                     AIDS Daily Summary 
                     November 15, 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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"Advocates Want D.C. Declared a Disaster Area"
"The Ripple Effect: Empty Halls, Lost Money, Discontent"
"Addenda: Glaxo Wellcome"
"Lifeline: Play's the Thing"
"Cuba Has 1,180 HIV Positive Cases"
"Obituaries: Bruce B. Decker; Activist Served on State AIDS 
Panel"
"RBC-CD4 HIV/AIDS Therapy; Preliminary Results Show No 
Significant Adverse Effects in HIV Patients"
"OncoRx Announces Third Quarter Results"
"Multiple Introductions of HIV-1 Subtype E into the Western 
Hemisphere"
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
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"Advocates Want D.C. Declared a Disaster Area"
Washington Post (11/15/95) P. D1;  Loeb, Vernon
      A coalition of Washington, D.C. advocacy groups, known as the 
Fair Budget Coalition, plans to ask the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency to recommend that the city be declared a 
"modified emergency," based on widespread poverty, spreading 
infectious disease, poor healthcare, unemployment, and increasing
homelessness.  The organization held a public hearing on Tuesday 
to gather evidence to support its request.  Jonathan M. Smith, 
executive director of the D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services Project 
and an organizer of the hearing said that conditions in many 
areas of the city are close to those in regions hit by 
hurricanes.  Smith also noted that the District's current prison 
population of 10,265 represents nearly 2 percent of the total 
city's population.  Approximately 10 percent to 25 percent of the
inmates are HIV-positive, according to Howard McDonough, board 
president of the Washington AIDS Ministry.  "The ultimate fear of
any inmate with HIV," he said, "is to die in prison."  McDonough 
said he is aware of three such prisoners who died in the past 
three months because corrections officials did not process their 
medical parole forms in a timely manner.
       
"The Ripple Effect: Empty Halls, Lost Money, Discontent"
Washington Post (11/15/95) P. A1;  Montgomery, David
      The U.S. government closed on Tuesday, thanks to the federal 
budget impasse.  Hundreds of thousands of government workers will
be affected by the shutdown, and companies that do business with 
the government will face delayed payments.  Jim Graham, executive
director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the Washington, D.C. 
area's largest AIDS service provider, said that shutting down the
government "would have a devastating impact.  What does this do 
to the psychology of giving when people are facing days unpaid?"
       
"Addenda: Glaxo Wellcome"
New York Times (11/15/95) P. D7
      Glaxo Wellcome has selected New York-based FCB Healthcare, a 
division of True North Communications, to manage the consolidated
advertising account for its HIV drugs Retrovir, Mepron, Daraprim,
and Septra.  The account was previously distributed amongst FCB 
Healthcare and Harrison, Star, Wiener & Beitler, New York.
       
"Lifeline: Play's the Thing"
USA Today (11/15/95) P. 1D;  Vigoda, Arlene
      Betty Buckley, star of the Broadway show "Sunset Boulevard," is 
participating in a Norma Desmond Day.  The highest bidder will 
work with Buckley for one day, both learning the role and doing a
walk-on in the performance.  The proceeds will benefit Broadway 
Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.  Bids, which can be phoned in at 
212-221-9413, will be accepted until the end of the year.  The 
highest bid thus far is $6,000.
       
"Cuba Has 1,180 HIV Positive Cases"
Reuters (11/14/95)
      There have been 1,180 cases of HIV recorded in Cuba, the official
news agency Presna Latina announced Tuesday.  It reported that 
Manuel Hernandez, head of the national anti-AIDS campaign, said 
that 271 of that total had died and 413 had developed AIDS.  
Hernandez added that there have been 76 new HIV infections in 
Cuba thus far in 1995.  The country has kept its AIDS rate 
relatively low via mass testing for HIV and a system of 
sanatoriums which cares for yet isolates patients.  For the past 
two years, however, infected persons who have demonstrated 
responsible behavior have been allowed to live on their own.
       
