                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        July 8, 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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"India Quickly Leads in H.I.V. Cases, AIDS Meeting Hears" 
"New AIDS Drugs Spawn a Global Pill Chase"
"Combined-Drug Therapy Being Hailed as Promising Weapon in AIDS 
Battle"
"Clinton's AIDS Panel Criticizes His Efforts"
"First Known U.S. Case of Rare AIDS Strain Found in Los Angeles" 
"A Realistic Hope for an AIDS Cure"
"With Fanfare, Global AIDS Conference Gets Underway in Vancouver" 
"Lifeline: Drug Cocktails"
"Antiviral Effect and Ex Vivo CD4+ T Cell Proliferation in 
HIV-Positive Patients as a Result of CD28 Costimulation"
"Lethal Infection by a Previously Unrecognized Metazoan Parasite" 
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"India Quickly Leads in H.I.V. Cases, AIDS Meeting Hears" 
New York Times (07/08/96) P. A3; Altman, Lawrence K.
     Although India was not hit by the AIDS epidemic until a few
years ago, it has become the country with the largest number of 
people infected with HIV, said Peter Piot, head of the United 
Nations AIDS program, at the 11th international AIDS meeting on 
Sunday.  Piot reported that more than 3 million infections have 
been diagnosed in the country, which has a population of 950 
million.  While the meeting will be marked by much positive 
information concerning the prevention and the treatment of the 
disease, meeting co-chairman Martin T. Schechter of Vancouver 
warned that many governments "are drifting toward indifference at 
this critical juncture."  Eric Sawyer, an advocate for AIDS 
patients, criticized researchers for suggesting that AIDS could be 
cured with a combination of drugs.  Following India, the greatest 
number of infections are in South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, and 
Kenya, respectively.
     
"New AIDS Drugs Spawn a Global Pill Chase" 
Wall Street Journal (07/08/96) P. A6
     AIDS patients around the world are desperate for the
promising new protease inhibitors now available in the United 
States.  To obtain the new drugs, patients or their doctors are 
traveling to America, using mail-order pharmacies, or purchasing 
the drugs on the black market.  Some countries, including 
Germany, Brazil, and Japan, are taking unusual steps to make the 
drugs available even if they have not yet been approved, while 
activists in France have succeeded in speeding provisional 
approval.  The drug makers who manufacture the three protease 
inhibitors say they are stepping up production to meet the 
growing worldwide demand.
     
"Combined-Drug Therapy Being Hailed as Promising Weapon in AIDS 
Battle"
Wall Street Journal (07/08/96) P. A3; Waldholz, Michael
     Results from more than a dozen clinical trials,
demonstrating the promise of new combinations of HIV drugs, will 
be presented this week at the 11th International Conference on 
AIDS in Vancouver.  The drug therapies, combining older drugs 
with the new protease inhibitors, offer hope of someday treating 
AIDS as a long-term, manageable disease.  Martin Schechter, 
co-chair of the conference, said it is unlikely, however, that 
the new therapy will soon get to 90 percent of the estimated 22 
million people who are infected with HIV.  David Ho, of the Aaron 
Diamond AIDS Research Center, said that his research suggests 
that the new therapy should be used as soon as a person is 
infected.  In another study, Martin Markowitz, also of the Aaron 
Diamond Research Center, will report today that Viracept, a 
protease inhibitor that is not yet approved, seems to be as 
effective in the combination as the three drugs already 
available.  Two other studies to be presented have demonstrated 
that attacking HIV with high levels of combination therapy may 
keep HIV from developing resistance and keep the viral load down 
for as long as 48 weeks.
     
"Clinton's AIDS Panel Criticizes His Efforts" 
Washington Times (07/08/96) P. A1; Bedard, Paul
     The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS has concluded
that President Clinton has not met campaign promises to fight the 
disease and that he should support needle exchange programs for 
drug addicts.  In his favor, the panel said that Clinton had 
increased AIDS funding, but it also pointed to a lack of 
"leadership" and "courage" in several areas.  The group, 40 
percent of which is infected with HIV, is composed of 
administration officials and private-sector representatives and 
said that the administration should complete a national AIDS 
program, promised four years ago.  The panel also reported that 
federal HIV prevention programs are lacking and that the 
administration should support needle-exchange programs, which law 
currently bans the federal government from supporting.
     
"First Known U.S. Case of Rare AIDS Strain Found in Los Angeles" 
Wall Street Journal (07/08/96) P. B2
     A rare strain of HIV, called Group O, was found in a U.S.
patient for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention reported last week.  The strain had previously been 
reported in West and Central Africa, France, Belgium, and Germany 
only.  The patient, located in Los Angeles, is a native of West 
Africa, and the CDC believes that she became infected before she 
came to the United States.  The agency said the U.S. blood supply 
is still safe, because most group O strains are detected by test 
kits currently used to screen blood.
     
