                     AIDS Daily Summary
                        May 20, 1994


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 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


"Mass. Panel Clears Bill on AIDS Testing"
Journal of Commerce (05/20/94) P. 7A
     The Massachusetts Health Care Committee this week endorsed a 
far-reaching bill concerning AIDS that would prohibit insurance 
companies from testing customers for the disease.  Insurers have 
resisted efforts to ban testing, a proposal pushed by AIDS 
activists who claim that infected individuals have difficulty 
getting insurance.  The bill would also require training for 
health care and emergency workers to avoid infection, and grant 
the state more power to discipline doctors who refuse to treat 
AIDS patients.  In addition, the proposed legislation seeks 
expanded treatment for intravenous drug users--who are at high 
risk of contracting the illness.
      
"CDC Warns About Danger of AIDS in Home Care"
Reuters (05/19/94);  Morgan, David
     The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday reported
two new cases of household HIV transmission, and issued a warning
about the increasing potential for the spread of the virus in the
home.  The two household transmission cases, among eight that 
have occurred since 1986, may be the first in the country in 
which HIV infection clearly occurred through care-giving.  In 
both cases, the virus was transmitted because standard 
precautions were not followed.  One case involves the 5-year-old 
child of HIV-positive parents who researchers believe may have 
contracted the virus either through open sores on her mother's 
body, or by sharing a toothbrush at a time when the woman 
suffered from bleeding gums.  Although the child initially tested
negative for AIDS in 1990 and July 1993, HIV antibodies were 
present last December.  More relevant to researchers is the other
case--that of a 75-year-old woman caring for her HIV-infected 
adult son.  The elderly woman, who had no other risk factors, 
tested positive for HIV in August 1991, a year after her son 
died.  "She did provide nursing care to her son," said Dr. Harold
Jaffe, director of the CDC's HIV/AIDS division, explaining that 
the woman was exposed to her son's urine, feces, and blood.  "She
wore gloves part of the time but not all the time."  The CDC has 
issued a set of precautionary guidelines for people caring for 
HIV-infected loved ones at home.  The recommendations include 
wearing protective gloves, careful handling and disposal of 
needles, and bandaging all open sores.  Jaffe says the cases 
illustrate a problem posed by a lack of adequate instructions 
from medical professionals.
      
"New Test May Check for HIV in Newborn Babies"
Reuters (05/19/94)
     A new test that examines umbilical cord blood samples to detect 
cogenital infections in newborns may also effectively track 
whether HIV is transmitted from mother to baby, according to 
researchers.  By testing for a protein called CD45, found in two 
forms in white "T" blood cells, in newborns and measuring the 
relative proportions of these two proteins, Drs. Colin Michie and
David Harvey of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School were able 
to diagnose perinatally acquired infections such as chicken pox, 
cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis in the infants.  Michie and 
Harvey warn that these were the results of a preliminary study, 
and that a larger trial is needed to assess the suitability of 
the technique for determining whether HIV has been transmitted 
from a chronically infected mother to her baby.
      
"China's HIV-Infected Population Seen Climbing"
Reuters (05/20/94)
     The number of people in China confirmed to have HIV has reached 
1,159, but health officials place the number of unreported cases 
of infection at between 5,000 and 10,000, according to the Ming 
Pao Daily News.  "Eighty percent of the AIDS cases are found in 
Yunnan, where the main infecting conduit is through the use of 
intravenous drug needles," said Sun Xinhua, an official at the 
Ministry of Public Health, as quoted by the paper.  Although the 
Chinese government spent $1.1 million on AIDS prevention last 
year, Sun said this amount was far from enough.
      
"HK Businesses Lag on AIDS Prevention in Asia"
Reuters (05/19/94);  Mudie, Luisetta
     Large, private companies in Hong Kong are being urged to catch up
with other Asian countries in the fight against AIDS.  Japan and 
Thailand, where business coalitions have been formed to combat 
the spread of AIDS, are two Asian nations that are ahead of Hong 
Kong in terms of AIDS prevention, according to Lisa Ross, whose 
consultant firm Information for Life advises businesses on AIDS 
education and health programs.  "It would be really nice for the 
Hong Kong business community to take the lead in the region, and 
they're already falling behind," she comments.  Last month, in an
effort to mobilize the Hong Kong business sector against AIDS, 
insurer Aetna Life & Casualty Co.'s Asia-Pacific arm sponsored a 
conference with the World Health Organization.  Aetna says it 
experienced difficulty in convincing Hong Kong businesses to take
part in the conference.  "The attitude seemed to be that it's 
someone else's disease, someone else's problem that affects 
people in Thailand and Africa but not here," said Dennis Pedini, 
director of East Asia Aetna Insurance Group in Hong Kong.  WHO 
statistics report that some 1 million Asians are now infected 
with HIV, and the group estimates that the epidemic will generate
10 million new cases by the end of the century.
      
"Sheffield Medical Technologies Announces the Issuance of Second 
Canadian Patent for its RBC-CD4 Technology"
Business Wire (05/19/94)
     Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc. has been granted two Canadian
patents covering a technology related to an electro-insertion 
procedure that is potentially applicable as a therapeutic AIDS 
treatment.  The patents together give the company exclusive 
proprietary rights to both the process of making and using 
RBC-CD4 for treating HIV infection and AIDS.  The process 
involves exposing red blood cells to a pulsed electrical field, 
thus allowing the CD4 to be incorporated into the cell's membrane
to form RBC-CD4, which acts as a sponge, absorbing free-floating 
HIV and forming aggregates with HIV-infected cells.  Research 
suggests that, once bound and internalized by RBC-CD4, HIV 
disintegrates and is removed from the body.  Sheffield, based in 
Houston, Texas, is preparing to enter Phase I/II human clinical 
trials of the technology.
      
"A Cytotoxic Response Against AIDS"
Lancet (04/30/94) Vol. 343, No. 8905, P. 1093;  Thompson, Clare
     In examination of HIV pathology, one area of interest is the 
difference between short-term HIV survivors, who progress rapidly
to full-blown AIDS, and long-term survivors, who remain healthy 
after a decade or more.  There is also a subset of patients known
as long-term non-progressors, who manage to stay healthy and 
maintain CD4 T-cell counts above 500.  At the April meeting on 
Biotechnology against AIDS in Florence, several AIDS researchers 
discussed the possible role of CD8 lymphocytes in long-term 
survival.  Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases described how the lymph-nodes of 
short-term survivors show a high level of viral burden and virus 
replication, and ultimately destruction of the lymph-node 
architecture, while the lymph-nodes of long-term non-progressors 
remain intact even after 10 years of infection.  The differences 
suggest either that AIDS progression depends upon viral load, or 
that long-term non-progressors have some immune response that can
clear the virus.
      
"New York Revises State Safe-Sex Guidelines"
Advocate (05/03/94) No. 654, P. 31
     On March 18, the New York State Board of Regents voted 
unanimously to revise its safe-sex guidelines, which have long 
been criticized because they stress abstinence and say that sex 
with condoms still carries a significant risk for exposure to 
HIV.  The guidelines, which have not been revised since 1987, 
will be modified to emphasize that condom use significantly 
reduces the chance of HIV transmission.  Since some school 
districts may chose to adopt or not adopt the new guidelines, the
revised version may have little effect on AIDS education programs
in many school districts, according to state education 
commissioner Thomas Sobel.