"Obituaries: Bruce B. Decker; Activist Served on State AIDS 
Panel"
Los Angeles Times (11/14/95) P. A18;  Oliver, Myrna
      AIDS activist and philanthropist Bruce B. Decker died of 
AIDS-related complications on Saturday at the age of 45.  Mr. 
Decker served four years as former Calif. Gov. George 
Deukmejian's chairman of the state AIDS Advisory Committee.  In 
addition, he was the founder and finance chairman of a campaign 
against Proposition 64, a measure defeated in 1986 which would 
have included quarantining people with HIV and AIDS.  Two years 
later, Mr. Decker resigned from  his position, demonstrating his 
opposition to Deukmejian's support of Proposition 102, which 
would have forced disclosure of HIV-infected individuals and 
listing of their sexual partners.  Meanwhile, Mr. Decker also 
helped promote the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and was
the founder and president of the Health Policy and Research 
Foundation, which financed AIDS-related projects.
       
"RBC-CD4 HIV/AIDS Therapy; Preliminary Results Show No 
Significant Adverse Effects in HIV Patients"
Business Wire (11/14/95)
      Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc. has begun the dose-escalation
part of a Phase I/IIA clinical trial for its HIV/AIDS 
therapeutic, RBC-CD4.  The company also reports that the 
preliminary results of the first phase of the trial indicate that
the drug was well tolerated and had no significant side effects 
in HIV-infected subjects at levels studied so far.  RBC-CD4 was 
developed to lower the amount of HIV in the bloodstream and thus 
inhibit AIDS progression.  The study is being undertaken as part 
of a company-sponsored IND at the Johns Hopkins University 
Schools of Public Health and Medicine.
       
"OncoRx Announces Third Quarter Results"
Business Wire (11/14/95)
      OncoRx Inc. reported a third-quarter loss of $1,284,420, or 21 
cents a share, on Tuesday.  In addition, the company--responding 
to the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee's recent 
recommendation for the rapid approval of 3TC as part a 
combination therapy for HIV--released a statement asserting that 
it holds the exclusive rights to a U.S. patent application for 
the drug for use with hepatitis B.  The biopharmaceutical company
has also licensed the exclusive rights to patent applications on 
a number of other anti-hepatitis B and -HIV products.
       
"Multiple Introductions of HIV-1 Subtype E into the Western 
Hemisphere"
Lancet (11/04/95) Vol. 346, No. 8984, P. 1197;  Artenstein, 
Andrew W.;  Coppola, Julieta;  Brown, Arthur E.
      The HIV epidemic in Southeast Asia is primarily due to HIV-1 
subtype E.  Artenstein et al. analyzed the HIV-1 subtypes of 11 
Uruguayan military personnel.  Five of the six infections that 
were acquired during a United Nations deployment in Cambodia were
identified as subtype E.  Previous reports have limited the 
occurrence of subtype E to Southeast Asia and Central Africa.  
Meanwhile, all five of the domestic-acquired infections were 
labeled subtype B--the prevalent subtype in Uruguay as well as 
North America and Europe.  According to the authors, these 
findings clearly identify several instances of HIV-1 subtype E 
being introduced into the western hemisphere and indicate that 
the genetic diversity of the HIV-1 pandemic must be taken into 
account for epidemic control.
       
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Advocate (11/14/95) No. 694, P. 32;  Gallagher, John
      Gay participants in the Million Man March on Washington on 
October 16 said they were welcomed by other marchers, but that 
they were disappointed by the distant reception they got from 
march organizers who backed out of a promise to include an openly
gay speaker.  However, Elias Farajaje-Jones, a divinity professor
at Howard University, questioned whether the march would have a 
long-term effect on matters important to black gay men, including
HIV and the killing of black transpersons.  Still, H. Alexander 
Robinson, president of the board of the National Task Force on 
AIDS Prevention, said he was "disturbed" by only one incident 
from the stage at the Million Man March.  The incident to which 
Robinson refers was when Nation of Islam health minister Abdul 
Alim Muhammed attributed one man's alleged clearing of HIV to 
Kemron, a treatment embraced by the Nation of Islam yet 
considered useless by medical officials.  "We had been pushing 
for a person with AIDS to talk, and for that to be the only 
message was disappointing," he commented.  Members of the Black 
Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum had actually called for both a 
black man with AIDS and an openly gay black man to be included 
among the speakers.  Eventually, Benjamin Chavis, a key march 
organizer, promised an unnamed gay speaker.  This speaker, 
however, never showed, further increasing black gays' sense of 
frustration.
       
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