                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      February 27, 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
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Coach Defends Silence About Louganis"
"World Wire: Postscripts"
"Marijuana: Defying Laws to Help the Ill"
"2-Year Nightmare Ends for Woman Wrongly Told She Had AIDS Virus"
"At Conference, Researchers Weigh Toll of AIDS on Women"
"Doctors Test AIDS Relief Drug in Cameroon"
"California Judge Strikes Down Needle Exchange Program"
"Danish Haemophiliacs Lose Compensation Claim"
"Research Reports: Liposome Technology"
"Latex a Good HIV Barrier, but Research Still Indefinite"
"CDC's Draft Guidelines for HIV Counseling and Voluntary Testing 
for Pregnant Women Now Available from the CDC National AIDS 
Clearinghouse"
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"Coach Defends Silence About Louganis"
Washington Post (02/27/95) P. C2
     At a news conference on Saturday, seven-time U.S. Olympic coach 
Ron O'Brien apologized for not telling U.S. team physician Jim 
Puffer that diver Greg Louganis was infected with HIV at the 1988
Olympics in Seoul.  O'Brien kept the promise he made to Louganis 
in March 1988 that he would not tell anyone of the diver's 
illness, and said that he would do the same thing again if faced 
with a similar situation.  "I consider the relationship of 
confidentiality between coach and athlete the same as a lawyer 
and client or doctor and patient," O'Brien said.  He said the one
thing he would change, however, is to tell the doctor.
      
"World Wire: Postscripts"
Wall Street Journal (02/27/95) P. A8
     Legislators in Russia have passed and sent to the President 
amended AIDS legislation that, effective Aug. 1, would drop a 
requirement that people entering the country for less than three 
months prove they are HIV-free.  Related Story: Boston Globe 
(02/25) P. 13
      
"Marijuana: Defying Laws to Help the Ill"
Los Angeles Times (02/26/95) P. A1;  Paddock, Richard C.
     The Cannabis Buyers' Club is part of a growing movement aimed at 
earning sick people the right to use marijuana.  Nationwide, 
thousands of people with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, epilepsy, and 
other diseases defy the law daily to treat their ailments or ease
their pain.  While advocates of the drug cite anecdotal evidence 
that the plant can reduce nausea from chemotherapy, reverse the 
wasting syndrome associated with AIDS, and ease muscle spasms in 
paralyzed people, others say there is insufficient evidence to 
prove the marijuana is beneficial.  Some even suggest that 
smoking it could be harmful, particularly for AIDS patients 
susceptible to lung ailments.  For almost three years, AIDS 
researcher Donald Abrams of the University of California at San 
Francisco has sought federal approval to conduct a clinical trial
to determine whether smoking marijuana can help patients overcome
the AIDS-related wasting syndrome.  The Food and Drug 
Administration, however, has refused to authorize the research.  
"People in Washington are putting up barriers," Abrams said.  "In
my opinion, it's becoming very ridiculous.  This trial will go on
if the science survives the politics."
      
"2-Year Nightmare Ends for Woman Wrongly Told She Had AIDS Virus"
Los Angeles Times (02/26/95) P. A4;  Sewell, Dan
     For two years, HIV dominated Vernelle Lowder's life.  In the end,
however, she found she was never infected at all.  In 1980, 
Lowder received a blood transfusion during surgery at a hospital 
in Waycross, Ga.  Ten years later, after her blood was drawn 
during a checkup for a thyroid problem, she was informed she was 
HIV-positive.  In 1992, her doctor put her on ddI, an AIDS 
treatment drug that brought on side effects including vomiting 
and fatigue.  Lowder arranged to have legal custody of her 
children transferred to her mother, planning to commit suicide.  
When she joined a local hospice group for AIDS patients, however,
the counselors--noting that her T-cell counts had remained 
consistently high--suggested that she be retested.  In Nov. 1992,
Lowder learned that she was HIV-negative.  Last year, a jury 
awarded her $600,000 for pain and suffering, but cleared the 
clinic and said the majority must by paid by the Florida 
Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS)--the 
agency that performed the test.  Now, Lowder's attorney is 
seeking a legislator to sponsor the act that would raise HRS's 
damage payment from the $100,000 capped by statute for state 
agencies to the $350,000 ordered by the jury.
      
"At Conference, Researchers Weigh Toll of AIDS on Women"
Philadelphia Inquirer (02/25/95) P. A3;  Jones, Rachel L.
     AIDS will overtake cancer as a major cause of death for American 
women aged 18 to 44 by the year 2000, and increasing poverty, 
abuse, and injection drug use among women could make it the worst
public health crisis of modern times, said researchers at the 
first annual HIV Infection in Women Conference last week.  The 
researchers called for a shift in the focus of medical research 
from targeting males to focusing on women.  "There's no doubt 
that the epidemic will grow for women into the millennium unless 
there's a more aggressive prevention approach aimed directly at 
women," said Dr. Sten Vermund, chairman of the epidemiology 
department at the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of 
Public Health.  While women represented just 7 percent of the 
AIDS cases among adults and adolescents in 1985, the proportion 
grew to 18 percent in 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention said.  Three-quarters of the AIDS cases reported among
women in 1994 were among black and Latino women.
      
