                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      February 9, 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
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Baboon Cells Fail to Thrive, But AIDS Patient Improves"
"2 of 6 Who Got HIV from Dentist are Alive"
"New Proposals On Health Care Help New York"
"Amtrak Passenger with TB Dies"
"AIDS Takes New Directions"
"A Cure For FDA-Induced Pain"
"HIV...and Service in the Military"
"New Strain of HIV Identified in India"
"Detection of Virus in Vertically Exposed HIV-Antibody-Negative 
Children"
"Monkeys Are Not Men"
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"Baboon Cells Fail to Thrive, But AIDS Patient Improves"
New York Times (02/09/96) P. A14;  Altman, Lawrence K.
     Doctors say that the baboon bone marrow cells transplanted into 
AIDS patient Jeff Getty have failed to grow and function.  They 
are surprised, though, that Getty's health has improved anyway.  
The doctors would not have announced the results until they were 
published in a scientific journal, but they wanted the public to 
know that Getty's improved health was not a result of the 
transplant.  The procedure is still considered successful, 
because it showed that the radiation and drug therapy used to 
prepare the patient was safe.  Experts now say the doses may have
been too low.  Getty's doctors say they will explore the use of 
radiation for AIDS treatment, since it seemed to have a positive 
impact.
      
"2 of 6 Who Got HIV from Dentist are Alive"
Washington Times (02/09/96) P. A7;  Price, Joyce
     Of the six patients infected with HIV by Florida dentist Dr. 
David Acer, only two survive.  The case is the only documented 
instance of dentist-to-patient transmission of the virus, 
although a dentist in Massachusetts is now being sued by a 
patient in a similar case.  In that case, James Sharpe, who has 
AIDS, accused his dentist, Anthony Breglio, who does not have 
AIDS, of not sterilizing his equipment.  The two patients of 
Acer, who has died of AIDS, do not have the disease and are 
relatively healthy, but have low immunity due to the infection.  
One of the patients, Lisa Shoemaker, said she makes educational 
presentations at schools about abstaining from sex to prevent the
spread of HIV.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
has determined that while Acer did in fact infect his patients with 
HIV, the route of transmission remains unknown.
      
"New Proposals On Health Care Help New York"
New York Times (02/09/96) P. A1;  Fisher, Ian
     The Medicaid and welfare proposals recently presented by U.S. 
governors would be the best financial deal for New York.  The 
state, for example, would be able to decide for itself which of 
the 100,000 New Yorkers with AIDS are considered disabled and 
entitled to government aid.  Advocates for the poor are concerned
that the new policies could result in less money being spent on 
the impoverished when the state is low on cash.  New York would 
also no longer require federal approval for its plans to force 
poor individuals into managed care systems.  The governors' 
federal Medicaid proposal would add $2 billion more than the plan
offered by Congress, over the next seven years.  The plan would 
also increase the federal share of New York's Medicaid spending 
from 50 percent to 60 percent.
      
"Amtrak Passenger with TB Dies"
Washington Post (02/09/96) P. B4
     An Amtrak passenger with tuberculosis who traveled from Chicago 
to Washington to Miami has died.  The 22-year-old man was removed
from the train in northern Florida on Jan. 21 because he was 
coughing up blood and mucus.  He was operated on at the JFK 
Medical Center near West Palm Beach.  Doctors found large holes 
in his lungs, and say his bronchial artery had eroded and bled.  
State health officials and officials from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said the chance of transmission to other 
passengers was low, but that those thought to be at risk should 
be tested for the disease.
      
"AIDS Takes New Directions"
Richmond Times-Dispatch (02/08/96) P. E1;  Orndorff, Beverly
     The Virginia state health department has reported a new trend in 
the type of people becoming infected with HIV and the mode of 
transmission of the virus.  The first cases were mostly among 
white males, but now more women and blacks are becoming infected.
Homosexual sex between men was the most common mode of 
transmission, followed by injection drug use.  Now male-to-male 
transmission is decreasing, as injection drug use and 
heterosexual contact are increasing as ways Virginians are 
getting the virus.  AIDS first became a reportable disease in 
Virginia in 1983, and doctors have been reporting cases of HIV 
infection since 1989.  Injection drug use accounted for 10 
percent of the state's reported AIDS cases between 1982 and 1988. 
Last year, 20 percent of the cases were attributed to such drug 
use.  Meanwhile, sex between men was reported as the mode of 
transmission for 70 percent of the AIDS cases between 1982 and 
1988, but dropped to 48 percent during last year.  Heterosexual 
contact was the reported mode of transmission for 4 percent of 
the cases in the 1980s and for 13 percent now.
      
