                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 15, 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 1996, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Undervaccination for hepatitis B among young men who have sex
with men: San Francisco/Berkeley, California 1992-1993"
"Merck's Newly Approved AIDS Drug Is Priced 30 Percent Below 
Rival Medicine"
"FDA Sanctions Faster Blood Screening Test"
"Japanese Suits on H.I.V.-Tainted Blood Settled"
"Report Urges Shift in AIDS Research"
"Babies Need AIDS Protection, Too"
"Across the USA: Rhode Island"
"Blood Inquiry Can Keep Memos Secret"
"States Debate HIV Testing in Pregnant Women"
"FDA: More Patients to Try Controversial Blood Scalding"
"Court Expands HIV Liability for Drug Makers"
"New Internet Sources for HIV/AIDS Treatment and Clinical Trials
Information"
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"Undervaccination for hepatitis B among young men who have sex
with men: San Francisco/Berkeley, California 1992-1993"
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (03/15/96)
     Young men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for
hepatitis B, a serious disease that is preventable through
vaccination.  However, very few young MSM are vaccinated against
hepatitis B, according to the latest findings from a San
Francisco study originally designed to estimate the prevalence of
HIV infection and related risk behaviors among young MSM. 
Previous findings from this survey revealed high prevalence of
HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among young MSM. 
Because of the high HBV prevalence, CDC analyzed serologic data
of this survey to estimate the proportion of young MSM vaccinated
against hepatitis B.
     Results suggest that only 3% of young MSM sampled in San
Francisco/Berkeley in 1992-1993 were adequately vaccinated
against hepatitis B, and approximately 20% had acquired hepatitis
B virus (HBV).  The results also indicate that the majority (86%)
of young MSM still at risk for HBV were not vaccinated despite
receiving medical services from one or more health-care
providers.  
     Vaccination is the most effective means of preventing HBV
infection.  These findings reveal missed opportunities for
preventing hepatitis B through vaccination in health-care
settings, and underscore the need for health care providers to
intensify efforts to identify and vaccinate MSM and other
candidates for hepatitis B vaccination during routine health-care
visits.  Furthermore, sustained efforts to reduce high-risk
behaviors among young MSM are also critical in preventing both
HIV and HBV infection.

"Merck's Newly Approved AIDS Drug Is Priced 30 Percent Below 
Rival Medicine"
Wall Street Journal (03/15/96) P. B5;  Waldholz, Michael
     The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Merck &
Co. clearance to market Crixivan (indinavir), its new AIDS
treatment, on the strength of several studies that indicate that
the protease inhibitor is effective in reducing HIV levels in the
blood.  One study demonstrated that patients administered 
Crixivan and two existing AIDS drugs--Glaxo Wellcome's AZT and 
3TC--had HIV levels reduced by 98 percent after six months of 
treatment.  Therapy which suppresses HIV so strongly appears to 
render the virus incapable of mutating or developing 
drug-resistance, leading researchers to hope that the new 
treatment will help patients to add years to their lives.  Merck 
plans to price its new drug 30 percent lower than Abbott 
Laboratories' Norvir, a similar medication which received FDA 
approval 10 days ago.  Related Stories: New York Times (03/15) P.
A14; Washington Post (03/15) P. F2
      
"FDA Sanctions Faster Blood Screening Test"
Washington Post (03/15/96) P. F2;  Day, Kathleen
     The Food and Drug Administration approved on Thursday a new
HIV blood test which is expected to save about 10 additional
lives each year at a cost of about $60 million.  The FDA's blood 
product advisory committee had not recommended the new test, on 
the grounds that it was not a significant improvement over the 
standard test.  The new test, made by Coulter Corp. of Miami, can
detect HIV in a newly infected person about a week sooner than 
current tests.  It detects antigens made by the virus, rather 
than the antibodies produced by the body in response to the 
virus, as the current test does.  The new test has been 
criticized by some individuals in the blood bank industry, who 
question the significance of the added cost against the added 
benefit.  The American Association of Blood Banks, which 
represents the Red Cross, supports it.  Related Stories: USA 
Today (3/15) P. 9D; Philadelphia Inquirer (3/15) P. A20
      
"Japanese Suits on H.I.V.-Tainted Blood Settled"
New York Times (03/15/96) P. A2;  Pollack, Andrew
     Japan's Health and Welfare Minister and five drug companies 
agreed to a settlement Thursday with hemophiliacs who were 
infected with HIV through tainted blood products.  The seven-year
case was especially controversial because it revealed that the 
government had protected the drug companies from competition at 
the cost of the public health.  The settlement calls for the 
government to pay 44 percent of the $430,000 to be awarded each 
plaintiff, and the drug companies to pay 56 percent.  The drug 
companies, including Green Cross Corp., Baxter International 
Inc., and Bayer AG, also made apologies to the hemophiliacs and 
their families.  About 1,800 people were infected with HIV, and 
about 400 have died.  Related Stories: Wall Street Journal (3/15)
P. B5; Washington Post (3/15) P. A24
      
