                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                      February 21, 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 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Immature Immune Cells May Sustain Brunt of H.I.V. Attack"
"Thailand Starts Testing Anti-AIDS Vaccine"
"D.C. Service Agencies, Clients Fear for Future"
"Leaders of Gay Blacks Emphasize Local Issues"
"Indonesia's Streetwise War on AIDS Has the World Watching"
"HIV Revenge Killer Dies of Disease"
"Sex Getting Safer in the Age of AIDS"
"Apoptosis Occurs Predominantly in Bystander Cells and Not in 
Productively Infected Cells of HIV- and SIV-Infected Lymph Nodes"
"Drug Abuse Treatment Experience and HIV Risk Behaviors among 
Active Drug Injectors in Ohio"
"Global HIV/AIDS: A Strategy for U.S. Leadership"
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"Immature Immune Cells May Sustain Brunt of H.I.V. Attack"
New York Times (02/21/95) P. C3;  Angier, Natalie
     Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have 
announced that the population of the body's immune cells most 
ravaged by HIV is a group called naive T cells.  The scientists 
found that naive T cells are extremely vulnerable to the impact 
of HIV and that their numbers decline significantly during the 
course of disease progression from infection to full-blown AIDS. 
The loss of naive cells might explain why HIV-infected 
individuals become increasingly vulnerable to new opportunistic 
diseases--they have lost the immune cells most capable of 
learning new tricks.  If confirmed, the new findings could 
influence decisions of what sort of experimental therapies may 
work best for various subgroups of patients.  "We'd predict that 
those individuals with few or no naive T cells won't respond to 
vaccination," said Dr. Mario Roederer, an immunologist at 
Stanford.  Roederer also said that the results suggest that most 
of the immune anomalies and disturbances observed during the 
course of AIDS infection may be the result of the shifting ratio 
of cell types.
      
"Thailand Starts Testing Anti-AIDS Vaccine"
Reuters (02/21/95)
     The Thai Ministry of Public Health, working with Mahidol 
University, injected 30 recovering intravenous drug users with 
the experimental vaccine GP-120 on Tuesday to see if it protected
them against AIDS.  Sricharoen Migasena, head of research at 
Mahidol's Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine, said she 
thought the vaccine from Genentech Inc. would be "suitable" and 
"beneficial to our country."  She explained that the study used 
recovering drug users because they were believed to be at "low 
risk" for HIV infection.  She also said that although the strain 
of HIV treated by the vaccine is not the most common in Thailand,
it is "the predominant strain" in intravenous drug users.
      
"D.C. Service Agencies, Clients Fear for Future"
Washington Post (02/20/95) P. D1;  Constable, Pamela
     With city officials still deciding which programs to cut and by 
how much, many nonprofit agencies in Washington, D.C., have no 
idea whether they will be saved or spared.  The District's 
Department of Human Services must cut $68 million from its 
billion-dollar budget, and aides to Mayor Marion Barry said last 
week that they will eliminate funding for many independent groups
that serve the needy.  Three nonprofit service areas being 
affected by the city's budget crisis are programs for the 
homeless, facilities for people with AIDS, and programs for 
minority or disadvantaged youth.  "At this point, the city owes 
us $1.4 million, including $688,000 that is 45 days past due," 
said James Graham, director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which 
provides medical care, counseling, and housing for thousands of 
people who are HIV-positive or who have AIDS.  Graham said that 
city officials promised to send the clinic a check for $250,000 
this week, and that nonprofit organizations realize that they 
cannot be exempt from cutbacks.  "But this is money we have 
already spent, and in effect we have been loaning it to the city.
We need it back," he added.
      
"Leaders of Gay Blacks Emphasize Local Issues"
New York Times (02/20/95) P. A13;  Dunlap, David W.
     Organizers who are gay and black often find the most challenging 
arena to be their own neighborhoods, where pastors condemn 
homosexuality and youths seem beyond the reach of AIDS-prevention
messages.  Neighborhood concerns predominated this past weekend 
at a three-day conference, which was sponsored by the Black Gay 
and Lesbian Leadership Forum.  Members also discussed how to 
communicate more effectively with younger people who are at risk 
of HIV-infection.  "The attitude is that it can't happen to me or
to anyone I know," said Latoris Jordan, a medical assistant and 
physical therapist from Chicago.  Black gay leaders acknowledged 
the involvement of many churches in the fight against AIDS, but 
said that conservative pastors who preached against homosexuality
still posed a considerable hurdle.  "This whole community is 
going to be dead by the time you get them all away from 'it's an 
abomination,'" said Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves of Cambridge, Mass.
      
