Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Thu Jan 9 10:59:45 PST 1997 (165 lines of text) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary January 9, 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 ****************************************************** "Panel to Review AZT Use During Pregnancy" "Don't Forsake Homosexuals Who Want Help" "High Court Hears 2 Cases Involving Assisted Suicide" "Across the USA: California" "Science & Health Bulletin: Africa-Disease [Malaria, Ebola, and AIDS Pose Serious Threats]" "Florida Will Provide Protease Inhibitors to AIDS Patients" "Zambian AIDS Scourge Worries Policy Experts" "New AIDS Drugs Cut Death Rate Sharply, Data Show" "Collaboration Needed for HIV Vaccine Success" "Culture, Media, and HIV/AIDS in Asia" ****************************************************** "Panel to Review AZT Use During Pregnancy" Washington Post (01/09/97) P. A13 New evidence that the offspring of mice given high doses of AZT during pregnancy are at risk for cancer has raised concerns among federal health officials about the use of the drug for HIV-infected pregnant women. The National Institutes of Health will thus assemble a panel of AIDS and cancer experts next week to develop guidelines on the use of AZT during pregnancy. Health officials say that for now, pregnant women infected with HIV should continue taking the drug, which has been shown to significantly reduce the transmission of HIV to infants. High doses of the drug caused cancer in the baby mice, and pregnant women take much lower doses, said a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. No cases of cancer have been found in the children of women who took AZT during pregnancy. "Don't Forsake Homosexuals Who Want Help" Wall Street Journal (01/09/97) P. A12; Socarides, Charles; Kaufman, Benjamin; Nicolosi, Joseph; et al. Although treatment is available for men who experience an unwanted sexual attraction to other men, it is denied to many potential patients because of political pressure, claim the writers of an Wall Street Journal commentary. Charles Socarides, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and colleagues, contend that, without treatment, men with unwanted homosexual inclinations become depressed and turn to unprotected sex, increasing their risk for HIV infection. The authors cite as an example a study that found that 38 percent of homosexual adolescents had engaged in unprotected sex in the previous six months. Socarides et al. conclude that the lives of many men who died of AIDS could have been saved had their attempts to seek treatment for homosexuality been successful. "High Court Hears 2 Cases Involving Assisted Suicide" New York Times (01/09/97) P. A1; Greenhouse, Linda After hearing debates for and against the constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide on Wednesday, the Supreme Court Justices seemed reluctant to take on the issue. "Why shouldn't we conclude that as an institution, we are not in a position to make the judgment you want us to make?" Justice David H. Souter asked attorney Kathryn L. Tucker. The Seattle lawyer had argued that Washington state's law against physician-assisted suicide violates the rights of dying patients who seek a doctor's help in dying in a "humane and dignified manner." The Justices are expected to rule on the matter before the term ends in late June or early July. "Across the USA: California" USA Today (01/09/97) P. 6A A California judge has ruled that San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers' Club was not unlawful in providing marijuana to terminally ill patients. Dennis Peron, the founder of the club, says it will reopen next week. "Science & Health Bulletin: Africa-Disease [Malaria, Ebola, and AIDS Pose Serious Threats]" PANA Wire Service (01/08/97); Kayaya, Musengwa Malaria, Ebola, and AIDS pose serious threats in Africa, warns David Satcher, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the most recent issue of "Washington Line," a State Department publication. The malaria threat is especially serious, he said, because the traditional cure is not effective. Africa has been the region hardest-hit by AIDS so far, but the disease is now spreading at the most dramatic rate in Southeast Asia and India, according to the World Health Organization. The agency estimates that 40 million people worldwide will be affected by AIDS by the year 2000. "Florida Will Provide Protease Inhibitors to AIDS Patients" Reuters (01/08/97) Protease inhibitors will be made available to Florida's low-income HIV patients in April, under the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Florida expanded the program after the federal government said that it would double its $13 million allocation to the state. Florida is one of the last states in the nation to make the drugs available through the program. "Zambian AIDS Scourge Worries Policy Experts" Africa News Online (01/08/97) The loss of intellectual minds to AIDS is a growing concern in Zambia, as an increasing number of people involved in policy-making contract HIV. Some fear that the funds used to educate young people could be wasted if they die too young to use their training. The life expectancy in Zambia is expected to decrease from 51 to 45 by 2002, due to the spread of HIV. "New AIDS Drugs Cut Death Rate Sharply, Data Show" Reuters (01/07/97) The death rate among AIDS patients in British Columbia has decreased dramatically due to the use of new AIDS drugs. The death rate dropped from 70 individuals per 1,000 in 1994 to 23 per 1,000 at the end of 1996, officials announced. The success is attributed to new combination therapies that include protease inhibitors. "Collaboration Needed for HIV Vaccine Success" Journal of the American Medical Association (01/01/97) Vol. 277, No. 1, P. 9; Voelker, Rebecca Cooperation between government and private industry is critical to the development of a safe and effective vaccine against HIV, according to a report from the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. Government leadership is the "key ingredient" needed to advance the effort, the report said. "We were surprised to learn that, in most cases, government is the engine that drives industry and that industry research depends on government financing, government leadership, and government support," noted Chris Collins, one of the report's authors. The research, titled "Industry Investment in HIV Vaccine Research," is based on interviews with HIV vaccine researchers at 23 pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. In the study, some researchers blamed government bureaucracy and cumbersome regulations for blocking collaborations. The report calls for increased funding for HIV vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, as well as targeted funding toward answering scientific questions that could point to the most promising approaches. Determining the best approaches and focusing research efforts there could spur private-sector investment, the authors concluded. "Culture, Media, and HIV/AIDS in Asia" Lancet (01/04/97) Vol. 349, No. 9044, P. 52; Wolffers, Ivan Widespread HIV education is critical in Asia, where 42 percent of the world's estimated 40 million HIV-infected people are expected to live by the year 2000. HIV is most widely transmitted in Asia via heterosexual sex, but cultural constraints limit sex education in most Asian countries. In the past three years, researchers held a series of workshops in several Asian cities to evaluate the role of the media in HIV/AIDS awareness and education. The media was found to contribute to the public's misinformation about HIV prevention, in part by including the claim that HIV can only be transmitted through contaminated blood, or that HIV usually infects only injection drug users. The Asian culture, in which frank discussions of sex are taboo, was also found to pose a major problem for comprehensive HIV education. Dr. Ivan Wolffers of VU-University in the Netherlands analyzed the cultural factors and media influences blocking HIV education in Asia, and has concluded that the HIV epidemic requires societal change. Wolffers suggests that the media coordinate with grass-roots groups, politicians, and religious leaders to spark this difficult, yet critical, movement.