[sci.med.aids] HICN223 News Part 1/2

ATW1H%ASUACAD.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu (Dr David Dodell) (06/07/89)

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Volume  2, Number 23                                            June  6, 1989

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                         Editor: David Dodell, D.M.D.
                   St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
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                       T A B L E   O F   C O N T E N T S

1.  Medical News
     Medical News for week ending June 4, 1989 .............................  1
     Medical News from the United Nations ..................................  7

2.  Articles
     How Space Flight has Held Medical Research ............................ 10
     Heart and Heart/Lung Transplants Increasingly Popular ................. 15

3.  Grants Available
     NIH Grant: Children's Knowledge About HIV Infection ................... 16

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Volume  2, Number 23                                            June  6, 1989

===============================================================================
                                 Medical News
===============================================================================

                   Medical News for week ending June 4, 1989
            (c) 1989 USA TODAY/Gannett National Information Network
                          Reproduced with Permission

                           STUDY - MORE WOMEN SMOKE:

   Lung-cancer deaths among women in industrialized countries have jumped more
than 200 percent since the 1950s,  a World Health Organization  report  shows.
Reason:  More  women  are smoking.  WHO officials blame the surge in cigarette
advertising targeting women.

                        STUDY, WOMEN GET CANCER FASTER:

   About 2.5 million people  die  each  year  worldwide  from  smoking-related
illnesses,  a  World  Health  Organization report shows.  One-third are women.
Results also show that women  smokers  develop  cancer  after  smoking  for  a
shorter time span than men and reach menopause two to three years earlier than
non-smokers.

                         STUDY - SMOKING WORST IN USA:

   Deaths among women from lung cancer and other smoking-related illnesses are
highest in the United States,  a World Health Organization study shows.  Other
high-smoking rate nations: Australia, Denmark and the United Kingdom.  Smoking
rates for men have stabilized since the 1950s,  the study said.

                        TEENS - DRUG ABUSE TOP PROBLEM:

   Drug abuse is the top problem facing teens, junior high students told their
congressional  representatives  in  a  national  letter-writing   competition.
Twenty-five  percent  of the 5,300 student entrants in the RespecTeen National
Youth Forum cited drug abuse as their greatest concern.

                       TEENS FEAR AIDS, OTHER AILMENTS:

   Sexually-transmitted  diseases  and  other  sexual  issues were named among
problems most important to  teens  in  a  recent  letter-writing  competition.
Seventeen  percent  of the RespecTeen National Youth Forum entrants named fear
of diseases such as AIDS as the most important issue they face.  The contest's
5,300 letters were presented to Congress.

                       DOCTORS STUDY TRANSPLANT ACCESS:

   Transplant  surgeons,  meeting  this week in Chicago,  will consider how to
provide greater access to the  costly  surgery.  Statistics  from  the  United
Network  for  Organ  Sharing:  83.2  percent  of the victims whose organs were
donated in 1988 were white,  8.6 percent  were  black  and  5.9  percent  were
Hispanic;  Eighty  percent  of  heart  recipients  and  61  percent  of kidney
recipients were male.

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                          HEART DISEASE STILL COMMON:

   More than 65 million Americans have  symptoms  of  cardiovascular  disease,
according  to the American Heart Association.  One-quarter of them are at high
risk for developing  coronary  atherosclerosis  -hardening  of  the  arteries.
Business Week reported in its May 29 issue that the disease has been linked to
55,000 deaths in the United States annually.

                        CHOLESTEROL RATIO MIGHT BE KEY:

   The ratio of two types of cholesterol in the body might be a leading factor
in developing heart disease, according to a recent Farmington Heart Study. The
Farmington  group  found  two  types  of cholesterol in the body:  low-density
lipoproteins, called "bad cholesterol," and high-density lipoproteins,  called
"good cholesterol." High amounts of LDLs can be dangerous.

