Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 11:11:31 PST (156 lines of text) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary January 16, 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 ****************************************************** "Clinton Drafts Budget on Familiar Lines" "Whitman-Walker Adopts Oral HIV Test Before Other Big AIDS Clinics" "Around the Nation: Addenda" "Search Begins for "Say No" Programs" "HIV-Positive Prostitute Faces Quarantine" "UPI Science News: [Hepatitis B Transmission]" "French Surgeon Infected Patient With AIDS" "Pakistan to Deport Spanish Woman AIDS Sufferer" "Russian Records Rise in HIV" "Investigators Seeking New Ways to Stem Rising Tide of Resistant Fungi" ****************************************************** "Clinton Drafts Budget on Familiar Lines" Wall Street Journal (01/16/97) P. A2; Calmes, Jackie; McGinley, Laurie President Clinton's budget proposal for fiscal year 1998 is similar to his request last year, with added funding for welfare and reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending. The plan includes a $40 million increase in spending for the Ryan White Care Act, which provides medical assistance and services to AIDS patients. Patient advocates, however, will likely be disappointed, having demanded even more funding for the program to cover the high cost of new AIDS drugs. Clinton, meanwhile, is also hoping to secure an additional $20 million in funding for HIV prevention efforts, and a 4 percent increase in the budget of the National Institutes of Health. "Whitman-Walker Adopts Oral HIV Test Before Other Big AIDS Clinics" Washington Post (01/16/97) P. D3; Goldstein, Amy Washington, D.C.'s Whitman-Walker Clinic has become the first major U.S. AIDS clinic to announce that it is switching from the standard blood test for HIV to a new test that uses oral fluid. Officials announced Wednesday that as of Feb. 1, only the new test, called OraSure, will be offered. The hope is that more people at risk for HIV will come to the clinic to get tested because it does not involve a needle and because it can be taken into the community, not performed only in medical settings. Studies have shown that OraSure, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June, is as accurate as the traditional blood test. "Around the Nation: Addenda" Washington Post (01/16/97) P. A14 San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club reopened Wednesday, allowing members to use marijuana legally for the first time since the 1930s. The club was permitted to reopen under the state's new medical marijuana law and a judge's order to sell the drug to patients with prescriptions. "Search Begins for 'Say No' Programs" Washington Times (01/16/97) P. A2; Wetzstein, Cheryl Questions are being raised about a provision in the new welfare law that allocates $50 million for sex-education programs which advocate only abstinence. The funds--to be matched by state, local, and private sources--will be distributed by the Department of Health and Human Services, which recently met to discuss the program. Health officials say that because such programs are rare, guidelines are needed to meet the requirements. Studies show that over 80 percent of Americans have had sex by age 19. Most Americans favor safer sex education to abstinence-only education to help protect teens from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, studies show that safer sex education/condom distribution programs do not always result in a decline in pregnancy or sexual activity. Studies of abstinence-only programs, though, have not been able to demonstrate that they "work" any better. Some officials, meanwhile, are also questioning the definition of "abstinence-only," asking whether "abstinence from sexual activity" means no kissing as well. "HIV-Positive Prostitute Faces Quarantine" United Press International (01/15/97) An HIV-positive Florida prostitute has been sentenced to a two-year quarantine in her home after pleading no contest to criminal transmission of HIV. Joann Moorehouse Guzman was arrested in August for propositioning an undercover officer; she later told police she had HIV. "UPI Science News: [Hepatitis B Transmission]" United Press International (01/15/97) Four British women contracted hepatitis B from their surgeons, even though the doctors tested negative for the disease. According to a report in today's New England Journal of Medicine, not everyone with the disease carries the marker. Those without the marker are thought to be less likely to transmit the disease. Researcher Julia Heptonstall says the policy should be reviewed in light of the new cases. "French Surgeon Infected Patient With AIDS" Reuters (01/15/97) An HIV-positive French woman most likely contracted the infection from her doctor during surgery, the French Health Ministry said Wednesday. The surgeon reportedly did not know he had HIV when he performed the operation five years ago. Out of 1,000 patients tested for HIV, only the woman was found to be infected. "Pakistan to Deport Spanish Woman AIDS Sufferer" Reuters (01/15/97) A Spanish woman with AIDS, who was arrested in Pakistan for drug-smuggling a year ago, has been acquitted of the charges and will be deported to Spain on Sunday. Police say Luisa Maria Martin is being deported because she lacks travel documents. "Russian Records Rise in HIV" Nature (01/09/97) Vol. 385, No. 6612, P. 108 The number of HIV-infected people in Russia nearly doubled in 1996, when 1,031 new infections were reported. The Interfax news agency said that a total of 2,316 infections have been registered since 1987. Most new infections are attributed to shared injection drug needles. A health ministry official warned that AIDS education efforts are impaired by insufficient funds. In Hungary, meanwhile, 606 new HIV cases were reported in 1996, bringing the country's total number of AIDS cases to 4,000. "Investigators Seeking New Ways to Stem Rising Tide of Resistant Fungi" Journal of the American Medical Association (01/01/97) Vol. 277, No. 1, P. 5; Stephenson, Joan Researchers are concerned about the increasing resistance of certain fungi to existing drugs. Fungal infections, including life-threatening ones once viewed as rare, are on the rise, due in part to the AIDS epidemic and advances in medical technology. "While we've become accustomed to appreciating the problems of antibacterial resistance, this level of resistance [by fungi] to antifungal drugs is historically unprecedented," notes Thomas J. Walsh, head of the immunocompromised host division of the National Cancer Institute. The number of drugs currently on the market for the treatment of fungal infections is small, primarily because of a perception once held by drug makers that life-threatening fungal infections were too rare to be profitable. Another obstacle in the development of new drugs is that fungi are eukaryotes, which makes it hard to develop medications that inhibit fungal growth without being too toxic. Now that the need for new drugs has become apparent, however, researchers are seeking to gain a better understanding of resistance and find new ways to attack and possibly kill, instead of merely inhibit, the microbes. Several drug makers--including Merck, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Janssen Pharmaceutica, and NeXstar Pharmaceuticals--are working on new agents, including a number of compounds aimed at the fungal cell wall.