Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 10:06:03 +0500 From: ghfostel{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghfostel}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 10/04/95 AIDS Daily Summary October 4, 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 ************************************************************ "Report Says Plan Would Hurt AIDS Care" "Across the USA: Nebraska" "Basketball: Taiwanese Are Wary of Johnson's Arrival" "Japan Courts Due to Propose Compromise on HIV Case" "Book Notes: New AIDS Authors and Subjects" "French AIDS Blood Scandal Probe Widens" "Gilead Sciences Announces Submission of Vistide New Drug Application for the Treatment of CMV Retinitis" "Video Nets, Ticketmaster Fight AIDS" "AT&T Network Notes Gives AIDS Researchers New Way to Collaborate" "'Making Men Listen'" ************************************************************ "Report Says Plan Would Hurt AIDS Care" New York Times (10/04/95) P. B1; Fein, Esther B. HIV-infected individuals could experience significant health problems by being forced into Medicaid managed care, according to a new report by AIDS advocates. Virtually none of the physicians in New York City's managed care system have worked with people with HIV or AIDS, they claim. "If these people are forced into managed care plans, it will result in significant morbidity or mortality because we don't have the proper services in place," said Dr. Victoria L. Sharp, director of the Spellman Center for HIV Related Diseases at St. Clare's Hospital in Manhattan. Currently, most infected patients are treated by clinics or individual physicians who are reimbursed by Medicaid on a fee-for-service basis. A survey by the Women's Advocacy Group of Housing Works reveals that 95 percent of the Medicaid managed care plans in New York City were not able to refer callers to a primary care physician with HIV and AIDS experience. The volunteers who conducted the poll--mostly HIV-positive women--said they were horrified by the shortage of doctors, as well as their dismissive and arrogant attitudes. "Across the USA: Nebraska" USA Today (10/04/95) P. 11A A judge in Lincoln, Neb., has ruled that a three-year-old child should not be removed from his foster parents' home just because one of them tested HIV-positive. "Basketball: Taiwanese Are Wary of Johnson's Arrival" New York Times (10/04/95) P. B10 Health authorities in Taiwan say they have not yet decided whether to allow basketball great Magic Johnson, who is HIV-positive, to visit their country with his touring basketball team. By law, the government of Taiwan may prohibit people who have HIV or AIDS from entering the country. Johnson and his players were scheduled to arrive in Taipei on Oct. 30 and play a few exhibition games against the country's basketball team before leaving on Nov. 2. "Japan Courts Due to Propose Compromise on HIV Case" Reuters (10/04/95); Yoshikawa, Miho Two Japanese courts are due to offer an out-of-court settlement this week to civil suits filed six years ago by hemophiliacs who became HIV-infected from tainted imported blood products, newspapers report. The hemophiliacs have requested compensation from both the state and five drug makers for having been infected by the contaminated blood products. The Tokyo District Court and the Osaka District Court are expected to suggest a compromise in which the state and the pharmaceutical firms pay each of the 219 plaintiffs 45 million yen, or $450,000--the largest settlement ever paid in a drug-related case. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the compromise would likely ask the state to cover 40 percent of the payment and would probably acknowledge the Japanese government's responsibility for not taking action sooner. "Book Notes: New AIDS Authors and Subjects" New York Times (10/04/95) P. C19; Tabor, Mary B.W. In the coming months, various divisions of Simon & Schuster will publish a number of HIV-related books. This fall, Pocket Books will publish "The HIV Drug Book," a guide to AIDS drugs and treatments compiled by the HIV and AIDS treatment and advocacy group Project Inform. In November, meanwhile, Jossey-Bass will offer "Sometimes My Heart Goes Numb: Love and Caregiving in a Time of AIDS," by Charles Garfield. Finally, AIDS activist Mary Fisher's book "My Name Is Mary: A Memoir," will be put out by Scribner in January. Simon & Schuster and its imprints are also introducing several CD-ROM items and audio titles related to HIV and AIDS. "French AIDS Blood Scandal Probe Widens" Reuters (10/03/95) Robert Netter and Jacques Roux, two former French officials who have been convicted of fraud in the country's HIV-tainted blood