                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                        July 5, 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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"Helms Puts the Brakes to a Bill Financing AIDS Treatment"
"Fanfare: Johnson, Lakers Nearing a Reunion"
"Fat-Bubble Drugs Near Approval"
"The Vanishing Heroes of Science"
"Advanced Viral Research Corp. Filed Form 8-K"
"Antigenic Oscillations and Shifting Immunodominance in HIV-1 
Infections"
"Directly Observed Therapy for Tuberculosis: History of an Idea"
"AIDSWatch '95 on Capitol Hill"
"Handle with Care"
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"Helms Puts the Brakes to a Bill Financing AIDS Treatment"
New York Times (07/05/95) P. A12;  Seelye, Katharine Q.
     Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) wants to reduce the amount of federal 
funds that go to AIDS patients because he says it is their 
"deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct" that is responsible 
for their infection.  Helms also argues that while AIDS is only 
the ninth-leading cause of death in the United States, the 
disease accounts for more federal funding than diseases that kill
a greater number of people--an assertion which is not supported 
by Public Health Service data.  The senator's bid to cut AIDS 
spending comes as Congress decides whether to reauthorize the 
Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, a law named for an Indiana teenager 
who died after contracting HIV from a blood transfusion.  Despite
extensive bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, the bill
appears stalled.  In the Senate, the measure has cleared the 
committee level but has not reached the floor.  In the House, the
bill is stalled in committee--opposed by a group of religious 
organizations unless the law requires the mandatory testing of 
newborns for HIV.  Helms wants to amend the measure to reduce the
amount of money spent on AIDS relative to the amount spent on 
heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in 
Americans.
      
"Fanfare: Johnson, Lakers Nearing a Reunion"
Washington Post (07/05/95) P. D2
     Basketball star Magic Johnson is considering a return to his 
former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.  "We're talking about it, so
we have to see what happens," he was quoted as saying in 
Tuesday's Honolulu Advertiser.  This is thought to be the first 
time the Lakers have publicly said they are considering such a 
move.  Since retiring twice after announcing in 1992 that he is 
HIV-positive, Johnson ended attempts at a comeback after some 
players expressed concerns over contracting HIV should he spill 
blood while on the court.  However, Lakers General Manager Jerry 
West said times and attitudes about AIDS have changed since the 
basketball great last attempted a comeback.  "Now there's so much
more information about health concerns that I think it's easier 
for him to make a decision today," he noted.  If Johnson decides 
to play, he will be forced to give up his ownership rights to the
team.
      
"Fat-Bubble Drugs Near Approval"
Washington Post (Health) (07/04/95) P. 15
     An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has 
recommended approval of two experimental drugs made of fat 
bubbles for the treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS).  Scientists 
believe that the fat coating--made up of liposomes, or 
microscopic fat bubbles used to coat highly toxic 
medicines--allows the drugs to travel to site of the disease 
without spreading into other cells and poisoning them along the 
way.  This method permits more of a drug to be delivered without 
severe side effects.  The two drugs receiving tentative approval 
from the committee were NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s DaunoXome 
and Liposome Technology Inc.'s Dox-SL, which was recommended 
under certain conditions.  A study of more than 200 advanced KS 
patients found that those who received DaunoXome lived one year, 
while those on standard therapy lived 26 fewer days.  More 
importantly, DaunoXome patients had 10 times fewer side effects 
than other patients, NeXstar officials said.
      
"The Vanishing Heroes of Science"
New York Times (07/04/95) P. 31;  Greenberg, Daniel S.
     Dr. Jonas Salk was on the scale of such greats as Benjamin 
Franklin, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, writes Daniel S. 
Greenberg--editor and publisher of the newsletter Science & 
Government Report--in the New York Times.  During the forty years
since Salk developed his polio vaccine, however, science, 
medicine and technology have been demythologized by tales from 
within and marred by allegations of fraud and glory-stealing.  
The degree of change, notes Greenberg, can be seen in Salk's 
response to the question of who hold's the polio vaccine's 
patent.  Salk had replied, "Well, the people, I would say.  There
is no patent.  Could you patent the sun?"  With its high level of
public fear and intensity of research, AIDS--the modern 
counterpart of polio--has not yet produced such a hero.  The 
first great discovery was the identification of HIV, but almost 
immediately the claims of discovery produced a bitter war between
France's Pasteur Institute and Robert Gallo of the U.S. National 
Institutes of Health.  The government eventually concluded that 
its star researcher had failed to give the French credit for 
their work.  Although Gallo was not charged with misconduct, the 
circumstances do not make for hero worship, Greenberg concludes.
      
