                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        May 09, 1994


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


"AIDS Exhibit"
Associated Press (05/08/94)
     Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry next year will host a 
2,500-square-foot exhibit designed to educate children about 
AIDS.  The exhibit will use colorful, book-like panels stretching
from floor to ceiling to chart the course of HIV.  It will target
children aged nine to 12.  "It's hard to believe that we are 13 
years into the AIDS epidemic and an exhibit of this sort is just 
happening," said Mark Ishaug, public policy director for the AIDS
Foundation of Chicago.  Officials said the AIDS exhibit, which is
scheduled to open in March, will be the first to hold a permanent
place in a museum.  The project is being made available through a
$1 million grant from Abbot Laboratories, a health-care products 
firm in Chicago.  Related Story: USA Today (05/09) P. 6A.
      
"Across the USA: Colorado"
USA Today (05/09/94) P. 6A
     In protest against the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality,
four gay-rights advocates erected placards in Golden, Colo.'s 
Mount Olivet Cemetery reading, "Jesus Died of AIDS."  The four 
activists were given probation for the misdeeds.
      
"Uruguayan AIDS Cases Could Triple"
United Press International (05/08/94)
     The number of AIDS cases in Uruguay will increase three-fold by 
1997, according to a public health official.  "We have slow 
growth for the moment," said Beatriz Rivas of Uruguay's Public 
Health Ministry.  "But given the number of cases and carriers, 
the number will triple within three years."  Currently, there are
450 documented AIDS cases and the number is expected to 
rise--especially among women, Rivas said.  She noted that 25 
percent of all current cases are already among women.  Rivas 
concluded that AIDS education should be improved in order to 
avoid the spread of the disease, as well as to aid in efforts to 
treat those who are already infected.
      
"Drug Firms Mix New Cocktails as AIDS Research Stalls"
Reuters (05/08/94);  Hirschler, Ben
     As a simple cure for AIDS continues to elude scientists, 
pharmaceutical firms are teaming up to mix potent new cocktails 
as possible treatments.  Investigators hope that, by placing more
spanners in the genetic clockwork of HIV, they can bring the 
virus to a halt.  According to Dr. David Barry, head of 
Wellcome's worldwide research, development, and medical 
operations, existing data already indicates that two drugs work 
better than one.  The aim of the new cocktails is to amplify this
effect by using three drugs, with different mechanisms of action.
"Dual therapy continues to show an improvement on monotherapy," 
Barry confirms, "but these particular studies are hoping to pick 
up really very major advances."  To test the theory of 
triple-drug combinations, 16 companies grouped under the 
Inter-Company Collaboration on AIDS Drug Development (ICC) will 
study the combinations for the first time.  The studies are 
expected to begin this summer, with results available in nine to 
15 months, says Barry.  Drugs to be tested include Hoffman La 
Roche's ddC and RO 31-8959, Boerhinger Ingelheim's Nevirapine, 
and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s ddI and 3TC.  The cornerstone of 
the triple combination therapies, however, remains AZT--despite 
controversial new findings.  "Retrovir (AZT) is likely to remain 
the cornerstone because it's been around the longest and also 
because it seems to have the lowest potential for the development
of resistance," explains Peter Laing, an analyst with U.S. 
investment bank Salomon Bros.
      
"Mothers and AIDS"
Associated Press (05/07/94);  Trott, Robert W.
     Nanette Fay and the nine other women in the organization Mothers'
Voices are linked through a common, tragic bond: all have lost a 
child to AIDS.  The women make up the Massachusetts chapter of 
the support group, which makes panels for the Names Project 
quilt, and campaigns for greater awareness and government funding
in the battle against AIDS.  "There's an eagerness to our work," 
says Fay.  "It's very tiring, what we do, but we all walk out 
very excited."  The women also find the comfort of others who 
share the same pain.  "You need to touch someone else who's in 
the same situation," Fay explains.
      
"State AIDS Agency Chief to Leave for UM Post"
Baltimore Sun (05/07/94) P. 2B
     Kathleen Edwards, head of Maryland's AIDS Administration for the 
past four years, announced that she will resign in July to take a
position at the University of Maryland.  The new head of the AIDS
Administration, which is a division of the health department, 
will be appointed by the secretary of health.
      
"On the Front Line of AIDS"
Newsweek (05/09/94) Vol. 123 No. 19, P. 62;  Ingrassia, Michele
     Infectious disease specialist Dr. Abraham Verghese had already 
witnessed the devastation wrought by AIDS when he settled in 
Johnson City, Tenn., in 1985, but he did not suspect that the 
big-city plague would surface in his new small hometown in the 
heart of the Bible belt.  Overnight, however, Verghese was 
swamped by AIDS patients.  Most of them were gay men, and many 
had left rural America in search of their sexual identity only to
return to die at home.  "I had an overwhelming sense that every 
case would end the same," Verghese remembers.  The doctor no 
longer lives in Johnson City, but the frustrations with the 
limits of modern medicine that he experienced in his time there 
still haunt him.  Now, he has channeled those emotions into a 
compelling book, "My Own Country."  A chronicle of one doctor in 
the midst of the AIDS epidemic, the book is actually a cautionary
tale about what happens when scientific hopes conflict with 
reality.  "The most frustrating thing is to have a disease where 
all you can do is hold your patients' hands," explains Verghese. 
"But there is a salvation because you're forced to confront what 
it is to be a doctor."  Verghese is currently chief of infectious
diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas. 
"We still cry, but we have a strong sense that what we're doing 
here is worthwhile," he says of his work.
      
"Maternal Antibody Response at Delivery and Perinatal 
Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in African 
Women"
Lancet (04/23/94) Vol. 343, No. 8904, P. 1001;  Lallemant, Marc; 
Baillou, Armelle;  Nzingoula, Samuel et al.
     Prospective cohort studies show that 13 to 45 percent of pregnant
women infected with HIV-1 pass the virus to their newborns.  
Factors that influence perinatal HIV transmission are not well 
understood, but drug studies to avoid transmission are underway. 
What is needed for prevention, counseling, and medical 
intervention is the ability to identify women who are most at 
risk of transmitting HIV to their babies.  Lallemant et al. 
assessed 70 pregnant, HIV-positive African women in Brazzaville, 
Congo, exploring the relationship between maternal health, 
antibody levels to selected HIV structural antigens at delivery, 
and infant outcome.  The researchers found that higher maternal 
antibody titres to peptides in the V3 region of gp120 and the 
immunodominant domain of gp41 were correlated with a higher risk 
for prenatal transmission.  This association may provide 
additional insight into possible mechanisms of perinatal 
transmission, conclude Lallemant et al., as well as provide a 
powerful means of identifying women who would benefit the most 
from intervention trials to stop perinatal transmission.
      
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