                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      December 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
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Going Off the Beaten Path to Track Down Clues about AIDS"
"Judge Gives Defense Time to Explain Marijuana Use"
"Will New HIV Test Kits Ease the Stigma?"
"AIDS Victim's Family Has 'Celebration of Life'"
"Prostitution Boom Boosts AIDS Risk in Zaire"
"Xerox Service Engineer Granted Leave to Work with AIDS Patients"
"Elders Vows to Continue Speaking Out"
"Cellular Immune Response to Common Mycobacterial Antigens in 
Subjects Seropositive for Trypanosoma Cruzi"
"Heated Debate over a Law for the Dying"
"The WHO and Why of HIV Vaccine Trials"
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"Going Off the Beaten Path to Track Down Clues about AIDS"
New York Times (12/20/94) P. C3;  Altman, Lawrence K.
     Because Dr. Yuan Chang and Dr. Patrick S. Moore were new to the 
field, they were more able to try wild ideas than many others 
working in established laboratories.  Together, they form the 
husband-and-wife team that announced last week that they had 
detected fragments of a possible new virus and that the agent 
might cause Kaposi's sarcoma (KS).  Chang and Moore explored the 
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory technique, known as 
representational difference analysis, which compares DNA in cells
from diseased and normal tissues of the body, and pinpoints 
significant differences in their chemical sequences.  Working 
with colleague Dr. Melissa S. Pessin, the team hoped to spot 
genetic differences that might be the inserted genetic material 
of an infectious agent.  While the discovery raised many 
questions, the doctors' conclusions emphasize the need to grow 
the full virus in the laboratory, to identify it through an 
electron microscope, and to prove its relationship to KS.  A 
blood test to diagnose the disease is also needed.  A blood test 
might also answer questions about KS and AIDS if frozen samples 
from AIDS patients are screened.
      
"Judge Gives Defense Time to Explain Marijuana Use"
Baltimore Sun (12/20/94) P. 5B;  O'Brien, Dennis
     At the end of an AIDS patient's hearing on Monday for the 
possession and manufacturing of marijuana, a Charles County, Md.,
judge said that he would give the defense lawyers 10 days to 
submit legal memos supporting their position.  The prosecution 
will have five days to respond before a decision is made.  Jerome
E. Mensch, a 43-year-old dairy farmer, told the judge that the 
marijuana he was growing in his back yard was helping him fight 
the effects of AIDS.  The marijuana cigarettes, he said, 
stimulated his appetite and curbed the nausea that accompanied 
his illness.  Mensch's physician testified that he was so 
convinced of the drug's effects that he wrote a note certifying 
that Mensch was HIV-positive and allowing him to buy marijuana 
through a "Cannabis Buyers Club" for AIDS patients in Washington.
Assistant State's Attorney Patrick Devine claimed that Mensch did
not try legal alternatives--such as Marinol, which contains the 
active ingredient in marijuana and is legal for use by AIDS 
patients--before turning to marijuana.  Related Story: Washington
Post (12/20) P. D1
      
"Will New HIV Test Kits Ease the Stigma?"
Houston Chronicle (12/19/94) P. 21A;  Lum, Lydia
     Although HIV home test kits may soon become available, a stigma 
still surrounds the HIV screening process.  Although the AIDS 
epidemic has been around for more than 10 years, proponents of 
the home test say that people still tiptoe around the topic of 
HIV testing.   Both health providers and clients alike often have
so much difficulty approaching a subject with sexual implications
that the test is postponed or avoided.  Many people cite feelings
of awkwardness or paranoia that someone will know they have been 
tested or will have seen them leave the building.  The home test 
kits--in which the user would learn the results over the 
phone--have raised concerns of a possible gap in counseling and 
education about HIV and AIDS.  The idea of home convenience, 
however, has drawn support from those who say more people would 
be willing to test if the home test is approved.
      
"AIDS Victim's Family Has 'Celebration of Life'"
Houston Chronicle (12/19/94) P. 17A;  Zuniga, Jo Ann
     Instead of mourning his death from AIDS on Dec. 5, Brian 
Cammack's family organized a "celebration of life" party on 
Sunday.  As a tribute to her brother, 19-year-old Nicole Turpeau 
organized Stop AIDS Let's Unite to Educate (SALUTE) last year.  
Turpeau speaks to high school groups and community groups about 
how to avoid contracting the disease.  Cammack, who died at the 
age of 30, was diagnosed with AIDS when he was just 19--before 
the government began educating the public about how the disease 
could be contracted.  Much of the last two years of Cammack's 
life were spent in Twelve Oaks Hospital.  Staff members attended 
the celebration and spoke of how strong Cammack's family support 
remained.  "The main difference in this case was the caring 
manner of the family, how they were there to support him, taking 
turns to be with him night or day, even when he may not have 
known they were there," said activity therapist Evelyn Riggs.
      
