Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Tue Jan 7 11:23:26 PST 1997 (193 lines of text) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary January 7, 1997 The CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC. 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 ****************************************************** "First Protease Inhibitor Drug Designed for HIV-Infected Children Is Due Soon" "Drug Cleared for Trial With HIV Patients" "Estimated Number of Children Born With AIDS Transmitted by Mothers" "The Painful Truth About Euthanasia" "FDA Concedes Conflict in Policy" "Across the USA: New Jersey, Wisconsin" "Opinion: Clearing the Way for an AIDS Vaccine" "Interferon Sciences Raises $9.1 Million in Private Placement" "Ignoring the Solution. Jury's in: Needle Exchanges Slow the Spread of AIDS" "A Team Effort" ****************************************************** "First Protease Inhibitor Drug Designed for HIV-Infected Children Is Due Soon" Wall Street Journal (01/07/97) P. B6; Rundle, Rhonda L. A new protease inhibitor, the first one to be formulated for and tested in children, will become available free of charge for children age 2 to 13 via a program offered by Agouron Pharmaceuticals. Agouron has submitted its drug, Viracept, to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, seeking to market both a tablet for adults and a pediatric powder for children. Early trials of Viracept in children have suggested that the drug offers benefits similar to those seen in adults. The three protease inhibitors being sold now have shown great benefit for adults, but have not been approved for children. "Drug Cleared for Trial With HIV Patients" Baltimore Sun (01/07/97) P. 1C The Food and Drug Administration has approved the trial of an experimental immune therapy made by Cel-Sci in HIV-infected patients, the company announced. Cel-Sci said that its Multikine product, a combination of cytokines, will be evaluated for safety and positive immune response in a trial of 14 HIV-positive patients. The trial, to start late this month or early next, will be conducted by the non-profit AIDS Research Alliance of West Hollywood, CA. "Estimated Number of Children Born With AIDS Transmitted by Mothers" Washington Post--Health (01/07/97) P. 5 Over the last few years, the number of children born in the United States with HIV has declined dramatically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The agency said that about 90 percent of the children with AIDS were infected by their mothers, who were HIV-positive. The number of children infected by their mothers was highest in 1992, when it reached 905, and has since decreased 27 percent. The U.S. Public Health Service has issued recommendations to reduce perinatal transmission, including encouraging pregnant women to seek HIV counseling and testing as well as treatment with the drug AZT. "The Painful Truth About Euthanasia" Wall Street Journal (01/07/97) P. A16; Emanuel, Ezekiel J. Unlike the popular image of euthanasia, which suggests that the patient is experiencing severe pain, studies show that most patients in this situation cite psychological reasons for wanting to die, according to Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an associate professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. In a Wall Street Journal commentary, Emanuel cites a study of AIDS patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital which found that patients experiencing pain were less interested in euthanasia compared to those showing depression and hopelessness. Emanuel argues that the legalization of physician assisted-suicide would not help the majority of patients who die each year and would only provide a way for health-care professionals to avoid the difficulty of helping dying patients receive dignified care. "FDA Concedes Conflict in Policy" Washington Times (01/07/97) P. A10; Price, Joyce Officials at the Food and Drug Administration acknowledged that an agency program, which provides marijuana to medical patients, is inconsistent with the federal stance against new state laws that permit the use of the drug for medical purposes. Each month, eight patients with various medical conditions receive marijuana, grown at a federally funded facility at the University of Mississippi, through the FDA's "compassionate-use Investigative New Drug" program. Meanwhile, the federal Office of Drug Control Policy, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Justice Department are involved in a debate over the legality of medical-marijuana initiatives in Arizona and California, and they have said they will impose sanctions on doctors who prescribe the drug. Expansion of the government's marijuana program was cut off in 1992, when 13 patients were enrolled. Since then, the five AIDS patients in the program have died. "Across