                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        June 9, 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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"AIDS Threatens to Widen Child Prostitution"
"AIDS Hemophiliac Probe Widens in France"
"NovaDx Forms Partnership with Tera Biotechnology to Develop 
Breakthrough Core Technology"
"Mississippi to Showcase Seafood at D.C. Charity Ball"
"Food Drive Helps Project Open Hand"
"Fewer New York Surgeons Reporting Needlesticks"
"HIV Risk-Related Behaviors among Injection Drug Users in Rome: 
Differences between 1990 and 1992"
"Artificial Blood May Be a Heartbeat Away"
"Time after Times"
"Digging into TB's History with Genetics"
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"AIDS Threatens to Widen Child Prostitution"
Reuters (06/08/95);  Phythian, Nicholas
     Torild Skard, a regional head of UNICEF, warned on Thursday that 
AIDS may increase child prostitution as men search for girls who 
are not infected with HIV.  "This is flagrant exploitation which 
must stop," she said, noting that as many as half of the 
prostitutes in Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, were under the age
of 18.  Many children in West and Central Africa have had to turn
to begging or prostitution to survive, according to a statement 
issued by Skard's office.  Skard acknowledged that putting 
children to work was a fact of life for many poor families, 
however, she added that greater effort was needed to ensure that 
those children who do work receive proper care and are not 
exploited.  Skard highlighted the problems faced by children in 
areas such as Liberia or Sierra Leone, where an estimated 20 
percent of the children work.
      
"AIDS Hemophiliac Probe Widens in France"
Reuters (06/08/95)
     On Thursday, a doctor was added to the list of suspects involved 
in the HIV infection of more than 1,000 French hemophiliacs with 
tainted blood products during the mid-1980s.  Now, Dr. 
Jean-Baptiste Brunet--a former adviser to the General Health 
Directorate--is being investigated for complicity in poisoning, 
his lawyer said.  It is alleged that in 1985, Brunet waited two 
months after learning that Paris blood stocks were likely 
contaminated with HIV before alerting his superiors to the 
danger.  Twelve people are now under investigation in what is 
considered one of France's worst public health scandals.  More 
than 400 hemophiliacs have died because of the HIV-contaminated 
transfusions they received when officials used up tainted stocks 
rather than use imports that had been disinfected by a new 
heating technique.
      
"NovaDx Forms Partnership with Tera Biotechnology to Develop 
Breakthrough Core Technology"
PR Newswire (06/08/95)
     NovaDx Inc. and Tera Biotechnology Corp. have united to develop a
technology which will significantly reduce the time it takes to 
identify disease markers in the blood.  In general, researchers 
spend between five and 10 years searching for disease markers, or
proteins that signal diseases.  The companies, however, hope to 
find a method that produces results in months.  The technology, 
which will be used in discovery research for drugs, has potential
uses in several areas, including AIDS, cancer, and arthritis.
      
"Mississippi to Showcase Seafood at D.C. Charity Ball"
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (06/09/95)
     The Mississippi table at Saturday's annual Taste of the South 
charity ball in Washington, D.C., will feature the true flavors 
of the region.  The selection will include marinated crab claws 
from La Font Inn in Pascagoula and boiled shrimp from D'Luke 
Seafood, Golden Gulf Coast Packing Co., and Weems Brothers 
Seafood in Biloxi.  "The Mississippi restaurateurs and suppliers 
have been very gracious in their donations," notes Mississippi 
committee member Anna Burnett.  This year's event--one of the 
most popular charity balls in the nation's capital--will benefit 
ChildKind, an Atlanta-based group that locates homes for 
HIV-infected children.
      
"Food Drive Helps Project Open Hand"
PR Newswire (06/08/95)
     A one-month canned food drive to benefit Project Open Hand, which
provides daily hot meals and nutrition counseling to more than 
2,000 HIV-infected clients in San Francisco and Alameda counties,
will kick-off on June 12.  "It is very important that people 
realize the importance of nutritious foods in fighting for the 
health of people with symptomatic HIV and AIDS," said Project 
Open Hand's Tim Nolan.  When at Cala/Bell supermarkets, shoppers 
will be able to select from products--including Skippy Peanut 
Butter, Golden Grain Pasta, and Prego Spaghetti Sauce--whose 
vendors are supporting the event.  Project Open Hand volunteers 
will be located outside the stores to remind shoppers of the food
drive.  In addition to Cala/Bell Supermarkets and eight major 
food vendors, the campaign will be supported by KCBS television 
station.
      
