                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      January 26, 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
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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Russia May Require HIV Tests for Visitors"
"Malaysians to Get AIDS New Year Message"
"L. Berner, 54, AIDS Activist"
"Health-Conscious Latinos Tune in to Voice of Authority"
"Celgene Opens San Francisco Clinical Site For Phase II Study of 
Thalidomide for Cachexia"
"Judge Throws Out Suit Against AIDS Educator"
"PSICOR Announces Participation in Hyperthermia Trials for AIDS 
Patients"
"Briefs: HIV-Infected Teacher Takes Leave"
"Studies in Subjects with Long-Term Nonprogressive Human 
Immunodeficiency Virus Infection"
"Viral Dynamics in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
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"Russia May Require HIV Tests for Visitors"
USA Today (01/26/95) P. 4D;  Sloan, Gene
     In addition to the $20 fee that U.S. citizens will have to pay in
order obtain a visa to go to Russia, the country is considering 
whether to test all incoming visitors for HIV.  Those who test 
positive would be immediately deported.  The proposed law has 
been approved by one house of the Russian parliament, but still 
needs approval from the other house and from President Yeltsin.  
Currently, 42 countries require HIV tests for at least some types
of visitors, although most of the requirements only apply to 
visitors seeking work or arriving for extended stays.
      
"Malaysians to Get AIDS New Year Message"
Reuters (01/26/95)
     Malaysians visiting Thai bordertowns during the Chinese New Year 
holidays next week will receive the traditional "ang pow" 
packets.  This year, instead of the money given by Chinese to 
children and single people for good luck, the packets will 
contain the message "Beware of AIDS."  Malaysians are some of the
biggest customers of the many brothels that thrive in Thai towns 
across the Malaysian border.
      
"L. Berner, 54, AIDS Activist"
Philadelphia Inquirer (01/26/95) P. B7
     Lawrence Berner, an American with AIDS who publicized his 
condition to promote AIDS awareness in Japan, died on Wednesday 
in a Tokyo hospital from AIDS-related complications.  Last year, 
Berner, an English teacher, became one of the few AIDS patients 
in Japan to publicly announce his condition.  He counseled AIDS 
patients and hoped to change the fact that most HIV-infected 
Japanese hide their condition because of the prevalent 
discrimination against people with HIV.  He said that his boss at
an unidentified international organization tried to fire him 
after he announced he had AIDS.  A native of Arkansas, Berner 
went to Japan in 1984 after working as a volunteer AIDS counselor
at the Lesbian and Gay Counseling Agency in San Francisco.
      
"Health-Conscious Latinos Tune in to Voice of Authority"
Washington Post--Montgomery Weekly (01/26/95) P. Md.1;  
Constable, Pamela
     Elmer Huerta is easily the best-known and most trusted Latino 
physician in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.  A 
full-time physician specializing in cancer prevention at the 
Washington Hospital Center, Huerta is the host of the weekly 
radio show, "Cuidando su Salud," or "Taking Care of Your Health,"
on Radio Borinquen in Laurel, Md.  Officials at Borinquen 
estimate that 180,000 people listen in to Huerta's daily 
messages.  Huerta's health spots deal with topics ranging from 
proper condom use to avoiding miracle-cure quacks.  One spot on 
AIDS prevention featured a popular song with a woman insisting 
that her reluctant date "put on his sombrero."  Last July, Huerta
was hired by the Washington Cancer Institute to run its new 
screening clinic for Latinos.  The clinic now has a three-month 
waiting list, and more than 80 percent of the patients said they 
came because they heard Huerta on Radio Borinquen.
      
"Celgene Opens San Francisco Clinical Site For Phase II Study of 
Thalidomide for Cachexia"
PR Newswire (01/25/95)
     Celgene Corp. has announced that it will begin enrolling patients
in a Phase II study of thalidomide against cachexia to be 
conducted at San Francisco General Hospital.  The other three 
centers are The Rockefeller University in New York City, Thomas 
Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and Marin County Specialty 
Clinic.  Celgene holds an exclusive license for thalidomide use 
against disease states linked to tumor necrosis factor alpha.  
This study is thought to be the first double-blind, 
placebo-controlled study in the United States testing thalidomide
as a corporate-sponsored  investigational new drug.  Cachexia is 
an emaciating condition that results in significant weight loss 
in patients with advanced AIDS.
      
