                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       August 09, 1994

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD

"FDA Approves Drug ddC as Single AIDS Treatment"
Philadelphia Inquirer (08/09/94) P. A10
     The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted marketing 
approval for zalcitabine, or ddC, as a single-drug treatment for 
HIV infection.  The drug is sold under the brand name HIVID by 
Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.   HIVID previously was approved only for 
use in combination with Burroughs Wellcome Co.'s AZT drug.  Now, 
HIVID can be prescribed for adults with advanced HIV disease 
whose condition has progressed while taking AZT, and for adult 
HIV patients who cannot tolerate AZT.  Related Stories: 
Washington Times (08/09) P. A10; Investor's Business Daily 
(08/09) P. A1
      
"FDA Approves AZT for AIDS Pregnant Women"
Reuters (08/09/94)
     The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the antiviral 
drug zidovudine (AZT) for use in preventing maternal-infant 
transmission of HIV.  The drug, manufactured by Burroughs 
Wellcome Co., is now recommended as part of a regimen that 
includes oral AZT beginning 14 to 34 weeks after gestation, 
intravenous administration during labor, and an AZT syrup given 
to newborns.  The agency said approval of the drug was based on 
the results of a federally funded study, which found that the 
rate of mother-infant HIV transmission was slashed by about 
two-thirds among women who were treated with AZT.
      
"New Variants of AIDS Virus Found That Aren't Detected by Some Tests"
Wall Street Journal (08/09/94) P. B8;  Hamilton, David P.
     Researchers at the 10th International Conference on AIDS reported
the discovery of several new strains of HIV, known as HIV-1 
subtype O, which can elude detection by some commonly used blood 
tests.  The new viruses are genetically different from more 
well-known strains of the virus, so they sometimes are not 
detected by commercially available blood tests.  The researchers 
emphasized, however, that the viruses do not compromise the 
safety of the blood supply.  There are still several tests that 
are able to detect subtype O, they said, and tests that cannot 
have been plucked from the market or are being modified so that 
they can detect the new strains.  The O-type viruses are 
rare--even in the African nations of Cameroon and Guinea where 
they are thought to be most common--but they are yet another 
example of how HIV's genetic variability produces problems for 
AIDS scientists.  Related Stories: New York Times (08/09) P. C11;
Baltimore Sun (08/09) P. 11A
      
"Some Live Long-Term With HIV"
USA Today (08/09/94) P. 1A;  Levy, Doug
     HIV infection may not always be a "death sentence," according to 
Dr. Susan Buchbinder, a researcher whose study includes infected 
men who remain healthy after more than 15 years.  Buchbinder, of 
the San Francisco Public Health Department, studied 601 
HIV-positive gay men since 1979--seven percent of whom had nearly
normal immune system cell counts and remained healthy in 1994.  
She and other scientists are trying to learn what makes these 
survivors different from an average person who contracts HIV, and
then develops AIDS in eight to 10 years.  The men in the study 
tend to eat well, exercise, and practice stress-reduction 
techniques, but other than those factors, the study has yet to 
identify reasons why these men have remained healthy.
      
"Educating Elderly on AIDS"
New York Times (08/09/94) P. A14
     AIDS patients over age 60 comprise a small--and largely 
ignored--fraction of the total AIDS population, accounting for 
three percent of nationwide cases reported through 1993.  That 
number, however, is increasing at a swifter rate than among other
age groups, health officials report.  According to Dr. William 
Adler of the National Institute on Aging, the number of new AIDS 
cases fell three percent among patients under age 30, but leapt 
17 percent among elderly patients.  Gay male sex is the primary 
mode of transmission among this group, but an increasing number 
of cases are the result of heterosexual sex--particularly among 
widowed men who visit prostitutes.  In response to AIDS among the
elderly, educators are campaigning to reach older 
people--particularly in South Florida, which includes a large 
retirement population.  They are also educating physicians, who 
sometimes dismiss AIDS symptoms as common signs of aging.
      
"World AIDS Conference Concentrates on Prevention"
Washington Times (08/09/94) P. A13;  Witter, Willis
     Despite more than a decade of research and the billions of 
dollars spent on prevention, a record 6,000 people acquire HIV 
each day, Dr. Michael Merson of the World Health Organization's 
Global Program on AIDS told more than 10,000 experts attending 
the 10th International Conference on AIDS.  The agency predicts 
that the number of infections will more than double in the next 
six years, most of them in Asia.  Given the grim forecast, the 
focus of the summit shifted to prevention--the only effective 
strategy for halting the disease.  Merson urged Asian leaders, 
whose countries' AIDS efforts are plagued by social and cultural 
barriers, to "Do whatever you need to overcome denial and fight 
discrimination.  Provide your most vulnerable citizens the 
information and means, including condoms, to protect themselves."
Related Story: USA Today (08/09) P. 1D
      
"Old Drugs May Have Value Against AIDS"
United Press International (08/08/94);  Kelly, Janis
     At the Tenth International Conference on AIDS, Dr. Robert Gallo 
from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, Dr. Jay Levy from the 
University of California, and Dr. Luc Montagnier of France's 
Institut Pasteur all recommended the study of "old" drugs as 
potential treatments for the AIDS virus.  Gallo urged the study 
of a hormone associated with pregnancy (human chorionic 
gonadotropin or hCG) because it may suppress Kaposi's sarcoma.  
Levy and Gallo both advocated testing anti-AIDS drugs with older 
drugs, saying that the combination of the anti-AIDS drug ddI with
hydroxyurea (HU) is 10 times more effective than ddI alone.  
Montagnier also encouraged the study of antioxidants, because 
people infected with HIV appear to have problems handling 
"oxidative stress," which causes a shortage in the supply of 
certain chemicals needed by white blood cells.
      
"Medarex Bispecific Neutralizes Broad Variety of Clinical HIV Strains"
HealthWire (08/08/94)
     Scientific collaborators of Medarex, Inc. announced on Monday the
results of their study with Dr. Herve Raoul, Dr. Aloise Mabondzo,
and colleagues in the laboratory of Professor Dominique Dormont 
of the Laboratoire de Neuropathologie Experimentale et 
Neurovirologie of C.E.A. in France.  The results, presented at 
the Tenth International Conference on AIDS in Yokohama, Japan, 
showed that MDX-240, the company's Bispecific antibody product 
for AIDS, neutralizes infection of CD4 positive immune cells by 
clinical isolates--strains of HIV taken from infected patients.  
On August 3, Medarex announced the enrollment of subjects for 
Phase I/II clinical trials of MDX-240 to take place at two 
university hospitals in Europe.  Medarex is a biopharmaceutical 
company specializing in treatments that enhance the body's 
natural immune system.
      
"Registration Lags for Japan's AIDS Meeting"
Science (07/29/94) Vol. 265, No. 5172, P. 595
     It appears that the 10th annual AIDS conference taking place Aug.
7-12 in Yokahama, Japan, will be less populous than ones held in 
recent years.  At the end of July, not even 6,000 had 
registered--compared to the 14,000 people who participated at 
last year's conference in Berlin.  The downturn in attendance is 
especially noticeable in representation from the United States.  
American registrants, who have previously accounted for about 
one-third of crowd, totaled only about 1,000 when Science went to
press.  The decline in attendance can be attributed to the cost 
of traveling to Japan and the dollar's weakness against the yen, 
say researchers.
      
