                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      November 20, 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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"Epidemiology: Warding Off the AIDS Virus"
"Budget Bill Dismisses Moderates' Input, Aimed to Soften Most 
Conservative Plans"
"Obituaries: John Rico, Republican Activist"
"Genentech's Brewer Resigns and Jennings Will Be Reassigned"
"Latin American Women Face Rising AIDS Risks"
"Mother Theresa to Set Up AIDS Hospice in New Delhi"
"Ability of Primary Care Physicians to Recognize Physical 
Findings Associated with HIV Infection"
"Research Shows AZT and Either ddI or ddC Better than AZT Alone"
"Sociodemographic Characteristics and Sexual Behavior of Bisexual
Men in France: Implications for HIV Prevention"
"Would Xenotransplants Produce Epidemics Worse than AIDS?"
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"Epidemiology: Warding Off the AIDS Virus"
Washington Post (11/20/95) P. A2
     An experimental drug called PMPA completely protected monkeys in 
a situation similar to that in which health care workers are 
exposed to HIV.  PMPA is extremely close to AZT, the oldest AIDS 
drug, yet it works faster and is 100 times less toxic.  After 
eight months, all 25 simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-injected
monkeys who were treated with intravenous PMPA were not infected 
with SIV and experienced no side effects.  The 10 animals that 
did not receive the drug did become infected.  Researcher 
Che-Chung Tsai of the University of Washington Regional Primate 
Center said the next step will be to determine whether PMPA works
as well in humans.
      
"Budget Bill Dismisses Moderates' Input, Aimed to Soften Most 
Conservative Plans"
Wall Street Journal (11/20/95) P. A16;  Georges, Christopher
     The final compromise between House and Senate Republicans in the 
ongoing battle of the seven-year budget overhaul indicates that 
House conservatives were able to ignore Senate moderates' 
endeavors, especially those concerning welfare and Medicaid.  
With Medicaid, for example, the final compromise version of the 
bill eliminates Senate provisions to maintain federal nursing 
home standards and to guarantee aid for all disabled poor 
individuals who qualify.
      
"Obituaries: John Rico, Republican Activist"
Washington Post (11/20/95) P. B4
     Republican party official and political strategist John Rico died
of AIDS on Saturday at age 45.  In 1979, Mr. Rico ran Ronald 
Reagan's presidential campaign headquarters in Los Angeles.  He 
later moved to Oregon, where he became chief of staff for the 
then-Republican state Senate from 1985 to 1991.  Mr. Rico went 
public with the fact that he had AIDS, after learning he was 
infected in late 1991, and served on Oregon Gov. Booth Gardner's 
Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.  According to Mr. Rico, it was his 
"responsibility to help put a personal face on this disease, as 
well as homosexuality in general."
      
"Genentech's Brewer Resigns and Jennings Will Be Reassigned"
Wall Street Journal (11/20/95) P. C12
     Genentech Inc. has announced the resignation of Richard Brewer, a
high-ranking executive in charge of the biotech firm's marketing 
operations.  An 11-year veteran of the company, Brewer had 
sparked anger among federal regulators and others for his 
aggressive marketing methods, but a Genentech spokesperson said 
that he was leaving for personal reasons and denied that any 
housecleaning was being undertaken.  In addition, vice president 
of sales Edmon Jennings has been reassigned to a position not 
involving sales.  Jennings was recently acquitted of allegations 
that he bribed physicians to prescribe more of a Genentech human 
growth hormone.
      
"Latin American Women Face Rising AIDS Risks"
Reuters (11/17/95);  Orgill, Margaret
     Health experts announced on Friday that Latin American housewives
have among the region's greatest risk of AIDS because of 
infection from husbands having affairs or using drugs.  "The most
important risk factor for a Latin American woman is being 
married," said Fernando Zacarias, coordinator of the Pan American
Health Organization's regional program on AIDS.  Zacarias added 
that many married women are unable to persuade their husbands to 
wear condoms.  Health workers report that oftentimes those women 
who do try to make their spouses wear the prophylactics risk 
violence or suspicion that they are having an affair.  "The Rise 
in AIDS among normal women breaks the myth [that] it only affects
prostitutes and drug-users," commented Jadira Rodriguez, who runs
a health program for women workers in Puerto Rico.  "Prostitutes 
know how to protect themselves," she said.
      