                        GENE CLUSTER LINKED TO DISEASE:

   A  USC  study  might  have  uncovered  the gene responsible for sickle cell
disease. The study followed 18 non-black patients with various types of sickle
cell disorder and found an identifiable gene cluster - or genetic  fingerprint
-  in all the patients.  Results of the study were published in the Journal of
the American Medical Association's May 26 issue.

                            KOOP ISSUES DWI REPORT:

   U.S.  Surgeon General C.  Everett Koop  could  declare  war  on  alcoholic-
beverage  advertising  Wednesday  when  he  issues  his long-awaited report on
drinking and driving. Koop is expected to take his proposals from the sweeping
recommendations made last December by his two-day Workshop  on  Driving  Under
the Influence.

                           KOOP TARGETS LIQUOR ADS:

   Surgeon  General  C.  Everett  Koop  is  expected to endorse health warning
labels for beer and liquor containers. He said recently that he also wanted to
end the use of celebrity spokespersons in beer ads.  The  National  Collegiate
Athletic  Association  is  also  considering ending beer advertisements during
sports broadcasts.

                          IMMUNE SYSTEM MIGHT BE KEY:

   Researchers might have found the key to why we get headaches: an overactive
immune system.  Doctors  at  Robbins  Headache  Clinic  in  Northbrook,  Ill.,
analyzed  the  immune  systems  75  headache  patients and 32 normal patients.
Headache patients averaged 30 percent fewer suppressor cells,  which slow  the
immune system down.

                          LASERS CORRECT ASTIGMATISM:

   Doctors  will  soon  be  using lasers to "sculpt" the corneas of 35 million
astigmatism sufferers in the  United  States.  Taunton  Technologies  Inc.  of
Monroe,  Conn.,  on  Tuesday said tests proved that its new LV2000 Ultraviolet
Ophthalmic Surgery System could shave tiny amounts of tissue off  the  cornea,
correcting  the  refractive  error  that  causes  astigmatism  and many vision

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problems.

                         IMPROVED MAMMOGRAM UNVEILED:

   A new diagnostic tool will give doctors improved mammogram images to  fight
breast cancer, a California company reported.  The Mammoscope, from Vision Ten
Inc.  in Torrance,  Calif.,  will enhance the diagnostic information found  in
radiographic and xerographic mammograms,  allowing for both a reduction in the
number of retakes and better accuracy, the company said.

                           NEW THERAPY FINDS TUMORS:

   A radioactive labeling  technique  is  helping  doctors  locate  and  treat
tumors.  Researchers from Immunomedics Inc.  on Tuesday reported that they had
targeted  B-cell  lymphomas  using  a  monoclonal  antibody  "tagged"  with  a
radioactive  label.  The  antibody  located B-cell tumors in animals and human
lymphoma patients, researchers report.

                         OSTEOPOROSIS THERAPY WORKING:

   A  dramatically  successful  treatment  is   reversing   the   effects   of
osteoporosis - thinning of the bones,  Consumer Digest reports in its May/June
issue.  The treatment involves the slow release formula of sodium fluoride and
calcium citrate into the body. Bone strength and density improved in all but a
few of the 251 patients tested. The disease will affect one in four women over
the age of 60.

                         SCIENTISTS `LIGHT UP' GENES:

   Scientists  at  the University of Alberta are using bioluminescense to mark
genetic activity. The low-light markers effectively make genes "light up" when
they are activated and disappear when they are dormant,  using a gene  from  a
bioluminescent  marine  bacteria  and  special  low-light  video cameras.  The
technique could replace radioactive dye labeling.

                         COMPUTER `MAPS' BRAIN AREAS:

   Computer-generated brain maps are helping  doctors  at  the  University  of
Georgia learn more about brain pattern activity in learning disabled children.
The computer system,  called the Brain Atlas,  creates a multi-colored, three-
dimensional "map" of the brain,  highlighting problem  areas  that  can  alert
researchers to specific brain dysfunctions.

                          LASER REVERSES VASECTOMIES:

   Researchers  using  a  microscopic carbon dioxide laser are able to reverse
vasectomy  surgery  faster  and  more  efficiently  than   previous   surgical
techniques, the current issue of Physician's Weekly reports.  Doctors rejoined
the sperm-carrying vessel -called the vas - in  19  of  20  patients  who  had
vasectomies in the past 10 years.

