                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                       August 4, 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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"Researchers Find AIDS Drug Combination"
"AIDS-Transfer Case in N. Dakota Dropped"
"HIV Home-Test Kit Might Be a Tough Sell"
"Comic Side of Sex in Age of AIDS"
"U.S. Urges Better Testing for Chancroid in Patients"
"Across the USA: Hawaii"
"More Chinese Youths Contract Venereal Disease"
"Pedro Zamora HIV Clinic Opens"
"Immune Factor Inhibits the Spread of HIV"
"Exon Amendment: Threat to AIDS Prevention and Activism?"
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"Researchers Find AIDS Drug Combination"
Washington Times (08/04/95) P. A6
     Researchers at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in England 
report that, when used together, the drugs AZT and 3TC appear to 
be the most effective combination found thus far to fight HIV.  
In the journal Science, the scientists note that when AZT is 
taken with 3TC, the "cocktail" overcomes the viral resistance 
that decreases the effectiveness of either drug when taken 
individually.  The 24-week-long tests of HIV-infected individuals
indicate that the combination reduced the level of viral 
infection and increased the number of CD4 cells.
      
"AIDS-Transfer Case in N. Dakota Dropped"
USA Today (08/04/95) P. 3A;  Leavitt, Paul
     A judge in North Dakota has dismissed the first case under a 
state law that makes it a crime for people with AIDS to transfer 
body fluids without disclosing that they have HIV, citing lack of
evidence.  The accused, former prostitute and injection drug user
Cyndi Potete, was arrested in April after police said they were 
told that she had sex with Timothy Martin.  The witness, however,
testified that the police misunderstood him, and that he did not 
see Martin and Potete having sex.  Potete, who now gives lectures
on how to avoid AIDS, said she was too drunk at the time to know 
what transpired.
      
"HIV Home-Test Kit Might Be a Tough Sell"
USA Today (08/04/95) P. 10B;  Wells, Melanie
     Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) new HIV home-test kit could be the 
advertising challenge of the 1990s.  The kit, called Confide, is 
expected to receive approval from the Food and Drug 
Administration this fall.  Although J&J's ad agency, 
McCann-Erickson, refused to comment on its plans for Confide, 
industry experts who have viewed three television commercials in 
development say the ads emphasize the importance of adults 
knowing if they are infected with HIV.  The kit's selling points 
are convenience, confidentiality, and a relatively low price of 
about $30.  However, some difficult issues that must be addressed
include the fact that many people are afraid to find out if they 
have HIV, and that many are uncomfortable about drawing their own
blood.  Some people claim that face-to-face counseling is 
critical when someone is diagnosed with an infection.  The 
primary concern is "whether someone is going to find out they are
positive and freak out," says AIDS activist Mario Cooper.  J&J is
presently seeking "caring, compassionate" bilingual phone 
counselors to relay the test results to Confide users.
      
"Comic Side of Sex in Age of AIDS"
New York Times (08/04/95) P. C10;  James, Caryn
     The movie version of Paul Rudnick's play "Jeffrey" is an 
erratically funny and heavy-handed tale of sex and romance in the
age of AIDS.  Still, the film is fairly close to the play and 
offers a few truly hilarious moments.  The movie's message is 
"carpe diem," or seize the day.  Actor Steven Weber plays 
Jeffrey, a young homosexual man who decides that AIDS has made 
sex too complex and unromantic.  Jeffrey opts for celibacy--until
he meets his ideal partner, who turns out to be infected with 
HIV.  Weber convincingly captures his character's warmth and 
skittishness, even when the movie follows Jeffrey's life as an 
actor and waiter into his fantasies.  More than ever, the film 
version of "Jeffrey" is a series of vignettes as opposed to a 
coherent story.  "Jeffrey" is a perfect example of Rudnick's own 
incredible comic taste.
      
"U.S. Urges Better Testing for Chancroid in Patients"
Reuters (08/03/95)
     On Thursday, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC) urged physicians to look more carefully for 
chanchroid in people with genital ulcers because it raises the 
risk of HIV infection.  A new method called polymerase chain 
reaction assay is more sensitive than standard laboratory tests 
in identifying the sexually transmitted nonsyphilitic venereal 
ulcers that are caused by bacteria, the CDC said.  According to 
the agency, if chanchroid is not identified and properly treated,
the genital ulcers take longer to heal, and thus increase the 
risk that they will transmit or become infected with the virus 
that causes AIDS.
      