"A Cure For FDA-Induced Pain"
Wall Street Journal (02/08/96) P. A14;  Driscoll, James
     James Driscoll, an AIDS activist and national policy advisor to 
the Log Cabin Republicans, contends in a Washington Post that 
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum's (R-Kan.) proposed overhaul of the FDA is 
essential, since the federal agency "cannot be trusted to reform 
itself."  According to Driscoll, Kassebaum's bill would make the
FDA accountable and would help life-saving drugs to reach needy 
patients sooner.  Driscoll supports a provision that would 
require the FDA to answer to the judiciary and defend its delays 
and "retaliations" in court.  Furthermore, he states that 
scientific and medical advances have made the drug development 
process safer and less in need of regulation.
      
"HIV...and Service in the Military"
Washington Times (02/08/96) P. A17;  Summers, Harry G., Jr.
     In a Washington Times commentary, Harry Summers, a retired Army 
colonel and syndicated columnist, disagrees with claims about the
Defense Department's official position on the proposed discharge 
of HIV military members.  Summers wonders about the identities of
the officials who supposedly oppose the provision, and states 
that they must not be anyone actually involved in defending the 
United States.  He says that the bill makes sense based on the 
fact that HIV-positive service members burden others in the 
military because they cannot serve overseas.  He suggests that 
the military's policy be changed to discharge all non-deployable 
service members, including those with chronic but not 
debilitating diseases such as asthma, cancer, and heart disease. 
Summers holds that the Army was designed to be a fighting force, 
and that those incapable of fighting should not be allowed to 
serve.  He also notes that when people are excused from battle 
because of illness, morale suffers substantially.
      
"New Strain of HIV Identified in India"
Reuters (02/08/96)
     A new strain of HIV has been found in India, report scientists at
the National Institute for AIDS Research in Pune, India.  
According to an article in AIDS Weekly Plus, the new C-subtype 
strain has been found in most of the people with HIV in the 
country.  The strain is especially troublesome because it is 
resistant to the vaccines now being developed for the virus.  Dr.
Max Essex of Harvard University said there are two HIV epidemics,
one in the West which is slowing down, and one in Asia and 
Africa, which is growing.  Nearly 90 percent of the AIDS cases in
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were transmitted by heterosexual 
contact, while about 90 percent of the cases in the West were the
result of homosexual contact or injection drug use.  The World 
Health Organization predicts more than five million people in 
India will be HIV-infected by the year 2000.
      
"Detection of Virus in Vertically Exposed HIV-Antibody-Negative 
Children"
Lancet (01/27/96) Vol.347, No.8996, P. 213;  Newell, 
Marie-Louise;  Dunn, David;  De Maria, Andrea; et. al.
     Women with HIV can infect their children in utero and through 
delivery, called vertical transmission.  In a European study of 
264 children born to HIV-infected women, nine were born with HIV 
but later cleared the infection.  In all nine, the virus was 
detected before the children became antibody-negative.  The virus
was detected in two children after seroreversion.  Based on only 
the children who had two or more positive virological tests, 
Newell et al. estimate that 2 percent to 7 percent of children 
born to HIV-infected women clear or tolerate the virus.  The 
authors say the findings "suggest that the detection of virus or 
viral DNA in 'uninfected' children is rare and is not associated 
with clinical disease or immunological abnormalities."  The 
unknown mechanism of how the HIV-positive children became 
uninfected could provide insight into virus clearance, which may 
help in vaccine development.
      
"Monkeys Are Not Men"
POZ (02/96-03/96) No.12, P. 20
     Results of a study--conducted by the University of Washington and
the National Institutes of Health--reveal that the drug PMPA was 
able to protect 25 monkeys against simian immunodeficiency virus 
(SIV), a virus related to HIV.  The drug, developed by Gilead 
Sciences, acts like AZT in that it inhibits the reverse 
transcriptase enzyme necessary for the virus to reproduce.  
Unlike AZT, PMPA does not need to be absorbed by the body's 
cells, and can protect both infected and uninfected cells as soon
as it enters the body.  Monkeys who were injected with PMPA 48 
hours before, four hours after and 24 hours after being infected 
with SIV, exhibited no sign of infection 8 months later and 
suffered no apparent side effects.
     
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