerates the progress of HIV and whether HIV-infected people in developing countries should continue to take the TB drug thiacetazone. In addition, questions were raised as to whether routine isoniazid prophylaxis should be given to HIV-positive patients in the Third World, and if tuberculin skin-testing should be completely abandoned for HIV-infected persons in those regions. Geiter, a former chief of the clinical research branch of the division for TB elimination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that "within the TB side of the meeting, TB/HIV issues were prominent." "A Randomized Controlled Trial of an HIV Sexual Risk-Reduction Intervention for Young African-American Women" Journal of the American Medical Association (10/25/95) Vol. 274, No. 16, P. 1271; DiClemente, Ralph J.; Wingood, Gina M. DiClemente and Wingood recruited a sample of sexually active, heterosexual, African-American women in the Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood of San Francisco to assess the efficacy of a community-based social skills HIV prevention intervention in increasing consistent condom use. The women randomized to the social skills group participated in five sessions that stressed ethnic and gender pride, HIV risk-reduction information, sexual self-control, sexual assertiveness and communication, proper condom use, and developing partner norms supportive of regular condom use. Meanwhile, the women in the HIV education group took part in one session that offered information on HIV risk reduction, and those in the delayed HIV education control condition received no HIV risk-reduction information until the completion of the follow-up interviews. The women in the social skills intervention group displayed improved consistent use of prophylactics, as well as greater sexual self-control, sexual communication, and sexual assertiveness, compared to the delayed HIV education control group. There were, however, no statistically significant differences in outcome variables between the HIV education group and the delayed HIV education control group. According to the researchers, the findings indicate that gender-relevant, culturally sensitive, community-based HIV risk-reduction programs that provide social skills training can increase consistent condom use.