Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 10:11:35 -0500 From: "Vaux, Lenore" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary, 10/28/96 AIDS Daily Summary Monday, October 28, 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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ****************************************************** "Loss Grows to $14.5 Million Amid Outlays for Viracept" "It Turns Out Novatek Bought a New Owner" "'When AIDS Hits Home'" "Boxing: Magic Criticizes Morrison's Return" "China Bans Item Tainted With HIV" "Voice in Wilderness Challenges AIDS Apathy" "On the Record: Richard Klausner" "S. African AIDS Infection Rate Spiraling" "The Relation of Virologic and Immunologic Markers to Clinical Outcomes After Nucleoside Therapy in HIV-Infected Adults With 200 to 500 CD4 Cells per Cubic Millimeter" "AIDS in a Medical Intensive Care Unit" ****************************************************** "Loss Grows to $14.5 Million Amid Outlays for Viracept" Wall Street Journal (10/28/96) P. B3 Agouron Pharmaceuticals reported a net loss of $14.5 million for the third-quarter, compared to a net loss of $2.5 million for the same period last year. Higher costs related to the development and commercialization of Agouron's anti-HIV drug Viracept were cited as reasons for the increase. Agouron is developing Viracept in collaboration with Hoffmann-La Roche. An Agouron spokesman said this quarter's earnings will be affected by the added investment as well, noting that the company is hoping for the drug's approval before June 1997. "It Turns Out Novatek Bought a New Owner" Washington Post--Washington Business (10/28/96) P. 31; Knight, Jerry A press release from Novatek International incorrectly reported last week that the medical supply company would acquire Medical Products, when in fact Medical Products has acquired Novatek. "Management attributes this error to the complexity of the transaction, as well as to the complexity of accounting rules governing such mergers," Novatek said. Novatek told its shareholders that it bought the company for $72 million in cash, stock, and debt, but the company's report to the SEC showed the price tag as $3 million in cash, $36 million in IOUs, and millions of shares of Novatek stock--thus making Medical Products the buyer, not Novatek. The press release was the firm's first response to probes by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nasdaq Stock Market, which has halted trading of Novatek stock. The SEC is investigating the Medical Products deal as well as the accuracy of Novatek's financial statements. Barron's recently reported that Novatek's William Trainor served time in a U.S. prison for violating his parole after pleading guilty to charges of fraud related to a New England home-building business. Trainor's name is not shown on Novatek filings with the SEC or on communications with shareholders. According to SEC reports, the company was also experiencing financial problems, and it was at risk for losing its Nasdaq listing, in part because of "outstanding checks in excess of bank balances." "'When AIDS Hits Home'" Washington Post (10/28/96) P. A20; Hager, Christine J. In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Christine J. Hagar of Rockville, Md. takes issue with some implications made in a recent Post article about the current state of the AIDS epidemic. She objects to the comparison of federal spending on heart disease and spending on AIDS, arguing that heart disease has been funded for a much longer time than AIDS and that AIDS affects a younger population. Hagar notes that AIDS research has increased knowledge about the immune system and opportunistic infections, and it has led to new treatments for immune disorders other than AIDS. "Boxing: Magic Criticizes Morrison's Return" Chicago Tribune (10/26/96) P. 3-2 Magic Johnson said he would not support the return of heavyweight Tommy Morrison, who is HIV-positive, to boxing, because of the risk involved. "I feel that he shouldn't be doing it because it's a blood sport," Johnson said. "If something were to happen, it would set the fight [against HIV and AIDS] back five to ten years." Morrison has announced that he will appear on the undercard of the George Foreman-Crawford Grimsley fight on Nov. 3 in Tokyo. "China Bans Item Tainted With HIV" Houston Chronicle (10/25/96) P. 31A A common blood product has been banned in China because it was found to be contaminated with HIV. On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry officially confirmed earlier reports that vials of Wolongsong brand blood albumin was tainted. The news comes as health officials are raising awareness of the threat of AIDS in China as well as the faulty blood system that attracts high-risk donors by offering payment for blood donations. The Health Ministry