products scandal, will now be investigated on poisoning claims, sources say. The probe was reopened after friends and relatives of the more than 1,250 hemophiliacs who became HIV-infected by tainted blood products in the mid-1980s repeatedly complained to justice officials that those individuals targeted in the initial investigation had not been adequately disciplined. According to the judicial sources, Netter and Roux will be investigated in their role in France's delay in initiating the HIV screening of donated blood in 1985. "Gilead Sciences Announces Submission of Vistide New Drug Application for the Treatment of CMV Retinitis" Business Wire (10/03/95) Gilead Sciences, Inc. has submitted a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for VISTIDE (cidofovir intravenous) to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in AIDS patients. The application to market the drug in the United States includes efficacy and safety data from two controlled clinical studies. It also provides safety data from Phase I/II studies and an interim analysis of a continuing study of VISTIDE in previously untreated CMV retinitis patients that is being run by the Studies of the Ocular Complications of AIDS research group. Gilead is also preparing to file for similar marketing approval for VISTIDE in Europe and Canada, based upon these data. "Video Nets, Ticketmaster Fight AIDS" Billboard (10/07/95) Vol. 107, No. 40, P. 6; Atwood, Brett Three music video networks have united with LIFEbeat and Ticketmaster to raise funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. VH1, MTV, and BET will air a series of promotions that are intended to educate cable viewers about the risks of HIV and solicit donations for the nonprofit LIFEbeat organization. VH1 has already aired two fundraising concerts for the organization, raising a total of $600,000 for AIDS education and awareness and donating about $150,000 worth of television production expenses. Tim Rosta, executive director of LIFEbeat, says he expects about $350,000 of this year's $500,000 total to go to various community-based AIDS/HIV groups. In addition, LIFEbeat is planning "UrbanAIDS 4 LIFEbeat," a concert aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS in the African-American and Latino communities. Proceeds from this concert, which will air on MTV and BET, will be used to help community-based AIDS service providers that address the immediate needs of such communities. "AT&T Network Notes Gives AIDS Researchers New Way to Collaborate" Network World (09/11/95) Vol. 12, No. 37, P. 29; Timmins, Annmarie AT&T's new Network Notes and one of its early customers, ImmuNet, a nonprofit group that provides AIDS professionals with electronic work space, have streamlined the communication process between people who deal with AIDS. Patrick Cosson, ImmuNet's director of marketing, has suggested a project that would allow researchers share data with ImmuNet databases using a connection to Network Notes. "Our notion is fewer servers, more users per server...AT&T Network Notes provides us that," said Mark Johnson, founder of ImmuNet and CEO of Notes reseller MFJ International. Using the Internet is an alternative, Cosson said; however, its security and reliability are debatable. Cosson estimates that about 100 people have used ImmuNet's resources, which include directories of clinical trials, AIDS-related resources, and AIDS service organizations. "'Making Men Listen'" Newsweek (09/25/95) Vol. 126, No. 13, P. 52; Bogert, Carroll; Chubbuck, Katharine; Hammer, Joshua Women are increasingly asserting themselves in Africa, where nearly 70 percent of the world's HIV-infected people reside. "The AIDS crisis is making men listen to women," says Dan Odallo of Population Communication Services in Kenya. The resulting empowerment is critical because, according to the World Health Organization, the rate of HIV infection is higher for women than for men in most African nations, and because in several large cities, one in three pregnant women has HIV. These women are overwhelmingly monogamous and have contracted the disease from their husbands who, following African tradition, are not so faithful. "Women have to be able to protect themselves, to have enough power to say no or to insist on using a condom," observes Judith Senderowitz, a reproductive-health consultant to the United Nations. The push for independence and "sexual freedom" has resulted in the increased momentum of local feminist movements, the opposition by many of female mutilation and other violence against women, and in some nations, the acquisition of high-profile jobs by women in government or powerful nongovernmental organizations.