                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 6, 1995

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS
Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Fewer New HIV Cases Reported in 1994"
"Partner's Exit Hurts Immune Response Stock"
"India to Become AIDS Epicentre, Conference Told"
"Gingrich's Sister Lobbying on AIDS"
"Difficult Custody Decisions Being Complicated by AIDS"
"New Life Torn Asunder by Drugs, AIDS, Murder"
"Pope to Receive French 'Red Cleric' Bishop"
"MDI Signs Definitive Agreement with Investor"
"Treatment of Cytomegalovirus Retinitis With an Intraocular 
Sustained-Release Ganciclovir Implant: a Randomized Controlled 
Clinical Trial"
"Dingell: Can't Vouch for 'Gallo Report'?"
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"Fewer New HIV Cases Reported in 1994"
Washington Times (03/06/95) P. C8
     Although the number of new HIV infections reported in Virginia in
1994 was the lowest in five years, state officials say it is too 
early to tell whether the decline marks the beginning of a trend.
In 1994, there were 1,124 new cases of HIV infection--down from 
1,484 in 1993.  As more infected people are becoming sick, 
however, the demands of AIDS service agencies has continued to 
grow.  "From a public-health standpoint, the decrease in new 
infections is wonderful," said Heidi Villanueva, a coordinator of
statistics and data management with the Virginia health 
department.  "But statistically, I don't think we can say that 
much yet."  Related Story: Richmond Times-Dispatch (03/04) P. B3
      
"Partner's Exit Hurts Immune Response Stock"
Wall Street Journal (03/06/95) P. B5;  Rundle, Rhonda L.
     Immune Response Corp.'s stock dropped 19 percent on Friday's 
Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday after Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. 
dropped out of a joint venture to develop a vaccine against HIV 
infection.  Immune Response said it is negotiating with potential
partners to help finance continued development of the vaccine.  
Securities analysts say Rhone-Poulenc's withdrawal raises 
questions regarding the vaccine's commercial potential.  
Rhone-Poulenc SA said the move would allow the company "to focus 
on core therapeutic areas and key technologies."
      
"India to Become AIDS Epicentre, Conference Told"
Reuters (03/04/95)
     In five years, India will be the region most affected by AIDS, an
Australian population conference was told on Saturday.  India 
will overtake Africa as the "epicentre of AIDS" and will probably
have more HIV-infected people than the rest of the world 
combined, said Roger Short, a Monash University biology 
professor, speaking at the meeting of Australians for an 
Ecologically Sustainable Population.  Short also said that during
the next 30 years, AIDS will rapidly spread into Asian countries,
especially India.  The disease, he added, will have little impact
on the world's population levels.  The National AIDS Control 
Organization estimates that 1.62 million of India's 850 million 
citizens are infected with HIV--up 60 percent from 1993.
      
"Gingrich's Sister Lobbying on AIDS"
New York Times (03/06/95) P. B7;  Seelye, Katharine Q.
     In her first official role as a representative of gays and 
lesbians, Candace Gingrich has come to Washington, D.C., to lobby
Congress on behalf of AIDS programs.  Of her homosexuality, she 
said she has not discussed it at all with her brother, House 
Speaker Newt Gingrich.  In an article in the Washington Blade 
last November, Mr. Gingrich likened homosexuality to alcoholism, 
saying, "I think our position should be toleration.  It should 
not be promotion, and it should not be condemnation."  Ms. 
Gingrich, however, often says that she thinks her brother is more
concerned about her being a Democrat who favors abortion rights 
and gun control than about her being a lesbian.  Because of that 
comment, the Human Rights Campaign Fund and its new executive 
director, Elizabeth Birch, decided to talk to Ms. Gingrich about 
becoming a spokeswoman for a national coming-out project and 
about being a part of this week's lobbying effort.
      
"Difficult Custody Decisions Being Complicated by AIDS"
New York Times (03/04/95) P. 1;  Lee, Felicia R.
     Caseworkers and judges, who must already make difficult custody 
decisions in drug abuse and neglect cases, now face the task of 
deciding such cases when the parents also have AIDS or HIV.  The 
cases include choices of whether children in a loving foster home
should be put through a wrenching separation when the parent is 
likely to die in the near future and whether attempts to find 
housing and drug treatment should be expedited for parents with 
terminal illnesses such as AIDS.  Court administrators say the 
judges weigh each case carefully to protect the children's 
interests and to make reasonable efforts to reunite families.  
Advocates for the parents, however, claim that although there are
laws protecting HIV-infected people from discrimination, there is
often a reluctance to return children to mothers with AIDS or 
HIV.  "They have contempt for these women and the fact they have 
HIV," said Theresa M. McGovern,  executive director of the HIV 
Law Project.  Some lawyers have also said that, in addition to 
being openly pressured to give up their parental rights, 
HIV-infected parents are frequently not served with papers or 
told where their children are living.
      