reported that 4,305 people were infected with HIV as of Sept. 1, up from 3,341 in 1995. Experts estimate that as many as 100,000 Chinese could be infected, however. "Voice in Wilderness Challenges AIDS Apathy" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (10/25/96) P. 5D; Freeman, Gregory Erise Williams Jr., executive director of the St. Louis organization Blacks Assisting Blacks Against AIDS, says his attempts to raise AIDS awareness in the African-American community have been largely ignored. A conference of black leaders from across the country was held last week by the Harvard AIDS Institute and others to deal with this issue. Henry Louis Gates Jr., of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute, another conference sponsor, said that many black leaders are "in a state of denial" about the AIDS epidemic. In the St. Louis area, blacks account for 60 percent of all HIV cases and 83 percent of the HIV cases in teen-agers. Of the infants born with HIV, 77 percent are African-American. State-wide, 33 percent of all HIV cases are in blacks, and most of the cases are attributed to unsafe sex. Williams says he has urged community leaders to take action against AIDS but that most have not cooperated. "On the Record: Richard Klausner" Chicago Tribune (10/27/96) P. 2-3; Schreuder, Cindy In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute, said that cancer research and AIDS research have enhanced each other because advances against AIDS have been based on studies of the viral causes of cancer. He also said that, while he does not think cancer will ever be completely eradicated, he hopes to ultimately be able to prevent or cure most instances of the disease. "S. African AIDS Infection Rate Spiraling" Reuters (10/25/96); Mnyandu, Ellis With one of the world's fastest-growing HIV rates, South Africa could have 5 million cases of infection by the year 2000. Clive Evian, director of a Johannesburg-based AIDS unit, said on Friday that the HIV infection rate for the country's sexually active population, currently between 6 percent and 12 percent, was doubling every two to three years. He criticized, moreover, the lack of comprehensive AIDS education programs and the $3 million musical sponsored by the Health Department earlier this year to raise AIDS awareness. "The Relation of Virologic and Immunologic Markers to Clinical Outcomes After Nucleoside Therapy in HIV-Infected Adults With 200 to 500 CD4 Cells per Cubic Millimeter" New England Journal of Medicine (10/10/96) Vol. 335, No. 15, P. 1091; Katzenstein, David A.; Hammer, Scott M.; Hughes, Michael Katzenstein, David A. Assessing the level of HIV RNA in the plasma is commonly used to monitor the activity of antiviral drugs. David Katzenstein, of the Stanford University Medical Center, and colleagues, examined changes in this measurement, along with CD4 cell counts, and viral phenotype, to determine the relation of these factors to clinical outcomes in HIV-infected patients participating in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study 175. The 391 patients included in the study were assigned to either monotherapy or combination therapy with the early antiretroviral drugs zidovudine, didanosine, and zalcitabine. It was found that higher HIV RNA concentrations, less suppression of HIV RNA by treatment, and the presence of the syncytium-inducing phenotype of HIV were significantly related to a higher risk of disease progression and death. The researchers thus concluded that changes in HIV RNA concentrations are useful predictors of changes in CD4 cell counts and survival after treatment, and they recommend that this measurement be used to monitor the use of antiretroviral drugs. "AIDS in a Medical Intensive Care Unit" Journal of the American Medical Association (10/16/96) Vol. 276, No. 15, P. 1240; Lazard, Thierry; Retel, Oliver; Guidet, Bertrand; et al. Because AIDS is a terminal illness, the benefit of admitting an AIDS patient to a hospital's medical intensive care unit (MICU) is questionable. To help doctors decide if an AIDS patient should be admitted to the MICU, Dr. Thierry Lazard, of the Hospital Saint-Antoine in Paris, and colleagues, studied the cases of 120 AIDS patients who were admitted to the hospital's MICU over a two-year period. The patients were diagnosed with either respiratory failure, central nervous dysfunction, pneumothorax, shock, or other conditions. Survival rates after MICU discharge were 86 percent at 1 week, and 39 percent at one year. The authors conclude that MICU mortality was related to immediate severity and the time between AIDS diagnosis and MICU admission. Long-term survival after MICU discharge was found to depend only on the severity of AIDS. They recommend, therefore, that doctors admit AIDS patients to the MICU based on the same criteria used for other patients.