                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       March 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
of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC
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Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Building Homelessness, Not Housing"
"A Crash Course in Campus Sex"
"Positively Negative"
"CDC to Lower Estimate of HIV-Infected Americans--Report"
"AIDS Vaccine Called Scientifically Possible"
"AIDS No. 2 Killer of Toronto Men, City Says"
"HIV Testing Gives Babies Chance for Normal Life"
"Active HIV Protease Analog Synthesized Chemically"
"Valacyclovir Study Stopped--Worse Survival"
"Baker Drops N.Y. AIDS Appeal"
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"Building Homelessness, Not Housing"
New York Times (03/13/95) P. A19;  Sandorf, Julie
     This month, the House Appropriations Committee decided to cut 
rental assistance in this year's budget for the disabled homeless
and to eliminate federal housing assistance for homeless people 
with AIDS.  Although this is not Congress' last word on how to 
care for "the poorest Americans," it sends a bleak signal, writes
Julie Sandorf--president of the Corporation for Supportive 
Housing.  The bottom line is that it costs considerably more not 
to house these people than to house them.  The House panel cut 
$186 million from a program that would have helped fund 35,000 
housing units for people with AIDS.  Unless these people have a 
stable place to live and access to primary care, they are likely 
to live on the streets and in hospitals.  The average cost of a 
hospital bed is $1,085 a day, while supportive housing costs $40 
to $100 a day.  If the cutbacks mean that even 1,000 AIDS 
patients are inappropriately housed in hospitals, the extra cost 
to taxpayers will be $360 million a year.  The proven answer to 
homelessness for the majority of homeless people is supportive 
housing--combining permanent housing with services such as health
care, job counseling, and therapy--concludes Sandorf.
      
"A Crash Course in Campus Sex"
USA Today (03/13/95) P. 1D;  della Cava, Marco R.
     As colleges capitulate this week for spring break, the students 
seem to be divided into two groups--those who shrug off the 
threat of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and those whose 
deep concerns often drive them to swearing off sex.  Cases of HIV
among the national college population remain low, according to 
James C. Turner, director of student health at the University of 
Virginia (UVa).  And because the numbers are low, many 
college-aged kids are falsely reassured into having unsafe sex, 
and are contracting STDs at an alarming rate.  Conversations with
UVa undergraduates reveal that although information on sex is 
widely available, it is often ignored.  Another theme that 
emerges from these conversations is that, despite an intense 
focus on sexual issues, AIDS is still a hush-hush topic.  Susan 
Firkaly, UVa's associate director for health promotion, said that
no student at the university has gone public about being 
HIV-positive.  "You'd be alienated," said one student. Most 
students agreed, citing the school's conservative air.
      
"Positively Negative"
New York Times (03/13/95) P. B1;  Dunlap, David W.
     Although it forces them to confront mortality at a very early 
moment in dating, AIDS has become a fact of life for many gay 
men.  HIV is so widespread that it would be almost impossible for
HIV-negative gay men to lead social lives that exclude 
sero-positive men.  Frank Carbone, the executive director of Body
Positive, a service organization for people with AIDS and HIV, 
estimates that "to be a gay man in New York City and dating means
that you probably have a 40- to 60-percent chance of meeting 
someone who's positive."  As a result, there are many 
relationships in which one partner is HIV-positive and one is 
HIV-negative; they are called "sero-discordant" couples.  Such 
relationships are not easy.  The HIV-negative partner, for 
example, faces the prospect of caring for a sick companion and 
then losing him, in addition to becoming infected himself.  The 
HIV-infected partner lives with the fear of being abandoned in 
illness, of burdening his companion with grief, or transmitting 
the virus.  Sero-discordant couples are also more likely to focus
on long-term survival.  "This is a day and age when HIV is not a 
death sentence," said John Juska, an HIV-negative man who is 
nearing a second anniversary with an HIV-positive man.
      
"CDC to Lower Estimate of HIV-Infected Americans--Report"
Reuters (03/10/95)
     On Friday, NBC News reported that the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) is ready to lower its estimate of the number
of HIV-infected Americans by 20 percent.  For the last five 
years, the government has said that nearly 1 million people in 
the country were infected with the virus that causes AIDS.  NBC, 
however, said it had learned that the CDC "is preparing to admit 
that figure is wrong, much too high."  The network said the CDC's
old estimate from 1989 was a range from 800,000 to 1.2 million, 
but quoted unidentified government officials as saying the new 
estimate would be from 600,000 to 1 million.  The government 
delayed publication of the new estimates because officials were 
concerned about the reaction of those in Congress who might want 
to cut the budget for AIDS research and care, NBC said.
      
"AIDS Vaccine Called Scientifically Possible"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/10/95) P. A4;  Coutts, Jane
     Although an AIDS vaccine is scientifically possible, it probably 
will not be developed unless social pressure can overcome the 
profit concerns of drug manufacturers, said Donald Francis, a 
leading expert on AIDS on Thursday.  Francis said that private 
manufacturers who finance drug research stand to make more money 
through developing treatments for the disease than through 
finding a vaccine for it.  Another factor working against vaccine
development is that it is difficult to judge, without lengthy and
expensive clinical trials, whether the vaccine will actually 
work.  Francis said there have been several studies that have 
found that an AIDS vaccine will not reach the development stage 
unless the government supports the expensive clinical trials.
      
