From: Billi Goldberg <bigoldberg@igc.org>
Subject: CDC Summary 7/20/92
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-Number: 5741
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 20:55:10 PDT

                          AIDS Daily Summary
                           July 20, 1992 
 The Centers for Disease Control (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 
Clearinghouse, or any other organization.  Reproduction of this text is 
encouraged; however, copies may not be sold.  Copyright 1992, 
Information, Inc., Washington, DC 
************************************************************************
 "AIDS-Focused New Parties are Proposed at Conference" New York Times 
(07/20/92), P. A2  (Altman, Lawrence K.)
     The Eighth International Conference on AIDS began yesterday in  
Amsterdam and opened with a request from the chairman for the  
development of political parties devoted to AIDS and other  health-care 
issues.  Dr. Jonathan Mann, the conference chairman,  said that even 
though world leaders appear to be concerned about  health, "it receives 
second-class political tratment in almost  every country."  Mann added 
that the devastating AIDS epidemic is a stimulus for political parties 
"to get the political and social commitment to health that everyone says 
health deserves, yet  appears not to be the case."  The world needs to 
acknowledge that current efforts to curb the epidemic are not effective, 
said  Mann.  The negative social, religious, and political influences  
on the epidemic have not been sufficiently addressed, he said.   
Conference officials also indicated that they are considering  convening 
a panel to address reports about the possibility of a  new virus that 
causes a disease resembling AIDS.  The discovery  of a new AIDS-like 
virus could mean the need for new tests for  screening blood.  Related 
Story: Financial Times (07/20) P. 2;  Baltimore Sun (07/20) P. 3A; Los 
Angeles Times (07/20) P. A1 

"Symptoms in HIV-Free Patients Confound Doctors" Baltimore Sun 
(07/20/92), P. 3A
     Approximately a dozen people who have symptoms of AIDS but do not 
appear to be infected with HIV have been observed by researchers  in New 
York, California, and the Centers for Disease Control.   This discovery 
may indicate that there may be a new virus, or a  mutation of HIV, which 
cannot be found by conventional tests.   However, researchers emphasize 
that whatever causes these cases  is extremely uncommon.  Aside from the 
dozen cases, a half-dozen  others have been featured in international 
medical literature or  at scientific meetings over the same period.  Dr. 
Harold Jaffe,  assistant director for science of the CDC's AIDS 
division, said,  "It's clear that there are such patients.  It makes 
sense that  there could be another immunosuppressive retrovirus around.   
There are two [HIV-1 and HIV-2].  There could be three."  Dr.  Jeffrey 
Laurence, director of the laboratory for AIDS research at Cornell 
Medical College in New York, said that his team has  gathered data on 
five patients in New York exhibiting the  symptoms and that a paper on 
their study had been accepted for  publication by the Lancet.  Dr. 
Laurence and Dr. Jaffe both  stress that the new cases do not indicate 
that HIV is not the  cause of AIDS.  Safe sex, they emphasized, should 
still be  practiced. 

"Activists Protest at World AIDS Event" Philadelphia Inquirer 
(07/20/92), P. A3
     AIDS activists demonstrated by carrying coffins through the  
streets of Amsterdam yesterday and ruined a pharmaceutical  company's 
display at the start of the eighth International  Conference on AIDS.  
Hundreds of protesters attempted to enter  the event at the giant RAI 
conference center, but were denied  entrance peacefully by security 
guards. AIDS and gay rights  activists dumped 40 cardboard coffins in 
front of the U.S. and  other consulates to protest visa restrictions 
against AIDS  patients and those with HIV infection.  Demonstrators who 
wrecked the Astra Pharmaceutical Product's exhibit did so to protest the  
overpricing of company's AIDS drug, said Sarah Martin-Munley, the 
Massachusetts firm's associate director.  She mentioned that the  
company has a special access program that "should make the drug  free of 
charge to anybody who needs it..."   More than 10,000  people from 133 
countries attended the conference, which most of  the demonstrators 
praised as a means to further AIDS research.   The conference began 
yesterday with differing views on how best  to thwart the spread of HIV 
worldwide.  The meeting's chairman  and many other speakers proposed a 
widespread assault on the  discrimination and inequality that they claim 
are the true causes of the epidemic. 

"Wellcome Expects Good News on AIDS Drug Tests" Financial Times 
(07/20/92), P. 11  (Cookson, Clive)
     Positive news regarding the efficacy of AZT in treating AIDS,  
which is expected to be reported at the international conference  on 
AIDS in Amsterdam, will have a direct result on Wellcome's  
international share offer.   Wellcome hopes a study to be  released by 
Prof. David Cooper of the University of New South  Wales, Australia, 
will provide new findings that AZT helps slow  the onset of AIDS 
symptoms in HIV-positive people.  The company  needs such evidence to 
expand AZT sales.  The AIDS conference is  expected to feature a study 
demonstrating that a combination of  AZT and Acyclovir, Wellcome's best-
selling drugs, can extend the  life of people with advanced HIV 
infection.  Another conference  session will show that the level of 
medical concern about AZT's  side-effects is decreasing. 

