                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       August 1, 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
Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information.
Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD


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"Flu Shots Can Stimulate AIDS Virus, Study Says"
"Confusion over Russia AIDS Law"
"Therapies Outside the Mainstream"
"Across the USA: North Dakota"
"Red Cross Cited Cost in Refusing Virus Test"
"Judge Shuts Florida Company for AIDS-Life Insurance Sale Scam"
"Gay British Men Still Spurning Condoms--Study"
"FDA Announces Public Workshop and Advisory Subcommittee Meeting 
on Current Issues in AIDS Clinical Trials"
"Interleukin-2 as Therapy for HIV Disease"
"Reducing the Impact of Opportunistic Infections in Patients with
HIV Infection"
"HIV+ and Traveling"
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"Flu Shots Can Stimulate AIDS Virus, Study Says"
Washington Times (08/01/95) P. A6
     Scientists have found that even minimal stimulation of the immune
system, such as a flu vaccination, appears to stimulate HIV 
growth.  Researchers at the University of California at Los 
Angeles AIDS Institute report in the journal Blood that their 
findings should help doctors determine which HIV patients should 
be vaccinated against the flu.  They warn, however, that although
the shot increases the production of HIV cells, the cell growth 
is even greater when those patients actually get the flu.  
Related Story: USA Today (08/01) P. 6D
      
"Confusion over Russia AIDS Law"
Financial Times (08/01/95) P. 2;  Thornhill, John
     On Monday, Russian ministries failed to clarify confusion about 
rules effective today that require persons planning extended 
visits to the country to prove that they do not have HIV.  Both 
AIDS activists and foreign diplomats have assailed the rules as 
cumbersome and discriminatory.  According to the health ministry,
visitors would need to obtain a certificate from their local 
health authority prior to applying for a visa.  Testing services 
would not be provided by the ministry.  The foreign ministry, 
however, said Monday it may have to delay the implementation of 
the law until the requisite documentation had been prepared.  
"Nothing is going to change on August 1 or until the certificates
have been prepared," a foreign ministry official said.
      
"Therapies Outside the Mainstream"
Washington Post (Health) (08/01/95) P. 10;  Herman, Robin
     Increasingly, Americans frustrated with their standard medicine 
are discovering "alternative" or "unconventional" treatments that
have been shunned by the higher-tech medical world.  As methods 
that involve massage therapists, homeopaths, herbalists spread, 
so has the concern that some treatments may not have been 
sufficiently tested, and thus may be ineffective or even harmful.
But most people who use alternative therapies are adding them to 
their usual health care.  According to James Gordon of the 
Georgetown University School of Medicine, the two major groups of
people who seek such treatments are those who just do not feel 
good and those "people who have come to the limits of traditional
Western medicine for chronic illness or life-threatening 
conditions."  Studies, for example, have found that as many as 50
percent of HIV-infected people are using unconventional 
treatments.  Some of the more problematic therapies involve the 
ingestion of pills and potions that supposedly prevent disease or
boost the immune system.  These remedies are largely unregulated 
and are outside the control of the Food and Drug Administration 
because they are described as supplements and do not claim to 
cure disease.
      
"Across the USA: North Dakota"
USA Today (08/01/95) P. 9A
     Cody Rogahn, president of the Dakota AIDS Project, claims that 
the AIDS disclosure law in North Dakota discriminates against 
AIDS patients and has no effect on the spread of the disease.  
Under the law, it is a felony for a person with HIV or AIDS to 
expose another individual without revealing his condition.
      
"Red Cross Cited Cost in Refusing Virus Test"
Toronto Globe and Mail (07/31/95) P. A4;  Picard, Andre
     According to documents introduced as evidence in a public 
inquiry, the Canadian Red Cross did not use blood tests that 
could have prevented thousands of individuals from becoming 
infected with the hepatitis C virus because it was afraid of 
possibly having to throw out too many donations.  At a meeting in
April 1986, Dr. Roger Perrault--head of the Canadian Red Cross 
Transfusion Service--said that U.S. blood bankers had rejected 
the concept of surrogate testing because it was unproven.  But 
the documents show that Perrault had known since late 1985 that 
the United States would conduct testing after a study showed that
tests eliminated more than 40 percent of hepatitis C-infected 
units.  His concern was that the tests could reduce the available
blood supply by 4 percent.  The Commission of Inquiry on the 
Blood System in Canada is trying to determine the causes of the 
contaminated-blood disaster that infected more than 1,000 
hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients with HIV and thousands 
more with hepatitis C.
      
"Judge Shuts Florida Company for AIDS-Life Insurance Sale Scam"
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (08/01/95);  Reed, Ted
     Following charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission 
that most of the life insurance policies sold by United Benefits 
Group were worthless, a federal judge has granted a temporary 
injunction against the Boca Raton company and frozen its assets. 
United Benefits allegedly cheated investors out of millions of 
dollars by claiming to sell policies held by people with AIDS.  
Company president Zane Balsam testified that the company reported
selling between $3.5 million and $4.5 million worth of policies, 
he had no reason to believe the policies existed.  Balsam said 
that on multiple occasions he gave former president Nicholas 
DeAngelis briefcases full of cash to buy life insurance policies,
but he had no proof that DeAngelis actually did so.  U.S. 
District Court Judge Shelby Highsmith ruled that United Benefits 
engage in an interstate plan to defraud investors, and barred 
Balsam, DeAngelis, and company secretary Frederick Hollander from
violating securities law.
      