"Mother Theresa to Set Up AIDS Hospice in New Delhi"
Reuters (11/17/95)
     Mother Theresa will establish an AIDS hospice in New Delhi, the 
Press Trust of India said last week.  The news service reported 
only that the 85-year-old nun said that at her center, which will
be devoted to women and children, AIDS patients would receive 
"much needed" love.  Mother Theresa, who termed AIDS patients in 
the 1980s as "the lepers of our times," has set up centers in the
United States, and helped others in Haiti.
      
"Ability of Primary Care Physicians to Recognize Physical 
Findings Associated with HIV Infection"
Journal of the American Medical Association (11/01/95) Vol. 274, 
No. 17, P. 1380;  Paauw, Douglas S.;  Wenrich, Marjorie D.;  
Curtis, J. Randall; et al.
     Paauw et al. assessed the ability of 134 general internists and 
family practitioners to recognize HIV-related physical findings. 
Just over 25 percent of 89 physicians correctly diagnosed a 
patient with Kaposi's sarcoma, while nearly 23 percent of 97 
doctors detected oral hairy leukoplakia and just 17 percent of 
133 physicians identified diffuse lymphadenopathy.  Overall, 
experience with HIV seemed to influence the ability to identify 
oral hairy leukoplakia, but such experience did not affect the 
physicians' ability to identify the other two disorders.  
Additionally, there were no differences observed between the two 
types of physicians; furthermore, the doctors' years of medical 
school graduation had no relation to their identification of 
physical findings associated with HIV.  According to the authors,
despite the limited nature of this study, the findings suggest 
that primary care physicians may often miss critical HIV-related 
physical findings during patient examinations.
      
"Research Shows AZT and Either ddI or ddC Better than AZT Alone"
Nature Medicine (11/95) Vol. 1, No. 11, P. 1113;  Moran, Nuala
     Following the recently released conclusions of the Delta trial, 
Britain's Medical Research Council now recommends that people 
with HIV and AIDS receive a combination of two anti-AIDS drugs.  
The Delta trial stopped three months ahead of schedule when it 
became clear that a mixture of AZT with either ddI or ddC 
resulted in an average 38 percent reduction in death rates, 
versus taking only AZT.
      
"Sociodemographic Characteristics and Sexual Behavior of Bisexual
Men in France: Implications for HIV Prevention"
American Journal of Public Health (11/95) Vol. 85, No. 11, P. 
1543;  Messiah, Antoine;  Mouret-Fourme, Emmanuelle
     The French National Survey on Sexual Behavior, a large-scale 
random telephone survey, provided information about a small 
number of bisexual men in France.  The survey revealed that these
bisexual men had fewer sexual partners than homosexual men, more 
than heterosexual males, but a comparable number to 
multipartnered heterosexuals.  In terms of their last sexual 
encounter, bisexuals were similar to heterosexuals in their 
frequency of unprotected anal or vaginal penetration; however, 
their rates of condom use in the past year were about the same as
those of both homosexuals and heterosexuals.  Still, bisexuals 
were about equidistant between the two groups in regard to having
discontinued penetrative sex since the beginning of the AIDS 
epidemic, and they were about 50 percent less likely than gay men
to have been tested for HIV.  According to the authors, these 
findings indicate a need for HIV prevention campaigns specially 
adapted to the characteristics of bisexuals.
      
"Would Xenotransplants Produce Epidemics Worse than AIDS?"
Science News (11/04/95) Vol. 148, No. 19, P. 299;  Travis, John
     The greatest concern about xenotransplantation may be whether it 
should be done, not whether it is feasible.  According to 
virologist Jonathan S. Allan of the Southwest Foundation for 
Biomedical Research, the risk of introducing dangerous new 
viruses into the human population is real.  Allan is concerned 
that baboons carry viruses similar to HIV and Ebola that 
scientists cannot eliminate from donor animals.  In addition, 
baboons are extremely similar to humans, a factor which makes 
them perfect organ donors, but means that viruses which infect 
baboons may also take on humans.  Other researchers and federal 
officials concede that xenotransplants do pose a risk of 
transmitting infectious organisms.  An advisory panel to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, for example, recently assessed the 
dangers involved in an operation in which baboon cells are 
transplanted into an AIDS patient.  With Allan abstaining, the 
panel approved the single experiment,  but one member of the 
research team said the experiment will likely transmit one known 
virus to the patient.  Allan notes that investigators plan to 
transplant baboon hearts temporarily into young persons awaiting 
human hearts, who will probably survive their transplants and may
spread viruses that go unrecognized for years.  "You're going to 
pull the baboon heart out, but you're not pulling the baboon 
viruses out," Allan cautions.
      
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