                     AIDS Daily Summary
                       July 24, 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 Seeks $65 Million for State AIDS Programs"
"Emory Gets Patent for AIDS Drug 3TC, but Glaxo, BioChem Question 
Validity"
"AIDS Drug Trial Result Boosts Glaxo" 
"Hospice Care Often Starts Too Late" 
"AIDS Cases Increase Rapidly in India"
"Econews: AIDS-Development: AIDS Pandemic Retards [Human 
Development]"
"Prevalence of HIV Infection in the United States, 1984 to 1992" 
"Drug Resistance: The Next AIDS Crisis" 
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"Clinton Seeks $65 Million for State AIDS Programs" 
New York Times (07/24/96) P. A16; Dunlap, David W.
     Under a budget request announced Tuesday, President Clinton
is seeking a $65 million increase in spending on the AIDS Drug 
Assistance Programs.  The programs allow states to provide AIDS 
drugs for people who cannot afford them and who are not covered 
by either Medicaid or private insurance.  The programs, which 
receive about two-thirds of their money from the federal 
government, provided aid to 69,000 people last year.  Under the 
budget request, which must be approved by Congress, federal 
spending on the programs would increase to $195 million in the 
next fiscal year, from $115 for the current fiscal year.  The 
proposed increase comes partly in reaction to reports released at 
the XIth International Conference on AIDS which suggested that a 
combination of three costly drugs could improve a patient's 
health and survival.
     
"Emory Gets Patent for AIDS Drug 3TC, but Glaxo, BioChem Question 
Validity"
Wall Street Journal (07/24/96) P. B6; Chipello, Christopher J.
     Glaxo Wellcome and BioChem Pharma say they will challenge a
U.S. patent for 3TC, or Epivir, an AIDS drug made by the two 
companies, that has been granted to Emory University.  Emory said 
it plans to seek licensing arrangements with Glaxo and BioChem, 
who said earlier this year that they had all necessary patents on 
the drug and claim that the new patent is invalid.  According to 
Emory, 3TC is one of two elements in BCH-189, which was 
discovered by BioChem Pharma, but while the latter company's 
patent details how to obtain BCH-189, Emory's patent specifically 
covers 3TC.  BioChem receives a royalty of about 14 percent of 
Glaxo's sales of 3TC, and under their deal, a third party would 
receive royalties out of BioChem's share.  Analysts say 
first-year sales of 3TC, which was approved for sale in the 
United States in November, could reach $250 million.
     
"AIDS Drug Trial Result Boosts Glaxo"
Financial Times (07/24/96) P. 18; Green, Daniel
Due to the high success rate, a clinical trial of Glaxo Wellcome's 
AIDS drug Epivir has been halted so that all trial participants 
can be given the drug. Interim results of the trial, which was 
scheduled to end in March 1997, found that 54 percent fewer 
patients who received the drug progressed to AIDS or died compared 
to those who received a placebo.  The trial, started in March 
1995, involved 1,892 HIV-positive patients in Canada, Australia, 
Europe, and South Africa.  
     
"Hospice Care Often Starts Too Late" 
New York Times (07/24/96) P. C8
     People dying of terminal illnesses who enter hospices die a
more comfortable and less expensive death, but patients often 
enroll too late to receive much benefit, a new study suggests. 
Nicholas Christakis of the University of Chicago Medical Center, 
and colleagues studied the cases of 6,451 hospice patients.  They 
report in the current issue of the New England Journal of 
Medicine that only 14.9 percent of the patients lived longer than 
180 days after entering hospices.  The results suggest that 
doctors and patients are reluctant to seek hospice care.
     
"AIDS Cases Increase Rapidly in India" 
Xinhua News Agency (07/23/96) 
     The number of AIDS cases in India is increasing rapidly, the
Indian government said Tuesday.  The Minister of State for Health 
and Family Welfare said that as many as 1,458 AIDS patients are 
being treated in hospitals.  So far 60 cases of AIDS in children 
have been reported to the National AIDS Control Organization.  The 
minister added that the government was implementing a 
comprehensive awareness and prevention program for high risk 
groups and the general public.
     
"Econews: AIDS-Development: AIDS Pandemic Retards [Human 
Development]"
PANA Wire Service (07/23/96) 
     HIV and AIDS took an average toll of 1.3 years of human 
development progress in 56 countries between 1980 and 1992, the 
United Nations Development Program reported.  The impact was 
especially severe in developing countries, where 90 percent of 
the world's estimated daily 6,000 HIV infections occur.  
Researchers at Columbia University and the Harvard Institute for 
International Development found that the AIDS epidemic adversely 
affected the human development index, a measure of basic human 
capabilities ranked by country.  The study compared the 1980 and 
1992 index for the 56 countries, and found that, without the 
impact of HIV, the countries would have had an additional 
average of 1.3 years of human development.
     
"Prevalence of HIV Infection in the United States, 1984 to 1992" 
Journal of the American Medical Association (07/10/96) Vol. 276, 
No. 2, P. 126; Karon, John M.; Rosenberg, Philip S.; McQuillan, 
Geraldine; et al.
     Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention have developed new estimates of HIV prevalence in the 
United States, including estimates by gender, race, geographic 
region, and behavioral risk.  The report, by John M. Karon and 
colleagues, is the first to combine numerical estimates of HIV 
prevalence from multiple sources.  The authors estimated past HIV 
infection rates based on national AIDS case surveillance data and 
estimates of the time from HIV infection to AIDS diagnosis.  They 
also incorporated HIV prevalence data from two national surveys, 
a survey of childbearing women, and a household survey of current 
health status.  They report that an estimated 0.3 percent of U.S. 
residents were infected with HIV in 1992.  Approximately 0.6 
percent of the male population was infected, including about 2 
percent of non-Hispanic black men and 1 percent of Hispanic men. 
About 0.1 percent of women were infected, including an estimated 
0.6 percent of non-Hispanic black women.  About half of all those 
individuals infected with HIV in 1992 were men who had sex with 
men, and one-fourth were injection drug users.  The overall 
prevalence of HIV increased from 1984 to 1992, with a greater 
relative increase in women than in men.
     
"Drug Resistance: The Next AIDS Crisis"
Village Voice (07/09/96) Vol. 41, No. 28, P. 15; Schoofs, Mark
     While new HIV therapies have the potential to suppress viral
replication in patients, they also carry the threat of allowing 
drug-resistant viral strains to develop.  If a strict regimen is 
not followed, an individual could develop resistance to their 
current medication as well as to other drugs.  About 10 percent 
of people becoming infected with HIV now contract a strain 
resistant to AZT.  As resistance spreads, people could become 
infected with strains that are resistant to several drugs.  
Treating the infection effectively depends on the ability of 
patients to follow a strict dosing schedule, says Julio Montaner, 
co-chair of the 11th International Conference on AIDS.  New HIV 
regimens are especially difficult to take and must be continued 
for longer periods of time, maybe for life.  Other conditions 
also make the dosing difficult.  For example, one protease 
inhibitor must be refrigerated, another must be taken on an empty 
stomach, and the side effects can include diarrhea and nausea.  
Moreover, researchers do not know how long patients may have to 
stay on the drugs, or if they will cause harm in the future.  
Making the drugs widely available, which could happen under 
expanded government funding efforts, would enhance the potential 
for misuse and resistance.
     