"Focus Shifting in War on AIDS" Investor's Business Daily (07/20/92), P. 
1  (Shenot, Christine)
     At this week's Eighth International Conference on AIDS in  
Amsterdam, 10,000 experts, government officials, and others will  take a 
fresh look at the fight against AIDS.  While no major  discoveries are 
expected to be discussed during the conference,  scientists will be 
focusing on understanding how the virus works  and formulating a multi-
leveled approach to attacking it.   Scientists, still unable to pinpoint 
how to disable the virus,  are shifting their emphasis to test a variety 
of drugs, alone and in combination, to find out which work best at 
different stages  of the disease.  Attendees at the conference will 
learn about new drugs that inhibit the protease enzyme, potential 
vaccines for  "immunotherapy" in patients in the most preliminary stages 
of  HIV-infection, and less costly and less toxic treatments using an 
approach called gene therapy, which allows the body to  effectively 
launch its own war against the virus. 

"Controversy Continues to Rage on U.S. AIDS Funding, Policy" Investor's 
Business Daily (07/20/92), P. 2  (Shenot, Christine)
     The continued growth of the AIDS epidemic and the issue of public 
funding will be some of the most significant and contentious  topics 
beyond the arena of science and research at the Eighth  International 
Conference on AIDS.  According to the World Health  Organization, as 
many as 40 million people worldwide will be  infected with HIV by the 
year 2000, and 10 million more people  will have AIDS, up from 1.5 
million today.  The epidemic is  raging in Africa and spreading rapidly 
in regions of Asia, and  both countries are affected by strains of the 
virus that differ  from the most common strains in the West.  While many 
groups  argue that the U.S. government's AIDS funding and coordination 
of research on AIDS treatments is inadequate, others argue that  
disproportionate amounts are being spent on AIDS, as compared to  
cancer, which claims more lives.  Critics of the Bush  administration 
accuse it of inflating its accounting for AIDS  research spending, 
allegedly including in the proposed $1.31  billion 1993 AIDS research 
budget money for activities that are  never aspects of the budgets for 
other diseases. 

"At AIDS Research Unit, Pills and Hope Are in Large Supply" Philadelphia 
Inquirer (07/20/92), P. B1  (Collins, Huntly)
     The AIDS Clinical Trial Unit in Philadelphia, Pa., one of a  
nationwide network of 37 drug-trial units created by the federal  
government to test new AIDS drugs, hopes to enroll 500  HIV-infected 
people over the next four years.  Philadelphia,  which is the 10th 
ranking U.S. city in terms of number of AIDS  cases, is one of the few 
major metropolitan areas which had been  excluded from the government's 
seven-year-old drug testing  network.  The largest teaching hospitals in 
the city were  reluctant to become involved in the program during the 
early  stages of the AIDS epidemic, fearing the city would attract large 
numbers of uninsured AIDS patients, said Roy MacGregor, a  University of 
Pennsylvania medical professor who oversees the  program.  The new trial 
unit will test drugs to fight  tuberculosis in HIV-infected people and 
will study whether AZT  prevents the transmission of AIDS from mother to 
child in utero  and during birth.  Efforts are being made to encourage 
women,  minorities, and IV-drug users to enroll in the program.

"U.S. Forecasts Growth in Cases of AIDS, HIV" Wall Street Journal 
(07/20/92), P. B6  (Chase, Marilyn)
     The Centers for Disease Control announced at the Eighth  
International Conference on AIDS in Amsterdam that by 1995, there will 
be 240,000 to 335,000 people in the United States with HIV  infection or 
AIDS.  Also, Fred Hellinger of the U.S. Public  Health Service estimates 
that the cumulative cost of treating  people with HIV will increase from 
$10.3 billion this year to  $13.5 billion in 1995.  Treatment advances 
emphasize the trend  toward even greater needs.  For instance, children 
who contract  HIV from their mothers around the time of birth once lived 
only  to the age of two.  Many of those children now reach age six.   
"But that raises the question of how well we can cope with a  growing 
population" of such ill young people, said Dr. James  Curran, the CDC's 
expert on the epidemic.  One of the few hopeful studies featured at the 
meeting's start was a new CDC study of  teenage sexual behavior.  The 
survey found that since 1989, less  promiscuity and less sexual activity 
was evident among high  schoolers, indicating an increase in their 
knowledge about AIDS.  In addition, a study by the Journal of the 
American Medical  Association found that prostitutes who used 
contraceptive sponges with the chemical nonoxynol-9 were more likely to 
contract HIV,  probably due to irritated tissues that facilitated its  
transmission.  Related Story: Los Angeles Times (07/19) P. A1. 

