Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary Date: Mon Feb 24 07:31:02 PST 1997 (183 lines) From: National AIDS Info Clearinghouse Copyright 1997, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD CDC AIDS Daily Summary February 24, 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 ****************************************************** "AIDS Campaign Dropped as Religion and Advertising Clash" "Patents: Drug Makers Test Thalidomide as a Treatment for Inflammations That Accompany Serious Diseases" "Tuberculosis Rate Drops" "In the Loop: Generally Speaking" "A Sticking Point" "Cloned Animals Offer Companies a Faster Path to New Drugs" "Editorial: Federal Funds for Clean Needles" "Syphilis Study's Victims May Get Apology" "Increase Reported in U.K. HIV-1 Infections" "New Treatments: Old Behaviors" ****************************************************** "AIDS Campaign Dropped as Religion and Advertising Clash" New York Times (02/24/97) P. A12 A public service campaign to raise support for AIDS research was canceled after complaints were filed that the slogan, "Prayer Won't Cure AIDS, Research Will," diminished the power of prayer. The campaign, sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research, prompted complaints in Dallas and Fort Worth, where the slogans were emblazoned on city buses. Two other slogans, "Red Ribbons Won't Cure AIDS," and "Sexual Abstinence Won't Cure AIDS," each followed by "Research Will," received little criticism. The campaign is being dropped in all the cities where it ran, including Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, and New York. David Miller, executive director of the Tarrant County chapter of the American Family Association, called the advertisement "a swipe in the face of praying people. We don't oppose AIDS research," he said, "but our beliefs shouldn't be offended." "Patents: Drug Makers Test Thalidomide as a Treatment for Inflammations That Accompany Serious Diseases" New York Times (02/24/97) P. B2; Chartrand, Sabra Thalidomide, a sedative which caused severe birth defects in thousands of babies whose mothers took the drug in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is now being tested by several companies for treatment of various conditions. The biotechnology company Celgene has been awarded a patent for Thalidomide derivatives that it says improve the drug's ability to suppress inflammations. The company is also testing the new formulation of the drug, re-named Selcid, in clinical trials to treat severe AIDS-related weight loss and rheumatoid arthritis. Other potential uses of Thalidomide include treatment for mouth ulcers in AIDS patients, macular degeneration, breast, prostate and brain cancer, and Kaposi's sarcoma. "Tuberculosis Rate Drops" New York Times (02/24/97) P. A17 New tuberculosis cases in Newark, N.J., which had the second highest rate of any major U.S. city in 1993, declined 37 percent last year, according to the National Tuberculosis Center. A federally funded program started in 1994 and operated by the center, based at the University of Medicine an Dentistry of New Jersey, is credited for the decrease. Center director Dr. Lee Reichman noted that in Jersey City, which did not have the program until this year, tuberculosis cases rose 28 percent from 1994 to 1996. "In the Loop: Generally Speaking" Washington Post (02/24/97) P. A17; Kamen, Al David Satcher, the first African American to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is an apparent nominee for the next surgeon general. "A Sticking Point" Philadelphia Inquirer (02/24/97) P. D1; Collins, Huntly Philadelphia's city-funded needle exchange program, called Prevention Point, exchanged more than 700,000 clean needles last year for used ones brought in by about 5,000 addicts. Public health officials say that such programs help reduce HIV transmission among injection drug users, and they were recently endorsed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and a panel of experts at the National Institutes of Health. Philadelphia's needle-exchange program, which is the only one in the region and the largest in the country, is staffed by two full-time workers and volunteers. As in other cities, the program has been criticized for encouraging illegal drug use and attracting drug addicts to the areas where needles are distributed. "Cloned Animals Offer Companies a Faster Path to New Drugs" New York Times (02/24/97) P. A15; Fisher, Lawrence M. The recent cloning of an adult sheep in Scotland by the Roslin Institute will most likely lead first to the cloning of transgenic animals, or animals that can serve as drug factories. PPL Therapeutics, a British biotechnology firm, owns the rights to the technology developed at Roslin for the production of genetically modified mammals capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk. Such transgenically-derived proteins are expected to be not only cheaper to produce, but also safer than blood-derived products because they will not transmit viruses, such as HIV and hepatitis. While transgenic animals are already being used to produce drugs, the cloning of such animals would be more efficient, since one large mammal can produce more protein in her milk than the large colonies of cells used now. "Editorial: Federal Funds for Clean Needles" New York Times (02/22/97) Citing a recent report from Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who endorsed the use of needle exchanges, a New York Times editorial calls upon the Clinton administration to lift the ban on federal funding for such programs. The editors note that several studies, including those by the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have concluded that needle exchanges help curb HIV transmission among injection drug users and do not increase drug use. The writers call on Clinton to have the courage to lift the ban despite anticipated criticism. "Syphilis Study's Victims May Get Apology" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (02/21/97) P. 4A The U.S. government may be preparing to offer a formal apology for using black men to study syphilis in Tuskegee, Ala., conducted between 1932 and 1972, said Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Satcher said the apology offered by President Clinton in 1995 to victims of secret radiation experiments may be replicated. "That's the kind of thing we would anticipate, but we don't know at this point what would happen," he said. As part of the Tuskegee experiment, government researchers did not treat 399 men with syphilis, in order to study how the disease is spread and how it kills. Many black people continue to distrust public health officials because of the feeling of betrayal created when the study became public in 1972. "Twenty years later, we are still wrestling with the damage that's been done," said Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and former U.S. health secretary. AIDS educator Sandra McDonald noted an upcoming HBO movie about the study may harm AIDS prevention efforts among blacks. "Increase Reported in U.K. HIV-1 Infections" Lancet (02/15/97) Vol. 349, No. 9050, P. 479; Morris, Kelly The annual rate of new HIV-1 infections in the United Kingdom reached a high of 2,896 in 1996, the Communicable Disease Surveillance Center reports. The number of new cases increased from 2,683 in 1995, with those attributed to sex between men rising 11 percent from 1,474 in 1995 to 1,634 in 1996. A total of 779 heterosexually acquired infections were reported in last year, mostly among people who contracted HIV outside the country. The number of AIDS cases reported in 1996 increased 18 percent from 1995, which the CDSC attributes to late reports received early in 1996. The rise in new infections may be linked to increased HIV testing, notes Barry Evans of the Public Health Laboratory Service. He suggests that "more people are getting diagnosed because they perceive there are better treatments for HIV." Evans also notes that prevention programs are effective but emphasizes that "efforts must be kept up." "New Treatments: Old Behaviors" Advocate (02/18/97) No. 727, P. 39; Gallagher, John As the promising benefits of protease inhibitors are heralded in the gay community, educators worry that reduced fear of AIDS will lead to an increase in risky behavior and new HIV infections as a result. "The potential is there for a resurgence of transmission," says Tom Coates, director of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. A study released last November found that one in six men aged 18 to 29 living in the South Beach section of Miami was infected with HIV. In addition, nearly 75 percent of the 157 gay and bisexual men surveyed reported having unprotected anal sex during the previous year. AIDS educators say they are now aware that the most effective way to reach young gay and bisexual men is to offer "HIV prevention as part of a program that meets a lot of different needs," according to Coates. At HIV prevention workshops at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, for example, participants discuss homophobia, relationships, substance abuse, and HIV. Increased emphasis is also being placed on the role of HIV-positive men in helping to reduce new infections.