"Across the USA: Hawaii"
USA Today (08/04/95) P. 6A
     According to the University of Hawaii, a caller who asks women 
for personal information, claiming to be conducting an AIDS and 
sex education poll for Leeward Community College, is a hoax.  The
school is not conducting such a survey.
      
"More Chinese Youths Contract Venereal Disease"
Reuters (08/04/95)
     The number of Chinese youths who contracted venereal diseases in 
1994 skyrocketed nearly 83 percent compared with the previous 
year.  The total number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases
in 30 Chinese provinces increased more than 22 percent last year 
to 300,466.  Six types of venereal diseases were on the 
increase--including herpes, which soared more than 270 percent 
and syphilis, which rose more than 120 percent.  In addition, 
China has diagnosed 1,774 individuals with HIV, but experts claim
that incomplete reporting and misdiagnosis have clouded the true 
total, which could be more than 10,000.
      
"Pedro Zamora HIV Clinic Opens"
Miami Herald (08/03/95) P. 2B
     Last week, the Pedro Zamora Youth HIV Clinic opened in Hollywood,
Calif.  The clinic, which is named for a young man from Miami who
died last year at age 22, is the first in the United States to 
specifically target HIV-infected teenagers and young adults.  
Zamora brought AIDS into the nation's living rooms through his 
starring role on MTV's series "The Real World."
      
"Immune Factor Inhibits the Spread of HIV"
Science News (07/29/95) Vol. 148, No. 5, P. 71;  Seachrist, L.
     Researchers in San Francisco are learning more about a substance 
secreted by certain immune cells that prevents HIV from 
replicating.  The substance, called cell antiviral factor (CAF), 
curbs HIV's ability to spread through the immune system.  
"Understanding how CAF inhibits the virus could give us insights 
into new therapies for HIV," says immunologist Jay A. Levy of the
University of California at San Francisco.  Levy's team 
identified CAF during the 1980s while trying to grow HIV.  They 
found they could separate large amounts of HIV from T cells of 
late-stage AIDS patients, but not from the blood of recently 
infected or asymptomatic persons.  New data from Levy's 
colleague, Carl E. Mackewicz, suggests that CAF inhibits HIV 
replication within CD4 cells at an early stage.  Due to the fact 
that the CD4 cells continue to function as normal, while CAF 
suppresses HIV, Levy sees hope for a therapeutic strategy against
HIV, although neither he nor Mackewicz yet knows exactly what CAF
is.
      
"Exon Amendment: Threat to AIDS Prevention and Activism?"
AIDS Treatment News (07/21/95) No. 227, P. 5;  Mirken, Bruce
     The "Communications Decency Act of 1995," more commonly known as 
the "Exon Amendment" after its author Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.), 
may complicate AIDS prevention efforts if approved.  The 
amendment to the 1995 Telecommunications Competition and 
Deregulation Act contains several provisions that may concern 
AIDS activists, affecting not just the Internet but any 
"telecommunications device."  The amendment makes it illegal to 
"make or make available any obscene communication in any form."  
It is hard to determine how much AIDS-related information online 
would be considered obscene or, in fact, what the definition of 
"obscene" would be.  For example, several sites contain open, 
graphic discussions of the HIV risks involved in some sexual 
acts.  Would such data be deemed "indecent?" asks Mirken.  This 
prospect has many AIDS educators concerned.  Jeff McElroy, the 
coordinator of the HIV/AIDS forums on America Online, notes that 
although the online service restricts sexually explicit messages,
"we are less stringent" when the subject is HIV/AIDS because 
"such communications save lives."  The provisions dealing with 
"harassing" communications are also problematic.  Many activists 
use phone and fax campaigns to urge the government or drug 
companies to improve research or open access to new treatments.  
Yet once again, the language is broad enough and imprecise enough
so that it is difficult to know exactly what would be prohibited.
The Exon amendment passed the Senate overwhelmingly, and is now 
awaiting vote in the House.
      
CLARIFICATION: The AIDS Daily Summary for August 1, 1995
contained an abstract of a Reuters article entitled "Gay
British Men Still Spurning Condoms--Study."  The abstract
stated that "seven out of 10 [gay men] are still not using
a condom when they have penetrative sex."  Researchers, 
however, have noted that the 70 percent figure refers to
the proportion of unprotected anal-intercourse episodes,
not individual men.
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