                     AIDS Daily Summary
                      December 13, 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


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"U.N. Picks a Leader for Fight on AIDS"
"NZ Court Finds Kenyan AIDS Victim Endangered Lives"
"Whatever Happened to the Contraceptive Revolution?"
"A Side Trip into AIDS Theory"
"The University of California, IDEXX Laboratories Inc. and 
Synbiotics Corp. Announce Agreement on Settlement of FIV Patent 
Infringement Suit"
"Experts Warn of Trivial Fixes in Blood System"
"The Response of Symptomatic Neurosyphilis to High-Dose 
Intravenous Penicillin G in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency 
Virus Infection"
"Approaches to AIDS Vaccines"
Health: AIDS in Developing Nations"
"Hevesi Unmoved"
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"U.N. Picks a Leader for Fight on AIDS"
New York Times (12/13/94) P. C12;  Crossette, Barbara
     The United Nations named Belgian scientist Dr. Peter Piot as head
of a new U.N. office that will coordinate the efforts of six 
international HIV/AIDS organizations.  Piot has been associate 
director of the World Health Organization's global program on 
AIDS since 1992.  The new office, tentatively called the U.N. 
program on HIV/AIDS, will incorporate the WHO program, as well as
projects sponsored by UNICEF, UNESCO, the U.N. Development 
Program, the U.N. Population Fund, and the World Bank.  Piot on 
Monday told reporters that "in a general climate not optimal for 
the moment on AIDS," he wanted to expand research into new 
economic and social aspects of the disease while mobilizing 
support for treatment.  Piot has spent years studying AIDS in 
Africa, has been a leading organizer of a series of international
AIDS conferences, and has been an outspoken advocate of the 
rights of poor nations to organize their own responses to the 
AIDS epidemic and to avoid being used as testing grounds for 
experimental drugs.  The U.N. AIDS program, he said, will 
coordinate available funds from the six international 
organizations, whose programs would be streamlined to avoid 
overlap or competition.
      
"NZ Court Finds Kenyan AIDS Victim Endangered Lives"
Reuters (12/13/94)
     Peter Mwai, a 29-year old Kenyan, was convicted in a New Zealand 
court today on six charges relating to having unprotected sex 
while knowingly infected with HIV.  Mwai was found guilty of 
causing a woman grievous bodily harm.  He was also convicted on 
five counts of endangering her life and that of four other women 
by failing to tell them he was HIV-infected.  The judge dismissed
a seventh charge of willfully infecting a woman with HIV because 
there was no evidence upon which the jury could convict Mwai on 
the count.  Mwai faces up to 12 years in prison.
      
"Whatever Happened to the Contraceptive Revolution?"
Washington Post (Health) (12/13/94) P. 13;  Herman, Robin
     The introduction of the birth control pill in 1960, along with 
the plastic intrauterine device four years later, formed the 
first wave of modern birth control methods.  The contraceptive 
research revolution, however, was short.  Thirty years later, few
new approaches to contraception have reached the market.  The 
AIDS epidemic is the driving force behind any interest in 
designing new contraceptives.  Funding research to find products 
that protect against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted 
diseases, such as HIV and herpes, is the government's priority.  
At this time, the only contraceptives that provide dual 
protection are the male and female condoms.
      
"A Side Trip into AIDS Theory"
New York Times (12/13/94) P. C11
     Dr. Leonard Adleman observed that when a person is HIV-infected, 
the decline of white blood cells of the immune system follows a 
predictable pattern.  He concluded that the body must have a 
mechanism to keep the total number of CD4 and CD8 cells constant,
but must not monitor the proportions of CD4 cells to CD8 cells.  
The implication was that HIV patients could possibly have more 
CD4 cells if doctors removed some of their CD8 cells.  Adleman's 
theory, however, was largely ignored when it was published in The
Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome last year.  "I 
don't think you can ignore this phenomenon as at least a 
potentially important aspect of the pathogenesis of this 
disease," he said.  "It's been the major disappointment of my 
scientific life that I've been unable to communicate my ideas 
adequately to the AIDS community."
      
"The University of California, IDEXX Laboratories Inc. and 
Synbiotics Corp. Announce Agreement on Settlement of FIV Patent 
Infringement Suit"
Business Wire (12/12/94)
     An agreement was reached Monday between the University of 
California, IDEXX Laboratories Inc., and Synbiotics Corp., in the
settlement of a lawsuit relating to infringement of the 
university's patent on feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) 
diagnostics, which is exclusively licensed to IDEXX.  Synbiotics 
acknowledged that its ViraCHEK/FIV product infringed U.S. Patent 
No. 5,118,602, which concerns methods for the diagnosis of FIV.  
The San Diego company also agreed that the patent and another 
one, with respect to the discovery of FIV, are valid.  Synbiotics
consented to a permanent injunction against infringement of UC's 
FIV patents and will pay a total of $50,000 to UC and IDEXX.  UC 
also announced the settlement of another suit, in which Marlo L. 
Brown sought a determination that she was co-inventor under UC's 
FIV patents.  Under the terms of the settlement, Brown 
acknowledged UC's exclusive ownership of it FIV patents.
      
