                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        May 15, 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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"FDA Approves HIV Home Test Kit"
"AZT Study Sees Benefit to Babies"
"Magic Retires From Lakers"
"Gunderson Angrily Defends His Rep"
"Russia Joins UN Program of Struggle Against AIDS"
"New Three-Drug Regimen for HIV: Safe and Well-Tolerated" 
"HIV-Related TB: Demographics Reported for Low-TB Area" 
"Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus DNA Sequences in 
Prostate Tissue and Human Semen"
"Health Care Needs of Gay Men and Lesbians in the United States" 
"Uganda May Host AIDS Vaccine Trial" 
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"FDA Approves HIV Home Test Kit"
Washington Post (05/15/96) P. A1;  Schwartz, John
     The first home HIV test, developed by a Johnson & Johnson 
subsidiary, Direct Access Diagnostics, was approved by the Food 
and Drug Administration on Tuesday.  Using the $40 test, a user 
sends a dried blood sample to a certified laboratory for HIV 
antibody testing and calls for results, identified by a number, a 
week later.  If the test is negative, the caller hears a recorded 
message and has the option of speaking to a counselor. If the 
results are positive or inconclusive, the caller is connected to 
a counselor who can provide referrals to doctors. The idea of a 
home HIV test has been a controversial issue, with many people 
asking whether proper counseling can be provided over the phone.  
Many of those who opposed it, however, have changed their views 
because the test will give more people access to health 
information.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
reports that only 14 percent of people voluntarily tested 
received any counseling afterward and notes that more than 60 
percent of Americans at risk for HIV have not been tested.  The 
kit should be available nationwide by 1997.  Related Stories: New 
York Times (05/15) P. A15; Wall Street Journal (05/15) P. B1
     
"AZT Study Sees Benefit to Babies"
Philadelphia Inquirer (05/15/96) P. A9;  Bergstein, Brian
     A study published in the Journal of the American Medical 
Association today concludes that HIV-positive women who took AZT 
during pregnancy were significantly less likely to transmit HIV 
to their babies.  But a related study reported the same journal 
found that HIV-infected pregnant women who were offered the drug 
by a New York City hospital were either afraid to take it or 
failed to complete their prescriptions.  R.J. Simonds, a 
pediatrician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
said the results indicate the areas in which the medical 
community needs to work harder.  In the first study, only 5.7 
percent of the babies born to HIV-positive women who took AZT 
were born with the virus, compared to 18.9 percent of those 
infants born to infected women who did not take the drug.
     
"Magic Retires From Lakers"
Washington Post (05/15/96) P. F1;  Adande, J.A.
     Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who returned to the National
Basketball Association this year after retiring when he found he 
was HIV-positive in 1991, announced Tuesday that he was leaving 
the sport again.  His decision is not related to his health.  "I 
am going out on my own terms, something I couldn't say when I 
aborted a comeback in 1992," Johnson said.  At that time, 
players' fears about contracting the virus kept him off the 
court.  Johnson's welcome to the sport this year illustrated the 
nation's attitude change and increased education about AIDS since 
1992.  Jimmy Loyce, executive director of AIDS Project Los 
Angeles, said Johnson showed that "those people who have the 
virus, if taken care of properly, can do anything they were 
historically capable of doing."  Related Story: New York Times 
(05/15) P. B9
     
"Gunderson Angrily Defends His Rep"
Washington Post (05/15/96) P. B3;  Groer, Annie;  Gerhart, Ann
     Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) instigated a fight with Rep.
Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.), who is openly gay, by putting into the 
Congressional Record a freelance writer's account that Gunderson 
sponsored a gay dance and brunch during last month's "Cherry 
Jubilee."  The article says that the dance "featured public 
nudity, illicit sexual activity, and evidence of illegal drug 
use."  Gunderson responded with a point of privilege, a 
parliamentary procedure reserved for defending one's reputation. 
He criticized Dornan's misrepresentation of facts and said he 
sponsored only the brunch, not the dance, noting that over 
$50,000 was raised for two local AIDS programs.
     
"Russia Joins UN Program of Struggle Against AIDS" 
Itar-Tass News Service (05/14/96)
     Russia has joined UNAIDS, a new United Nations program to
fight the spread of HIV, the Russian Public Health Ministry 
announced Tuesday.  The country will cooperate with the program 
to fight AIDS at the state level.  UNAIDS will distribute funds 
to various countries for measures to control the virus' spread 
through prevention and education efforts.  Russia has 1,157 
people with HIV and 205 people with AIDS, but AIDS experts warn 
that the virus continues to spread.
     
