                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      April 22, 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
     
     
************************************************************ 
"Deal Proposed in U.S. HIV Suit"
"Hemophiliac Groups Doubt Likelihood of AIDS Settlement" 
"Infectious Diseases Defy Optimism"
"Prescription for Disaster"
"New Clue on AIDS?"
"Russia--Health: Tuberculosis Is Back, and Harder..." 
"Bayer Offers $270 Million to Settle HIV Lawsuits..." 
"Pasteur Implicated in Blood Scandal?"
"AIDS Activists Say Managed Care Curtails Treatment" 
"To Die For"
************************************************************
     
"Deal Proposed in U.S. HIV Suit"
Chicago Tribune (04/20/96) P. 2-3;  Hutchcraft, Chuck
     Baxter Healthcare, Bayer, Armour Pharmaceutical/Rhone
Poulenc Rorer, and Alpha Therapeutic have offered to pay at least 
$100,000 each to 6,000 Americans who contracted HIV from tainted 
blood products sold by the companies.  Spouses, children, or 
others infected through the hemophiliacs can also receive the 
payment, as can survivors of individuals who died of AIDS.  The 
drug makers are also offering to pay $40 million in legal fees 
and administrative costs.  The settlement would free the 
companies of any future liability.  Baxter--which last month 
agreed to pay part of the settlement reached for Japanese 
hemophiliacs infected with HIV--would pay $128 million in the 
U.S. agreement.  The company has also agreed to settlements in 
Germany and Canada.  Related Story: St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
(04/19) P. 9C
     
"Hemophiliac Groups Doubt Likelihood of AIDS Settlement" 
Wall Street Journal (04/22/96) P. B8;  Burton, Thomas M.
     Lawyers and representatives of hemophiliac groups say they
doubt that the necessary number of hemophiliacs infected with HIV 
will accept the recent proposal of a $640 million settlement 
offer made by the blood product manufacturers.  Under the terms 
of the offer, 95 percent of all current plaintiffs would have to 
accept, and, if the offer becomes a class-action settlement, no 
more than 100 people could opt out of the settlement and pursue 
individual cases.  An attorney for the hemophiliacs said that 95 
percent of the individual lawsuits would not be dropped, at least 
not by the May 20 deadline imposed by the manufacturers.  There 
are an estimated 600 lawsuits in the United States over related 
to HIV infection from clotting products.
     
"Infectious Diseases Defy Optimism"
Washington Times (04/22/96) P. A10
     Despite optimistic predictions 30 years ago that infectious 
diseases like malaria and tuberculosis would be wiped out, they 
have resurged to the point where half the world's population lives 
in fear of them.  The Worldwatch Institute reported Saturday that 
illness and death from tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, and 
AIDS have risen dramatically, and that infectious disease was the 
cause of one-third of all deaths worldwide in 1993.  The group 
said that rapidly growing populations, rampant poverty, inadequate 
preventive medical care and sanitation, misuse of antibiotics, and 
polluted water and air were all causes of the resurgence of 
previously latent diseases and the emergence of new diseases like 
AIDS.
     
"Prescription for Disaster"
Washington Post (04/22/96) P. A21;  Edward M. Kennedy
     In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) takes issue with the Republican 
proposals in Congress to reform the Food and Drug Administration 
(FDA).  Kennedy asserts that the proposed changes would weaken the 
agency's ability to provide safe drugs and medical products, 
leaving Americans vulnerable to increased public health problems. 
He notes, for example, that a minor change in the solvent used to 
kill viruses in blood products could result in the ineffective 
sterilization of blood and the transmission of HIV or hepatitis. 
The senator also criticizes the House Republican legislation that 
would eliminate existing requirements for the FDA to approve 
certain products, like surgical gloves and diagnostic tests.  As 
an example, Kennedy cites the use of a defective AIDS tests in 
other countries, pointing out that this product was not used in 
the United States.
     
"New Clue on AIDS?"
Chicago Tribune (04/21/96) P. 5-1;  Hutchcraft, Chuck
     When Dale Kempf, a chemist for Abbott Laboratories, was
working with renin inhibitors in 1987 he saw an opportunity to 
apply his research to fighting HIV.  Renin is an enzyme, or 
protease, that is similar to the HIV protease.  The result of the 
attempt to apply the research on renin was ritonavir, which became 
the second of three protease inhibitors to be approved by the Food 
and Drug Administration.  The drugs represent a major breakthrough 
in the fight against AIDS because they suppress the virus, 
allowing infected people to live longer.  Ritonavir, particularly 
when combined with other AIDS drugs, was the first protease 
inhibitor to demonstrate the ability to increase AIDS patients' 
survival.
     
