                          AIDS Daily Summary
                           February 23, 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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"AIDS Testing for Pregnant Women Urged"
"Louganis, Olympic Champion, Says He Has AIDS"
"No One Is Immune"
"Merck Claims Its AIDS Drug Is the Best Yet"
"Nationwide Condom Blitz Heralds Brazil's Carnival"
"VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Reports Encouraging Results..."
"Sex-and-Sun Ads Pulled from Prudent Britain"
"Clinical Trials to Begin on Designed AIDS Drug"
"HCWs Urged to Be Aware of Deaf Patients' Needs"
"Kramer Vs. Kramer's Past"
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"AIDS Testing for Pregnant Women Urged"
Washington Post (02/23/95) P. A5
     The government proposed on Wednesday that physicians should 
counsel every pregnant woman about AIDS and urge them to be 
tested for HIV so that infected mothers can try to protect their 
unborn children.  Because each HIV test costs $25, a major 
investment will be necessary to catch the estimated 80,000 
heterosexual women of childbearing age who are infected with HIV,
of which more than 7,000 give birth each year, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.  Doctors recently 
discovered, however, that AZT reduces the risk of maternal-infant
transmission by two-thirds.  The CDC argued that mass HIV testing
should pay for itself both by saving babies' lives and their 
medical bills.  Each year, approximately 2,000 babies are born 
with HIV.  Related Story: New York Times (02/23) P. A20
      
"Louganis, Olympic Champion, Says He Has AIDS"
New York Times (02/23/95) P. B11;  Sandomir, Richard
     Greg Louganis, the 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medal diver, 
announced that he has AIDS.  Last year, the athlete publicly 
acknowledged his homosexuality for the first time at the Gay 
Games in New York City.  In an interview with ABC's "20/20" that 
will be broadcast on Friday, Louganis said he knew he was 
infected with HIV before the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South
Korea.  Since then, Louganis' infection has developed into AIDS. 
He said he was very concerned when he hit his head on the board 
during a dive and shed blood in the pool.  Louganis did not 
inform the doctor who stitched up the two-inch cut without 
wearing protective gloves that he was HIV-positive.  The diver 
said his doctor and Ron O'Brien, his coach, discouraged him from 
telling the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) about his condition.  
O'Brien said he encouraged Louganis' silence "because our sport 
is such that you don't ever really come close to anybody."  Since
1989, the USOC has adopted strict procedures for dealing with 
open wounds, and voluntary HIV testing is available for Olympic 
athletes.  The organization, however, has no policy requiring 
HIV-positive athletes to disclose their status.  Related Story: 
Washington Post (02/23) P. D1
      
"No One Is Immune"
Washington Post (02/23/95) P. D1;  Wilbon, Michael
     When it comes to HIV and AIDS, the greatest diver in the world is
just as helpless as anyone else handed a death sentence, writes 
Michael Wilbon in the Washington Post.  We tend to see 
world-class athletes--with their medals, trophies, riches, and 
fame--as protected from the tragedies of everyday life.  During 
the 1988 Olympics, diver Greg Louganis hit his head on the board 
during the 1988 Olympics, and went on--with five stitches in his 
head--to win the gold medal.  Louganis had already won gold 
medals at the 1984 Olympics, but he continued diving 
competitively because he loved it more than anything else.  
Perhaps he continued because it provided refuge from an abusive 
stepfather, dyslexia, the ugly taunts he endured because of his 
Samoan heritage, subsequent depression, and three suicide 
attempts.  Many people also need to realize that a great athlete 
can also be homosexual.  Among the famous athletes who have said 
they have HIV or AIDS, Louganis is the first man who has talked 
openly of his homosexuality.  People will undoubtedly rally 
around Louganis, and AIDS prevention will be in the news.  Once 
the energy of the moment dies out, however, everything goes back 
to business as usual, and we end up hoping that the next famous 
person to have the disease will be able to rally some sustaining 
support in the fight against AIDS, Wilbon concludes.
      
"Merck Claims Its AIDS Drug Is the Best Yet"
Wall Street Journal (02/23/95) P. B1;  Waldholz, Michael
     Merck & Co. announced that it is accelerating plans for advanced 
patient trials for its new experimental drug against AIDS, 
MK-639, as a result of encouraging findings.  Edward M. Scolnick,
president of worldwide research at Merck, said MK-639 "looks 
better than anything else tested" against HIV.  However, Merck 
said supplies would be limited for about a year due to the 
complexity of the manufacturing process.  Emilio Emini, head of 
AIDS research at Merck, warned that MK-639 is not a cure and 
resistance can develop within a few months to a year or more, but
he added that the drug appeared to boost portions of the immune 
system in very ill patients.
      
"Nationwide Condom Blitz Heralds Brazil's Carnival"
Journal of Commerce (02/23/95) P. 4A;  Bruce, James
     With the advent of Brazil's pre-Lenten carnival, Brazilian 
authorities are raiding importers and retailers for substandard 
prophylactics.  As part of an assault on both chronic inflation 
and increasing numbers of AIDS cases, Brasilia dropped import 
barriers against prophylactics just last April.  In Sao Paulo, 
for example, authorities swept through 225 establishments and 
seized 7,867 prophylactics last weekend.  In Santos, the largest 
port in Latin America and an acknowledged focus of HIV infection 
in Brazil, authorities confiscated more than one half of the 
3,020 packages examined for lack of the official Inmetro seal of 
quality.  The Inmetro agency tests the domestic products twice a 
year and every imported shipment for quality, sanitation, and 
shelf life.  Brasilia imposed the national standards two years 
ago as part of a campaign against HIV infection.  Offending 
importers caught in the weekend sweep will be fined 571.85 reals 
(about $672.76) for the first incident, and 1,624.08 reals for 
repeaters.
      
"VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Reports Encouraging Results..."
Business Wire (02/22/95)
     On Wednesday, VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that its 
program to develop hypericin, its lead antiviral/antiretroviral 
compound, to inactivate viruses in blood used for transfusions is
producing more encouraging results than previously reported.  
Scientists at the New York Blood Center have now used hypericin 
to achieve complete inactivation of more than six logs (more than
1 million HIV particles per millimeter of blood) of infectious 
HIV in human blood.  There has been no evidence of any 
deleterious effect on any of the blood components tested.  Each 
year, about 12 million transfusions are given in the United 
States, and 40 million worldwide.  A small percentage of 
HIV-infected blood slips through current testing procedures, 
which are aimed at detecting antibodies to HIV and not HIV 
directly.  The indirect testing results in a one-to-three month 
window in which newly infected HIV-positive blood could test 
negative.  VIMRx believes that using an antiviral agent in the 
blood collection and storage processes will greatly reduce the 
risks of infectious viral transmission.
      
"Sex-and-Sun Ads Pulled from Prudent Britain"
Reuters (02/22/95)
     Following complaints that they encouraged irresponsible behavior 
in the age of AIDS, a series of upfront advertisements promising 
sex, sun, and booze has been taken off British streets.  The 
Advertising Standards Authority, which monitors ads in Britain, 
said the campaign for the "Club 18-30" package holiday group 
would probably cause widespread offense.  "Girls, can we interest
you in a package holiday?" reads one poster fronted by a 
well-built man dressed in his underwear.  The controversial 
holiday group toned down its ads during the 1980s, when AIDS 
awareness was an the rise and concern increased about the health 
risks of excessive drinking.
      
"Clinical Trials to Begin on Designed AIDS Drug"
Chemical & Engineering News (02/13/95) Vol. 73, No. 7, P. 39;  
Borman, Stu
     Scientists at Vertex Pharmaceuticals have used structure-based 
drug design to successfully engineer greater bioavailability and 
increased potency into a potential anti-AIDS drug, VX-478, an 
orally bioavailable inhibitor of HIV protease.  In late January, 
Burroughs Wellcome, Vertex's development partner for VX-478, 
filed an investigational new drug application for VX-478 with the
Food and Drug Administration.  Phase I clinical trials are 
expected to begin soon in the United States.  Although hundreds 
of compounds have been developed as HIV protease inhibitors, only
a few have advanced to clinical trials.  This is mainly because 
most candidate HIV protease inhibitors have not had the right 
bioavailability properties, said Manuel A. Navia, a scientist at 
Vertex.  Bioavailability is a measure of a drug's presence in the
blood following its administration.  A problem with many HIV 
protease inhibitors is that the liver tends to clear them quickly
from circulation.  Clinical trials of protease inhibitors have 
tended to show significant decreases in antiviral activity over 
time, primarily because of HIV's ability to mutate and thus, 
develop resistance to the drugs.
      
"HCWs Urged to Be Aware of Deaf Patients' Needs"
AIDS Alert (02/95) Vol. 10, No. 2, P. 27
     Advocates for the hearing impaired say that the deaf community is
not getting enough attention and health care services, which are 
causing higher rates of AIDS among the deaf than in the general 
population.  The reason is because "so many people lack cultural 
competency, sensitivity, and awareness," says Michael Felts, a 
co-founder of Deaf AIDS Action, who is deaf and HIV-positive.  
There have been 7,000 cases of seropositivity and AIDS among the 
deaf nationwide, with 300 deaths, according to AIDS Education 
Services for the Deaf, a division of the Greater Los Angeles 
Association for the Deaf (GLAD).  The deaf community's isolation 
leads to much misunderstanding and misinformation, say advocates 
for the deaf.  James Peinkofer, a social worker at the Madison 
Center in South Bend, Ind., says that deaf people are "probably 
10 years behind the rest of us" in their knowledge of AIDS.  
According to GLAD, the deaf community also engages in or 
experiences "a very high incidence of promiscuous sexual 
behavior, domestic violence, and alcohol/drug abuse."  To 
successfully get the message about AIDS across, AIDS service 
providers must get involved--getting in touch with deaf social 
clubs, sports organizations, and deaf schools, for example.
      
"Kramer Vs. Kramer's Past"
New York (02/13/95) Vol. 28, No. 7, P. 11;  Wechsler, Pat;  
Friedman, Roger D.
     Writer, activist, and cofounder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis 
(GMHC), Larry Kramer has been pushing for the GMHC to endorse new
but unapproved drugs called protease inhibitors.  Kramer says 
that the drugs have performed well in tests and have produced 
fewer side effects in AIDS patients than drugs such as AZT.  
However, when GMHC's Treatment Issues attempted to interview him 
on the subject, the article was blocked by David Barr, GMHC's 
head of treatment, education, and advocacy, says Kramer.  
Treatment Issues Editor David Gold, who had conducted the 
interview, was threatened with sanctions and even termination by 
Barr.  "He's being allowed to use the organization to pursue a 
personal vendetta against me," said Kramer, who claims the 
animosity dates back to their early days at ACT UP.  "My approach
has always been to get drugs into bodies as fast as possible.  
David and GMHC are blindly cautious," he added.  A GMHC 
spokesman, however, said the article will be in an upcoming 
issue.
      