"Prostitution Boom Boosts AIDS Risk in Zaire"
Reuters (12/19/94);  Wrong, Michela
     An increasing number of women in Zaire are turning to casual 
prostitution, thus providing a breeding ground for AIDS.  Because
Zaire's recession is leaving many men without work and because an
8,500 percent annual inflation rate is undermining living 
standards, women of all ages have become prostitutes.  
Researchers estimate that 7 percent to 8 percent of the general 
population and as much as 40 percent of prostitutes in Zaire are 
now HIV-infected.   In a sample group of 1,000 prostitutes tested
over a period of 30 months, 27 percent who were HIV-negative at 
the beginning of the study had become infected by the end.  
Doctors blame ignorance about HIV and AIDS on a cultural 
reluctance to speak openly of sex and on the lack of media 
coverage.
      
"Xerox Service Engineer Granted Leave to Work with AIDS Patients"
PR Newswire (12/19/94)
     Xerox Corporation has granted Stephan Lee Clark six months of 
leave with pay to care for AIDS patients at the Bailey-Boushay 
House in Seattle--the first skilled nursing home in the nation 
for people dying of AIDS.  Clark made a promise to a Xerox 
colleague, George Robbins, shortly before Robbins' death from 
AIDS, that he would do something to help others in the final 
stages of the disease.  "So many patients have been abandoned by 
their family and friends," said Clark.  "Bailey-Boushay helps to 
lessen their fears and loneliness."  Robbins was on the waiting 
list for Bailey-Boushay.  When he became too weak to care for 
himself, his insurance company paid for someone to care for him 
during the day, while Clark and his wife cared for him at night.
      
"Elders Vows to Continue Speaking Out"
Reuters (12/19/94)
     Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders said she will continue to 
speak out about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases 
(STDs).  Elders was forced out of office after she publicly 
condoned teaching schoolchildren to masturbate as a way to avoid 
the spread of AIDS.  "Sexual practices are, of course, best left 
to consenting adults, behind closed doors.  But sex becomes a 
proper subject for government when sexual behavior endangers 
public health, as is clearly the case with AIDS and other 
diseases..." she said.  Elders said she could not remain silent 
when more and more teenagers are engaging in sexual 
intercourse--particularly when fewer than half of them use 
condoms and when the rates of STDs continue to grow.
      
"Cellular Immune Response to Common Mycobacterial Antigens in 
Subjects Seropositive for Trypanosoma Cruzi"
Lancet (12/03/94) Vol. 344, No. 8936, P. 1540;  Bottasso, O.A.;  
Ingledew, N.;  Keni, M. et al
     Researchers studied the impairment of immune responses in 
patients in the silent stage of Chagas' disease, which is caused 
by Trypanosoma cruzi and affects about 20 million people in Latin
America.  Bottasso et al used quadruple skin-testing with new 
tuberculins in 37 adults who were symptom-free but seropositive 
for T. cruzi, and in 37 matched seronegative controls.  While 
none of the seropositive group responded to them, nearly 
one-fifth of the control group responded, with variable 
specificity, to common mycobacterial antigens.  The researchers 
suggest that the loss of response to mycobacterial antigens may 
influence the course of Chagas' disease.  Individuals who are 
infected with T. cruzi may be more susceptible to tuberculosis, 
leprosy, and HIV infection--all of which are associated with 
immune unresponsiveness.
      
"Heated Debate over a Law for the Dying"
U.S. News & World Report (12/19/94) Vol. 117, No. 24, P. 36;  
Shapiro, Joseph P.
     Two AIDS patients in Oregon are taking opposite sides in the 
debate over assisted suicide.  Oregon is seeking to become the 
first place in the world where doctors can legally provide lethal
drugs to help the dying end their lives.  Michael Vernon wants 
the ban lifted because he wants control over how and when his 
life ends.  Vernon says that personal choice is the central issue
for him because he has seen friends die of AIDS--often after a 
long and painful assault on their minds and bodies.  Eric Dutson,
however, is afraid the law will let doctors and the government 
decide when he should die.  "I am concerned that [medical service
providers] will subject me to undue influence or duress to end my
life myself in order to enable them to avoid" the dilemma between
providing treatment at a reduced charge and denying treatment, 
said Dutson.  Supporters of the law say that it has many 
safeguards, including second opinions and multiple requests to 
die.  In response to a challenge filed by Dutson and others, a 
federal judge recently issued a temporary restraining order to 
keep the law from taking effect.
      
"The WHO and Why of HIV Vaccine Trials"
Nature (11/24/94) Vol. 372, No. 6504, P. 313;  Moore, John;  
Anderson, Roy
     John Moore of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and Roy 
Anderson of the Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious 
Diseases discuss the reasoning behind the World Health 
Organization (WHO) advisory committee's decision to approve Phase
III HIV vaccine trials in developing countries.  Ninety percent 
of the 16 million people estimated by the WHO to be HIV-infected 
live in poor communities in the developing world.  While the main
concern of the committee members was that the products would not 
work, clinicians and epidemiologists argued that the only way to 
determine efficacy is to run an efficacy trial.  The WHO 
committee concluded that, ultimately, any decision to go ahead 
with a trial of any product must be made by the host country for 
the trial.  Phase I/II safety trials should precede a Phase III 
trial.  The panel also stated that the specific HIV-1 subtypes 
among the proposed trial population should be a significant 
consideration, as should counseling of the trial populations 
about the potential risks of vaccination and the necessity of 
following safe sex practices.  The WHO committee emphasized a 
long-term commitment to AIDS vaccine development and testing 
worldwide.
      
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