"Report Urges Shift in AIDS Research"
Washington Post (03/15/96) P. A1;  Weiss, Rick
     A review of the National Institutes of Health's $1.4 billion
AIDS research program released Thursday says that too much money
is being spent on studies that are marginally related to AIDS and
that promising research is underfunded.  The report, commissioned
by the Office of AIDS Research, calls for significant shifts in 
research priorities, including spending less on new AIDS drugs 
because the drug industry is already doing much of that work and 
because new drugs seem less likely to be as effective than 
vaccines and other prevention efforts.  It recommends increased 
research on immunology and for more spending on research proposed
by individual scientists rather than institutionally mandated 
studies.  Related Story: Richmond Times-Dispatch (03/15) P. A2
      
"Babies Need AIDS Protection, Too"
Philadelphia Inquirer (03/15/96) P. A39;  Caplan, Art
     In a Philadelphia Inquirer commentary, Art Caplan of the
Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania says the
public's reaction to recent AIDS news has been unbalanced.  He
says that while Americans are willing to support HIV prevention
among boxers and health care workers, they are not paying enough 
attention to what can be done to prevent babies from being born 
with HIV.  The author points to two recent studies which showed 
that pregnant women with the virus can reduce the chance that 
they will transmit it to their child by taking AZT.  According to
Caplan, Americans are unwilling to take steps that will reduce 
the number of children born with HIV.
      
"Across the USA: Rhode Island"
USA Today (03/15/96) P. 9A
     A bill being considered by the Rhode Island state
legislature would require schools to let parents review AIDS and
sex education materials.  Opponents of the measure cite academic 
freedom, while supporters point to parents' rights.
      
"Blood Inquiry Can Keep Memos Secret"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/14/96) P. A4;  Picard, Andre
     A Canadian federal court judge has ruled that the
commissioner of the federal inquiry into the tainted blood
tragedy does not have to make its internal correspondence public. 
The Canadian Red Cross Society was trying to get the memos and
notes released as part of its lawsuit against the inquiry.  The
suit is an attempt to keep the inquiry from naming parties in
findings of wrongdoing, which could be used for criminal or civil
proceedings.  The secret information is important to the 
implicated parties because they are trying to show that the 
commissioner's lawyers were biased.  The material was protected, 
however, because there is no evidence that it contains new 
information.
      
"States Debate HIV Testing in Pregnant Women"
Reuters (03/14/96)
     In 1995, seven states--including California, Connecticut,
and Illinois--passed laws to require health care providers to
make HIV testing available to all pregnant women.  Similar laws
are being debated in Maryland and New York.  Anonymous testing
for all neonates has been mandated in New York since 1987, but
some say the results should be known.  New York Gov. Pataki has 
recently proposed a bill that would give mothers the choice of 
whether to learn the HIV testing results.
      
"FDA: More Patients to Try Controversial Blood Scalding"
American Medical News (02/26/96) Vol. 39, No. 8, P. 12
     The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow IDT Inc.
to add 60 AIDS patients to its trial of an experimental treatment
in which patients' blood is scalded in an attempt to kill HIV. 
The blood is drained, heated to 114 degrees, and returned to the 
patient's body.  IDT said the expanded trial should provide 
enough data to seek FDA approval to market the treatment.  The 
FDA warned that the treatment has not been proven to help AIDS 
patients, however early trials did demonstrate that the treatment
did not cause brain damage or other harm.  The therapy is based 
on the idea that the heat will kill some of the virus, giving the
patient's immune system a chance to build up a defense.  In 1990,
the first U.S. attempt at the therapy created a scandal when it 
was revealed that a patient who was reportedly cured had never 
been infected.  Three years later, the FDA gave the company 
permission to test the method on six patients, and later allowed 
a trial of 20 more.  None of the patients in the group whose 
temperatures reached 108 degrees have since suffered any 
AIDS-related infections, though two patients who did not receive 
the treatment became ill, as did two whose temperatures did not 
rise above 104 degrees. 
      
"Court Expands HIV Liability for Drug Makers"
National Law Journal (02/19/96) Vol. 18, No. 25, P. B3
     The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in January that
pharmaceutical companies can be held liable for producing and
distributing HIV-infected blood products.  The court said that,
unlike blood banks, commercial companies are not protected by the
state's blood shield statute.  The trial will be the first in
which pharmaceutical companies will face liability regardless of
fault for HIV-contaminated blood.
      
"New Internet Sources for HIV/AIDS Treatment and Clinical Trials
Information"
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National AIDS
Clearinghouse (03/15/96)
     Information on treatment for HIV infection and HIV/AIDS
clinical trials will now be available through two new World Wide
Web sites. The HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service (ATIS) Web
site, http://www.hivatis.org, provides information on federally
approved treatments for HIV infection, treatment-related
publications, and links to other treatment-related sites. The
AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service (ACTIS) Web site,
http://www.actis.org, provides information on HIV/AIDS clinical
trials, including new trials open to enrollment, trial results,
and links to other related sites. ATIS and ACTIS are Public
Health Service coordinated projects.