                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      December 19, 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


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"AIDS Virus Claims Fourth Dental Patient"
"Man Claims He Uses Pot to Fight AIDS"
"In the Name of AIDS Prevention, They Break the Law"
"Health Journal: Embrace Risk Reduction"
"AIDS Vaccine Tests Set for Thailand, Brazil"
"200 Protest Church Ban on AIDS Victims"
"Functional Association of Cyclophilin A with HIV-1 Virions"
"Bacterium Guards against HIV"
"The Brighton Conference and HIV Prevention"
"Marked Man"
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"AIDS Virus Claims Fourth Dental Patient"
New York Times (12/19/94) P. A14
     Barbara Webb, a retired schoolteacher whom medical experts 
believe became HIV-infected from a dentist, died of AIDS on 
Saturday.  Webb was the fourth of Dr. David Acer's patients to 
die of the disease.  She had joined Kimberly Bergalis--the first 
of Acer's patients to die from AIDS--in advocating the testing of
health care workers.  The only health professional known to have 
transmitted HIV to patients, Acer died of complications due to 
AIDS in 1990.  Related Stories: Washington Post (12/19) P. B6; 
Washington Times (12/19) P. A6; USA Today (12/19) P. 3A
      
"Man Claims He Uses Pot to Fight AIDS"
Washington Times (12/19/94) P. C6
     Jerome Mensch, a 43-year-old dairy farmer, will argue at a 
preliminary hearing today that he needs marijuana to help fight 
the effects of HIV.  When Mensch was arrested in November 1993 
for possession of marijuana, he told officers he needed the drug 
to combat the nausea and weight loss associated with his illness.
His lawyer will present testimony showing that marijuana is the 
most effective medicine Mensch can find.  To be allowed to use 
the defense, the lawyer must prove that his client's life is at 
risk, that there were no reasonable alternatives, and that the 
use of the drug is not disproportionate to his medical needs.  
Dr. Douglas Ward, who says he wishes he could prescribe marijuana
to all his AIDS patients, says that he has seen an improvement in
Mensch's condition since he began smoking the drug.  "What it 
does is, it makes him better able to respond to other 
medications," said Ward.  Mensch began using marijuana in 1992 
after having taken AZT and another anti-viral drug--both of which
caused symptoms such as numbness, diarrhea, nausea, and appetite 
loss.  For  Mensch, the marijuana has eliminated the nausea, 
helped him regain weight, and allowed him to return to working 15
hours a day on his farm.
      
"In the Name of AIDS Prevention, They Break the Law"
Philadelphia Inquirer (12/19/94) P. B2;  Urgo, Jacqueline L.
     An unnamed underground effort in Atlantic City--illegal in New 
Jersey and eight other states--is geared toward preventing the 
spread of AIDS through the use of contaminated needles among 
intravenous drug addicts.  As other organizations have done in 
the Northeast, the group last week began their needle 
distribution effort.  The sale or possession of syringes without 
a prescription is illegal.  The group roams the streets armed 
with plastic "works" bags--consisting of a syringe, a small 
bottle of bleach, alcohol swabs, condoms, and informational 
brochures.  The members plan to go out on a weekly basis to build
trust between the group and the drug community.  Jon 
Stuen-Parker, founder of the Boston-based National AIDS 
Brigade--the nation's first needle exchange program--praised the 
group.  "The laws that ban needle distribution were made before 
we had a problem with AIDS being spread by IV drug users," he 
said.  "The laws will never change unless they are challenged."
      
"Health Journal: Embrace Risk Reduction"
Wall Street Journal (12/19/94) P. B1;  Chase, Marilyn
     Among resolutions for a healthier 1995, health gurus hope for an 
AIDS vaccine.  Until a safe, effective vaccine is developed, the 
most inexpensive, low-tech HIV barriers are condoms and 
needle-exchanges.  They are not, however, broadly promoted 
because they are too controversial.  The American Academy of 
Pediatrics recently joined others to call for sterile needles to 
slow the spread of HIV from addicts to their families.  HIV 
prevention will require enormous acts of medical statesmanship.  
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop should be redrafted 
because Americans were never closer to consensus on issues such 
as sex, drugs, and death than when Koop was in charge.
      
"AIDS Vaccine Tests Set for Thailand, Brazil"
Boston Globe (12/17/94) P. 15
     Newly appointed leader of the United Nations AIDS program, Dr. 
Peter Piot, announced on Friday that heterosexual male drug users
in Thailand and homosexual men in Brazil will be the key 
volunteers of the first human tests of two AIDS vaccines.  Women 
will also be included in the initial tests, particularly in 
northern Thailand.  The World Health Organization (WHO) recently 
completed a master plan for the tests of two vaccines, said Piot.
While other vaccines are being developed, they are still only in 
the laboratory or are being tested on animals and will not be 
tested on humans for years, he added.  WHO said that the test 
groups were selected because they were very likely to be exposed 
to a strain of HIV for which a vaccine had been developed, and 
also because researchers could track them.  Christopher Powell, 
spokesman for WHO's Global Program on AIDS, said that the 
vaccines to be tested, called GP-120, were safe to use on humans 
and had already been tested in small-scale trials in the United 
States and Europe.  The vaccines, Powell said, produce a limited 
number of antibodies and do not have a long-lasting effect.
      
