Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Thu Feb 20 07:31:06 PST 1997 (177 lines) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD AIDS Daily Summary February 20, 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 ****************************************************** "Contamination Risk in a Clotting Factor" "Abreast of the Market: Agouron Pharmaceuticals" "Business Bulletin: Spring Break Finds Students Doing Good Deeds, Which May Help Their Resumes" "AIDS Research Ads Offend the Faithful" "Marijuana Needs Study, NIH Says" "Across the USA: Alaska" "Eric P. Goosby Named Acting AIDS Czar" "Science & Health Bulletin: Zimbabwe-AIDS Zimbabwe" "The Prevalence of Serum Antibody to Human Herpesvirus 8 (Kaposi Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus) Among HIV-Seropositive and High Risk HIV-Seronegative Women" "The 'Gallo Case': Popovic Strikes Back" ****************************************************** "Contamination Risk in a Clotting Factor" New York Times (02/20/97) P. A23 A clotting factor used by patients with a rare form of hemophilia may be contaminated with HIV, Alpha Therapeutic and the Food and Drug Administration are warning. Patients are being cautioned not to use lot CS6210A of clotting factor Profilnine SD. The product, one of several available to the 1,500 to 3,000 Americans with hemophilia B, was drawn from plasma that showed possible signs of HIV antibodies. FDA official Dr. Jay Epstein noted that a single inconclusive test result has prompted the product quarantine. "Abreast of the Market: Agouron Pharmaceuticals" Wall Street Journal (02/20/97) P. C2 Shares of Agouron Pharmaceuticals gained 1.5 to close at 97.5 on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday, on news that the company's European unit had requested marketing clearance from regulators for its anti-HIV drug Viracept. "Business Bulletin: Spring Break Finds Students Doing Good Deeds, Which May Help Their Resumes" Wall Street Journal (02/20/97) P. A1 Many college students are using spring break as an opportunity to volunteer, in hopes of building their resumes. Students from the University of Dayton in Ohio will volunteer to help AIDS patients, while those from Stonehill College in North Easton, MA, will travel to Nicaragua to work on construction projects. Habitat for Humanity International expects more than 5,000 students to volunteer this year, up from 1,000 in 1990. Rev. Ted Dziak of Boston College notes that while he "had to twist arms to get volunteers" a few years ago, now he has 80 applicants for 16 openings in a Jesuit-run program in Kingston, Jamaica. Debra Chomicka of Alverno College in Milwaukee says recruiters see service as a sign that students are "well-rounded." "AIDS Research Ads Offend the Faithful" Washington Times (02/20/97) P. A6 An ad campaign sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research was canceled following complaints that messages like "Prayer won't cure AIDS. Research will" offended people who believe in the power of prayer. Another message in the campaign, "Sexual abstinence won't cure AIDS. Research will" was also found offensive, the group said. AmFAR chairman Dr. Mathilde Krim said Wednesday that "since the complaints over two of the ads distract from our crucial message--that only medical research can generate true solutions to AIDS--we have agreed to discontinue the campaign." Religious leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where complaints were filed, noted that they do not disapprove of AIDS research, but they also feel that prayer and sexual abstinence should not be ignored. "Marijuana Needs Study, NIH Says" USA Today (02/20/97) P. 4D; Manning, Anita Possible therapeutic uses for marijuana include treatment for AIDS wasting, nausea associated with chemotherapy, glaucoma, and movement disorders, but more research is needed, scientists told a National Institutes of Health panel on Wednesday. The group, which is meeting to consider questions surrounding the medicinal use of marijuana, is expected to report its findings within a month. Robert Temple of the Food and Drug Administration noted that any study of marijuana is "complicated by political issues and strong prior beliefs ... we need to find a way to do objective study." "Across the USA: Alaska" USA Today (02/20/97) P. 6A School board members in Anchorage, AK, rejected a proposal to remove the book "Earthshine," which is about the child of a gay man with AIDS, from school library shelves. "Eric P. Goosby Named Acting AIDS Czar" Reuters (02/19/97) Dr. Eric P. Goosby, currently director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, has been named the Acting Director of National AIDS Policy, the White House said. Goosby was influential in the establishment of the Ryan White Care Act at the Health Resources and Service Administration and has been active in various HIV/AIDS organizations over the last 14 years. The position of Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy was previously held by Dr. Patricia Fleming. "Science & Health Bulletin: Zimbabwe-AIDS Zimbabwe" PANA Wire Service (02/19/97) Zimbabwe's population is not expected to increase much beyond its current 11 million in the next 30 years due to the continued spread of HIV, a new study shows. The prevalence of HIV in rural areas appears to be approaching the rate in urban areas, according to the Blair Research Institute and the Welcome Center for Infectious Diseases. Furthermore, survival chances for people aged 20 to 50 are expected to drop from over 80 percent to 20 percent, the Zimbabwe Public Health Association said. The association stressed the importance of targeting HIV prevention campaigns to people in rural communities. "The Prevalence of Serum Antibody to Human Herpesvirus 8 (Kaposi Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus) Among HIV-Seropositive and High Risk HIV-Seronegative Women" Journal of the American Medical Association (02/12/97) Vol. 277, No. 6, P. 478; Kedes, Dean H.; Ganem, Don; Ameli, Niloufar; et Kedes, Dean H. Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the most common neoplasm among AIDS patients, develops in 20 percent to 30 percent of homosexual and bisexual men with HIV but afflicts only 1 percent to 3 percent of HIV-infected women. Researchers suspect that a second sexually transmitted agent may be involved in KS etiology or pathogenesis. A new herpesvirus, called KS-associated herpesvirus or human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), has recently been identified. A test for HHV-8 infection has been developed and has been found to be strongly correlated with the risk for KS. Researchers, led by Dr. Ruth Greenblatt of the University of California, San Francisco, tested women at area HIV clinics to determine the prevalence of HHV-8 in women at risk for, or already infected with, HIV-1. From the study of 387 women, the researchers report that 4 percent of those infected with HIV were seropositive for HHV-8, compared to 1.2 percent of those not infected with HIV. The authors conclude that the lower prevalence of HHV-8 seropositivity among HIV-infected women compared to HIV-infected homosexual and bisexual men is consistent with the disparity between rates of KS among women and men with HIV. Furthermore, they say that the results add to the evidence that HHV-8 infection plays an important role in the development of KS. "The 'Gallo Case': Popovic Strikes Back" Science (02/14/97) Vol. 275, No. 5302, P. 920; Kaiser, Jocelyn Mikulas Popovic, an AIDS researcher who worked for Dr. Robert C. Gallo in the 1980s and was investigated for scientific misconduct, has re-opened the case that finally ended when he was cleared of the charges by an appeals board. Popovic was first investigated while working for Gallo at the National Institutes of Health in 1989, after Gallo was charged with stealing HIV from a French lab. The government soon dropped the misappropriation charges, but the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity concluded that Gallo and Popovic had made false statements in several articles published in Science in 1984. However, an appeals board cleared Popovic, leading the ORI to drop its case against Gallo. Last fall, Popovic filed a $5 million suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act against both the United States and fraud investigator Suzanne Hadley, charging that the "baseless" investigation had caused him "severe emotional stress" and forced his "exile from science for four years." The government has argued that the suit should be dismissed on technical grounds, including the fact that Popovic waited longer than the two-year statute of limitations to sue, and that several of his claims amount to libel or slander, from which the government has immunity.