                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        May 21, 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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"Clinton Signs Law Renewing Assistance for AIDS Patients" 
"The Democratization of AIDS"
"Fanfare: Boxing"
"Malaria, AIDS Are Killing Worldwide, Report Finds" 
"Across the USA: Florida"
"Dialing Up an AIDS Cure"
"Cyclists Bring Power on Wheels for AIDS Fight" 
"Agouron Cites Positive Viracept Data" 
"Drugstore Cowboys"
"Sitting Priddy"
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"Clinton Signs Law Renewing Assistance for AIDS Patients" 
Philadelphia Inquirer (05/21/96) P. A6;  Ross, Sonya
     President Clinton signed a law Monday that will extend the
Ryan White CARE Act for five years, providing funds to 
communities for home care, transportation, counseling, hospice 
care, and other support for people with HIV and AIDS.  Since the 
law was passed six years ago, it has provided care for more than 
300,000 people.  The law allocates $738 million to AIDS services 
for fiscal 1996, up from $632 million last year.  The law 
includes a provision calling for $10 million to be used to urge 
pregnant women to voluntarily seek counseling and HIV testing. 
States will receive $52 million to provide new AIDS drugs to 
patients who cannot afford them.
     
"The Democratization of AIDS"
Wall Street Journal (05/21/96) P. A23;  Satcher, David;  Gayle, 
Helene D.;  Koop, C. Everett; et al.
     In a series of letters to the editor of the Wall Street
Journal, health officials and others respond to a recent article 
which reported that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
public education campaign exaggerates the risk of AIDS to the 
general public.  Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Helene Gayle, director of 
its National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, write in a 
joint letter that the article was unbalanced and incomplete.  
They argue that the broad public education campaign was important 
in curbing the spread of HIV, noting the decline in the rate of 
AIDS in some groups.  Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon 
General, also objects to the "seriously flawed article."  Koop 
writes that the government made the best decision it could--to 
educate the general public--because there was evidence that HIV 
would not be contained in high-risk groups, saying "it was the 
right thing to do in 1987.  It is still the right thing to do."  
Meanwhile, William, M. London, of the American Council on Science 
and Health, applauds the article, adding that he has tried to 
spread the same message and has been criticized for it.
     
"Fanfare: Boxing"
Washington Post (05/21/96) P. E2
     The California State Assembly passed a bill that requires
boxers to test HIV-negative in order to be licensed in the state. 
The bill came in response to the announcement that former 
heavyweight Tommy Morrison has HIV.  Seven states and Puerto Rico 
required yearly HIV tests before Morrison's announcement, and 
other states have since implemented the requirement.
     
"Malaria, AIDS Are Killing Worldwide, Report Finds" 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (05/20/96) P. 7A
     Malaria and AIDS claimed 17 million lives worldwide last
year, including 9 million children, the World Health Organization 
(WHO) reported Monday.  Bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases, 
when grouped together, are the world's leading cause of death, 
responsible for one-third of all deaths.  Tuberculosis was the 
deadliest infectious disease in 1995, claiming 3.1 million lives, 
up 400,000 from 1993.  The agency says that a mix of international 
populations and disease organisms are partly responsible for the 
increases.  The WHO report also contained some good news, however. 
Globally, life expectancy is longer, babies are healthier, and 
some infectious diseases have become controlled.  Use of the 
tetanus vaccine prevented 700,000 deaths from the disease last 
year, and poliomyelitis has almost been wiped out.
     
"Across the USA: Florida"
USA Today (05/21/96) P. 9A
     In Apopka, Fla., health officials are suggesting HIV tests
for up to 40 people who may have been exposed to the virus by a 
man who calls himself a "male slut."  The man's 16-year-old 
girlfriend tested positive for HIV.
     