"Advanced Viral Research Corp. Filed Form 8-K"
Comtex (07/03/95)
     The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed the 
Investigational New Drug Application filed by Advanced Viral 
Research Corp. for its drug Reticulose on an inactive status.  To
remove the application from this status, Advanced Viral Research 
must provide the FDA with pre-clinical information regarding the 
drug as a treatment for HIV.
      
"Antigenic Oscillations and Shifting Immunodominance in HIV-1 
Infections"
Nature (06/15/95) Vol. 375, No. 6532, P. 606;  Nowak, Martin A.; 
May, Robert M.;  Phillips, Rodney E.
     In the British medical journal The Lancet, Nowak et al. describe 
a new mathematical model of antigenic variation that deals 
primarily with the interaction between cytotoxic T lymphocytes 
(CTL) and multiple epitopes of a genetically variable pathogen.  
The researchers demonstrate that the nonlinear competition among 
CTL responses against separate epitopes can explain 
immunodominance.  The model indicates that an antigenically 
homogeneous pathogen population tends to generate a dominant 
response against a single epitope--unlike a heterogeneous 
pathogen population, which can stimulate complicated fluctuating 
responses against several epitopes.  In the immunodominant 
epitope, antigenic variation can transfer responses to weaker 
epitopes, thus lessening immunological control of the pathogen 
population.  According to the researchers, these findings are 
consistent with detailed longitudinal studies of CTL responses in
patients infected with HIV-1.  In terms of vaccine design, the 
new model indicates that the primary response should be directed 
against conserved epitopes, despite the fact that they are 
subdominant.
      
"Directly Observed Therapy for Tuberculosis: History of an Idea"
Lancet (06/17/95) Vol. 345, No. 8964, P. 1545;  Bayer, Ronald;  
Wilkinson, David
     In the United States, directly observed therapy (DOT) has become 
the standard of care in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB).  The 
Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis (ACET), for 
example, has recommended that DOT be used in all locations that 
do not achieve at least a 90 percent completion rate for 
treatment.  For more than 30 years, foreign studies have 
indicated that a broad application of supervised therapy is 
important.  However, U.S. TB-control efforts all but ignored the 
relevance of such findings, focusing instead on what insights 
might be relied upon to predict patient behavior and medication 
use, and on the importance of fashioning clinical structures and 
practices that would overcome noncompliance.  DOT was often seen 
as an imposition that could only be justified in the presence of 
evidence that the patient would behave in a way that posed a 
threat to the public health.  Since 1993, when ACET decided to 
make DOT the standard of care, the transformation of federal 
policy has been reflected at the local level as state, county, 
and municipal health departments create their TB policies and 
practices.
      
"AIDSWatch '95 on Capitol Hill"
AIDS Treatment News (06/16/95) No. 225, P. 6;  Tobias, Tadd
     In May, more than 500 advocates--including people with AIDS, 
caregivers, and service providers from 38 states--converged on 
the nation's capital to learn about federal AIDS issues and to 
lobby members of Congress.  The focus of this annual event, which
was coordinated by the National Association of People With AIDS 
and co-sponsored by 26 national organizations, is to educate 
members of Congress and ask for their support on AIDS issues.  
Items on this year's agenda included reauthorizing full funding 
of the Ryan White CARE Act, supporting AIDS treatment research at
the National Institutes of Health, sustaining community-based 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention AIDS prevention 
activities, and opposing mandatory HIV antibody testing of 
pregnant women.
      
"Handle with Care"
Economist (06/24/95) Vol. 335, No. 7920, P. 27
     In light of the recent incident at the White House, when several 
guards wore rubber gloves to search the belongings of homosexual 
officials, one might think that the government would be taking 
steps to instruct its employees about HIV transmission, write the
editors of the Economist.  President Clinton promised enhanced 
HIV education in his June 18th letter of apology.  However, 
instead of improving such education, Congress is now considering 
whether to eliminate it for federal workers.  Presidential 
candidate Robert Dornan (R-Calif.), along with other 
conservatives, claims the president's "AIDS at Work" program 
"promotes homosexuality or bisexuality as just another healthy 
lifestyle choice."  Dornan was scheduled to be the lead witness 
in a recent House subcommittee hearing on issue.  Other witnesses
included representatives from the Family Research Council and 
Concerned Women for America, two groups whose politics are 
similar to Dornan's.  The American Red Cross declined to testify,
which caused some activists to cynically question whether the 
decision was connected to the fact that the agency is run by 
Elizabeth Dole, the wife of Senator Bob Dole, who is the 
Republican front-runner for the presidency.
      
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