Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 09:49:53 +0500 From: ghfostel{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghfostel}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 09/06/95 AIDS Daily Summary September 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 ************************************************************ "New Issue Update: Immune Response Corp." "Selling Syringes: The Swiss Experiment" "Blood Withdrawal to Cost $15-Million" "Gilead Sciences Announces VISTIDE Available Under Treatment IND Program for Patients With Relapsing CMV Retinitis" "Medizone Appoints Outside Director" "Women's NGO Forum Leaves Chinese Unmoved" "STD Control for HIV Prevention--It Works!" "New Indication for Foscarnet" "Esophageal Disease Profiled" "The Amityville Fixer-Upper" ************************************************************ "New Issue Update: Immune Response Corp." Investor's Business Daily (09/06/95) P. A6 The Japanese Patent Office has issued to inventors Dr. Jonas Salk and Dennis J. Carlo a patent which has been licensed to Immune Response Corp. of Carlsbad, Calif., for its HIV treatment product. The product has completed Phase I and II clinical trials, and was recommended by an advisory committee to continue to Phase III tests. Immune Response has already received a U.S. patent for this HIV therapy technology and has other international patent applications pending. "Selling Syringes: The Swiss Experiment" Wall Street Journal (09/06/95) P. A18; Ehrenfeld, Rachel Before further deliberating the decriminalization of drug use, U.S. policy makers should consider a three-year-old Swiss program which arose from the desire to reduce HIV infection among the country's 30,000 to 40,000 opiate addicts, writes Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of "NarcoTerrorism," in the Wall Street Journal. Because previous efforts to centralize Swiss addicts in large cities resulted in increased drug use, crime, violence and prostitution, the addicts are now in government-sponsored centers and "shooting galleries." In the program, which is scheduled to end in December 1996, heroin, morphine, and methadone are administered intravenously, orally, and by smoking. However, while the program design called for supervised injections and support services, Ehrenfeld claims she saw none when she analyzed one major distribution center. Although the program is supposed to reduce the number of addicts, there are no indications that the number has decreased, nor that violence and crime have decreased. Meanwhile, Swiss citizens are paying the bill for an increasing number of AIDS patients, welfare recipients, and police officers, Ehrenfeld concludes. "Blood Withdrawal to Cost $15-Million" Toronto Globe and Mail (09/05/95) P. A1; Picard, Andre The Canadian Red Cross' recent decision to recall products made with the blood of two donors stricken with a rare neurological disease will cost Canadian citizens approximately C$15 million. "The question is: Did the risk justify the cost?" asks William Dobson, executive director of the Canadian Blood Agency. Dobson says there was unanimous agreement that withdrawal of the blood products was necessary for safety reasons, but he is "concerned" about the high cost of the move. "Was there due diligence exercised in replacing these products?" he wonders. Indeed, the cost and the manner in which the recall was conducted have reopened a dispute about who controls the country's blood program--a central issue in the public inquiry into the HIV infection of Canada's blood supply. In this case, the Canadian Red Cross and Bayer Inc. voluntarily withdrew the products; however, the provinces are expected to pay for their actions. "Gilead Sciences Announces VISTIDE Available Under Treatment IND Program for Patients With Relapsing CMV Retinitis" Business Wire (09/05/95) Gilead Sciences, Inc.'s drug VISTIDE (cidofovir intravenous) is now available under a Treatment Investigational New Drug (IND) program for patients with relapsing cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis. Under the program, the drug will will be made widely available to AIDS patients whose CMV retinitis has progressed despite treatment with an approved therapy, or who cannot tolerate such treatment. Treatment IND programs are part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's effort to make encouraging investigational drugs available to patients with serious or life-threatening diseases. The rationale behind making VISTIDE available through a Treatment IND program is based on data suggesting that infrequent dosing of VISTIDE may delay the time to progression of CMV retinitis. Enrollment in the program began Sept. 5, 