the USA: New Jersey, Wisconsin" USA Today (01/07/97) P. 10A An appeals court in Trenton, NJ, has awarded Frank and Debra Juliano $150,000 for their claim that they had experienced anxiety while waiting to determine if Frank had been infected with HIV by a hospital needle at Monmouth Medical Center. In Madison, WI, meanwhile, state legislators will likely deal with the issue of medical use of marijuana this session. Rep. Tammy Baldwin plans to introduce a bill allowing doctors to prescribe the drug in some cases. "Opinion: Clearing the Way for an AIDS Vaccine" New York Times (01/04/97); Weniger, Bruce G.; Essex, Max The recent appointment of Nobel laureate Dr. David Baltimore to head the United States' AIDS vaccine effort is not likely to solve the problems stalling this program, claim Bruce G. Weniger and Max Essex in a New York Times commentary. Weniger sits on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS, and Essex is chairman of the Harvard AIDS Institute. The authors point out that AIDS vaccine research receives less than 10 percent of the National Institutes of Health's AIDS budget and that the vaccine effort lacks an experienced senior official whose job is dedicated to vaccine development. Furthermore, they claim that the government's decision not to conduct human vaccine trials in 1994, despite approval from the NIH's vaccine advisory panel and $100 million of industry investment over eight years, virtually halted vaccine research in the industry. A single-purpose organization, led by an experienced vaccine scientist in close contact with industry, should lead the vaccine effort, Weniger and Essex contend. "Interferon Sciences Raises $9.1 Million in Private Placement" HealthWire (01/06/97) Interferon Sciences said Monday that it has raised nearly $9.1 million in a private placement. The funds will be used to increase the company's inventory of its Alferon N Injection product, a treatment for certain types of genital warts. The additional funding will also be used to expand Interferon Science's manufacturing facility to increase production capacity in hopes that Alferon N Injection is granted FDA approval for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. "Ignoring the Solution. Jury's in: Needle Exchanges Slow the Spread of AIDS" U.S. News & World Report (12/30/96-01/06/97) Vol. 121, No. 26, P. 55; Shenk, Joshua Wolf Needle exchange programs, which aim to protect injection drug users from HIV by offering addicts sterile syringes in exchange for used ones, have been shown to shown to work in numerous studies. The Clinton administration supports a ban on federal spending for the programs, but the National Academy of Sciences, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the General Accounting Office have all endorsed needle exchanges and are calling for increased government support of the programs. Studies show that the exchanges do not result in increased drug use, a concern cited by opponents. Besides reducing the spread of HIV and other bloodborne diseases, the programs also help addicts seek drug therapy. University of California researcher Peter Lurie estimates that nearly 10,000 lives could have been saved in the past few years had needle exchanges gained wider support. "A Team Effort" Time (12/30/96-01/06/97) Vol. 148, No. 29, P. 72 Many researchers have contributed to the advances in AIDS research over the last 15 years, and Time magazine profiles just a few in a special section on AIDS. Two of perhaps the most well-known scientists are Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo, who entered a legal battle in 1984 over who had discovered HIV. Montagnier is now promoting AIDS research and treatment centers in Africa, while Gallo has launched his own virology institute at the University of Maryland. Other stand-out researchers include Mary Guinan, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Paul Volberding, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, San Francisco, and the AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital; and Dr. Peter Piot, now head of UNAIDS. Guinan was among the first to sound the HIV awareness alarm, after having discovered through interviews with HIV-infected patients that the virus was transmitted both sexually and intravenously. Dr. Volberding, meanwhile, led important trials that demonstrated the benefits of AZT. He also was one of the first to call attention to the fact that gay men were increasingly coming down with Kaposi's sarcoma. The United Nation's Piot, for his part, is credited with, among other things, alerting researchers to HIV's spread through Africa's heterosexual population in the early 1980s. Correction: The address for Shawn Decker's web site was incorrect as published in the AIDS Daily Summary on Monday, January 6. The correct address is http://www.cfw.com:80/~sdecker/.