Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 10:51:37 -0400 From: "Flynn Mclean" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 08/30/96 AIDS Daily Summary August 30, 1996 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 National AIDS Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ****************************************************** "Japan Arrests Doctor in Case of Bad Blood" "Widow Asks Full Court to Review AIDS Case" "Baxter Sets Aside $68M for Immuno's HIV Costs" "'Hope Is Back in America'" "AIDS Fears Prompt Brothel Raids" "Risks and Rewards of One-Product Stocks" "Testing for TB" "HIV Testing Among Women Aged 18-44 Years--United States, 1991 and 1993" "Pneumocystis Pneumonia--Los Angeles" "Blood Safety Issues Working Group Convened" ****************************************************** "Japan Arrests Doctor in Case of Bad Blood" New York Times (08/30/96) P. A9; Pollack, Andrew A Japanese doctor and hemophilia expert was arrested Thursday on charges that he prescribed blood products to a patient knowing they carried the risk of HIV infection. Dr. Takeshi Abe, the head of a government panel on AIDS in the 1980s, has been accused with other officials of delaying the approval of heat-treated blood products even though evidence had suggested that they could prevent the spread of HIV. Law enforcement officials also raided the offices of the Ministry of Health and Welfare Thursday, and had previously raided the Green Cross Corp., a drug company involved in the distribution of tainted blood products. The activity suggests that criminal charges may be filed against current or former officials. "Widow Asks Full Court to Review AIDS Case" Journal of Commerce (08/30/96) P. 8A The widow of a man who died of AIDS in 1991 is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider the lawsuit she filed against a life insurance company that did not tell her husband he had HIV. A federal judge and a three-judge panel of an appeals court has already ruled in favor of the insurer, Jackson National Insurance. The company had refused to disclose why they found Frank Deramus medically unsuitable for increased coverage after he took a blood test in 1988. Jackson National said it was not legally responsible to advise Deramus of his results. Jody Deramus said she would seek a review from the Supreme Court if the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to hear her case. "Baxter Sets Aside $68M for Immuno's HIV Costs" Financial Times (08/30/96) P. 1; Green, Daniel To cover the potential costs of lawsuits brought by hemophiliacs against Immuno International, a company being acquired by Baxter International, the new parent is setting aside $68.5 million. Immuno makes blood products in Europe, as Baxter does in the United States. Both companies have been among the firms to face lawsuits by hemophiliacs infected with HIV. Settlements have been reached in the United States and Japan, but not in Europe. "'Hope Is Back in America'" Washington Post (08/30/96) P. A36 In President Clinton's acceptance speech Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention, he pointed to progress made in various areas of American society during his administration. Among them, he mentioned that "more rapid development of drugs to deal with HIV and AIDS and moving them to the market quicker have almost doubled life expectancy in only four years--and we are looking at no limit in sight to that. We'll keep going until normal life is returned to people who deal with this," he said. "AIDS Fears Prompt Brothel Raids" Toronto Globe and Mail (08/29/96) P. A12; Stackhouse, John In the capital of Nepal, and seven other Indian cities, 456 prostitutes including more than 100 children have been held in poor conditions for six months and have been subjected to HIV tests. The women and girls were taken from Bombay brothels during a raid ordered by the state court to clear the city of HIV-infected prostitutes. In response to a public outcry, the government allowed 124 Nepalese women and four of their children to return home, however. About 100 other Nepalese women refused to leave Bombay, saying they would return to their brothels. "Risks and Rewards of One-Product Stocks" Investor's Business Daily (08/30/96) P. A1; Gessel, Chris Dignity Partners, a San Francisco company that bought life insurance policies from people with HIV, was the first viatical settlement company to go public. Its stock peaked at 14.5 just after its IPO in February. After the approval of protease inhibitors, however, Dignity said it would no longer buy policies from AIDS patients, and its stock dropped 77 percent in one day. The company's experience illustrates the risks of investing in a company that relies on only one product. "Testing for TB" Financial Times (08/30/96) P. 16; Graham, Jill A new tuberculosis (TB) test, developed by the British company Biotec Laboratories, could have important implications for diagnosing the disease. The World Health Organization has declared TB a "global emergency," and accurate diagnosis is especially critical to treating the disease. The new test is a simple microbiological assay which a relatively unskilled person can perform. Moreover, it can detect TB within 10 hours. The test will be evaluated in feasibility studies in British labs and in third world countries. "HIV Testing Among Women Aged 18-44 Years--United States, 1991 and 1993" Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (08/30/96) Vol. 45, No. 34, P. 6 HIV testing and counseling is important for women so they can seek early treatment for themselves and reduce the risk of transmission to others, including their children. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information about HIV testing in women aged 18-44 based on interviews in 1991 and 1993 of women selected at random from the U.S. population. During those years, the proportion of women who said they had been tested for HIV rose from 18.8 percent to 31.8 percent, an increase of 60 percent. In both 1991 and 1993, higher percentages of black and Hispanic women, compared to white women, had been tested. Moreover, women with less than 12 years of education were more likely to be tested than more educated women, as were women living in poverty compared to those living at or above the poverty level. In 1991, women who had given birth in the past five years were more likely than others to be tested for HIV. Among them, Hispanics and blacks, women with less than 12 years of education, and those living in poverty were again more likely to be tested. The rate of testing was about double in never-married women who had given birth in the past five years, compared to all married women in the age group. "Pneumocystis Pneumonia--Los Angeles" Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (08/30/96) Vol. 45, No. 34, P. 1; Gottlieb, M.S.; Schanker, H.M.; Fan, P.T.; et al. The first published report of what later became known as AIDS was published by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on June 4, 1981, and reprinted today. Dr. M.S. Gottlieb and colleagues reported that between October 1980 and May 1981, five homosexual men were treated for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) at three Los Angeles hospitals. Two of them died. All five had evidence of cytomegalovirus infection and candidal mucosal infection. Diagnosis of PCP was confirmed in all five. The men did not know each other or know of sexual partners who had similar illnesses. Two of the men reported having frequent homosexual contacts with various partners. Three of the men had very low in vitro proliferative responses to mitogens and antigens. In a new editorial note, the authors point out that PCP in previously health men with no other apparent underlying immunodeficiency is very rare. They suggest there may be a link between the disease and some aspect of the homosexual lifestyle. They concluded that the evidence points to the possibility of a cellular-immune dysfunction related to a common exposure that predisposes an individual to opportunistic infections. "Blood Safety Issues Working Group Convened" Lancet (08/24/96) Vol. 348, No. 9026, P. 540; Bayer, Ronald A meeting held in Italy in July launched a two-year inquiry into the tainted-blood tragedies in several countries that resulted in people becoming infected with HIV through contaminated blood products. Doctors, social scientists, and blood safety experts attended the meeting, sponsored by both the Japan Foundation's Center for Global Partnership and the Toyota Foundation. The group explored the policy responses of 12 countries to evidence presented in the 1980s that HIV posed a threat to the blood supply. Some countries developed safeguards more quickly than others during the period before HIV-antibody tests were available. These precautions included excluding high-risk donors, conducting surrogate testing for hepatitis B antibody, heat treating clotting factors, and recalling potentially contaminated blood products. Meeting participants also considered the emergence of advocacy groups calling for compensation of HIV-infected hemophiliacs, and they tried to determine why some efforts were more successful than others. At future meetings, the group plans to discuss the legal, ethical, and political factors that account for the differing national responses to the threat of HIV in the blood supply. The AIDS Daily Summary will not be published on Monday, September 2, 1996, in observance of Labor Day. Publication will resume on Tuesday, September 3.