"Fewer New York Surgeons Reporting Needlesticks"
AIDS Alert (06/95) Vol. 10, No. 6, P. 81
     The significant reduction of New York surgeons reporting 
occupational injuries appears to be the result of new technology,
the risk of HIV, and improved technique.  An updated survey 
published in the journal AIDS compared the incidence of 
percutaneous injuries by more than 300 doctors in 1993 to a 
similar report in 1988.  About half as many injuries were 
reported in 1993, with reductions seen in all practice 
categories.  Thus far, there are no documented cases of surgeons 
occupationally infected with HIV.  The authors attribute the 
reduced number of injuries to the increased use of instruments 
instead of fingers to retrieve needles, two gloves instead of 
one, laparascopy, and to injury education causing greater caution
during surgery.  Lowenfels et al. also noted that the number of 
patients whose HIV status was known at the time of surgery 
increased from 11 percent in 1988 to 42 percent in 1993.
      
"HIV Risk-Related Behaviors among Injection Drug Users in Rome: 
Differences between 1990 and 1992"
American Journal of Public Health (06/95) Vol. 85, No. 6, P. 829;
Davoli, Marina;  Perucci, Carlo A.;  Abeni, Damiano D. et al.
     The primary risk factor for HIV-1 infection and AIDS in Italy is 
injection drug use, accounting for about two-thirds of the total 
AIDS cases reported by the end of June 1994.  Between 1990 and 
1992, Davoli et al. analyzed injection drug users (IDUs) to 
better understand the temporal trends in HIV risk-related 
behaviors.  An understanding of these trends may help in 
verifying the effectiveness of prevention activities, planning 
more appropriate education and treatment interventions, and 
providing estimates for the future of the epidemic.  From 1990 to
1992, syringe-sharing decreased among self-reported HIV-infected 
IDUs, although there was no change in their sexual behavior.  By 
the end of the study, fewer HIV-seronegative IDUs reported 
sharing needles than in 1990.  There was, however, no change in 
the percentage of seronegative users using previously used 
syringes, and a reduction in condom use with primary partners was
seen.  The researchers concluded that there is still a great 
potential for HIV transmission among IDUs and from IDUs to the 
general public.
      
"Artificial Blood May Be a Heartbeat Away"
Business Week (06/05/95) No. 3427, P. 118;  Stodghill II, Ron
     Northfield Laboratories Inc. may be close to its goal of creating
an inexpensive, plentiful, and safe replacement for 
hemoglobin--which carries oxygen in red blood cells.  Although 
several other companies are working on similar products, 
Northfield has pulled ahead and is now conducting Phase II trials
of the efficacy and safety of its product, called PolyHeme.  
Unlike transfused blood, blood substitutes do not carry diseases,
such as HIV, or need to be cross-matched.  In theory, they can be
stored safely for up to a year.  The difficulty has been in 
retrieving and isolating the 280 million hemoglobin molecules 
contained in each red blood cell so they can be transfused no 
matter what a patient's blood type is.  When removed from their 
protective cell casing, the molecules tend to leak through the 
blood vessel wall.  And unless they are altered, these molecules 
can be toxic to almost every organ in the body.  To solve this 
problem, Northfield scientists begin by removing red blood cells 
from donated blood that has passed its expiration date.  The 
hemoglobin molecules are extracted and linked into polymers, the 
large size of which prevents the molecules from leaking.  The 
resulting product is purified and bottled, giving it a long 
shelf-life.
      
"Time after Times"
POZ (04/95-05/95) No. 7, P. 28;  Schoofs, Mark
     Although Tom Morgan is still proud of his significant 
accomplishments, he now sees himself differently than he did 
before he left The New York Times last July because of AIDS.  
"Leaving my job removed the obstacles to discovering who I am," 
he said.  Morgan, who is the first and only openly gay president 
of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote the 
Newspaper of Record's first story about ACT UP and has been 
published in the nation's most prestigious newspapers.  Having 
AIDS, he says, has "emboldened" him to get into "the habit of 
talking to people about emotions."  Lately, Morgan has been 
writing "just for [himself]," working on a potter's wheel, and 
serving on the board of an agency which provides health care to 
the homeless.
      
"Digging into TB's History with Genetics"
Science News (06/03/95) Vol. 147, No. 22, P. 346;  Travis, John
     Two British researchers believe they have confirmed that a man 
who died more than 1,000 years ago had tuberculosis (TB).  By 
studying the man's skeletal remains, they may have discovered how
to solve a mystery surrounding the illness.  Using written 
records from that time, scientists have concluded that TB raged 
through Europe during the Middle Ages.  However, the only 
physical evidence that supports this theory comes from studies of
skeletons taken from Middle Age cemeteries.  The problem is that 
"the historical record suggests a much larger number [of cases] 
than the cemeteries indicate," noted molecular biologist Ronald 
A. Dixon of England's University of Bradford.  Dixon and his 
colleague Charlotte Roberts isolated pieces of DNA from the bones
of eight skeletons taken from a medieval graveyard.  In the one 
skeleton with lesions indicating TB, they detected a sequence of 
DNA unique to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen 
responsible for the disease.  Dixon and Roberts expect their 
method will reveal a higher incidence of medieval TB than bone 
studies have found.
      
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