"Experts Warn of Trivial Fixes in Blood System"
Toronto Globe and Mail (12/08/94) P. A1;  Coutts, Jane
     Experts who have been studying the Canadian blood supply warned 
last week that Canada's blood system needs significant changes 
quickly.  A spokesman for the panel of experts expressed the 
group's fear that people involved in running the blood system may
believe the problems can be solved without too much effort.  
"These are not trivial tasks...and a little bit of tinkering with
the systems in place probably will not fill the bill," said 
Thomas Zuck, director of the blood center at the University of 
Cincinnati and vice-chairman of the safety-audit committee.  Mr. 
Justice Horace Krever commissioned the audit to help him in his 
inquiry into Canada's blood system.  In a 300-page report, the 
panel of experts stated that Canada's blood supply is as safe as 
that of any other Western country.  The safety is "fragile," 
however, and the committee warned that unless the report's nine 
recommendations are acted upon, safety will be compromised.
      
"The Response of Symptomatic Neurosyphilis to High-Dose 
Intravenous Penicillin G in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency 
Virus Infection"
New England Journal of Medicine (12/01/94) Vol. 331, No. 22, P. 
1469;  Gordon, Steven M.;  Eaton, Molly E.;  George, Rob et al
     To determine whether HIV infection affects the course of syphilis
and the response to treatment, researchers studied the response 
to treatment with high-dose penicillin G benzathine in 11 
HIV-positive participants with symptomatic neurosyphilis.  The 
patients were intravenously administered 18 million to 24 million
units of penicillin G benzathine daily.  The researchers found 
that after 24 weeks, four of the seven patients studied had 
decreased serum titers on rapid plasma reagin (RPR) testing by at
least two doubling dilutions, and four patients had reductions in
the cerebrospinal fluid titers on Venereal Disease Research 
Laboratory (VDRL) testing or reverted to nonreactive results.  
There was no normalization or improvement in serum titers on RPR 
testing or cerebrospinal fluid titers on VDRL testing, cell 
counts, or protein concentrations in two patients.  Six months 
after treatment, one patient relapsed with meningovascular 
syphilis.  Although T. pallidum was detected in three of 10 
patients before treatment, it was not found in any of the 10 
post-treatment specimens.  Gordon et al concluded that therapy 
may fail and neurosyphilis may develop in HIV-infected patients 
with early syphilis.  The high-dose penicillin recommended for 
neurosyphilis is not consistently effective in HIV-positive 
patients.
      
"Approaches to AIDS Vaccines"
Lancet (11/19/94) Vol. 344, No. 8934, P. 1425;  Rowe, Paul M.
     Several approaches to AIDS vaccines were presented at the seventh
annual meeting of the National Cooperative Vaccine Development 
Groups for AIDS.  Patricia N. Fultz of Alabama presented data 
suggesting that attenuated virus can induce strain-specific 
immunity and that vaccines must incorporate whatever strain is 
present in the population in order to be protected.  Michael S. 
Wyand of Massachusetts informed the group that an attenuated SIV 
construct with three genes deleted generated protective immunity 
in adult macaques.  He also found that the number of monkeys 
protected from an SIV challenge expanded with time after 
vaccination.  Ruth M. Ruprecht, also of Massachusetts, however, 
injected three newborn macaques with the attenuated SIV construct
with three genes deleted and all have developed persistent high 
levels of replicating virus and AIDS--one has died.  Raymond A 
Daynes of Utah presented a report showing that mucosal immunity 
can be induced through vaccination using 1.25 dihydroxy vitamin 
D(3) as an adjuvant.  The findings suggest that lymphocytes 
adjust their pattern of cytokine secretion and choose the tissue 
to which they will return after circulation through the lymph 
system.
      
"Health: AIDS in Developing Nations"
Futurist (11/94-12/94) Vol. 28, No. 6, P. 57
     A U.S. Census Bureau study reports that the AIDS epidemic will 
probably increase child mortality in developing countries.  The 
disease will undo decades of improvement in child-survival rates.
For example, infant and child mortality levels in Zambia have 
clear links to HIV and AIDS, and are currently 15 percent higher 
than 10 years ago.  Death rates and life expectancies in nations 
such as Thailand, Haiti, and Brazil will also be affected by the 
disease.  The death rate due to AIDS will double in Haiti by the 
year 2010, and will triple in Thailand.  AIDS, however, will not 
overcome the population growth in affected countries, especially 
sub-Saharan Africa.  The region's high growth rate will 
counteract the AIDS-related deaths.  "AIDS has already begun to 
substantially revise our thinking about patterns and trends of 
mortality in countries around the world," write the authors of 
the report.
      
"Hevesi Unmoved"
Crain's (11/21/94) Vol. 10, No. 47, P. 50
     Moving companies routinely steal $3 million from New York City by
overcharging for the cost of moving welfare and AIDS patients, 
claims city Comptroller Alan Hevesi.  Poor or sick clients have 
to submit three bids before New York will pay for a move.  The 
city Human Resources Administration, says Hevesi, has been 
unwilling to crack down on the companies, who allegedly 
overcharge by as much as three times the cost.
      
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