"Sexual History Can Remain Secret, New Pamphlet Says" Toronto Globe and 
Mail (07/17/92), P. A11  (Khan, Treena)
     People with HIV infection do not have to disclose their status to 
sexual partners, according to a new pamphlet by a Toronto,  Canada, 
group for women who are infected with the virus.  The  pamphlet has 
raised questions among AIDS educators about whether  HIV-positive people 
have any legal or moral obligation to inform  their partners.  The 
pamphlet, issued last week in Toronto by  Voices of Positive Women, 
said, "It is up to you whether you say  that you are HIV-positive, as 
long as you use safer sex."   However, Toronto doctor Phil Berger, who 
treats AIDS patients,  objects to the pamphlet's message.  "Partners 
have a right to  know.  I believe people should be fully informed so 
they can make the decision to have safe sex or not to have sex," said 
Dr.  Berger.  In Canada, there is no law on disclosure, but those who  
test positive for HIV are given counseling urging them to inform  their 
partners, said Layne Verbeek, spokesman for the Ontario  Ministry of 
Health.  The Ontario Health Protection and Promotion  Act allows a 
medical officer to request that a person not expose  another person to 
infection, Verbeek said.  But orders are not  given unless a person has 
been reported engaging in risky  behavior.  However, a person who 
intentionally puts someone else  at risk of infection could be charged 
under the Criminal Code. 

"Popovic Defended by Technician" Science (06/19/92) Vol. 256, No. 5064, 
P. 1623  (Cohen, Jon)
     A researcher in Dr. Robert Gallo's lab has defended virologist  
Mikulas Popovic, who helped Gallo in his controversial isolation  of 
HIV.  The National Institutes of Health's Office of Scientific Integrity 
(OSI) stated in a report that Popovic committed four  counts of 
scientific misconduct.  The researcher, Elizabeth  Read-Connole, says 
that OSI investigators did not inquire about  her lab notes which were 
relevant to one of the four counts.  The OSI report issued to Assistant 
Secretary of Health and Human  Services James Mason suggested that 
Popovic arbitrarily  substituted his own reading of 10 percent of cells 
positive for  HIV in an immunofluorescence assay for Read-Connole's 
reading.   The OSI investigators interpreted an entry in Read-Connole's 
lab  notebook as "very few cells positive for rabbit antibody."  Since 
10 percent is not the same as "very few," the report says,  Popovic was 
potentially biasing the results by substituting his  own reading.  Read-
Connole says that what the OSI team  interpreted as one statement was 
actually two and that she never  made a prediction of the number of 
positive cells.  OSI director  Jules Hallum said that the team did not 
need to interview  Read-Connole because Popovic's "response is the only 
one that has significance--he was the senior author of the paper." 

"A Surprise Animal Model for AIDS" Science (06/19/92) Vol. 256, No. 
5064, P. 1630  (Palca, Joseph)
     Researchers from the University of Washington's Regional Primate  
Center in Seattle recently found that pigtail macaque monkeys can be 
successfully infected with HIV.  The team of researchers, led  by 
microbiologist Michael Agy, began attempting to infect pigtail white 
blood cells in the test tube with four different HIV-1  strains.  All 
four contaminated the pigtail white blood cells,  and demonstrated a 
particular affinity for CD4 cells.  The  researchers were so assured by 
their laboratory success they  wanted to try infecting two macaques.  
They removed some white  blood cells from each animal, mixed them with a 
strain of HIV-1  known as LAI, and then reinserted the cell and viral 
suspension  back into the animals.  Periodically, the researchers 
removed  white blood cells from the pigtails and mixed them with a cell  
line that is easily infected with HIV, and tested to see if the  macaque 
cells still contained infective virus.  The researchers  could identify 
the virus three to four weeks after infection, and both macaques had 
enlarged lymph nodes and fever.  The scientists injected six more 
pigtails with HIV-1.  All of the macaques not  only became infected but 
also exhibited symptoms typical of acute infection.  The research is 
particulary promising because  macaques are less expensive and are more 
abundant than  chimpanzees bred for research. 

"Vaccine Protection of Chimpanzees Against Challenge With  HIV-1-
Infected Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells" Science (06/19/92) Vol. 
256, No. 5064, P. 1687   (Fultz, Patricia N. et al.)
     An AIDS vaccine must be able to protect against infection by two  
viral forms due to the fact that HIV can be transmitted as  cell-free 
virus or as infected cells, write Patricia N. Fultz et  al. of the 
University of Alabama--Birmingham.  The researchers  immunized four 
chimpanzees, three of whom were protected against  intravenous challenge 
with peripheral blood mononuclear cells  (PBMC) from an HIV-positive 
chimpanzee for up to a year, and one  who died of unrelated causes.  
Nonhuman primates have been  successfully given vaccine-mediated 
protection against low doses  of cell-free HIV-1, HIV-2, or simian 
immunodeficiency virus  (SIV).  It is now demonstrated that multiple 
immunizations of  chimpanzees with HIV-1 antigens protected against 
infection with  cell-associated virus.  Protection can persist for 
extended  periods.  The results of the study show that it is possible to  
evoke a long-lasting protective immunity against cell-associated  HIV-1.  
However, the mechanism of protection of the three  chimpanzees against 
HIV-postive cells is unknown, conclude Fultz  et al. 

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