                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                   Monday, October 7, 1996

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
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Thousands Walk to Raise Funds for AIDS Clinic"
"Arrest in Japan's AIDS Scandal"
"Editorial: Some Hope on Third-World AIDS"
"Teens, Unwed Women Having Fewer Babies"
"Mike Smith's Life Is Woven Into the Fabric of AIDS Quilt"
"Nationline: Grove Uses Life to Memorialize AIDS"
"Inside the Beltway: Too Busy for Bill"
"First HIV Baby in Indonesia Reported"
"HIV-1 Tat Protein as a Potential AIDS Vaccine"
"We're Here! We're Queer! Let's Get Coffee!"
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"Thousands Walk to Raise Funds for AIDS Clinic"
Washington Post (10/07/96) P. B3; Powell, Michael
     The AIDSWALK Washington, held on Sunday, raised $2.1 million for 
the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the largest provider of health care 
and legal services for AIDS patients.  The number of participants
in the event has grown over the past ten years, from 400 or 500 
the first year to 20,000 this year.  Homosexuals and 
heterosexuals, whites and blacks, city residents and suburbanites
participated in the 10-kilometer walk.  In his speech to the 
crowd, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry emphasized the toll 
AIDS has taken on the black community, and urged black churches 
to help fight the disease.  In the city, 60 percent of AIDS 
patients are African-Americans.
     
"Arrest in Japan's AIDS Scandal"
Wall Street Journal (10/07/96) P. A18
     A former official in Japan's Ministry of Health was arrested on 
reported charges of professional negligence for his role in the 
tainted blood scandal.  Akihito Matsummura was responsible for 
ensuring the safety of plasma blood products in 1985, when the 
government approved heat-treated blood products for sale.  
Several Japanese pharmaceutical companies are accused of 
continuing to distribute unheated products until their stocks 
were depleted.
     
"Editorial: Some Hope on Third-World AIDS"
New York Times (10/07/96) P. A16
     Campaigns to curb the spread of HIV should be embraced by 
governments, especially in developing countries, a New York Times
editorial says.  It holds up a government program in Thailand 
that requires all sex workers in brothels to demand that clients 
use condoms as a good example of such a campaign.  This program, 
enforced by the country's network of clinics, is reinforced by 
the promotion of condoms in schools, military bases, workplaces, 
and the media.  A recent study showed that the campaign has 
resulted in more condom use and a lower incidence of HIV among 
newly drafted Thai soldiers.  A government condom campaign in 
Uganda has also resulted in a lower incidence of HIV, but, the 
editorial says, most governments are reluctant to speak openly 
about sex and the threat of AIDS.
     
"Teens, Unwed Women Having Fewer Babies"
USA Today (10/07/96) P. 6D
     The birth rate for unmarried women fell in 1995 for the first 
time in nearly 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention reported.  The agency also reported that the number of
AIDS-related deaths in 1995 held steady for the first time at 
42,506.
     
"Mike Smith's Life Is Woven Into the Fabric of AIDS Quilt"
USA Today (10/07/96) P. 8D; Wilson, Craig
     Mike Smith, co-founder of the NAMES Project Foundation, 
coordinated the first display of the AIDS quilt in 1987 and says 
this year's display, to open on Friday in Washington, D.C., will 
be his last.  The quilt now has almost 40,000 panels, and covers 
24 acres.  It will be spread out from the U.S. Capitol to the 
Washington Monument.  The first AIDS quilt was 1,920 panels, and 
began growing as family and friends of AIDS patients made panels 
to add to the project.
     
"Nationline: Grove Uses Life to Memorialize AIDS"
USA Today (10/07/96) P. 3A; Bacon, John
     The 15-acre AIDS National Memorial Grove in San Francisco's 
Golden Gate Park will most likely be designated by legislation, 
expected to be signed by President Clinton, as the country's 
living memorial to AIDS losses.
     
"Inside the Beltway: Too Busy for Bill"
Washington Times (10/07/96) P. A8; McCaslin, John
     After criticizing President Clinton for his "lack of compassion" 
for AIDS patients at an AIDS conference earlier this year, 
actress Elizabeth Taylor refused to take phone calls from 
Clinton, according to San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter.  The 
newspaper reported that Clinton called Taylor twice at her home a
few days after the speech, but that she would not take his calls.
     
"First HIV Baby in Indonesia Reported"
Xinhua News Agency (10/06/96)
     The first case of an HIV-infected baby being born in Indonesia 
was reported Saturday.  The government's tally of HIV cases now 
stands at 449.  Indonesia has 108 confirmed AIDS cases, but 
experts estimate that up to 2.5 million people in the country 
could be infected with HIV by the year 2000 if precautions are 
not taken.
     
"HIV-1 Tat Protein as a Potential AIDS Vaccine"
Nature Medicine (09/96) Vol. 1, No. 9, P. 960; Goldstein, Gideon
     The Tat protein is critical to HIV-1's ability to infect and 
destroy the immune system, and New York University Medical 
School's Gideon Goldstein suggests that an AIDS vaccine could be 
developed to take advantage of this factor.  Goldstein notes that
because HIV-1 is able to mutate rapidly, the conventional 
approach to vaccine development is not useful.  Curbing the rapid
viral proliferation during initial infection is important to 
protecting the immune system from damage.  Vaccination with Tat 
protein, made by HIV-1's tat gene, provides a novel approach for 
protection because it targets a critical product of the virus 
rather than the virus itself.  A Tat vaccine could be used for 
protective immunization in uninfected people as well as for the 
reduction of viral load in asymptomatic HIV-infected patients.  
The efficacy of such a vaccine in reducing in vivo viral 
replication and disease progression is currently being studied in
preliminary clinical trials in primates.
     
"We're Here! We're Queer! Let's Get Coffee!"
New York (09/30/96) Vol. 29, No. 38, P. 25; Mendelsohn, Daniel
     The mainstreaming of gay culture over the last ten years is 
illustrated by the taming of ACT UP's activist tactics.  The AIDS
cause was embraced by the gay activist community in the late 
1980s and provided a forum for the gay culture to display its 
attention-grabbing style.  ACT UP's political demonstrations in 
1987 and 1988 had theatrical qualities, using such props as fake 
blood to create outrageous scenes.  ACT UP has lately faded from 
the public eye, however, and a demonstration at July's 
International AIDS Conference was given little notice.  The 
group's decline can be attributed to its success.  It has met 
many of its goals, including representation on committees and 
changes at the Food and Drug Administration and the National 
Institutes of Health.  "Once we were pariahs at the gate, and now
we're inside.  There was once a time to fling epithets and 
homilies, but that's changed," explained Jay Blotcher, director 
of media relations at the American Foundation for AIDS Research 
and a former ACT UP member.  Today's AIDS activist groups do not 
have the ACT UP-type edge that existed in the late 1980s, when it
was clear who was supposed to be offended by the outrageous 
tactics.
     
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