"New Life Torn Asunder by Drugs, AIDS, Murder"
Los Angeles Times (03/05/95) P. A3;  Douthat, Strat
     Although Edna Diaz has lived in Connecticut for only 19 of her 35
years, she says it seems more like forever.  Diaz spends much of 
her time thinking about the sunny days of her childhood in Puerto
Rico, trying to forget the heartache of the past 10 months, in 
which one son died and another was charged with murder.  She says
she never would have imagined how terrible things would be, 
including the fact that the strong, vital man by her side would 
get AIDS from using intravenous drugs.  Diaz also says that the 
gangs and drugs in Hartford create a terrible temptation for its 
youths and a constant heartache for their parents.
      
"Pope to Receive French 'Red Cleric' Bishop"
Reuters (03/04/95)
     Pope John Paul has said he is ready to receive Bishop Jacques 
Gaillot, who was dismissed in January for his liberal views.  In 
a statement, the headquarters of the French church said that the 
Vatican wanted to help Gaillot "exercise his ministry with the 
rights and duties that this entails."  The statement also said 
that the Pope listened at length to a report by Monsignor Joseph 
Duval, president of the French Bishops' Conference, on the 
reaction of French Catholics to Gaillot's removal as bishop of 
Evreux.  Thousands of people protested after Gaillot was fired 
for defying Vatican doctrine.   Among other things, Gaillot 
advocated the use of condoms to fight AIDS, spoke in favor of 
allowing priests to marry, and called for greater tolerance of 
homosexuality.  Officially, Gaillot is now the head of a diocese 
in Partenia, a city in southern Algeria which has not existed 
since the Middle Ages.
      
"MDI Signs Definitive Agreement with Investor"
PR Newswire (03/03/95)
     Medical Discoveries Inc. (MDI), an early-stage research company 
that is developing technology for fighting viruses such as HIV, 
on Friday signed an agreement with Trust Management Co. in 
California for the investment of up to $5 million in exchange for
5 million shares of common stock.  The Trust regularly makes 
investments in promising businesses and technologies.  As a 
result of the investment, the Trust will own approximately 23 
percent of MDI's outstanding stock.  "This investment will be a 
significant milestone for MDI," said Marlin Toombs, MDI's vice 
president of Corporate Affairs.  "MDI needs this money to fund 
its continuing research of its anti-viral technology."  The 
company has filed a pre-investigational new drug application with
the Food and Drug Administration for the use of its anti-viral 
technology against HIV.  The money from the Trust agreement will 
primarily be used for continued research and clinical trials in 
this field.
      
"Treatment of Cytomegalovirus Retinitis With an Intraocular 
Sustained-Release Ganciclovir Implant: a Randomized Controlled 
Clinical Trial"
Journal of the American Medical Association (03/01/95) Vol. 267, 
No. 9, P. 682e
     In a randomized controlled clinical trial of the safety and 
efficacy of a ganciclovir implant, AIDS patients with newly 
diagnosed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis were either treated 
immediately with the implant or deferred treatment.  Of the 26 
patients (30 eyes), the average time to progression of retinitis 
was 15 days in the deferred treatment group--compared to 226 days
in the immediate treatment group.  A total of 39 primary implants
and 12 exchange implants were placed in immediate-treatment eyes,
deferred-treatment eyes, or contralateral eyes that developed CMV
retinitis.  In 34 of 39 eyes, final visual acuity was at least 
20/25.  The risk of developing CMV retinitis in the other eye was
50 percent after six months.  Eight patients developed 
biopsy-proven visceral CMV disease.  The researchers concluded 
that the ganciclovir implant is effective for the treatment of 
CMV retinitis.  Patients with unilateral CMV retinitis, who are 
treated with the implant, will likely develop the disease in the 
other eye, and some patients will develop visceral CMV disease, 
the study concluded.
      
"Dingell: Can't Vouch for 'Gallo Report'?"
Science (02/17/95) Vol. 267, No. 5200, P. 951
     In a recent letter to National Institutes of Health Director 
Harold Varmus, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)--former chair of a 
House investigatory committee--said he was unable to "vouch for 
the authenticity or accuracy" of a highly critical draft report 
on AIDS researcher Robert Gallo.  The report, written by 
Dingell's staff, was leaked to the press in January.  Dingell 
also said that the report was "not reviewed, much less evaluated,
by the staff director, the chairman, or any other member of the 
subcommittee."  A member of Dingell's staff said that his boss 
remains concerned about the role Gallo played in the discovery of
HIV, and how the government handled allegations that Gallo's lab 
has "misappropriated" a virus given to them by French AIDS 
researchers.  Varmus received the draft report from scientific 
"fraudbusters" Ned Feder and Walter Stewart.  According to 
Stewart, they want Varmus to take on the responsibility of 
ferreting out inappropriate behavior in science and, as they 
wrote in a letter to Varmus, to "bring the enclosed report to the
attention of the appropriate authorities."
      
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