"Gay British Men Still Spurning Condoms--Study"
Reuters (07/31/95)
     A new study of gay men in Britain reveals that seven out of 10 
are still not using a condom when they have penetrative sex.  The
University of Essex asked 400 men to record details of their sex 
lives in diaries.  The seven-year survey found that in more than 
70 percent of the cases, the men did not practice safe sex.  
Prominent AIDS activist Nick Partridge of the Terrence Higgins 
Trust said that people who have unprotected sex and risk 
spreading HIV should be "cast into an abyss of condemnation."
      
"FDA Announces Public Workshop and Advisory Subcommittee Meeting 
on Current Issues in AIDS Clinical Trials"
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
     The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding a public 
workshop on current issues in HIV clinical trials on Sept. 6 and 
7, 1995.  At the workshop--to which registration is 
required--members of the industry and the public will be able to 
discuss issues regarding the design and conduct of clinical 
trials of drugs for the treatment of HIV, as well as propose 
strategies for overcoming known obstacles.  A major challenge to 
developers of HIV treatments is the successful design and conduct
of clinical confirmatory trials, which are needed to provide the 
data used to confirm the clinical benefit of drugs that have 
received accelerated approval.  The workshop will be followed by 
a joint meeting on Sept. 9 of subcommittees of the Antiviral 
Drugs Advisory Committee and the National Task Force on AIDS Drug
Development.  The subcommittees will hear summary presentations 
from the workshop,  and will discuss recommendations on the 
scientific design of future HIV clinical trials.  For more 
information, call the AIDS Clinical Trial Information Service at 
(800) 243-7012.
      
"Interleukin-2 as Therapy for HIV Disease"
New England Journal of Medicine (07/20/95) Vol. 333, No. 3, P. 
192;  Lane, H. Clifford;  Kovacs, Joseph A.
     There is a complex association between activation of the immune 
system and levels of viral replication, write Lane and Kovacs in 
response to letters to the editor published in the New England 
Journal of Medicine.  For example, activation of CD4 T 
lymphocytes by interleukin-2 (IL-2) can bring about cell division
and an increased number of cells.  Activation of CD8 cells by 
IL-2 can lead to increased immunity against viral infections.  
The overall effect of IL-2 in a given patient, therefore, is a 
function of many variables.  The authors, however, state that the
main point of their March 2 article was that it is possible to 
induce and maintain a polyclonal expansion of CD4 T lymphocytes 
in some HIV-infected individuals using intermittent courses of 
IL-2.
      
"Reducing the Impact of Opportunistic Infections in Patients with
HIV Infection"
Journal of the American Medical Association (07/26/95) Vol. 274, 
No. 4, P. 347;  Kaplan, Jonathan E.;  Masur, Henry;  Jaffe, 
Harold W. et al.
     With new knowledge of the environmental sources of opportunistic 
pathogens, ways to reduce exposure, and the role of 
chemoprophylaxis, a practical strategy for preventing 
opportunistic infections in HIV-infected people has become 
particularly important.  The U.S. Public Health Service, with the
Infectious Diseases Society of America, is now publishing 
comprehensive guidelines to prevent such infections.  Previous 
efforts dealt with Pneumocystis carinii, Mycobacterium 
tuberculosis, and Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex, and
focused on chemoprophylaxis.  The new patient- and 
pathogen-oriented guidelines provide background information and 
recommendations for clinicians and patients on the behavioral 
shifts, drug therapies, and immunizations that are most likely to
be effective, safe, and cost-effective.  The guidelines also 
discuss the relative importance of several prevention measures 
and attempts to integrate them.
      
"HIV+ and Traveling"
Out (07/95-08/95) No. 24, P. 101;  Downton, Joseph
     Although being HIV-positive should not mean sacrificing 
vacations, it is necessary to plan trips carefully and choose a 
destination with special needs and concerns in mind.  It is 
important, for example, to check the destination for HIV 
restrictions if traveling outside of the country.  Russia 
requires anyone staying longer than 90 days to be tested for HIV,
and will presumably deny entry to anyone found infected.  In 
addition, it is useful to take a few extra days' supply of 
medicine, a backup prescription, and a physician's note 
authorizing them, in case anything happens.  Physicians also 
suggest taking diarrhea medication even for travel within the 
United States, because even small changes in tap water can cause 
problems for immunocompromised individuals.  Finally, it is 
important to take sunscreen and sunglasses.  Studies show that 
people infected with HIV who are taking Bactrim or other 
antibiotics are especially prone to sunburn.  Sunglasses are also
critical because the eyes are more sensitive to the sun.
      
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