                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      January 3, 1995

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
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Gambian Women May Have Rare AIDS Immunity"
"AIDS Is Brought Sadly Home to Canada's Indians"
"Blood Test of AIDS Prevents Many Infections"
"Way of the World in '95: Will a Cure Be Found for AIDS?"
"Making Days Live in Face of Death"
"Man with AIDS Gets 10 Years for Raping Boy"
"More Alberta Women Infected with AIDS"
"Survival and Disease Progression According to Gender of Patients
with HIV Infection"
"Mother to Child Transmission of Zidovudine-Resistant HIV-1"
"...As Tighter Research Links Urged"
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"Gambian Women May Have Rare AIDS Immunity"
Reuters (01/03/95);  Fox, Maggie
     British doctors say they have found a group of Gambian 
prostitutes who seem to have some kind a natural immunity to HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS.  Dr. Sarah Rowland-Jones, an 
immunologist at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, 
reported that the women--regular visitors to a British-run 
clinic--were known prostitutes who did not use condoms on a 
regular basis.  "We know they have been infected with the virus 
but we can't find it now," said Rowland-Jones.  "They probably 
get exposed to HIV at least once a month."  The six women all had
T-cells specific to HIV.  T-cells "are probably the main reason 
that people stay well for as long as they stay well during HIV 
infection," Rowland-Jones added.  The women have shown no sign of
HIV infection and are very healthy.  "The best hope is that they 
have cleared it but it is possible that they have a low-level 
infection that we cannot find," she said.  The doctors will start
working with researchers in Nairobi, who reported in October 1993
that 25 prostitutes seemed to have developed a natural immunity 
to HIV.  Related Story: Financial Times (01/02) P. 11
      
"AIDS Is Brought Sadly Home to Canada's Indians"
New York Times (01/03/95) P. A4;  Farnsworth, Clyde H.
     Canada's native leaders have issued a warning that AIDS is 
reaching epidemic proportions in their communities.  Dr. Jay 
Wortman, an AIDS consultant for Canada's Health Ministry, says 
AIDS has reached a level in the native community that is 
comparable to "the crisis situation experienced by the homosexual
population a few years ago."  Although statistics from one year 
ago showed only 93 cases among the 1 million natives out of more 
than 9,000 cases in an overall population of 27.4 million, health
officials believe that many other cases among natives are 
unreported or undiagnosed.  "Natives are reluctant to talk about 
sex and sexuality," said Dr. David Des Jardins, executive 
director of the Feather of Hope Aboriginal AIDS Prevention 
Society of Edmonton and Calgary.  "It brings up old wounds since 
many were abused sexually as children," a problem which experts 
say was partially caused by living in close quarters under 
difficult conditions.  Two other problems are the low self-esteem
many Indians suffer when forced to live hand-to-mouth in bigger 
towns and cities and the strong disapproval of homosexuality in 
the native community--which makes in difficult for many to come 
forward.
      
"Blood Test of AIDS Prevents Many Infections"
Washington Post (Health) (01/03/95) P. 15;  DiBacco, Thomas;  
Boodman, Sandra G.;  Colburn, Don et al
     The development of a blood test to detect HIV infection was "an 
incredible public health breakthrough," according to Anthony 
Fauci, chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious 
Diseases.  The Food and Drug Administration approved the ELISA 
HIV-antibody detection test in 1985.  Prior to that, thousands of
people had become HIV-infected after receiving transfusions from 
infected donors--many of whom did not even know they were 
infected.  Hemophiliacs were especially hard hit.  As many as 
half of the 20,000 hemophiliacs in the United States may have 
become infected between 1980 and 1985.  More than 2,700 have been
diagnosed with AIDS.  Only about 20 cases of transfusion-related 
HIV infection have been documented nationwide since 1985, 
however.  The risk of HIV infection from a blood transfusion is 
now estimated to be one in 225,000 for people receiving a single 
unit of blood.  The test has made even more of a difference in 
other countries.  For example, in some African cities, 10 percent
of the population is HIV-positive.  "I shudder to think what the 
infection prevalence would be in these countries without the 
test," said Fauci.
      
"Way of the World in '95: Will a Cure Be Found for AIDS?"
Financial Times (01/02/95) P. 11;  Cookson, Clive
     Although after 10 years of research costing billion of dollars, 
the available treatments for HIV and AIDS can do little more than
delay symptoms for a few months.  There have, however, recently 
been some exciting developments.  Researchers have discovered the
structure of a significant enzyme, called HIV integrase, which is
a promising target for new anti-HIV drugs.  There is clinical 
proof that combinations of two or more anti-HIV drugs have a more
powerful and longer-lasting effect than any one drug.  Such 
discoveries are raising hopes among AIDS researchers that there 
will be a breakthrough in 1995--such as a treatment that works 
better than AZT, or the first HIV vaccine.  Related Story: 
Washington Post (Health); (01/03) P. 15
      
"Making Days Live in Face of Death"
New York Times (01/02/95) P. 25;  Lee, Felicia R.
     In every major city, health care workers such as Deborah 
Sollod--the clinical nurse manager at the Robert Mapplethorpe 
Residential AIDS Treatment Facility in New York City--are facing 
an increasingly common type of AIDS patient: the poor drug addict
with a range of social problems.  Health care professionals, 
therefore, now must be concerned with not only medical bills and 
miracle cures, but food stamps, drug treatments, and housing.  
The epicenter of the AIDS epidemic with more than 70,000 cases, 
most of the new cases in New York City involve intravenous drug 
users.  The new patients are increasingly blacks and Hispanics 
whose illness is compounded by drug addiction, poverty and 
emotional problems.  For those who care for AIDS patients, 
turnover and burnout are high in AIDS nursing homes and in AIDS 
wards across the country.  "Personally, I have a hard time with 
it.  I don't like going to visit them in the hospital.  You fall 
in love with them.  Just because you're a nurse doesn't mean it's
easy," says Sollod.  She took the job because of a desire to help
and because it offered an chance to go into management.  "This 
was like a stepping stone to the AIDS community...There aren't a 
lot of people dedicating their career to it," she concludes.
      
