                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       June 30, 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

"Followers of Indian Sex Guru Fear AIDS Not Future"
Reuters (06/30/94);  Manoharan, Moses
     Indian guru Bhagwan Rajneesh, or Osho, criticized religion and 
endorsed free sex to his worshipping followers.  Now, four years 
after Osho's death, the fear of AIDS has lessened the frequency 
of orgies within his sprawling commune in the western Indian city
of Pune.  Poker-faced guards closely monitor the gate, allowing 
entry only to those carrying special passes that can be obtained 
only after testing HIV-negative.  "You can now be part of the 
AIDS-Free Zone of the Commune," a commune pamphlet warns 
visitors.  "But beware that you or any member of the commune may 
still be carrying the AIDS virus."  The literature stresses the 
importance of avoiding oral and anal sex completely, as well as 
kissing.  Local and commune doctors and health workers administer
the AIDS test privately in a clinic located in front of the 
commune, and those diagnosed as virus-free are issued an entry 
pass.
      
"Cayman AIDS Treatment Exposed as Scam"
Reuters (06/29/94)
     Officials on the Cayman Islands in December quietly closed down a
clinic offering a controversial AIDS treatment program because 
the treatment, available for the cost of $15,000, was approved by
neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor medical 
regulators in the United Kingdom.  Two little-known companies, 
Anti-Viral of America and a Cayman firm called International 
Laboratories Ltd., administered the treatment--a saline solution 
mixed with Vitamin C and colchichine, a drug used to treat gout. 
The solution is passed through an electric current that alters 
the salt in such a manner as to kill bacteria and virus, 
according to company literature.  "It's a hoax," declared Dr. 
John Renner of the Consumer Health Information Research Institute
in Kansas City, Mo.  Recent newspaper accounts reported that the 
companies had advertised the treatment among American residents 
with AIDS, saying they could participate in a clinical trial for 
$15,000, and warning that the treatment "may be harmful and there
could be complications."  According to Renner, legitimate 
research programs do not charge fees.
      
"Indonesia Sets Up Commission to Fight AIDS"
Reuters (06/29/94)
     Confronted with explosive HIV growth, Indonesia will establish an
inter-ministerial commission to coordinate the campaign against 
the disease.  Involving at least nine ministers, the commissions 
will emphasize education and prevention, especially at the local 
level.  Indonesia, home to 185 million people, last month 
confirmed that it had 263 documented HIV cases, but some 
ministers and health officials admitted that the actual figure 
could be 200 times higher.
      
"Group Tackles Project to House AIDS Patients"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (06/27/94) P. 3B;  Prost, Charlene
     A long-vacant landmark in the Central West End of St. Louis will 
reopen next year as a support residence for AIDS patients who are
not sick enough to remain hospitalized, but are too sick to live 
alone.  Doorways Interfaith Residence, a nonprofit group that 
provides housing for AIDS patients, plans to renovate the 
99-year-old building to have 36 rooms with private baths.  The 
residents will also have the benefit of a common kitchen where 
they will get needed food and nutritional supplements, laundry 
and housekeeping services, therapy, medications, and counseling, 
according to Lynn Cooper, Doorways' executive director.  The 
organization says it can provide monthly support services at a 
cost that is less than a three-day hospital visit.  It already 
has more than $1 million for the project, but needs much more.  
To raise money for furniture, supplies, and staff, Doorways is 
launching a "Brick by Brick" campaign, in which contributors can 
purchase bricks inscribed with names or messages in memory of 
those lost to AIDS.  The bricks will then be used to pave a 
garden at the renovated building.
      
"HemaCare and FDA Reach Accord on Virus Inactivation Studies 
Required for Immupath Clinical Trials"
Business Wire (06/28/94)
     A barrier to clinical testing of anti-HIV hyperimmune plasma, 
Immupath, is close to being removed, according to the Food and 
Drug Administration and HemaCare Corp.  While the FDA had not 
questioned the potential efficacy of Immupath in treating HIV, 
the agency was not convinced by HemaCare's virus-inactivation 
process used to prevent the possible transmission of HIV.  The 
process had previously demonstrated its effectiveness, but in 
order to reconfirm the ability of the process to inactivate the 
virus, HemaCare agreed to undergo repeat studies involving the 
addition of greater amounts of HIV to normal plasma.  With 
favorable completion of the study, the FDA indicated that it 
would lift the clinical hold on Immupath, and that Phase III 
trials could commence at that time.
      
"VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Announces Johns Hopkins University to 
Begin Clinical Study with Hypericin"
Business Wire (06/28/94)
     Johns Hopkins University was granted Institutional Review Board 
approval, and officially registered with the National Institutes 
of Health as the site of Phase I/II clinical trials for oral 
dosing of hypericin in HIV-positive volunteers.  VIMRx is 
investigating the use of hypericin as a treatment for viral and 
retroviral diseases including HIV/AIDS, cytomegalovirus, 
dermatological disorders, and as an inactivator of viruses and 
retroviruses in blood collected for transfusions.
      
"AIDS Digest: ACT UP and NIH Meet to Discuss DNCB"
Washington Blade (06/24/94) Vol. 25, No. 26, P. 30;  van Hertum, 
Aras
     Members of ACT UP/San Francisco met on June 8 with AIDS officials
from the National Institutes of Health to discuss the 
experimental drug dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB), which some believe
strengthens the immune system's defenses against opportunistic 
infections.  Although the newsletter AIDS Treatment News claims 
the drug was so popular during the 1980s that it created a 
"social movement in the San Francisco area," there has been very 
little actual research on DNCB.
      
"Critic Still Lays Blame for AIDS on Lifestyle, Not HIV"
Nature (06/09/94) Vol. 369, No. 6480, P. 434;  Dickson, David
     Kary Mullis, the California chemist who designed the polymerase 
chain reaction "HIV myth," contends that hemophiliacs who died of
AIDS after receiving contaminated blood probably died of reasons 
unrelated to HIV exposure.  In addition, he asserts, the deaths 
of HIV-positive children were caused by their regimen of AZT, and
the AIDS epidemic in Africa was probably caused by malaria 
antibodies that resemble antibodies to AIDS.  The only true cases
of AIDS, according to Mullis, are in the large, gay communities 
like San Francisco and New York, and these probably stemmed from 
exposure to a great range of retroviruses through multiple 
contacts in bath houses.  In fact, Mullis argues, HIV is not the 
probable source of AIDS, which he says is spread through the 
lungs, and not the genitals.  Most members of the scientific 
community scornfully dismiss the Mullis camp's theories, but this
does not appear to faze Mullis, who continues to spout his 
opinion despite complaints that his ideas are undermining the 
activities of AIDS health-workers around the country.
      
"The Role of State Health Departments in Formulating Policy: A 
Survey on the Case of AIDS"
American Journal of Public Health (06/94) Vol. 84, No. 6, P. 905;
Robins, Leonard;  Backstrom, Charles
     Public health departments have long been criticized for what is 
perceived as their failure to deal effectively with AIDS.  To 
explore the attitudes and influence of public health officials on
the epidemic, Robins and Backstrom surveyed state health 
department officials, state legislature health committee chairs, 
and hospital association directors and conducted interviews with 
key AIDS policymakers and observers in six states.  They found 
that public health officials were considered to be the primary 
initiators of AIDS public policy--in their own eyes and in the 
eyes of legislative leaders and hospital association officials.  
Robins and Backstrom conclude that, contrary to the Institute of 
Medicine's 1988 report declaring the public health system to be 
in a state of disarray, state health departments are leaders in 
the fight against AIDS at the local level.
      
