                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      August 29, 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
     
     
****************************************************** 
"Swedish Conference Takes Aim at Child Sex Trade" 
"Abbott Labs Keeps on Top With New Products and Uses" 
"Japan's Top AIDS Expert Arrested in Blood Scandal" 
"Chemical May Stimulate AIDS Virus, Researchers Say" 
"Inmate Charged With Spreading AIDS"
"HIV-Positive Patients With TB: Dramatic Increase Reported" 
"Science & Health Bulletin: Zimbabwe--AIDS"
"Fast HIV-Positive Infection in Svetlogorsk Region"
"Resistance to HIV-1 Infection in Caucasian Individuals Bearing 
Mutant Alleles of the CCR-5 Chemokine Receptor Gene"
"AIDS Claims Remain Flat: Study"
******************************************************
     
"Swedish Conference Takes Aim at Child Sex Trade" 
USA Today (08/29/96) P. 12A
     To avoid the risk of HIV infection, some men are turning to 
children for sex instead of women, a United Nations official told 
a conference on child sex abuse in Sweden.  More than 1 million 
children worldwide are forced into prostitution and child 
pornography, the agency reported.  Peter Piot, executive director 
of the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, told delegates that having 
sex with younger partners does not offer the protection from HIV 
men are seeking.  He noted that many child prostitutes carry the 
virus and are in fact more susceptible to infection than adults. 
The delegates promised to foster new cooperation to stop both 
child pornography and prostitution.

"Abbott Labs Keeps on Top With New Products and Uses" 
Investor's Business Daily (08/29/96) P. B14; Hui, Esther
     To remain competitive, Abbott Laboratories knows it needs to
not only develop new products, but discover new applications for 
current ones.  Abbott's newest drugs include Norvir (ritonavir), 
a treatment for AIDS that was cleared by the FDA in March and is 
expected to earn the company some $60 million this year, and 
Serlect (sertindole), a treatment for schizophrenia that was 
recommended for approval on July 15.  Drugs that have benefited 
recently from expanded labeling include the antibiotic Biaxin 
(clarithromycin), which is now approved for the treatment of 
ulcers, and Depakote, an anticonvulsant that is now also 
prescribed for treating the manic phase of manic depression.  
Abbott's patent on Hytrin, a treatment for enlarged prostate 
glands, expires at the beginning of next year, making the 
approval of new products and new applications even more 
significant.
     
"Japan's Top AIDS Expert Arrested in Blood Scandal" 
Reuters (08/29/96); Chang, Yvonne
     Japan's leading expert on hemophilia and AIDS was arrested 
Wednesday on charges based on accusations that he knowingly 
prescribed blood products in 1984 that could have been tainted 
with HIV.  Takeshi Abe has also been the target of legal claims 
filed by the family of a hemophiliac who died of AIDS years after 
receiving unheated blood products from Abe's hospital team.  
Abe's home, the offices of the Health Ministry and Teikyo 
University in Tokyo, where he worked, were raided Thursday.  Abe 
has testified that he used the untreated blood products because 
cryoprecipitate was not easily available and was often dangerous. 
Other experts, however, contradicted his arguments, saying that 
they had not seen the clogged blood vessels that Abe had 
mentioned.
     
"Chemical May Stimulate AIDS Virus, Researchers Say" 
Reuters (08/28/96); Fox, Maggie
     A certain immune system protein thought to be a potential 
treatment for HIV infection may actually worsen the infection, 
researchers say.  Michael Bukrinsky, of the Picower Institute for 
Medical Research, and colleagues report in the journal Nature that
the proteins, called beta-chemokines, seem to help HIV infect one 
type of immune system cell.  Scientists have found that HIV uses 
some of the same receptors that chemokines do to enter target 
cells.  They had hoped that the proteins could be used to block 
infection of T cells.  Bukrinsky found that beta-chemokines helped 
HIV infect macrophages, another target of the virus, and the 
researchers warn against using chemokines as a therapeutic agent.
     
