                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      January 13, 1995

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
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Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Arthur Ashe AIDS Foundation to Close After Creating $1 Million 
Endowment"
"City Can't Pay for AIDS Services"
"FDA Urged to Bar Sales of Burroughs' Acyclovir Drug Without a 
Prescription"
"People Patterns: U.S. Deaths Are Up and Down"
"Indian Gays Find New Confidence, but Fear AIDS"
"MBf USA, Inc. Announces Four New Playboy Condom Distribution 
Agreements; Initial Orders Under These Agreements Nearly $1 
Million"
"Mayor Orders Condoms for Brazilian Motel Goers"
"Binding and Stimulation of HIV-1 Integrase by a Human Homolog of
Yeast Transcription Factor SNF5"
"DIY Doctoring"
"Winn to Work to Raise AIDS Understanding"
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"Arthur Ashe AIDS Foundation to Close After Creating $1 Million 
Endowment"
Wall Street Journal (01/13/95) P. A9A;  Sebastian, Pamela
     Having created a $1 million endowment at New York 
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, the Arthur Ashe AIDS Foundation 
for the Defeat of AIDS Inc. will close.  Income from the 
endowment will benefit AIDS programs at the hospital, where Ashe 
was treated for AIDS.  New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center 
will raise a matching $1 million under the endowment.  The 
foundation's plan was a 12- to 15-month campaign to raise between
$2.5 million and $5 million to educate people about AIDS and to 
support AIDS research and services.  In the end, it operated 
approximately 30 months, mobilizing the international tennis 
community to raise money to fight AIDS.  The foundation has 
raised about $5.4 million and has awarded grants world-wide 
totaling approximately $2 million.  Another $300,000 will be 
granted before the foundation closes.
      
"City Can't Pay for AIDS Services"
Washington Times (01/13/95) P. C6;  Gotsch, Ted
     According to AIDS activists, the Washington, D.C., government 
continues to be late in its payments to community AIDS service 
groups, which has forced some to close and put others at risk of 
closing in the next few months.  Thus far, the Inner City AIDS 
Network (ICAN); DeafPride, which provides interpreters for deaf 
AIDS patients; and an AIDS hot line for the Washington Area 
Consortium on Alcohol and Drug Abuse have shut down.  Damien 
Ministries--which includes providing housing for homeless AIDS 
patients among its duties--has discontinued its program, and 
several other of the more than 60 AIDS providers have cut back on
services, said D.C. Care Consortium Executive Director Chris 
Bates.  Kevin Neil, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS, said in
a meeting with the city's Agency of HIV-AIDS Community Prevention
Planning Committee that members were not able to say when the 
organizations would be paid for services already rendered.  The 
District owes Metro TeenAIDS $60,000 for services that date back 
to October.  If the group is not paid by the end of this month, 
it will be forced to cut back on all programs funded by the 
District to keep from closing completely.  The city currently 
provides 25 percent of the $300,000 annual budget.
      
"FDA Urged to Bar Sales of Burroughs' Acyclovir Drug Without a 
Prescription"
Wall Street Journal (01/13/95) P. B6;  McGinley, Laurie
     An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has 
recommended that Burroughs Wellcome Co.'s prescription 
anti-herpes drug, acyclovir, should not be sold over the counter.
The FDA generally follows the advice of its advisory panels.  The
panel voted 17-1 against nonprescription use of the drug, which 
is sold under the brand name Zovirax, for the treatment of 
genital herpes.  The advisors expressed concern over mistakes 
that people could make in diagnosis and treatment if they were 
not compelled to seek help from a doctor.  Others were worried 
that if use of the drug were expanded significantly, it could 
lead to increased resistance of the virus to acyclovir.  Some 
AIDS patients who use acyclovir for genital herpes have already 
developed resistance.  Burroughs Wellcome hoped to boost the 
top-selling drug's sales even further by getting approval to sell
the drug in doses of 200 milligrams without prescription.  The 
company said it planned to urge customers, through package 
inserts and an extensive public education campaign, to see a 
doctor the first time they contract genital herpes.  It also 
claimed that studies indicated there was no evidence that the 
herpes virus was becoming resistant to acyclovir.
      
"People Patterns: U.S. Deaths Are Up and Down"
Wall Street Journal (01/13/95) P. B1;  Crispell, Diane
     Although the number of deaths in the United States is up, the 
rate of death is down.  Almost 2.2 million people died in 1992--a
record, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.  
The age-adjusted rate, however, hit a record low, at 504.5 per 
100,000 population.  The overall death rate has been falling for 
decades, from 1,076 per 100,000 people in 1940 to 853 in 1992.  
Accounting for 1.5 percent of all 1992 deaths, AIDS is the 
eighth-leading cause of death in the United States.  It was also 
the leading cause of death for blacks between the ages of 25 and 
44.  Accidents were the leading cause of death for whites in the 
same age group.
      