"Indonesia's Streetwise War on AIDS Has the World Watching"
Washington Post (02/20/95) P. A3;  Stevens, Jane E.
     Tuti Parwati, an Indonesian physician and AIDS researcher, is 
trying to slow the spread of AIDS in her country.  With a 
population of 185 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous 
country in the world and has one of the lowest rates of HIV.  By 
the end of November 1994, 266 people were reported to be 
HIV-infected and 66 of those had AIDS.  Parwati heads the Citra 
Usadha Indonesian Foundation, under which 40 employees and 
volunteers work with those at highest risk--such as prostitutes, 
homosexuals, and students in tourist academies.  Parwati's street
workers distribute condoms, referral cards for medications for 
sexually transmitted diseases and for a test for HIV.  She 
created her program to work through existing structures and 
mobilized their leaders to make HIV prevention a priority.  
"Parwati's program model is among the most innovative in the 
world," said Tom Coates, chairman of the steering committee for 
social and behavioral studies at the World Health Organization's 
Global Program on AIDS.  Programs based on her models have been 
expanded to more than 30 communities across the country that work
with other high-risk groups such as truckers, sailors, and oil 
workers.
      
"HIV Revenge Killer Dies of Disease"
Chicago Tribune (02/18/95) P. 1-16
     Michael Lupo, the serial killer who strangled four homosexuals in
revenge for contracting HIV, has died in prison from an 
AIDS-related illness, said prison officials in the northern 
English county of Durham.  In 1986, Lupo, who was also a 
homosexual, went on an eight-week killing spree after learning he
was HIV-positive.  He was jailed for life after admitting to the 
murders and two other attempted killings.
      
"Sex Getting Safer in the Age of AIDS"
Philadelphia Inquirer (02/18/95) P. A2;  Vedantam, Shankar
     Sexual encounters are becoming safer in the United States, 
reported the authors of the "Sex in America" study at the annual 
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science.  "People are responding the fact that sex can be a 
life-and-death question," said Joel A. Feinleib, research 
associate at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the 
University of Chicago.  Promiscuous people who are at the highest
risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, 
have tripled their condom use, the researchers report.  The fact 
that sexually promiscuous people were cutting back on their 
prowling, selecting partners more carefully, and practicing safer
sex reflects how the AIDS epidemic has changed America's sexual 
mores.  Of those people with the riskiest behavior--between 11 
and 20 partners in the last year--78 percent reported making 
changes in their sexual practices.
      
"Apoptosis Occurs Predominantly in Bystander Cells and Not in 
Productively Infected Cells of HIV- and SIV-Infected Lymph Nodes"
Nature Medicine (02/95) Vol. 1, No. 2, P. 129;  Finkel, T.H.;  
Tudor-Williams, G.;  Banda, N.K. et al.
     Finkel et al. found an increase in the percentage of apoptotic 
cells among circulating CD4 and CD8 T cells of HIV-positive 
individuals.  There was also an increase in frequency of 
apoptosis with disease progression.  Apoptosis, or programmed 
cell death, is a regulated mechanism of cell suicide that is 
critical to many physiological processes, including T-cell 
development and normal immune function.  Using in situ labeling 
of lymph nodes from HIV-infected children and SIV-infected 
macaques, the researchers determined that apoptosis occurs mainly
in bystander cells--not in the productively infected cells 
themselves.  The therapeutic implications of the findings are 
that rational drug therapy may involve a combination of agents 
targeting viral replication in infected cells and apoptosis of 
uninfected cells.
      
"Drug Abuse Treatment Experience and HIV Risk Behaviors among 
Active Drug Injectors in Ohio"
American Journal of Public Health (01/95) Vol. 85, No. 1, P. 105;
Siegal, Harvey A.;  Carlson, Robert G.;  Falck, Russel S. et al.
     Siegal et al. compared the sociodemographic characteristics and 
HIV risk behaviors of intravenous drug users who had undergone 
drug abuse treatment during the past five years and those who had
not been treated.  They studied 2001 active injection drug users 
who participated in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's 
National AIDS Demonstration Research projects in Cleveland, 
Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton, Ohio.  Almost 43 percent 
reported having been treated during the previous five years.  The
length of involvement with drugs, higher injection frequencies, 
increased legal problems, and higher levels of HIV risk behaviors
are factors associated with a history of drug treatment.  The 
researchers concluded that effective HIV risk reduction education
is an urgent priority in drug abuse treatment programs.
      
"Global HIV/AIDS: A Strategy for U.S. Leadership"
Health Affairs (Winter 1994) Vol. 13, No. 5, P. 256
     In August 1994, the Center for Strategic and International 
Studies (CSIS) released "Global HIV/AIDS: A Strategy for U.S. 
Leadership."  The report emphasized that the country "has a vital
stake in slowing...the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world."  The 
main barriers to effective strategies against the epidemic are 
stigmatization and discrimination, the CSIS wrote.  The report 
concluded that the United States should lead the fight against 
AIDS "by example," for example by monitoring HIV/AIDS-related 
human rights violations "committed in the name of prevention," 
targeting HIV/AIDS prevention programs at various ages and 
populations, and refitting prevention strategies to address the 
special needs of women.
      
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