"A Realistic Hope for an AIDS Cure"
Wall Street Journal (07/08/96) P. A8; Groopman, Jerome
     In a commentary in the Wall Street Journal, Jerome Groopman,
a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, describes the 
promising avenues for HIV treatment to be discussed at this 
week's 11th International AIDS Conference.  Combining older HIV 
drugs with new protease inhibitors is one potential therapy, as 
are methods to block the virus from attaching to the T-cells it 
attacks.  A viral enzyme called integrase, which HIV uses to 
inset its DNA into T-cells, is also being targeted.  The Rev 
protein, which is necessary for HIV genes to be transported from 
the cell nucleus to the cytoplasm, is another potential target.  
Groopman notes that while not all avenues will result in 
therapies, they offer promise in the fight against AIDS.
     
"With Fanfare, Global AIDS Conference Gets Underway in Vancouver" 
Washington Post (07/08/96) P. A4; Brown, David
     The 11th International Conference on AIDS opened in
Vancouver on Sunday with fanfare and controversy.  Jean Chretien, 
Canada's prime minister, refused to open the conference, causing 
protest before the meeting even began.  Chretien apparently 
refused because he was reluctant to put pressure on his 
government to continue funding Canada's National AIDS Strategy, a 
$42 million program for research and prevention.  Canadian Health 
Minister David Dingwall spoke instead.  Doreen Millman, a 
Vancouver woman infected with HIV; representatives of four West 
Coast Indian tribes; an Inuit rock singer and dancers; a pianist; 
and the Vancouver Lesbian and Gay Choir also appeared.  About 
15,000 delegates, journalists, and commercial exhibitors will 
attend the meeting, the largest such conference so far.
     
"Lifeline: Drug Cocktails"
USA Today (07/08/96) P. 1D
     A combination of HIV drugs is extending survival for AIDS 
patients, researchers reported Sunday at the 11th International 
Conference on AIDS.  Hoffmann-La Roche reported a study of 940 
patients that showed that those given a combination of Invirase, 
its version of saquinavir, and its ddC, called Hivid, were 70 
percent less likely to die than those who took Hivid only.
     
"Antiviral Effect and Ex Vivo CD4+ T Cell Proliferation in 
HIV-Positive Patients as a Result of CD28 Costimulation"
Science (06/28/96) Vol. 272, No. 5270, P. 1939; Levine, Bruce L.; 
Mosca, Joseph D.; Riley, James L.; et al.
     Stimulation of CD4 T cells activates HIV-1 replication,
viral spread, and cell death, making adoptive CD4 T cell therapy 
impossible.  The interaction of CD28 on T cells is the most 
important of the known costimulatory signals for T-cell 
activation.  Carl H. June, of the Naval Medical Research 
Institute, and colleagues, conducted an experiment to determine 
if costimulation could improve T-cell proliferation in cultures 
from HIV-infected patients.  The researchers treated T cells 
taken from 10 HIV-infected patients with CD3 and CD28 monoclonal 
antibodies.  They reported exponential cell proliferation for 50 
days and discovered that viral production and proviral DNA 
decreased to undetectable levels.  The same effect was found with 
peripheral blood mononuclear cells and purified T cells.  The 
level of HIV-1 even decreased in the absence of antiretroviral 
agents.  The researchers also report that CD28 stimulation of CD4 
T cells from uninfected donors rendered the cells highly 
resistant to HIV-1 infection.  The authors suggest that their 
results may be used to facilitate immune reconstitution and gene 
therapy approaches in people infected with HIV.
     
"Lethal Infection by a Previously Unrecognized Metazoan Parasite" 
Lancet (06/29/96) Vol. 347, No. 9018, P. 1797; Santamaria-Fries, 
Monica; Fajardo, Luis Fellipe; Sogin, Mitchell L.; et al.
     Researchers at Stanford University have identified a new 
micro-organism as the cause of death in a man with AIDS.  DNA 
analysis of a fragment of the organism demonstrated that it 
was a previously uncharacterized cestode.  The man developed a 
rapidly growing abdominal mass, similar to a neoplasm, that 
invaded his liver.  The tissue could not be matched with any 
known disease process.  While analysis revealed that the pathogen 
was a parasite, its features were different from those of any 
known eukaryotic pathogen.  The researchers caution that the 
parasite may not infect only immunocompromised patients.  They 
also note that being aware of the infection may permit early 
diagnosis, which could in turn allow successful treatment of 
subsequent cases.
     
     