                        AIDS VIRUS CAN BE HARD TO SPOT:

   Hidden  infection  with  the  AIDS  virus  might  be  more common than once
suspected, at least in high-risk gay men,  a study shows.  Sophisticated tests

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found  the  virus in blood from 31 of 133 gay men testing negative on standard
antibody tests,  say  researchers  from  the  University  of  California,  Los
Angeles.  Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

                          FDA CAUTIONS CONTACT USERS:

   The Food  and  Drug  Administration  warned  Wednesday  that  extended-wear
contact  lenses should not be worn longer than a week before removing them for
cleaning,  and asked manufacturers to re-label them.  Reason:  They may  cause
serious eye problems. Six million Americans have extended-wear contact lenses,
which are intended to be worn overnight.

                         PACEMAKERS ADAPT TO EXERCISE:

   A  new  line  of  "smart"  pacemakers  are helping heart patients lead more
normal lives.  The Food and Drug Administration recently approved  the  Kelvin
500,  a  miniaturized  pacemaker from Cook Pacemaker Co.  The tiny unit weighs
less than one ounce.  It regulates the speed of the heartbeat during  exercise
by speeding up when it detects an increase in body heat.

                         DOCTORS STUDY ISOLATION DATA:

   Doctors  in  Houston this week are examining Stefania Follini,  the Italian
researcher who ended a 131-day isolation experiment last week  after  emerging
from  a  cave  near  Carlsbad,   N.M.   Findings  so  far:   The  body  adapts
physiologically to isolation with changes in blood pressure and sleep rhythms.
Doctors say they hope the research might aid space travelers on long missions.

                         NIH GRANTS RESEARCH LICENSE:

   The National Institutes of Health  on  Wednesday  cleared  the  way  for  a
research company to produce specially bred animals for AIDS research. RRI Inc.
was  granted  a license by NIH Wednesday to produce New Zealand white rabbits.
The rabbits' immune systems reacts to the AIDS virus the same way as the human
system. RRI will supply 3,000 test animals a year.

                        GRANT SHOULD SPEED UP RESEARCH:

   The recent clearance granted a research company to produce animals for AIDS
research should speed testing of over 100 anti-AIDS drugs,  the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Association said Wednesday. The biomedical manufacturer RRI Inc.
will produce 3,000 New Zealand white rabbits for testing.  The rabbits' immune
systems reacts to the AIDS virus the same way as the human system.

                        ASPIRIN MIGHT PREVENT SENILITY:

   Aspirin might help prevent "little strokes" and the senility they sometimes
cause,  Consumer Digest reports in its May/June issue.  Doctors in  a  Houston
study  gave aspirin daily to a group of multi-infarct dementia patients.  They
experienced increased blood flow to the brain and a lower  rate  of  transient
ischemic attacks compared to a control group not receiving aspirin therapy.

                        AIDS TESTS UNCOVER OTHER ILLS:

   AIDS  is  helping  some  insurance  companies  save  money.  Blood tests to

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Volume  2, Number 23                                            June  6, 1989

diagnosis AIDS victims have uncovered only a handful of cases  of  the  deadly
disease  but have revealed hundreds of unrelated ailments such as cirrhosis of
the liver,  high cholesterol counts and kidney diseases.

                             FDA CLEARS NEW DRUG:

   The  Food  and  Drug Administration has cleared the drug erythropoietin for
patients with anemias associated with chronic renal  failure,  the  Washington
Post  reports  Friday.  It  will be marketed under the name EPPEX,  from Ortho
Pharmaceutical Corp. The company is also checking the drug's ability to combat
illnesses such as arthritis and anemia associated with cancer chemotherapy.

                          DIABETES EXPECTED TO SOAR:

   About 3,000 diabetes specialists will meet in Detroit during the weekend to
discuss plans to cope with an expected rise in diabetes cases.  Diabetes cases
are  expected  to  soar  as baby boomers enter their 40s and America's general
population ages.