"Doctors Test AIDS Relief Drug in Cameroon"
Reuters (02/25/95);  Tsas, Vincent
     In Cameroon, doctors are testing a drug to fight infections that 
can be fatal to AIDS patients, but is less expensive than AZT.  
Dr. Antoine Siboulet said a group of researchers from Toulouse, 
France, had discovered two years ago that injecting the drug, 
which is known as FM-84 and is chemically related to bleach, 
produced results similar to those of AZT.  "Out of 30 patients 
with AIDS and generally at an advanced stage, we have noticed a 
reduction of clinical symptoms in more than 70 percent of the 
patients," he said.  Siboulet said that FM-84 would be about five
times cheaper to produce than AZT.  Next month, tests will begin 
on 100 AIDS patients in five hospitals in Yaounde, Cameroon.
      
"California Judge Strikes Down Needle Exchange Program"
Reuters (02/24/95)
     On Friday, a judge struck down a proposed hypodermic needle 
exchange program that was intended to counter the spread of AIDS 
in Sacramento, Calif.  The judge said the needle exchange program
proposed by Sacramento County conflicted with California's drug 
paraphernalia law, which makes it illegal to provide hypodermics 
intended for drug use.  "The county has no legal justification to
implement a program that subsidizes and promotes behavior that 
has been determined by state lawmakers to be unlawful and harmful
to the public interest," said Anthony Caso, an attorney opposing 
the program.  Caso, an attorney with the Pacific Legal 
Foundation, said the ruling could also affect needle exchange 
programs in other California communities.
      
"Danish Haemophiliacs Lose Compensation Claim"
Lancet (02/18/95) Vol. 345, No. 8947, P. 446;  Skovmand, Kaare
     A Danish High Court has turned down a claim by the Danish 
Hemophiliacs Association, which was acting on behalf of eight 
Danish hemophiliacs who claim to have acquired HIV through 
therapy with factor VIII in the mid-1980s.  The court, however, 
awarded one of the eight hemophiliacs Dkr 18,718 (1,817 pounds) 
against the National Board of Health and the Ministry of the 
Interior.  The court said that they should not have allowed the 
use of non-HIV screened factor VIII after Jan. 1, 1986.  The 
hemophiliac who was awarded compensation was chosen for the token
award because he was the latest of the eight to have become 
infected.  The other seven hemophiliacs were not compensated 
because the time of their infection could not be proved.  It also
could not be proved that any of the defendants, including factor 
VIII producer Novo Nordisk, could have acted in any other way 
than they did.  The plaintiffs had wanted the court to determine 
who should bear responsibility for the HIV infection.
      
"Research Reports: Liposome Technology"
Barron's (02/06/95) Vol. 75, No. 6, P. 40
     Liposome Technology has completed new drug applications (NDA) for
Amphocil in Europe and DOX-SL in the United States and Europe.  
The company plans to file a fourth NDA for Amphocil in the United
States in mid-1995.  Amphocil is a kindy-sparing formulation of 
the most potent broad-spectrum antifungal drug used to treat 
severely ill AIDS and cancer patients.  Accelerated approval from
the Food and Drug Administration is likely because both Amphocil 
and DOX-SL provide unmet medical needs in cancer and AIDS.
      
"Latex a Good HIV Barrier, but Research Still Indefinite"
AIDS Alert (02/95) Vol. 10, No. 2, P. 21
     After nearly a decade of research, it is still not definitely 
known whether condoms leak HIV.  While the Food and Drug 
Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention have repeatedly assured the public that intact latex 
condoms provide a continuous barrier to HIV, several studies 
contradict that conclusion.  The Mariposa Foundation conducted 
the most significant research--a study of 31 brands of latex 
condoms that were tested at conditions that exceeded real-life 
situations.  The study confirmed findings of a study by the 
National Institutes of Health and the University of California at
Los Angeles suggesting that leakage of HIV occurs in some brands 
of latex condoms.  One criticism of the study was that it used 
virus-like particles, and not HIV.  The four lowest-ranking 
brands showed at least a 6 percent failure rate--Contracept Plus 
had a 100 percent failure rate, and was recalled several years 
ago.  In 1992, the FDA awarded a two-year $545,000 grant to 
Princeton Scientific Instruments Inc. to develop optical methods 
of detecting holes in condoms on a mass scale--which suggests to 
Dr. Jerry Nelson of Nelson Labs, which helped with the Mariposa 
study, that the agency is not convinced that current screening 
standards are adequate.
      
"CDC's Draft Guidelines for HIV Counseling and Voluntary Testing 
for Pregnant Women Now Available from the CDC National AIDS 
Clearinghouse"
CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse (2/27/95)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just 
released draft guidelines for primary care providers on HIV 
counseling, and voluntary testing for pregnant women. The draft 
guidelines establish recommendations for testing all pregnant 
women -- regardless of their known risk factors. This is because 
there is clear clinical evidence that a women infected with HIV 
can reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to her unborn 
child by taking zidovudine (AZT) during pregnancy. Since many 
women with HIV do not know they are infected, the draft guidelines 
specifically recommend HIV counseling and voluntary testing early 
in their pregnancy to help women learn if they are infected. With 
accurate test results, women who are infected can get the medical 
care they need for themselves as well as for their unborn children.  
Copies of the U.S. Public Health Service Recommendations for HIV 
Counseling and Testing for Pregnant Women and instructions on 
providing comments (Inventory number D435) are available from the 
CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse.  To obtain a copy by mail or by fax, 
call the Clearinghouse at 800-458-5231. For additional information 
about the recommendations, clinical trials on AZT, and other related 
issues, please call the HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service at 
800-HIV-0440.  

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