"New Three-Drug Regimen for HIV: Safe and Well-Tolerated" 
Reuters (05/14/96)
     A preliminary trial of loviride, lamivudine, and zidovudine
shows that this combination is both safe and well-tolerated.  In 
the journal AIDS, Veronica Miller of Frankfurt, Germany, and 
colleagues report that they tested the three-drug combination 
against a combination of loviride and zidovudine in 20 patients 
with HIV.  Both regimens were safe and well-tolerated, but the 
triple combination was more effective at raising CD4 cell counts, 
while resistance developed more easily to the two-drug therapy.
     
"HIV-Related TB: Demographics Reported for Low-TB Area" 
Reuters (05/14/96)
     Active tuberculosis in HIV-infected injection drug users in
a low-rate tuberculosis (TB) area in Connecticut followed the 
expected demographic and clinical characteristics, based on the 
rest of the country.  Eytan M. Rubinstein and colleagues based 
their conclusions on data from the TB Control Program of the 
Connecticut Health Department.  They found that of 905 
HIV-positive injection drug users, the 27 who developed active TB 
were non-white, mostly male, and only one had tested positive to 
a TB test before becoming infected with HIV.  Of all the TB cases 
analyzed for the study, 59 percent were in people with HIV and 11 
percent in people with AIDS.
     
"Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus DNA Sequences in 
Prostate Tissue and Human Semen"
New England Journal of Medicine (05/02/96) Vol. 334, No. 18, P. 
1168;  Monini, Paolo;  De Lellis, Laura;  Fabris, Marina; et al.
     Researchers at the University of Ferrara in Italy analyzed
sperm and tissue samples from the urogenital and prostate glands 
to look for Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). 
Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), they found KSHV DNA in 
12 percent of the samples from the urogenital tract, 44 percent 
of the prostate tissue samples, and in 81 percent of the 
ejaculate samples from immunocompetent subjects.  The study 
confirmed the presence of KSHV in semen, leading the researchers 
to conclude that it is probably transmitted by sexual contact. 
They also determined that KSHV is ubiquitous in the general 
population and is similar to other human herpesviruses that 
produce persistent, latent infection in otherwise healthy people. 
This finding, the researchers say, may provide keys to studying 
the pathogenicity of KSHV and the factors responsible for the 
virus' reactivation.
     
"Health Care Needs of Gay Men and Lesbians in the United States" 
Journal of the American Medical Association (05/01/96) Vol. 275, 
No. 17, P. 1354
     The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific
Affairs reviewed and updated its recommendations for the medical 
care of homosexual men and women, offering advice for doctors to 
better handle health problems inherent to the homosexual 
population.  Women who only have sex with women have a lower risk 
of contracting sexually transmitted diseases than heterosexual 
women but need to be aware because they can get HIV from bisexual 
women.  A study conducted between 1990 and 1992 found that 
bisexual women were much more likely than heterosexual women to 
engage in HIV risk behaviors, including injection drug use and 
sex with a bisexual man.  In the United States, more cases of HIV 
infection are due to sex between men than any other mode of 
transmission.  Studies show that high-risk behaviors among men 
who have sex with men continue at high rates, emphasizing the 
need for continuing prevention of HIV infection in this 
population.  The updated report recommends that doctors determine 
their patients' sexual orientation and sexual history by asking 
open-ended questions to make the patient comfortable.  The 
physician should discuss how certain sexual behaviors can put the 
patient at risk for HIV and other diseases.  Doctors should also 
be aware of the emotional, social, and psychological problems 
related to discrimination and stigmatization that are faced by 
many homosexual men and women. 
     
"Uganda May Host AIDS Vaccine Trial"
Science (05/03/96) Vol. 272, No. 5262, P. 657
     An AIDS vaccine trial in Uganda, planned since 1991, is
expected to begin by the end of the year.  Uganda, where more 
than one-third of the adults in some urban areas are infected 
with HIV, was selected by the World Health Organization as one of 
four developing countries to test AIDS vaccines.  No trial has 
started yet, however, because of enormous amount of time needed 
to establish a scientific infrastructure and because of questions 
about existing vaccines.  Roy Mugerwa at Uganda's Makerere 
University Medical School and Jerrold Ellner at Case Western 
University hope to start a small trial with Pasteur 
Merieux-Connaught's vaccine, which contains several HIV genes 
that have been added to a canarypox virus.  Preliminary tests 
suggest that it is more effective than the vaccines containing 
gp120, a genetically engineered version of HIV's surface protein. 
The vaccine will be tested for one year in 20 people to determine 
whether it is safe and if it elicits the same immune response as 
has been seen previously.
     
     