"Russia--Health: Tuberculosis Is Back, and Harder..." 
IPS News Service (04/20/96)
     Tuberculosis (TB), previously thought to be under control in
Russia, has resurged, infecting almost 10 percent of the 
population last year.  The World Health Organization predicts 
that at least 30 million people will die of TB in the next ten 
years if the present trends continue.  It now is the leading 
cause of death among women and people with HIV.  The disease 
reappeared for the first time in decades in Russia in 1991.  
Since then, the rate of infection has grown by nearly 50 percent. 
The outbreak is blamed on the collapse of the preventive health 
system, brought on by a 1992 law requiring all health care 
facilities to be self-sufficient.  Increased unemployment, 
inflation, and environmental pollution have also contributed to 
the spread of the disease.  Russia's treatment program for TB 
differs from the World Health Organization's in that its policy 
involves the full isolation of infected patients during 
treatment.
     
"Bayer Offers $270 Million to Settle HIV Lawsuits..." 
Reuters (04/19/96);  Herbst-Bayliss, Svea
     German company Bayer AG said Friday it had offered to pay
about $270 million to settle several U.S. lawsuits accusing the 
company of selling HIV-tainted blood products to hemophiliacs. 
Bayer would pay about 45 percent of the total $600 million from 
four companies.  Parts of the settlement would be paid to as many 
as 10,000 patients or their families.  The deal may not be 
accepted, however, because of some the conditions of the 
agreement from the companies.
     
"Pasteur Implicated in Blood Scandal?" 
Science (04/12/96) Vol. 272, No. 5259, P. 185
     The respected Pasteur Institute in Paris may be implicated
in France's contaminated blood case.  Jean Weber, a former head 
of Pasteur Diagnostics (PD), in which the Institute's foundation 
holds more than one-quarter of the shares, was charged with 
"complicity in poisoning" for his supposed role in the scandal.  
The French government has been accused of trying to keep an 
Abbott Laboratories HIV test off the market in 1985, while 
waiting for PD to prepare its own version.  Weber allegedly wrote 
to the government to persuade officials to put off Abbott's 
application because "a rapid approval of the two Abbott and 
Pasteur tests in France would be particularly dangerous for the 
national interest."  During this period, hundreds of individuals 
may have received HIV-contaminated blood transfusions.
     
"AIDS Activists Say Managed Care Curtails Treatment" 
American Medical News (04/15/96) Vol. 39, No. 15, P. 15
     AIDS activists speaking at the Eighth National AIDS Update 
Conference in San Francisco voiced concerns about managed care's 
adverse impact on AIDS treatment.  AIDS patient and activist Mary 
Fisher said, "In the world of managed care, HIV-infected people 
are as popular as Jesse Helms at a gay pride rally."  While many 
participants acknowledged that managed care can offer AIDS 
patients better disease prevention strategies and more convenient 
care, the patients who become very sick say they are not getting 
the care they need.  Dr. Bill Owen, of Davies Medical Center in 
San Francisco, said he receives $9 a month under one plan for a 
patient whom he sees at least once a month for tests, treatment, 
and hospitalization.  Mark Smith, a health policy expert with 
Kaiser Family Foundation, agreed that doctors are paid too little 
for AIDS work but said the doctors need to adjust to constraints.
     
"To Die For"
Advocate (04/16/96) No. 705, P. 23;  Friess, Steve
     When a Washington state federal appeals court reversed an 
assisted-suicide ban in March, it opened the door to a Supreme 
Court review of the issue, expected sometime in 1997.  The ruling 
could also make obsolete two pending California cases: one in 
which a gay man is charged with a felony for assisting in the 
death of his AIDS-stricken partner, and another in which suicide 
doctor Jack Kevorkian and an AIDS patient are trying to overturn 
California's ban on euthanasia.  Some experts warn that 
legalizing assisted suicide could prompt patients to end their 
lives only to avoid costly health care and the suffering of loved 
ones.  "This could be a dangerous situation for people with 
AIDS," said University of Michigan law professor Yale Kamisar.  
Kamisar said he doubted that the Supreme Court would uphold the 
Washington court decision.
     
     