"Dialing Up an AIDS Cure"
Washington Post--Washington Business (05/20/96) P. 3;  Rohn, 
Daniel T.;  Patton, Scott;  Ginsberg, Steven
     Bell Atlantic customers in Maryland, Virginia, and the
District of Columbia now have the option of donating 1 percent of 
their monthly bill to support AIDS research at the Whitman-Walker 
Clinic.  For the project, part of the company's Community Threads 
program, donations are paid by Bell Atlantic, based on the Bell 
Atlantic portion of the bill, and do not add to the cost to the 
customer.  The project was started in April 1995 on a trial basis 
and made official in November.
     
"Cyclists Bring Power on Wheels for AIDS Fight" 
Miami Herald (05/20/96) P. 1B;  Cauvin, Henri E.
     The first-ever Florida AIDS ride ended on Sunday on Miami's
South Beach, as 757 cyclists rode into Flamingo Park to celebrate 
the end of their three-day ride from Orlando and the $1.5 million 
they had raised for several AIDS organizations in the state. 
Riders had to raise at least $1,400 to participate in the event, 
which ended with much emotion and celebration.
     
"Agouron Cites Positive Viracept Data" 
Reuters (05/20/96)
     Two pilot Phase II clinical trials of Agouron's drug
Viracept have demonstrated its ability to reduce the level of HIV 
in infected patients, the company said.  In the study, 36 
HIV-positive patients received either Viracept in combination with 
Bristol Myers Squibb's drug Zerit or Zerit alone.  HIV was reduced 
by more than 98 percent in three groups who received differing 
doses of Viracept with Zerit, and by a mean of 82 percent in those 
who received Zerit alone.  CD4 T-cell counts rose more in the 
patients receiving both drugs than in those taking Zerit alone.
     
"Drugstore Cowboys"
Advocate (05/14/96) No. 707, P. 37;  McAleavy, Teresa M.
     A black market for prescription drugs has been on the
decline but may now resurge as demand for protease inhibitors 
rises.  The AIDS drug black market, in which people who receive 
the drugs free from clinics sell them for a profit, is generally 
unprosecuted, since drug enforcement efforts are often focused 
elsewhere.  David Gilden, of Gay Men's Health Crisis, notes that 
the black market for AIDS drugs has declined on its own in recent 
years, as the price of AZT has fallen.  The new protease 
inhibitors, as well as cutbacks in funding for Medicaid and other 
programs that pay for AIDS drugs, may help to raise demand again, 
however.  In addition, some small pharmacies are buying 
black-market drugs and selling them at retail prices to compete 
with larger stores.  Drugs bought on the black market may not be 
safe due to improper storage.  Furthermore, since most people 
buying black-market drugs are taking them without medical care, 
any side effects could go untreated.  Thomas Staffa, assistant 
attorney general in the New York Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, says 
that AIDS drugs account for just a small portion of the black 
market for prescription drugs, claiming that it is "the 
high-priced drugs, like those for cancer, or Prozac, that command 
the most money."
     
"Sitting Priddy"
POZ (05/96) No. 14, P. 34;  Grau, Rawley
     Laurie Priddy, who was fired from her job in 1991 after 
disclosing that she had HIV, says the anger she felt from the 
experience gave her the impetus to speak out as an AIDS activist. 
She now educates professional basketball players and their 
partners about HIV and AIDS through the NBA Players Association  
(NBPA) AIDS program.  The program was organized through the Johns 
Hopkins School of Public Health, following Magic Johnson's 
disclosure.  She has also worked on the curriculum and training 
for the NBA's Winning Against AIDS program, in which NBA players 
educate inner-city kids about HIV at basketball camps.  She 
frequently shocks people in her sessions, and helps them to see 
that anyone is vulnerable to the virus, by telling them she has 
HIV.  She regrets the way gender and race have divided the 
activist community, fearing that the fight for funding and rights 
for people with HIV will suffer.  Priddy's husband, whom she met 
after she was found to have HIV, is HIV-negative.  They live in 
Baltimore, and when not working to fight discrimination, Priddy 
enjoys fishing and crabbing along the Chesapeake, and riding her 
motorcycle in rural Maryland.
     
     