"200 Protest Church Ban on AIDS Victims"
Philadelphia Inquirer (12/17/94) P. B1;  Macklin, William R.
     Approximately 200 people gathered outside the Old Ship of Zion 
church in North Philadelphia to protest it's ban on people with 
AIDS.  The protesters denounced the pastor as "a fool," a "false 
prophet," and "an idiot."  They also demanded that a sign warning
visitors that "to join you must have had an AIDS test and it must
come back negative" be removed.  The controversy began two weeks 
ago when Philadelphia AIDS activist Dan Estes learned about the 
church during a meeting with other AIDS patients.  He distributed
a flier, which carried the words of the sign and called for a 
peaceful candle-lit vigil "in defense of the dignity and rights 
of people living with AIDS."  When asked if he was aware that 
AIDS cannot be contracted through casual contact, Bishop Nathan 
Giddings laughed.  "Scientists lie," he said, adding that AIDS 
patients should be happy to meet him "because I know how to cure 
AIDS: Repent and turn to the Lord."
      
"Functional Association of Cyclophilin A with HIV-1 Virions"
Nature (11/24/94) Vol. 372, No. 6504, P. 363;  Thali, Markus;  
Bukovsky, Anatoly;  Kondo, Eisaku et al
     Thali et al report that viral particles formed by HIV-1 Gag 
polyprotein p55(gag) contain significant amounts of cyclophilin 
A.  Sequences in the capsid domain of p55(gag) are both necessary
and adequate for the virion-association of cyclophilin A.  
Cyclosporin A, as well as SDZ NIM811 ([Melle-4]cyclosporin)--a 
non-immunosuppressive analogue of cyclosporin A, inhibited the 
association of cyclophilin A with HIV-1 virions in a 
dose-dependent manner.  Drug-induced reductions in 
virion-associated cyclophilin A levels were accompanied by 
reductions in virion infectivity, which suggests that the 
correlation is functionally relevant.  In addition, SDZ NIM811 
inhibited the replication of HIV-1 but was inactive against 
SIV(MAC), a primate version of HIV which does not incorporate 
cyclophilin A.
      
"Bacterium Guards against HIV"
Science News (11/26/94) Vol. 146, No. 22, P. 360;  Fackelmann, 
Kathy A.
     Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 
are trying to convert the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes into 
an HIV vaccine.  While L. monocytogenes can cause illness in 
people with unhealthy immune systems who eat contaminated food, 
HIV-infected people appear relatively resistant to the bug.  It 
was discovered that when a specific HIV gene was injected into L.
monocytogenes' chromosomes, the genetically engineered bacteria 
used the information encoded by the HIV gene to construct one of 
the virus' protein products.  After studying mice injected with 
the transformed bacterium, the researchers believe that once the 
bacterium is established in a cell, it begins to produce the HIV 
protein.  The cell would then recognize the foreign protein and 
bring it to the surface of the cell at the attention of killer T 
cells.  Such a process, researchers hope, will yield protective 
immunity against HIV.
      
"The Brighton Conference and HIV Prevention"
Focus (11/94) Vol. 9, No. 12, P. 5;  Marks, Robert
     The strongest presentations at the Conference on Biopsychosocial 
Aspects of HIV Infection focused on prevention strategies for gay
men and drug users.  In response to continuing relapse from safer
sex, and the emergence of new populations who do not recognize 
their risk, researchers challenged assumptions about HIV 
prevention, especially in gay men.  Citing four studies of gay 
men who had relapsed into unsafe sex, Ron Gold of Deakin 
University in Australia, found that many gay men have accepted 
the "safe sex culture;" that links to the gay community do not, 
however, encourage all men to do so; and that safe sex campaigns 
that emphasize information and exhortation are no longer useful. 
He concluded that directly targeting the arguments that some gay 
men use to "give themselves permission" when they participate in 
unsafe sex might lead to risk reduction.  The session on alcohol,
drugs, and unsafe sex among gay men accented the need for 
researchers and educators to be specific about the context in 
which a behavior--such as drug and alcohol use--occurs.  It also 
might be effective to develop state-specific 
interventions--strategies that reach people when they are in the 
state they are usually in, sober or intoxicated, when they have 
sex.  Finally, after studying injection drug users in Brooklyn, 
New York researcher Sam Friedman found that the shape and size of
drug use networks played a major role in determining the extent 
of HIV infection in network members.
      
"Marked Man"
Advocate (11/29/94) No. 669, P. 6;  Fuller, Matt
     Matt Fuller, a volunteer for the People With AIDS Coalition, 
describes his experiences after he had the words HIV-POSITIVE 
along with a pink triangle tattooed on his arm.  The only time he
says he felt threatened by someone's reaction to the tattoo was 
by a large man on a New York City subway.  When Fuller responded 
affirmatively to the man's inquiry as to whether the tattoo was 
real, the man whispered, "Me too."  One reason Fuller says he got
the tattoo was to force people to face their own fears about 
AIDS.  "I am less concerned with making others feel comfortable 
than I am with trying to save lives, including my own.  If that 
makes people angry, upset, or confused, at least they are talking
and thinking about AIDS," he writes.
      
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