"Man with AIDS Gets 10 Years for Raping Boy"
Philadelphia Inquirer (12/31/94) P. A7
     Zachary Halsell, who is HIV-infected, was sentenced to 10 years 
in prison for raping an eight-year-old boy.  Halsell, 29, plead 
guilty on Thursday to attempted murder, intentional exposure to 
AIDS, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and indecency with a 
child in exchange for the 10-year sentence.  If convicted on all 
charges, he could have faced life in prison.  The boy has tested 
negative for HIV.
      
"More Alberta Women Infected with AIDS"
Toronto Globe and Mail (12/30/94) P. A4
     Barry Breau, the executive director of the AIDS Network of 
Edmonton Society, said that an increasing number of women in 
Alberta, Canada, are becoming infected with AIDS and it will mean
that more babies are born with the disease.  Last year, doctors 
confirmed that three Alberta babies contracted AIDS in their 
mothers' wombs.  "They are certainly the first cases we've seen 
in Alberta, but this has happened across the country--in Toronto,
in Montreal, Vancouver," he said.  Breau advised that would-be 
mothers examine the sexual histories of their partners and be 
tested for AIDS themselves before getting pregnant.
      
"Survival and Disease Progression According to Gender of Patients
with HIV Infection"
Journal of the American Medical Association (12/28/94) Vol. 272, 
No. 24, P. 1915;  Melnick, Sandra L.;  Sherer, Renslow;  Louis, 
Thomas A. et al
     To compare disease progression and mortality between HIV-infected
men and women, Melnick et al studied 768 women and 3779 men at 17
community-based centers participating in the Terry Beirn 
Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA).  The 
women studied were more likely to be younger, African-American or
Hispanic, and more likely to have a history of injection drug use
than men.  The relative risk for death among women compared with 
men was 1.33 and for disease progression was 0.97.  While women 
were at increased risk of bacterial pneumonia, they were at a 
reduced risk for Kaposi's sarcoma and oral hairy leukoplakia.  
The increased risk of death and bacterial pneumonia for women 
compared to men was primarily found among women with a history of
intravenous drug use.  Women are at an increased risk of death 
but not disease progression, the study concluded.  Both men and 
women had were similarly at risk for opportunistic infections, 
but women were at an increased risk for bacterial pneumonia.  The
researchers suggest that the findings may reflect differences in 
access to health care and standard treatments or different 
socioeconomic status and social support for women compared to 
men.
      
"Mother to Child Transmission of Zidovudine-Resistant HIV-1"
Lancet (12/24/94-12/31/94) Vol. 344, No. 8939/8940, P. 1771;  
Siegrist, Claire-Anne;  Yerly, Sabine;  Kaiser Laurent et al
     Siegrist et al report the first case of neonatal infection by 
zidovudine-resistant HIV-1.  An HIV-1-infected woman with a CD4 
cell count of 176, recurrent herpes simplex, and severe cervical 
dysplasia received zidovudine for 15 months.  Treatment was 
stopped shortly before pregnancy, but re-introduced two weeks 
before delivery in hopes of reducing the risk of transmission.  
Zidovudine was administered during labor and to the infant for 
the first six weeks of its life.  At one week, the infant showed 
a weakly positive p24 antigenaemia.  When the baby was three 
months old, early and severe HIV-1 infection was confirmed.  
Tests of frozen samples from the mother revealed a viral genotype
of reverse transcriptase codon 215, and measures of the infant's 
serum showed a 215 mutant HIV-1 genotype.  The 215 mutant codon 
was present in the mother's system before pregnancy, which 
suggests the long persistence of the mutant strains even in the 
absence of drug pressure.  The detection of p24 antigen at seven 
days supports in utero rather than late perinatal transmission.  
The authors recommend that until previously treated mothers and 
infants can be safely offered combined therapies, that zidovudine
alone should not be prescribed without first showing the absence 
of drug-resistant variants.
      
"...As Tighter Research Links Urged"
Nature (12/15/94) Vol. 372, No. 6507, P. 587;  Lehrman, Sally
     Following an evaluation of HIV services and prevention, a task 
force created by the city and county of San Francisco on the HIV 
epidemic has concluded that AIDS researchers need to work more 
closely with those providing services and developing policy.  
While the group emphasized the importance of research in all 
areas of the city's response to the epidemic, it urged 
researchers at the University of California, San Francisco to 
work with community-based organizations.  The task force asked 
the Department of Health to establish research priorities, 
disseminate information, and increase research funding.  Michael 
S. Ascher, acting chief of the California State Virus Laboratory,
agrees that interaction between researchers and service providers
is necessary for studies to be relevant to the community.  
Researchers also need to work harder to address the changing 
demographics of AIDS as more women, homeless people and 
minorities become HIV-infected, said the group.  The report 
concluded that the lack of funding, the changing nature of the 
epidemic, and the growing need for long-term services are 
threatening the quality of San Francisco's system of AIDS care.
      