1995. Interested healthcare professionals and patients should called 1-800-GILEAD 5. "Medizone Appoints Outside Director" Business Wire (09/05/95) Medizone International Inc. has named Ken Gropper, president and CEO of Management Consulting Group Inc. of Boston, to its board of directors. The move comes after the recent approval of an amendment to the company's by-laws, which permitted an increase of the board of directors from three members to as many as seven. The firm is currently developing its ozone-based treatment, called MEDIZONE, for diseases caused by lipid enveloped viruses, including AIDS, hepatitis B, and herpes. "Women's NGO Forum Leaves Chinese Unmoved" Reuters (09/05/95); O'Neill, Mark Although political protests occur daily as part of a grassroots forum of women outside of Beijing, the demonstrations affect few of China's millions of citizens. Media censorship and strict security has guaranteed that few Chinese are aware of what takes place at the meeting of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). At this forum, women from around the world have protested the rape of Moroccan women; the imprisonment of Kuwaiti prisoners of war in Iraq; and human rights abuses, including those in China. However, little of the dissent carries over to the residents of rural Huairou, where the meeting was moved from Beijing earlier this year. Preparations for the meeting included spraying the site with large amounts of insecticide to eliminate mosquitos, although locals claim the precaution was supposed to prevent the spread of AIDS through insects that stung foreigners. In addition, one resident said, "Once the forum is over, the hotels in Huairou will be closed for four months to cleanse them of AIDS and all the diseases brought in by the foreigners." "STD Control for HIV Prevention--It Works!" Lancet (08/26/95) Vol. 346, No. 8974, P. 518; Laga, Marie Grosskurth et al.'s study of the control of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV infection in rural Tanzania shows that basic STD treatment, when integrated into primary healthcare services, can effect a significant reduction of HIV, writes Marie Laga of the Institute of Tropical Medicine's STD/HIV Research and Intervention Unit in Belgium. One of the most noteworthy results of this trial was that the greatest impact on HIV incidence occurred in females between the ages of 15 and 24, Laga notes. The potential for STD/HIV reduction is the highest among young women, who are at a greater risk for STDs and HIV due to both behavioral and biological reasons. The potential benefit of this study will rely of the prevalance of STDs in the population and the effectiveness of the STD program in place. Instead of concentrating efforts on further calculating the attributable risk of STD control, Laga concludes, the focus should now be placed on determining how best to treat STDs. "New Indication for Foscarnet" AIDS Alert (09/95) Vol. 10, No. 9, P. 120 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Astra USA Inc.'s injectable version of foscarnet sodium for the treatment of acyclovir-resistant herpes simplex virus, making it the first approved treatment for the resulting infection in immunocompromised individuals. The FDA based its approval of Foscavir Infection on a number of studies, including one published in the Aug. 22, 1991 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, which compared the drug's efficacy against that of vidarabine. "Esophageal Disease Profiled" AIDS Clinical Care (09/95) Vol. 7, No. 9, P. 77 A prospective study in Atlanta cataloged the etiology and course of esophageal ulceration in HIV-positive individuals who were diagnosed between 1990 and 1994. All 100 subjects had symptomatic esophageal ulcer identified on endoscopy, and the majority had longstanding HIV infection, with an average of 15 CD4 cells. The researchers tabulated syndromes including cytomegalovirus esophagitis in 50 subjects, herpes simplex esophagitis in nine, idiopathic esophageal ulceration in 41, and gastroesophageal reflux-associated ulceration in four. For the most part, clinical and endoscopic response to therapy was good, although 27 patients relapsed. These findings demonstrate the shifting microbial etiologies of HIV-related disorders and the need for specific tissue diagnoses. "The Amityville Fixer-Upper" New York (08/28/95) Vol. 28, No. 34, P. 30; Lippert-Martin, Kristen New York Gov. Pataki recently signed a bill that could make it easier for real-estate agents to get rid of "stigmatized property." The new "haunted-house law" states that it is no longer relevant to the sale of a home that a former occupant died from AIDS or that is was the site of a murder, suicide, or other crime.