UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
AIDS Daily Summary
May 15, 1997
The CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention makes
available the following information as a public service only.
Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the
CDC. 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 1997,
Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
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"Doctor Plans to Open Profit-Making Centers for Treatment of AIDS
and H.I.V. Patients"
"Vaccine for HIV Might Always Elude Researchers' Efforts"
"Tuskegee Survivors Make Trek to Capital for Apology"
"Health-Care Entrepreneur Plans to Open a Chain of For-Profit
AIDS Clinics: [NY Blood Center to Close Test Lab]"
"New Study Downplays Medical Benefit of Marijuana"
"White House Backs AIDS Amendment"
"AIDS List Sender Gets 60 Days in Jail"
"Prostitution Crimes: Bill Would Force More Testing for HIV"
"AIDS Trials Ethics Questioned"
"Urinary Stones in HIV-1-Positive Patients Treated With
Indinavir"
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"Doctor Plans to Open Profit-Making Centers for Treatment of AIDS
and H.I.V. Patients"
New York Times (05/15/97) P. A35; Fein, Esther B.
Dr. Bernard Salick, the entrepreneur that brought for-profit
cancer treatment to New York, plans to launch a chain of
for-profit AIDS and HIV treatment centers in the city within the
next three months. Salick has already enlisted Dr. David Ho,
director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan,
and is in negotiations with several New York medical centers in
an effort to find a location. Ho will serve as Salick's
principle adviser, while retaining his current position as
director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan.
Salick's long-term plans include finding a vaccine and cure for
AIDS, and opening additional treatment centers in Los Angeles,
Miami, and San Francisco.
"Vaccine for HIV Might Always Elude Researchers' Efforts"
Washington Times (05/15/97) P. A10; Price, Joyce
Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV and director of the
University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology, said on
Tuesday that scientists may never develop an effective vaccine
against HIV. The remarks, made at a vaccine symposium held in
Washington D.C., were later followed by comments from Gallo that
indicated he did believe a vaccine would eventually be found.
Nevertheless, the contention among many AIDS researchers is that
developing a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS is likely,
but difficult, and not in the immediate future. "Because of the
difficulties, I said that I couldn't see we'd have one before the
beginning of the 21st century," said Anthony Fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"Tuskegee Survivors Make Trek to Capital for Apology"
USA Today (05/15/97) P. 6A; Kasindorf, Martin
Despite entreaties from the elderly survivors of the
Tuskegee syphilis study for President Clinton to deliver his
apology for the event in Alabama, where it took place, the
apology will be delivered in the White House Rose Garden. As a
result, only four of the eight survivors of the racist study will
be in attendance on Friday--Charlie Pollard, age 91; Carter
Howard, 93; Herman Shaw, 94; and Fred Simmons, 100. The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will cover their
travel expenses, while providing a satellite telecast to the four
frailest survivors who will remain in Tuskegee.
"Health-Care Entrepreneur Plans to Open a Chain of For-Profit
AIDS Clinics: [NY Blood Center to Close Test Lab]"
New York Times (05/15/97) P. A34; Altman, Lawrence K.
Officials of the New York Blood Center said Wednesday that
the center will close its Manhattan laboratory responsible for
screening blood for such infectious diseases as HIV, hepatitis,
and syphilis, and outsource the testing to an independent lab.
The lab will close within 60 to 90 days, though the blood center
will remain open. The blood center collects and distributes
approximately 85 percent of the blood products supplied to the
greater New York area. Allegations of improper testing
procedures at the lab first circulated last November. In
December, the blood center entered a consent decree with the FDA
to institute changes needed to bring it into compliance with
federal laws and regulations
"New Study Downplays Medical Benefit of Marijuana"
Baltimore Sun (05/15/97) P. 11A
New research published in Wednesday's edition of the Annals
of Internal Medicine suggests that smoking marijuana has less
medical benefit than taking the drug's active ingredient, THC, in
its pure form, which is the prescription drug dronabinol.
Moreover, neither is beneficial when side effects are taken into
account. Researchers from the International Drug Strategy
Institute, an anti-drug think tank, noted that THC has been shown
to be useful for such things as fighting nausea after chemotherapy
and increasing appetite in AIDS patients, but its medical value is
limited by its intoxicating effects. At least one proponent of
the use of marijuana for medical purposes said the study's authors
were biased.
"White House Backs AIDS Amendment"
Washington Times (05/15/97) P. A10
A House amendment to the $5.5 billion flood disaster bill
has been proposed by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and backed by
the White House. The amendment would provide an additional $68
million to a program that offers AIDS drugs to low-income
patients.
"AIDS List Sender Gets 60 Days in Jail"
Washington Times (05/15/97) P. A10
Gregory Wentz, the former funeral home director found guilty
of sending a confidential list of some 4,000 AIDS patients to the
media to spite a former lover, has been sentenced to 60 days in
prison. He will remain free pending his appeal.
"Prostitution Crimes: Bill Would Force More Testing for HIV"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (05/14/97) P. 2B
A bill sent by the Missouri legislature to Gov. Mel Carnahan
would make HIV-testing a potential bond requirement for anyone
arrested more than once for prostitution-related crime. The bill
would also clarify the state's laws regarding reckless spread of
HIV, and would boost penalties for adults who willfully infect
minors.
"AIDS Trials Ethics Questioned"
Science (04/25/97) Vol. 276, No. 5312, P. 520; Cohen, Jon
With the remarkable success of new AIDS treatment options,
AIDS researchers and drug testers face the ethical dilemma of
whether it is wrong to provide patients with trial drugs that are
less effective than the proven therapies. Even as the AIDS
treatment community strives to overhaul the nature of its trials,
many critics say too often drug developers knowingly conduct
tests focusing on "suboptimal" therapies. Joep Lange, of the
University of Amsterdam, has been particularly scathing in his
criticism of drug developers. Citing the consensus that
combination therapies have proven most successful delaying drug
resistance in AIDS patients, Lange and other like-minded
researchers say that tests lacking this approach are unethical
and endanger patients. Other researchers contest this view,
saying that since anti-HIV drugs affect everybody differently,
clinical trials must focus on a wide array of treatment options
to establish which option is best for each patient. Thus, a
treatment with moderate anti-HIV power must still be tested
because it could turn out to be a valuable weapon against the
disease due a particular patient's physiological disposition or
history of treatment.
"Urinary Stones in HIV-1-Positive Patients Treated With
Indinavir"
Lancet (05/03/97) Vol. 349, No. 9061, P. 1294; Daudon, M.;
Estepa, L.; Viard, J. P.; et al.
Researchers recently studied indinavir sulphate, a protease
inhibitor, as part of a combination treatment for HIV-1-positive
patients. They found that more than 100 HIV-infected patients of
a large therapeutic program in France developed renal colic
and/or passed radiolucent urinary stones within one to 20 weeks
after the initiation of treatment. Only three of the patients
had a past history of urinary stones. The occurrence of the
stones, however, was not an unexpected event, as the risk has
been noted in a document from the European Agency for the
Evaluation of Medicinal Products.