AIDS Daily Summary April 11, 1996 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 National AIDS Clearinghouse, or any other organization. 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 ************************************************************ "Study Discounts Risk of Contracting TB on Airliners" "Cambridge Biotech to Transfer Assets in Regrouping Plan" "Across the USA: Pennsylvania" "Hospital Sued Over AIDS Test" "Emergence of a More Lethal Mutant HIV-1 Possible" "CDC Gives Good Grade to Saliva Diagnostic Systems..." "Senegalese Women's Group Combats AIDS Through Training" "Ultrafem to Proceed to Clinical Trials With BufferGel Technology to Offer Women Protection Against AIDS" "Baboon Graft Fails, But Patient Thrives" "From Freedom to Fear: When AIDS Hits China" ************************************************************ "Study Discounts Risk of Contracting TB on Airliners" Washington Post (04/11/96) P. A5 Although thousands of American airline passengers could be exposed to tuberculosis (TB), the risk is probably very low because fewer than 1 percent of people who come into contact with the TB bacteria this way become infected. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described one such incident in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. A Korean woman with active TB frequently coughed during a flight from Baltimore to Hawaii in 1994. The CDC found that four other people, who were sitting within a few rows of her, became infected during the trip from Chicago to Hawaii. Since the incident was reported last year, the CDC has received reports of 30 other air passengers with TB. The agency estimates that those cases represent one in every 9 million U.S. passengers, and that they may have exposed as many as 10,000 other travelers to TB during their flights. "Cambridge Biotech to Transfer Assets in Regrouping Plan" Wall Street Journal (04/11/96) P. A10 Cambridge Biotech Corp. announced that it will transfer a part of its business to a new company and sell the remainder to two concerns, in a plan to emerge from bankruptcy-law protection. The new company, Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, will develop products to stimulate the immune system for treating cancer and infectious diseases. Cambridge Biotech will sell its retroviral diagnostics, including tests for such diseases as AIDS, to bio-Merieux Vitek Inc., for $6.5 million. "Across the USA: Pennsylvania" USA Today (04/11/96) P. 8A Hundreds of AIDS activists, educators, union workers, and advocates for the homeless protested Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge's budget in Philadelphia and Harrisburg by smashing an effigy of him on Wednesday. The protesters took issue with planned cuts in health care programs. "Hospital Sued Over AIDS Test" United Press International (04/10/96) The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in federal court Wednesday charging that a suburban Chicago hospital tested a 33-year-old man for HIV without his consent. The suit, against Alexian Brothers Medical Center of Elk Grove Village, alleges that the facility and Dr. Joseph A. Lagatutta violated state and federal law by testing the man for HIV without informing him or asking for his consent. The man, who was admitted for minor surgery, discovered that he had been tested when he found charges for the test on his hospital bill. The suit charges that the hospital subjected the man to emotional distress, anxiety, embarrassment, and humiliation, as well as potential discrimination. "Emergence of a More Lethal Mutant HIV-1 Possible" Reuters (04/10/96) The discovery of a highly deadly strain of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in an animal model suggests the possibility of the emergence of a similar strain of HIV-1. Harold M. McClure and colleagues at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta studied a SIV variant that resulted in a lethal infection of a macaque used as a model for HIV-1 infection. He said that HIV-1 is known to replicate quickly and to change its genetic composition easily and frequently. McClure says the emergence of changes that would result in a more highly pathogenic or more readily transmittable HIV-1 strain "seem unlikely ... but [is] certainly possible." "CDC Gives Good Grade to Saliva Diagnostic Systems..." Business Wire (04/10/96) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that the Sero-Strip HIV 1/2, a rapid low-cost HIV antibody test developed by Saliva Diagnostic Systems Inc. (SDS), is as accurate as other, licensed HIV tests. The agency said the test, which does not require refrigeration or automated equipment, is useful for various field settings. The CDC bought additional tests for research in Atlanta and Kenya. SDS says similar findings around the world have led to increased sales of the test in Brazil, Turkey, England, and the Middle East. "Senegalese Women's Group Combats AIDS Through Training" PANA News Service (04/10/96) A Senegalese women's group has been running a training and education project for nearly two years to slow the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among illiterate and semi-literate women. The group has reached 800 women in three densely populated areas of the country, using visual aids, a training manual, and educational materials written in Wolof, Senegal's widely spoken language. The program targets urban and rural women and youths of both sexes with little or no training, widows, and single working women. A study conducted before the project established what was known about AIDS, as well as the practices and attitudes in the area. At that point, some people did not believe AIDS existed because they had not known a person who had it. Uneducated married women and young women were found to be especially vulnerable to HIV because they do not have control over the sexual practices of their husbands or sexual partners. "Ultrafem to Proceed to Clinical Trials With BufferGel Technology to Offer Women Protection Against AIDS" Business Wire (04/10/96) Ultrafem Inc. announced that its product, BufferGel, a vaginal microbicide for the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Phase I clinical trials. The trials will be sponsored by HIVNET, a network formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that supports trials for vaccines and other preventive measures to stop the spread of HIV. BufferGel is the first AIDS prevention technology to be chosen by HIVNET for clinical trials. The company is also working with ReProtect, LLC on a product that would combine BufferGel and a feminine hygiene product for contraception, prevention of diseases, and delivery of vaginal drug therapy to treat yeast infections and other conditions. "Baboon Graft Fails, But Patient Thrives" Nature Medicine (03/96) Vol. 2, No. 3, P. 259; Taylor, Robert The baboon bone marrow transplant received by AIDS patient Jeff Getty last December, in the hopes that the baboon's HIV-resistant immune cells would take hold in his body, failed to have the intended effect. The baboon cells did not harm Getty, however, and he is actually healthier now than before the procedure. Getty's doctors, Steven Deeks of the University of California at San Francisco and Suzanne Ildstad of the University of Pittsburgh, say the experiment was successful at showing the safety of the procedure. Other methods to improve immunity in people with HIV include treatment with regulatory cytokines; ex vivo culture and reinfusion of a patient's T-cells, possibly with genetic engineering to make them more resistant to the virus; and thymus tissue transplants from human donors. The thymus, often seriously damaged by HIV, is the organ where T-cells mature throughout childhood and adolescence. While drugs can allow T-cell counts to partly recover, thymus transplantation may replenish lost T-cells. Human trials of the procedure should begin at Duke University this spring. "From Freedom to Fear: When AIDS Hits China" Newsweek (04/01/96) Vol. 127, No. 14, P. 49; Cowley, Geoffrey; Laris, Michael; Hager, Mary Compared with other Eastern countries, China has experienced only a minor AIDS epidemic. Only 80 AIDS cases and 2,600 HIV infections were recorded as of last fall, and the health officials' estimate of 100,000 infections is still a tiny fraction of Thailand's estimated 1 million or India's 4 million cases. Economic growth, social change, and an unstable blood supply could pose serious problems for the country, however. The first Chinese to contract HIV were drug users in the southern Yunnan province, where HIV was passed with heroin across the borders from Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Now HIV is spreading via heterosexual contact, while free markets and open borders are bringing AIDS to coastal cities. Chinese peasants' increasing mobility from rural to urban areas, and their participation in the sex trade has, also contributed to the problem. Venereal diseases often go untreated, and thus increase the risk of HIV infection. Furthermore, the blood supply is risky because donors are paid for their blood, and screening and sterilization standards are at best sporadic. In an attempt to avert a full-blown epidemic, Beijing has undertaken a five-year prevention plan incorporating education, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and improved blood screening and sterilization of medical devices.