                     AIDS Daily Summary
                   Friday, October 18, 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 National AIDS
Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this
text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
National AIDS Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this
information. Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Ten Leading Nationally Notifiable Diseases--United States, 1995"
"Questions on Ethics Lead to Review of Needle-Exchange Study"
"Biotech Firms Find Structure of Protein for Hepatitis C"
"Merck Looks to Attack Price Variations in EU With Launch of AIDS
Treatment"
"Ten-Year-Old Fraud Suit Settled for $14.5 Million"
"Hospitals Keep Drug Packs in Case of AIDS Accidents"
"PM's Brother Testifies at Blood Probe"
"Inside Politics: Dating Clinton"
"Physicians Try Unusual Drugs to Fight Cryptosporidium"
"Tosoh Says It Has Created Way to Count Viral Particles in Blood"
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"Ten Leading Nationally Notifiable Diseases--United States, 1995"
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (10/18/96) Vol. 45, No. 41,
     Last year, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) represented
87 percent of all cases of the 10 most frequently reported
infectious diseases in the United States, federal researchers
report.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the 10 most prevalent infectious diseases in the
United States in 1995 were, in descending order: chlamydia,
gonorrhea, HIV/AIDS, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, shigellosis,
tuberculosis (TB), syphillis, Lyme disease, and hepatitis B.
Rates for HIV/AIDS and TB were significantly higher among men
than women, with more than four times as many AIDS cases
reported in men than in women, and twice as many TB cases.

"Questions on Ethics Lead to Review of Needle-Exchange Study"
New York Times (10/18/96) P. A22; Leary, Warren E.
     Amid charges that a proposed needle exchange study in Alaska
is unethical, the National Institutes of Health announced
Thursday that it would review the plan.  The $2.7 million,
three-year study at the University of Alaska at Anchorage was
slated to begin recruiting patients in December.  The researcher
will attempt to determine whether injection drug users can reduce
their risk of viral infection by exchanging their used needles
and syringes for clean ones.  The Washington-based Public
Citizens' Health Research Group said the study was unethical
because it would deny access to clean needles to half of the drug
users, those in the control group.  A spokeswoman for the NIH
said that the study had been approved by two ethics boards, but
that it would be reviewed again soon.  Dennis G. Fisher, the
researcher leading the study, has defended it. He pointed out
that the control group would be told where to go for needles and
how to get them.  He explained the study design is necessary to
prove that needle exchanges work.

"Biotech Firms Find Structure of Protein for Hepatitis C"
Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. B3; Johannes, Laura
     Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Agouron Pharmaceuticals have
separately identified the structure of a protein necessary to the
reproduction of the hepatitis C virus, sparking a more intense
competition between the two to find a drug for the treatment of
hepatitis C.  The discovery, published in separate articles in
the Friday edition of the journal Cell, provides a starting point
to develop a drug that would interfere with the protease that
helps the virus to replicate.  The research builds on the success
of HIV protease inhibitors, but the hepatitis C virus protease
may well be a more difficult target than the HIV protease,
because its working end is "broader and more open," notes Agouron
CEO Peter Johnson.  Analyst Rachel Leheny of Hambrecht & Quist,
meanwhile, predicts that an effective drug for the treatment of
hepatitis C could bring in $2 million to $3 million in annual
revenue.

"Merck Looks to Attack Price Variations in EU With Launch of AIDS
Treatment"
Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. A13A; Moore, Stephen D.;
Murray, Shailagh
     Merck is introducing its AIDS drug Crixivan in the European
market, hoping to prevent "parallel trading" of the drug between
countries by selling the drug at a fixed price across the
European Union (EU).  The legal practice of parallel trading,
buying goods in the cheapest EU states and selling them for
higher prices in other places, is opposed by drug companies
because it harms the market and denies patients a steady supply
of medicine.  While pharmaceutical makers have opposed such trade
for years, they now have on their side AIDS activists, who are
demanding access to powerful new drugs like Crixivan.  However,
EU officials have not yet been persuaded that parallel-drug
trading is as detrimental as the industry claims.