"Judge Throws Out Suit Against AIDS Educator"
Boston Globe (01/25/95) P. 20;  Rakowsky, Judy
     A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two 
Chelmsford, Mass., high school students and their parents, who 
filed suit against school officials, members of a parent-teacher 
organization, and an AIDS educator in August.  The judge said 
that the students, who attended a school assembly on AIDS in 
1992, and their parents did not have a viable First Amendment 
claim that their rights to the free exercise of religion had been
violated.  U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Keeton found that 
a one-time exposure to a speech or set of ideas deemed offensive 
by the students does constitute a violation of their 
constitutional rights.
      
"PSICOR Announces Participation in Hyperthermia Trials for AIDS 
Patients"
Business Wire (01/25/95)
     PSICOR Inc. announced on Wednesday that it will assist 
HemoCleanse Inc. and its marketing partner, IDT, in the clinical 
trials of HemoCleanse's BioLogic-HT system in the whole body 
hyperthermia treatment (WBHT) of AIDS patients.  PSICOR provided 
clinical services to Hemocleanse for its initial feasibility 
study in July 1994, and will continue for the treatments in the 
new study, which will begin on Feb. 15, 1995.  Unlike other 
therapies using WBHT, which is designed to simulate the body's 
fever reaction to help fight infection by inducing a high 
artificial fever in AIDS patients, the BioLogic-HT system 
controls blood chemistries on a real-time basis.  This eliminates
chemical imbalance problems associated with other WBHT efforts, 
and allows for a safer procedure.  The Food and Drug 
Administration recently granted conditional approval of the 
study, which will involve 20 treated patients and a control group
of 10 patients.
      
"Briefs: HIV-Infected Teacher Takes Leave"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (01/25/95) P. 3B
     A teacher who has taught at Mehlville High School for more than 
two decades informed St. Louis County school district officials 
that he has advanced HIV, and has taken medical leave.  Officials
announced the teacher's situation on Tuesday, in accordance with 
district policy.  This is the fifth instance in the past decade 
that HIV infection has been reported among students and educators
in the St. Louis County school districts, said Dr. Linda Fisher, 
chief medical officer for St. Louis County.  "AIDS is not easily 
transmittable, and students are not at risk of becoming infected 
because of their classroom contact with a teacher," she stressed.
      
"Studies in Subjects with Long-Term Nonprogressive Human 
Immunodeficiency Virus Infection"
New England Journal of Medicine (01/26/95) Vol. 332, No. 4, P. 
209;  Pantaleo, Giuseppe;  Menzo, Stefano;  Vaccarezza, Mauro et 
al.
     Pantaleo et al. compared 15 subjects with long-term 
nonprogressive HIV infection--defined by seven or more years of 
documented HIV infection, with more than 600 CD4 T cells per 
cubic millimeter, no antiretroviral therapy, and no HIV-related 
disease--and 18 people with progressive HIV disease.  Lymph nodes
from the nonprogressors had significantly fewer of the 
hyperplastic features, and none of the involuted features, 
characteristic of nodes from subjects with progressive disease.  
In nonprogressive subjects, plasma levels of HIV-1 RNA and the 
viral burden in peripheral-blood mononuclear cells were 
significantly lower than those in the progressors.  While HIV 
could not be isolated from the plasma of the nonprogressors--who 
also had higher titers of neutralizing antibodies than those with
progressive disease--there was viral replication.  HIV-specific 
cytotoxic activity was found in all seven persons with 
nonprogressive infection who were tested.  The researchers 
concluded that although the viral load is low in HIV-infected 
persons who remain disease-free for many years, viral replication
persists.  Their lymph-node architecture and immune function 
appear to stay intact.
      
"Viral Dynamics in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection"
Nature (01/12/95) Vol. 373, No. 6510, P. 117;  Wei, Xiping;  
Ghosh, Sajal K.;  Taylor, Maria E. et al
     Researchers studied 22 HIV-1-infected patients with CD4 counts 
between 18 and 251 to determine the dynamics of HIV-1 replication
in vivo, which are largely unknown and are critical in order to 
understand disease pathogenesis.  The subjects were treated with 
ABT-538; L-735,524, or NVP--experimental drugs that are potent 
inhibitors of viral replication.  The drugs revealed that the 
combined lifespan of plasma virus and virus-producing cells is 
surprisingly short.  After 14 days, the wild-type virus in plasma
was almost completely replaced by drug-resistant variants.  This 
shows that HIV-1 viraemia is primarily sustained by a dynamic 
process including continuous rounds of de novo virus infection, 
replication, and rapid cell turnover.
      
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