                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      March 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 Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction
of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Man With AIDS Tested Negative, U.S. Says"
"Physician-Aided Suicide Issue Expected Before High Court"
"Fighters to Undergo H.I.V. Testing in New Jersey"
"In Brief: Amgen Inc."
"New Drugs Raise Hope that HIV Manageable"
"Krever Denies Hiding Papers"
"Japan Courts Unveil Fresh Compromise in HIV Case"
"Collapse of Communism Brings Disease Threat--WHO"
"Health Secretary Backs AIDS Office's Budget Authority"
"Danish Haemophiliacs Win in European Court"
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"Man With AIDS Tested Negative, U.S. Says"
New York Times (03/08/96) P. A25;  Altman, Lawrence K.
     Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention reported the unusual case Thursday of a Utah man with 
AIDS who repeatedly tested negative for HIV.  The man was a 
long-time blood plasma donor, but an investigation found no proof
that his plasma had infected anyone.  The Food and Drug 
Administration (FDA) is about to license a new HIV test that is 
significantly different from the one used since 1985, one that 
would have probably detected the man's HIV infection.  The new 
test detects the p24 antigen, an HIV protein, while the current 
one detects HIV antibodies.  The test is controversial, though, 
because it would add millions of dollars to testing costs, but 
only detect a few more cases.  However, the new test can detect 
HIV about six days before the standard one does, catching four to
six contaminated blood donations per year that the standard test 
would have missed.
      
"Physician-Aided Suicide Issue Expected Before High Court"
Washington Post (03/08/96) P. A2;  Biskupic, Joan
     A constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, which has 
been compared to a right to an abortion, could be a subject for 
the Supreme Court.  A federal appeals court in California decided
Wednesday that a Washington state law that makes 
physician-assisted suicide a felony violates the 14th Amendment's
guarantee of personal liberty.  Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote the
decision, which may serve as a guide for other appeals courts and
eventually the Supreme Court.  Reinhardt wrote that "prohibiting 
a terminally ill patient from hastening his death may have an 
even more profound impact on that person's life than forcing a 
woman to carry a pregnancy to term."  No other appeals court has 
ruled on the issue, but a New York circuit court is considering a
challenge to a New York law that prohibits physicians from 
helping dying patients end their lives.  Related Story: New York 
Times (03/08) P. A14
      
"Fighters to Undergo H.I.V. Testing in New Jersey"
New York Times (03/08/96) P. B19;  Eskenazi, Gerald
     New Jersey's Athletic Control Board decided Thursday to make HIV 
testing mandatory for boxers competing in the state.  Following 
the news that fighter Tommy Morrison tested positive for the 
virus in Las Vegas, New York made the test mandatory, and 
California and Florida are close to similar decisions.  Larry 
Hazzard, the New Jersey board's commissioner, said he has been 
trying to impose testing since the 1980s, but gave up because he 
"became bogged down with so many issues and groups: the ACLU, 
then there was the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the idea 
of confidentiality."  Hazzard said that since the 1980s, referees
and handlers have been required to wear gloves, and boxers were 
made to change mouthpieces if there was blood on them.
      
"In Brief: Amgen Inc."
Investor's Business Daily (03/08/96) P. A1
     Amgen Inc. has announced that Neupogen, a drug for the treatment 
of people with advanced HIV infection, has received regulatory 
approval in the United Kingdom.
      
"New Drugs Raise Hope that HIV Manageable"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/07/96) P. A1;  Immen, Wallace
     New AIDS drugs and technologies are bringing hope that people 
with HIV will be able to live with it as a chronic, manageable 
illness.  Drugs now exist to begin treating the infection 
immediately and keep the virus at low levels for long periods of 
time, preventing the immune system's decline.  Such drugs, 
including the new protease inhibitors, may cost between $17,000 
and $24,000 a year.  There also appears to be progress on the 
prevention front, as studies have now shown that AZT may prevent 
babies of HIV-infected mothers from getting the virus.
      