"Inmate Charged With Spreading AIDS" 
United Press International (08/27/96) 
     An HIV-positive inmate in a federal prison in Milan, Mich.
was indicted Tuesday for attempted murder linked to allegations 
that he raped two fellow inmates.  Prosecutors say that Jerry L. 
Morrison, currently serving a 144-month sentence for felony 
possession of firearms, knew he was HIV-positive when he forced 
the inmates into unprotected sex last March.  One of the inmates 
has tested positive for HIV.  Morrison now faces up to a life 
sentence.
     
"HIV-Positive Patients With TB: Dramatic Increase Reported"
Reuters (08/28/96) 
     The number of HIV-positive patients with tuberculosis (TB)
who were hospitalized in New York between 1987 and 1992 increased 
by 270 percent, researchers report in the Journal of Acquired 
Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Human Retrovirology.  Bruce D. 
Agins of the New York State Department of Health and colleagues 
based their findings on a review of hospital discharge records. 
They also note that the proportion of women, substance abusers, 
and minority patients in the coinfected population increased 
during the time period.  The increase in TB was found only in 
those patients also infected with HIV.
     
"Science & Health Bulletin: Zimbabwe--AIDS" 
PANA Wire Service (08/28/96) 
     Since its first AIDS cases were reported, Zimbabwe has been
a leader in releasing statistics on the disease's spread.  
Estimates now show that 10 percent of the country's 10.5 million 
people are HIV-positive, and at least 200,000 people have 
developed AIDS.  The high rate of infection has contributed to a 
high level of AIDS awareness in the country but has also been a
factor in criticism from other nations.
     
"Fast HIV-Positive Infection in Svetlogorsk Region" 
Itar Wire Service (08/27/96) 
     The rapid spread of HIV in the Svetlogorsk and Gomel regions
of Byelorussia is causing panic among residents, according to 
health officials.  The first three HIV cases in the area were 
reported in June.  Now some 360 people, most of them drug 
addicts, are known to be infected with HIV.  Another 2,000 cases 
may be identified with the next few months, one health official 
estimated.  Many drug users are voluntarily coming to HIV 
prevention centers for HIV tests.
     
"Resistance to HIV-1 Infection in Caucasian Individuals Bearing 
Mutant Alleles of the CCR-5 Chemokine Receptor Gene"
Nature (08/22/96) Vol. 382, No. 6593, P. 722; Samson, Michel; 
Libert, Frederick; Doranz, Benjamin J.; et al.
     The chemokine receptor CCR-5 was recently found to be a 
co-receptor essential for HIV-1 to infect target cells.  CCR-5 
has been identified as the major co-receptor for the primary
macrophage-tropic HIV-1 strains, which predominate during the 
asymptomatic phase of the infection and are thought to cause 
HIV-1 transmission.  Researchers from France, Belgium, the United 
States, and Japan report that a mutant allele of CCR-5 is 
frequently present in Caucasians but is absent in Black 
populations from Western and Central Africa as well as from 
Japanese populations.  The mutated gene creates a non-functional 
receptor that does not allow membrane fusion or infection by 
macrophage- and dual-tropic HIV-1 strains.  In a study of HIV-1 
infected Caucasian subjects, no individuals were homozygous for 
the mutation and the frequency of heterozygotes was 35 percent 
lower than in the general population.  The authors suggest that 
the lower frequency of heterozygotes may indicate partial 
resistance.  They point out that no one knows whether the 
resistance afforded by the mutation is absolute or relative, and 
whether resistance will vary depends on the mode of transmission. 
They also suggest that drug therapies could be developed to block 
HIV-1's ability to use CCR-5 as a cofactor, and subsequently 
prevent HIV-1 infection.

"AIDS Claims Remain Flat: Study"
Business Insurance (08/19/96) Vol. 30, No. 34, P. 35
     A new survey by the Health Insurance Association of American
and the American Council of Life Insurance has determined that
group health and life insurers paid slightly more than $1 billion
in AIDS-related claims--about the same amount as the previous
year.  Group life insurers paid 1995 AIDS-related claims of $571.4
million, up slightly from $562.9 million in 1994.  Group health
insurers paid 1995 AIDS-related claims of $446 million,
approximately the same amount as 1994.  The survey provides
evidence that AIDS-related claims are unlikely to ever pose a
large enough threat to the solvency of commercial insurance
companies.