"Ten-Year-Old Fraud Suit Settled for $14.5 Million"
Wall Street Journal (10/18/96) P. B5
     ICN Pharmaceuticals reports that it has settled a
10-year-old class action investor lawsuit for $10 million in cash
and $4.5 million in common stock.  According to an attorney for
the plaintiffs, the suit alleged that ICN had defrauded investors
by making claims about possible effects on patients of its AIDS
drug ribavirin.  A New York jury rejected seven of 13 claims made
in the case, but was deadlocked over the remaining six and a new
trial date needs to be scheduled.  A spokesman for the drug maker
notes that the company "has consistently maintained that the
allegations upon which it was based were false."

"Hospitals Keep Drug Packs in Case of AIDS Accidents"
Toronto Globe and Mail (10/17/96) P. A7; Coutts, Jane
     Hospitals in Toronto are starting to prepare for the
accidental exposure of health-care workers to HIV by keeping
drugs to treat such exposures on hand.  The plan is based on
recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in July, which call for treating HIV-exposed workers
with a combination of antiviral drugs that includes a protease
inhibitor.  Studies in the United States have found that
immediate treatment can reduce a worker's risk of developing AIDS
by 70 percent.  The CDC recommends that the drugs, which cost
about $1,200 per person, are used only in very high-risk cases,
like a deep prick from a needle that has been used on an AIDS
patient.  The agency said the level of risk should be balanced
against the effects of the drug.  The government of British
Colombia has stocked every emergency room in the province with
five-day starter packs of the drugs, to be available for anyone
accidentally exposed to HIV.

"PM's Brother Testifies at Blood Probe"
Toronto Globe and Mail (10/17/96) P. A12; Grange, Michael
     Concerns about the possibility of HIV being transmitted
through the blood supply had diminished by 1987, testified Michel
Chretien, co-chairman of a study about the disease with Justice
Horace Krever in 1987-1988, on Wednesday.  Chretien, the brother
of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, was called by the
province of Ontario to testify at the federal inquiry into the
country's tainted blood scandal.  Ontario is one of the parties
that could be cited for misconduct in Krever's final report for
failing to take precautions to protect the blood supply from HIV.
The Ontario government called Chretien to show that little was
known about AIDS, or how to protect the blood supply, at the
time.

"Inside Politics: Dating Clinton"
Washington Times (10/18/96) P. A6
     Members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP,
have placed an ad in the Washington Blade, Washington, D.C.'s gay
newspaper, urging AIDS activists not to support President
Clinton.  "He keeps toying with our affections.  Do we really
want another date with this man?" asks the ad.

"Physicians Try Unusual Drugs to Fight Cryptosporidium"
American Medical News (10/07/96) Vol. 39, No. 37, P. 19
     Creative new therapies are being developed to treat
cryptosporidiosis, the diarrhea-causing infection for which nearly
100 potential drugs have been tried.  NTZ, a drug initially
developed for dogs with worms, will enter final testing at the
National Institutes of Health in November.  AIDS patients are
demanding the drug, and are importing supplies from Mexico, where
it is used to treat both humans and animals.  Moreover, of the
first 29 U.S. AIDS patients given NTZ, one-third experienced at
least some benefit.  UniMed Pharmaceuticals is offering NTZ to 150
patients as an experimental therapy.  Another drug is being
developed using the milk produced by cows just after giving birth.
 The mothers' antibodies are thought to attach to Cryptosporidium
and help block its spread through the intestines.
 Meanwhile, the biotechnology firm GalaGen is pretreating 250,000
cows to increase their antibody production.  About half of the 21
AIDS patients treated in initial testing have reported
significant declines in diarrhea.  The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's Dan Colley noted, "We need to be
cautious," though "we clearly need to think outside the normal"
drug therapies, which have failed.

"Tosoh Says it Has Created Way to Count Viral Particles in Blood"
Nikkei Weekly (10/07/96) Vol. 34, No. 1743, P. 10
     Tosoh Corp., a Japanese chemical maker, has developed a new
method for measuring the number of viral particles in a blood
sample.  The test, which uses a special ion-exchange resin to
isolate viral genes, may be used to diagnose viral infections and
has the potential to be automated.  The company has reported that
the test can detect as few as 100 viral particles and is able to
give a count if at least 10,000 particles are present.  The new
assay has been successfully tested on blood samples that
contained HIV and cytomegalovirus, Tosoh said.