"Krever Denies Hiding Papers"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/07/96) P. A3
     Canadian Justice Horace Krever said he is not keeping documents 
from the individuals involved in Canada's tainted blood tragedy, 
as they have charged.  Krever issued notices of potential 
findings of misconduct to the Red Cross, the federal government, 
provinces, and pharmaceutical companies, and these groups are now
seeking the documents he used in determining who might be blamed 
in his final report.  Krever said he relied on inquiry testimony 
and documents, and discussions with his lawyers in coming up with
the findings.  Lawyers say they need the information to help 
their clients when they demand a judicial review of Krever's 
findings and ask that the misconduct notices be quashed.
      
"Japan Courts Unveil Fresh Compromise in HIV Case"
Reuters (03/07/96)
     Courts in Osaka and Tokyo have presented a final proposal for an 
out-of-court settlement in a suit filed by 400 hemophiliacs who 
contracted HIV through tainted blood.  The courts recommended the
state and five pharmaceutical companies pay $1,428 per month to 
each of the plaintiffs, with the government paying 40 percent of 
the total payments.  An earlier plan called for the state and 
companies together to pay a total of $428,000 to each individual.
The courts urged the parties to reach an out-of-court settlement 
by the end of March.  The drug companies and the government were 
blamed for not taking action after the threat of HIV infection 
through contaminated blood products was known.
      
"Collapse of Communism Brings Disease Threat--WHO"
Reuters (03/07/96);  Fox, Maggie
     The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Thursday that the 
collapse of communism six years ago has caused the spread of 
infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and diphtheria, and 
sexually transmitted diseases that now threaten the rest of the 
world.  The group said that, while a vaccination program would 
only cost about $20 million, the world is not taking the disease 
threat seriously.  Cholera, diphtheria, and syphilis cases 
increased in eastern Europe after the economic and political 
changes following the fall of communism.  The diseases, which the
rest of the world had considered conquered, began crossing 
borders into western Europe.  When the Soviet Union collapsed, 
preventive services declined, and disease increased.  The 
greatest threat, however, came from TB.  Jo Asvall, the regional 
director of the WHO in Europe, said, "Tuberculosis in the next 10
years worldwide will infect 300 million people."  In addition to 
establishing vaccination programs and clean water programs, the 
WHO recommend setting up a network of laboratories to coordinate 
emerging disease detection.
      
"Health Secretary Backs AIDS Office's Budget Authority"
Nature (02/15/96) Vol.379, No.6566, P. 570;  Wadman, Meredith
     Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, recently 
told a meeting of the National Association of Science Writers in 
Baltimore that she and President Clinton are committed to 
maintaining the Office of AIDS Research's (OAR's) authority over 
AIDS research spending.  Republicans in Congress have tried to 
take away the OAR's control over the National Institute's of 
Health (NIH) $1.4 billion AIDS budget, but NIH director Harold 
Varmus has supported keeping the OAR's budgetary powers.  Some 
institute directors object to the OAR's role, but Shalala said 
the law that gives the office its authority should take 
precedence over a stop-gap funding measure passed in January to 
fund NIH up to the end of the fiscal year.  The measure has been 
interpreted to mean that the OAR should be bypassed, sending 1996
funds directly to the individual institutes.  Rep. John Porter 
(R-Ill.) called NIH's decision to bypass the OAR entirely 
"mechanical."  AIDS activists and researchers say the move could 
limit the OAR's authority in AIDS research.
      
"Danish Haemophiliacs Win in European Court"
Lancet (02/17/96) Vol. 347, No. 8999, P. 462;  Skovmand, Kaare
     The European Court of Human Rights has awarded judgment to the 
plaintiffs in a case brought against the Danish government by 
seven hemophiliacs who became HIV-infected through factor VIII 
transfusions.  The plaintiffs had alleged that their original 
seven-year trial was in violation of human rights under article 6
of the Geneva Convention which says that court hearings must be 
completed "within a reasonable time."  In response to this 
decision, Danish politicians have ordered a review of the court 
system to prevent such prolonged trials in the future.
      
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