"AIDS No. 2 Killer of Toronto Men, City Says"
Toronto Globe and Mail (03/10/95) P. A1;  Galt, Virginia
     Unsafe sex, the emergence of a drug-resistant strain of 
tuberculosis (TB), a large homeless population, and poverty have 
created serious challenges to Toronto's public health system, the
Public Health Department said on Thursday.  Despite heavy 
promotion of safe sex, there are still 500 to 600 new cases of 
HIV infection reported in Toronto each year.  AIDS has become the
second leading killer of Toronto men, after heart disease, 
according to a health report on the status of public health in 
Toronto.  TB is also reappearing as a public health threat, with 
10 percent of new cases resistant to standard treatment.  Amidst 
some "serious concerns," the report concludes that "the overall 
health of Torontonians remains good."  The Board of Health says 
that although the issues have changed, Toronto's overall good 
health record is due to the city's century-old promotion of 
public health.
      
"HIV Testing Gives Babies Chance for Normal Life"
Houston Chronicle (03/10/95) P. 37A;  Hamric, Peggy
     The purpose of House Bill 1345, which promotes universal HIV 
testing for all pregnant women, is to alert women who may 
unknowingly be at risk and give them the opportunity to prevent 
HIV transmission to their children, writes Rep. Peggy Hamric--the
filer of the bill and a Republican who represents Texas House 
District 126 in northwest Harris County, in the Houston 
Chronicle.  Under HB 1345, neither AZT therapy nor HIV testing is
mandatory.  The mother will have the final decision after 
weighing the benefits and risks with her doctor.  Upon the 
initial prenatal care visit, the patient would be provided with 
information about HIV transmission and prevention, about how 
being infected could affect the health of the child, and about 
the medication available to prevent maternal-infant transmission.
If the mother chooses not to be tested, it would merely be noted 
in her records.  Although confidentiality and the right to 
privacy have long been the social rationalization behind avoiding
a standardized HIV test, we must face the inevitability of 
detecting the virus in the mother--be it through routine prenatal
testing or in the diagnosis of an HIV-positive child, concludes 
Hamric.
      
"Active HIV Protease Analog Synthesized Chemically"
Chemical and Engineering News (02/27/95) Vol. 73, No. 9, P. 38
     Four researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, 
Calif., have developed an HIV protease analog with full activity 
and catalytic properties that are indistinguishable from those of
the naturally occurring enzyme.  The 22,000-dalton protease, 
which was made by chemical ligation of four unprotected peptide 
segments, is believed to be the largest functional protein ever 
synthesized chemically.  Chemical ligation, a technique developed
by the Scripps team of Stephen B.H. Kent et al., enables 
unprotected peptide segments to be linked by chemoselective 
reaction.  Kent's group is currently using chemical ligation to 
alter HIV protease as a probe of the enzyme's mechanism.
      
"Valacyclovir Study Stopped--Worse Survival"
AIDS Treatment News (02/17/95) No. 217, P. 7;  James, John S.
     ACTG 204, a study of valacyclovir being conducted by the AIDS 
Clinical Trials Group with support from Burroughs Wellcome Co., 
was stopped on Feb. 13 because those patients who received the 
drug had worse survival rates than those in either the low or 
high dose acyclovir groups.  Valacyclovir is a prodrug of 
acyclovir, which means that it becomes acyclovir inside the body.
The goal of the study was to see whether valacyclovir could help 
prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in persons with advanced 
HIV infection.  Although high-dose acyclovir had been found to 
prevent CMV in organ-transplant patients, attempts to use it to 
prevent CMV in AIDS patients have not been promising.  The theory
behind the trial was that the higher dose possible with 
valacyclovir might offer a practical treatment to prevent CMV 
disease.
      
"Baker Drops N.Y. AIDS Appeal"
National Law Journal (03/06/95) Vol. 17, No. 27, P. A6;  Davis, 
Ann
     In exchange for silence, Baker & McKenzie--the world's largest 
law firm--has withdrawn its appeal in an AIDS discrimination suit
brought by now-deceased associate Geoffrey F. Bowers.  A December
1993 ruling ordered the firm to pay Bowers' estate $500,000 in 
compensatory damages for firing him after he contracted AIDS.  
The New York Division of Human Rights ruled that Baker & McKenzie
subjected the attorney to "devastatingly cruel" discriminatory 
treatment by firing him from his $81,000-a-year position in 1986.
The firm claimed that Bowers was dismissed because of absenteeism
and declining job performance, not because he had AIDS.  Baker & 
McKenzie recently negotiated a confidential settlement with 
Bowers' family forbidding parties from ever discussing the case 
or the terms of the agreement.
      
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