Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 17:44:25 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary 01/17/96 AIDS Daily Summary January 17, 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 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 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ***************************************************** "Justices Reject Challenge of Patent for AIDS Drug" "Doctors Tell of International Resurgence in a Variety of Infectious Diseases" "Hemophiliacs Warned About Tainted Plasma" "Top Educator has AIDS But Weighs New Office" "Across the USA: Massachusetts" "Highlights" "Meeting Aims to Heal AIDS Split" "Neurex Launches Phase III Program for SNX-111 for..." "Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie and HIV" "Biliary Cryptosporidiosis in HIV-infected People After the Waterborne Outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee" ****************************************************** "Justices Reject Challenge of Patent for AIDS Drug" New York Times (01/17/96) P. A14; Greenhouse, Linda The Supreme Court said it will not hear a case challenging an exclusive patent that has kept cheaper generic versions of AZT from being offered. Two generic drug makers challenged the validity of the patent held by Glaxo Wellcome since 1987, giving them a profitable monopoly on the drug. The company developed AZT in the mid-1980s, with help from a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 1991, Dr. Bernadine Healy--then-director of the NIH--joined the government in the patent challenge by arguing that a NIH scientist should have been named a joint inventor and the government had the right to grant other companies a license to make the drug. The NIH gave a generic drug company a license, but the company was sued by Burroughs for patent infringement. Burroughs won a 1994 ruling from a federal appeals court. The Clinton Administration told the Court that the decision was correct. "Doctors Tell of International Resurgence in a Variety of Infectious Diseases" New York Times (01/17/96) P. A16 Doctors in 21 countries published 242 studies Tuesday that show infectious diseases are making a comeback. Physicians once thought antibiotics would prevail over disease, but in the last 10 years new infections--like AIDS--have emerged and are killing hundreds of thousands of people, while older diseases--like tuberculosis--have re-emerged. In the United States, deaths from infectious disease jumped 58 percent in 12 years, from 41 deaths per 100,000 people in 1980 to 65 per 100,000 in 1992. Infectious diseases were the third leading cause of death for Americans in 1992. Dr. Robert Pinner of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the large increase over the 1980 mortality rate was attributable primarily to AIDS. "Hemophiliacs Warned About Tainted Plasma" Washington Post (01/17/96) P. A4 The Food and Drug Administration warned hemophiliacs not to use several batches of plasma after genetic tests showed that the clotting factor infected two patients with hepatitis A. A batch of Alphanate Factor VIII, made by Alpha Therapeutics Corp., was found to cause the infection. The company told sellers to stop offering the batch, lot number AP5014A, on Dec.8 because of a suspected risk. The FDA decided to go further and warn patients about the risk of infection as well, in case they already had the product at home. "Top Educator has AIDS But Weighs New Office" New York Times (01/17/96) P. A10; Egan, Timothy Judith Billings, the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has announced that she contracted AIDS through artificial insemination. Billings said that she may run for Congress, and put a public face on one of the most uncommon ways to become infected with the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said only seven similar cases are known, since most fertility clinics started routine testing of sperm around 1986, after Billings was infected. Billings, 56, says that drugs like AZT improved her strength and health. She was diagnosed with AIDS 10 months ago. Related Stories: Baltimore Sun (01/17) P.B8; USA Today (01/17) P.3A "Across the USA: Massachusetts" USA Today (01/17/96) P. 8A The Springfield City Council is deciding whether to initiate a needle exchange program to combat AIDS. Supporters say it would facilitate getting drug users into treatment, but others argue that western Massachusetts does not have enough treatment facilities. "Highlights" Washington Post (01/17/96) P. C4 A program called Positive: Life with HIV, part one in a four-part series, will air on public broadcasting tonight at 10:30 EST. The program is shown from the perspective of people living with HIV, examining the community and how issues of race and class affect people with HIV. "Meeting Aims to Heal AIDS Split" Miami Herald (01/16/96) P. 1B; Smith, Stephen AIDS experts from around the world held a two-day meeting in Miami Beach, discussing AIDS research and treatment, and promising to cooperate in the highly competitive field. Dr. Robert Gallo, whose role in discovering HIV has been controversial, led the group of 24 researchers. The controversial researcher, who is currently establishing an Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore, proposed the establishment of a high-tech network to connect experts worldwide and facilitate sharing of information about HIV and AIDS. The meeting was held at the home of Robert Gray, a Washington heavyweight who heads the International Cancer and AIDS Research Foundation and is working to raise $100 million for Gallo's institute. "Neurex Launches Phase III Program for SNX-111 for..." Business Wire (01/16/96) Neurex Corporation announced on Tuesday the start of Phase II/III clinical trials of SNX-111--an N-type neuron specific calcium blocker--for the treatment of severe pain in patients with cancer or AIDS. According to Paul Goddard, chairman and CEO of Neurex, "Results to date suggest that patients who are resistant to opioid therapy respond to SNX-111 therapy with significant reduction or elimination of pain symptoms." SNX-111 is being developed to work in conjunction with Medtronic's SynchroMed implantable pump for direct administration into spinal cord fluid. Trials of SNX-111 as a treatment for chronic, non-cancer pain and for the prevention of brain damage following head trauma or stroke are also in progress or are slated to begin this year. "Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie and HIV" POZ (12/95-01/96) P. 54; Davidson, Casey Henry Nicols is a 22-year-old hemophiliac who was infected with HIV at age 10. He and his family kept his condition a secret until Henry was 17, at which time he held a press conference and decided to tell his story as a community project towards becoming an Eagle Scout. Henry notes that until that time in 1991, he lived in fear of being exposed and rejected. "For so many years we had been hiding it. [My family and I had] been biting our tongues, and [was] paranoid because we were afraid someone would find out," he says. For the second portion of Henry's Eagle Scout project, Henry visited schools and met with children to teach them about AIDS in a nonjudgmental way. As a result of the success of that program, Henry and his sister now travel across the world to speak about safe sex. In addition, his life was featured in the HBO documentary, "Eagle Scout," last summer. "Biliary Cryptosporidiosis in HIV-infected People After the Waterborne Outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee" New England Journal of Medicine (01/04/96) Vol 334, No.1, P. 19; Vakil, Nimish; Schwartz, Steven; Buggy, Brian, P.; et al. In March 1993, a cryptosporidiosis outbreak occurred in Milwaukee, Wisc., when the municipal water supply was contaminated with cryptosporidium. Vakil et al. analyzed the clinical condition, CD4 cell count, and survival rate of a group of 82 HIV-infected patients who developed cryptosporidiosis during the outbreak. The authors report an increase, after the period of contamination, in the number of HIV-infected patients with cryptosporidiosis. One year after the outbreak, 17 percent of the patients with biliary symptoms and 52 percent of the patients without biliary symptoms had survived. Of the patients with biliary symptoms, 88 percent had CD4 counts less than 50, compared to 63 percent among those without biliary symptoms. The researchers concluded that HIV-infected patients with CD4 counts less than 50 per cubic millimeter who are exposed to cryptosporidium are at increased risk for biliary symptoms and for death within a year after that infection.