                        SURVEY - DOCTOR SUPPLY FALLING:

   Increasing malpractice insurance premiums,  diminishing  autonomy  and  the
diminishing  professional  stature  of  physicians might lead to a shortage of
doctors by the year 2000, an executive search firm said this week.  A study by
the New Jersey firm Sampson, Neill & Wilkins Inc. countered recent predictions
of a physician surplus.

                       POLL - DOCTORS HAVE BOOZE BLOCK:

   Most doctors have strongly negative attitudes toward alcoholic patients and
are  ill  informed  about  ways  to  treat the chronic disease.  Johns Hopkins
University polled its medical students and staff on alcoholism. Results showed
doctors did  not  routinely  consider  strategies  for  alcoholism  treatment.
Results   were   published   in  Friday's  Journal  of  the  American  Medical
Association.

                        HEAD INJURY PROGNOSIS IMPROVES:

   Several new techniques are being employed to  help  traumatic  head  injury
victims  survive  with little or no brain damage,  the Journal of the American
Medical  Association  reports  in  its  Friday  issue.  Drugs  to  slow  brain
metabolism  and  prevent  brain  cell damage have met with increasing success,
while research continues into developing improved techniques.

                        PARKINSON'S THERAPY QUESTIONED:

   Swedish researchers casted doubt recently  on  a  new  Parkinson's  Disease
therapy that transplants human fetal tissue into Parkinson's victims.  Doctors
at University Hospital,  Lund,  Sweden,  used neural cells from aborted  human
fetuses in two patients. The treatments had no substantial therapeutic effect,
doctors reported in the Archives of Neurology's June issue.

                         HEADGEAR CALLED INEFFECTIVE:

   Safety headgear provides only limited protection to college wrestlers,  the

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Journal of the American Medical  Association  reports  in  its  Friday  issue.
Doctors  at Ohio State University studied 537 college wrestlers,  some of whom
suffered permanent deformities to the ears despite wearing headgear. The study
suggests that current headgear offers ineffective protection.

                         CANCER INSTITUTE OFFERS HELP:

   The National Cancer Institute is offering free booklets to  cancer  victims
and  their  families  on  dealing  with  the  disease.  The  booklets  include
information  on  diet,  radiation  and  chemotherapy.  Also  available:  Three
booklets  for  parents  of children with cancer and a coloring book that helps
explain cancer to children. For information, contact the institute at (800) 4-
CANCER.

                        ACNE DRUG MIGHT CAUSE DEFECTS:

   The acne drug isotretinoin, sold under the brand name Accutane, is a potent
contributor to  birth  defects,  a  study  at  the  California  Birth  Defects
Monitoring Program shows.  Doctors at the program found birth defects occurred
in 12 of 48 women who had used the drug during early pregnancy. Results of the
survey were published in the current issue of Consumer Digest.

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                     Medical News from the United Nations
                                     -----
                     COMPUTER CHIP MAY SPEED GENE ANALYSIS

A newly  developed  computer  chip  may  greatly  accelerate  the  process  of
deciphering  the  human  genome,  allowing  researchers  to  make sense of the
information contained  in  its  myriad  combinations  of  nucleotide  building
blocks.  TRW, Inc.  originally designed the chip for the Defense Department to
extract important information from the  mountain  of  cables  and  reports  it
receives  each  day.  After  hearing a lecture on the mathematics of genetics,
TRW's B.  K.  Richards decided the chip  also  would  be  useful  for  seeking
patterns  in  DNA  that  give  clues  to  the  location  and  function  of the
approximately 100,000 genes on human chromosomes--a task that  had  previously
been  the  domain of supercomputers,  but which the new chip could turn into a
benchtop operation for a fraction of the cost.  Richards collaborated with Tim
Hunkapillar,   a  computer  scientist  at  Caltech  (California  Institute  of
Technology) and designed a DNA analysis system based on the  chip.  They  took
their design to Applied Biosystems,  which contracted for exclusive license to
the system's hardware (the accompanying software will  be  made  available  to
researchers,  free  of  charge,  by  Caltech).  Los Alamos National Laboratory
investigator Daniel Davison used the system to compare a  gene  consisting  of
10,000  nucleotide  bases with a 30 million-base reference file at Los Alamo's
Genbank,  a DNA database.  The task took one day using a Cray-2 supercomputer,
10  days  with  a  VAX  supercomputer,  and  just 10 minutes using the Applied
Biosystems hardware, he said.  DNA analysis can be performed at about the same
speed with the Connection computer, a massive parallel processing machine made
by Thinking Machines Inc.,  but,  in addition to its unwieldy nature, it costs
about  $2  million,  compared  with  an  estimated  $40,000  for  the  Applied
Biosystems hardware.  ``For [DNA analysis],'' said TRW's Kwang-I Yu,  inventor
of the chip used in the system,  ``it has much more  computing  power  than  a
supercomputer.''  However,  the  initial  test  runs  have  been  performed on
prototypes and a commercial product is thought to be two years away.  (unitex)

