AIDS Daily Summary May 09, 1994 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD "AIDS Exhibit" Associated Press (05/08/94) Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry next year will host a 2,500-square-foot exhibit designed to educate children about AIDS. The exhibit will use colorful, book-like panels stretching from floor to ceiling to chart the course of HIV. It will target children aged nine to 12. "It's hard to believe that we are 13 years into the AIDS epidemic and an exhibit of this sort is just happening," said Mark Ishaug, public policy director for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Officials said the AIDS exhibit, which is scheduled to open in March, will be the first to hold a permanent place in a museum. The project is being made available through a $1 million grant from Abbot Laboratories, a health-care products firm in Chicago. Related Story: USA Today (05/09) P. 6A. "Across the USA: Colorado" USA Today (05/09/94) P. 6A In protest against the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality, four gay-rights advocates erected placards in Golden, Colo.'s Mount Olivet Cemetery reading, "Jesus Died of AIDS." The four activists were given probation for the misdeeds. "Uruguayan AIDS Cases Could Triple" United Press International (05/08/94) The number of AIDS cases in Uruguay will increase three-fold by 1997, according to a public health official. "We have slow growth for the moment," said Beatriz Rivas of Uruguay's Public Health Ministry. "But given the number of cases and carriers, the number will triple within three years." Currently, there are 450 documented AIDS cases and the number is expected to rise--especially among women, Rivas said. She noted that 25 percent of all current cases are already among women. Rivas concluded that AIDS education should be improved in order to avoid the spread of the disease, as well as to aid in efforts to treat those who are already infected. "Drug Firms Mix New Cocktails as AIDS Research Stalls" Reuters (05/08/94); Hirschler, Ben As a simple cure for AIDS continues to elude scientists, pharmaceutical firms are teaming up to mix potent new cocktails as possible treatments. Investigators hope that, by placing more spanners in the genetic clockwork of HIV, they can bring the virus to a halt. According to Dr. David Barry, head of Wellcome's worldwide research, development, and medical operations, existing data already indicates that two drugs work better than one. The aim of the new cocktails is to amplify this effect by using three drugs, with different mechanisms of action. "Dual therapy continues to show an improvement on monotherapy," Barry confirms, "but these particular studies are hoping to pick up really very major advances." To test the theory of triple-drug combinations, 16 companies grouped under the Inter-Company Collaboration on AIDS Drug Development (ICC) will study the combinations for the first time. The studies are expected to begin this summer, with results available in nine to 15 months, says Barry. Drugs to be tested include Hoffman La Roche's ddC and RO 31-8959, Boerhinger Ingelheim's Nevirapine, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s ddI and 3TC. The cornerstone of the triple combination therapies, however, remains AZT--despite controversial new findings. "Retrovir (AZT) is likely to remain the cornerstone because it's been around the longest and also because it seems to have the lowest potential for the development of resistance," explains Peter Laing, an analyst with U.S. investment bank Salomon Bros. "Mothers and AIDS" Associated Press (05/07/94); Trott, Robert W. Nanette Fay and the nine other women in the organization Mothers' Voices are linked through a common, tragic bond: all have lost a child to AIDS. The women make up the Massachusetts chapter of the support group, which makes panels for the Names Project quilt, and campaigns for greater awareness and government funding in the battle against AIDS. "There's an eagerness to our work," says Fay. "It's very tiring, what we do, but we all walk out very excited." The women also find the comfort of others who share the same pain. "You need to touch someone else who's in the same situation," Fay explains. "State AIDS Agency Chief to Leave for UM Post" Baltimore Sun (05/07/94) P. 2B Kathleen Edwards, head of Maryland's AIDS Administration for the past four years, announced that she will resign in July to take a position at the University of Maryland. The new head of the AIDS Administration, which is a division of the health department, will be appointed by the secretary of health. "On the Front Line of AIDS" Newsweek (05/09/94) Vol. 123 No. 19, P. 62; Ingrassia, Michele Infectious disease specialist Dr. Abraham Verghese had already witnessed the devastation wrought by AIDS when he settled in Johnson City, Tenn., in 1985, but he did not suspect that the big-city plague would surface in his new small hometown in the heart of the Bible belt. Overnight, however, Verghese was swamped by AIDS patients. Most of them were gay men, and many had left rural America in search of their sexual identity only to return to die at home. "I had an overwhelming sense that every case would end the same," Verghese remembers. The doctor no longer lives in Johnson City, but the frustrations with the limits of modern medicine that he experienced in his time there still haunt him. Now, he has channeled those emotions into a compelling book, "My Own Country." A chronicle of one doctor in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, the book is actually a cautionary tale about what happens when scientific hopes conflict with reality. "The most frustrating thing is to have a disease where all you can do is hold your patients' hands," explains Verghese. "But there is a salvation because you're forced to confront what it is to be a doctor." Verghese is currently chief of infectious diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas. "We still cry, but we have a strong sense that what we're doing here is worthwhile," he says of his work. "Maternal Antibody Response at Delivery and Perinatal Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in African Women" Lancet (04/23/94) Vol. 343, No. 8904, P. 1001; Lallemant, Marc; Baillou, Armelle; Nzingoula, Samuel et al. Prospective cohort studies show that 13 to 45 percent of pregnant women infected with HIV-1 pass the virus to their newborns. Factors that influence perinatal HIV transmission are not well understood, but drug studies to avoid transmission are underway. What is needed for prevention, counseling, and medical intervention is the ability to identify women who are most at risk of transmitting HIV to their babies. Lallemant et al. assessed 70 pregnant, HIV-positive African women in Brazzaville, Congo, exploring the relationship between maternal health, antibody levels to selected HIV structural antigens at delivery, and infant outcome. The researchers found that higher maternal antibody titres to peptides in the V3 region of gp120 and the immunodominant domain of gp41 were correlated with a higher risk for prenatal transmission. This association may provide additional insight into possible mechanisms of perinatal transmission, conclude Lallemant et al., as well as provide a powerful means of identifying women who would benefit the most from intervention trials to stop perinatal transmission.