"Indian Gays Find New Confidence, but Fear AIDS"
Reuters (01/12/95);  Fernandez, Clarence
     As India's middle-class gays are slowly coming out of the closet,
they fear that public health officials have not woken up to the 
danger presented by AIDS.  Many consider themselves more 
susceptible to the disease because of what they say are the 
relatively higher levels of promiscuity in the gay community.  
Recently, delegates at India's first gay conference in Bombay 
planned to create a nationwide support system for gay men, with 
anonymous AIDS testing centers high on their list of priorities. 
"The government is aware of the spread of AIDS among gays," said 
Anand, a delegate to the conference.  "But stringent ideas of 
morality mean that it prefers to ignore the threat."  Official 
estimates report that 889 cases of AIDS have been reported in 
India, with an estimated 16,015 people who are HIV-infected.  The
rate of attrition within the homosexual community is not known.  
The Bombay conference was made possible by a grant from the 
Mercury Phoenix foundation, established with money willed by 
singer Freddy Mercury, who died of AIDS.  Mercury was the lead 
singer for the rock group, Queen, and a member of Bombay's Parsee
Community.
      
"MBf USA, Inc. Announces Four New Playboy Condom Distribution 
Agreements; Initial Orders Under These Agreements Nearly $1 
Million"
Business Wire (01/12/95)
     MBf USA, Inc. announced on Thursday that it has signed 
distribution agreements for Playboy brand condoms with leading 
distributors in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Pakistan.  Initial 
orders, which are close to $1 million, are scheduled to begin at 
the end of the first quarter of 1995.  The condoms are now sold 
in nine countries, including Taiwan, Colombia, and Hong Kong.   A
portion of all Playboy condom sales is donated to the Playboy/MBf
USA Foundation, which provides support to local organizations and
advocacy projects that educate the public about safe sex and 
AIDS.  In addition to marketing the world famous Playboy brand 
condoms internationally, MBf USA, Inc, and its subsidiaries 
market medical examination gloves in the United States.
      
"Mayor Orders Condoms for Brazilian Motel Goers"
Reuters (01/12/95)
     In an effort to slow the spread of AIDS in Cabedelo, Brazil, the 
town's mayor has ordered that establishments known as sex havens 
must distribute condoms every four hours.  The ruling includes 
both motels and brothels.  Motel owners said they already make 
condoms available and complained the measure was unnecessary.
      
"Binding and Stimulation of HIV-1 Integrase by a Human Homolog of
Yeast Transcription Factor SNF5"
Science (12/23/94) Vol. 266, No. 5193, P. 2002;  Kalpana, Ganjam 
V.;  Marmon, Shana;  Wang, Weidong et al
     Upon entering a host cell, retroviruses direct the reverse 
transcription of the viral RNA genome and the creation of an 
integrated proviral DNA.  The retroviral integrase protein (IN) 
inserts the viral DNA into host chromosomal targets.  Researchers
used the two-hybrid system to identify human gene products that 
bind to the HIV-1 IN.  The sequence of the gene indicates that 
the protein could be a human homolog of yeast SNF5, a 
transcriptional activator that is necessary for high-level 
expression of many genes.  The gene--called INI1, for integrase 
interactor 1--may encode a nuclear factor that encourages 
integration and targets incoming viral DNA to active genes.
      
"DIY Doctoring"
Report on Business (01/95) Vol. 11, No. 7, P. 108;  Wyke, Andrea
     Many patients are taking charge of their own care, writes Andrea 
Wyke, a business and science correspondent for The Economist, in 
the Toronto Globe and Mail Report on Business.  AIDS activists 
led the way for do-it-yourself doctoring after becoming 
dissatisfied with the service they were getting from the medical 
establishment.  In 1995, books, telephone hot lines, and computer
software are some of the tools that will be used for diagnosis.  
Patients can obtain medical information on-line in the comfort of
their own home.  New over-the-counter diagnostic kits, including 
those for high blood pressure and HIV, will alert a person to 
sickness.  Over time, the consumer health-care movement will 
cause a shakeup of the health-care infrastructure as consumers, 
rather than doctors, become its power brokers.  While doctors in 
many countries have stopped making house calls, some people in 
the future will stop making visits to the doctor--excluding their
computer resources.  The question, concludes Wyke, will be 
whether do-it-yourself doctoring is truly a good thing.
      
"Winn to Work to Raise AIDS Understanding"
Home Furnishings Network (01/09/95) Vol. 69, No. 2, P. 23;  
Santorelli, Dina
     Lighting veteran Paris Winn--formerly president of Cresswell 
Ltd., a division of Alsy Lighting--has joined the National 
Leadership Coalition on AIDS in Washington, D.C.  "Employers need
to understand catastrophic health disorders and specifically 
AIDS," said Winn, who has been fighting the disease for two 
years.  Founded in 1987, the Coalition addresses HIV and AIDS as 
a business, labor, and workplace issue and assesses the impact of
AIDS on employers and employees.  Winn will be active in helping 
business executives understand HIV and develop a policy regarding
the disease.  He will also be committed to getting the home 
furnishings industry involved in the cause.
      
HOLIDAY NOTICE: AIDS Daily News will not publish on Monday, January
16, in observance of the Martin Luther King Holiday.  Publication
will resume on Tuesday, January 17.
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