           ZIMBABWE: Child Health Improves Despite Nutrition Crisis

Harare, May 25, 1989 (AIA/Liz Urwin) -- More children are surviving past their
critical first year than ever before in Zimbabwe.

The success has  come  in  spite  of  immediate  post-independence  political,
economic and environmental crises that brought falling nutritional standards.

Local  observers  say the crash delivery of health and social service benefits
to the urban and rural poor who were  largely  ignored  under  colonialsm  has
staved off a population disaster.

During  the  early  '80s  the simmering bandit war waged by disaffected former
freedom fighters threw whole areas of rural Zimbabwe into confusion.

The political problems caused economic stagnation, particularly in the western
Matabeleland areas of the nation.

Then a killing drought beset the country.  Some areas  went  for  seven  years
without adaquate rains.  Southern regions are still suffering.  Food aid, from
crops grown in Zimbabwe, is a way of life for many towns and villages.

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Add to the equation a shift to greater maize  production  at  the  expense  of
other  foodstuffs,  such  as beans or groundnuts,  and the overall nutritional
conditions were set to produce a free but sickly society.

The toll is seen in one World Bank statistic  that  showed  in  1985  that  28
percent  of  Zimbabwean  under-fives  were  growth-stunted and nine percent of
older children showed signs of wasting.

Yet,  for a new generation of children being born today,  Zimbabwe has managed
to  reduce  its Infant Mortality Rate (IMR),  the number of deaths of children
under one year of age, from 110 per 1,000 before independence to 73 per 1,000.

One of the main aims of both liberation movements  Zimbabwe  African  Peoples'
Union  (ZAPU)  and  Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU),  now united in one
ruling party, was to bring sanitation, water,  and health benefits to everyone
in the nation.

At independence clinic construction and village infrastructure development was
made a priority.

At  the  same  time  a  department of National Nutrition was established.  Its
activities  include  health,   education,   growth   monitoring,   nutritional
surveillance  and  supervision  of the child supplementary feeding programmes.
These were initiated by non-governmental organisations in 1980 and taken  over
by the Ministry of Health in 1983.

Also  at  independence,  a campaign to encourage and support breast-feeding of
infants for two years after birth was implemented.

Today 98 percent of  women  breast-feed  initially,  although  fewer  than  50
percent are still breast-feeding at 20 months, according to UNICEF.

Zimbabwe  made  some  effort  to abide by the WHO code for marketing of infant
formula,  implemented in 1981.  There is no promotion of artificial milk,  nor
is any available in local maternity hospitals or clinics.

But  infant  formulas  were  not banned.  Nestle has a factory in Harare and a
worrying survey in 1988 showed that there is an  increase  in  the  number  of
young urban women introducing formula to young babies because they must return
to work after a short two months' maternity leave.

Neverthless,  women who stop breast-feeding because infants get diarrhoea have
been the focus of a successful campaign to teach parents  and  health  workers
Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT).

In  addition,  since  1981,  the  Ministry  of  Health  has  tried to increase
vaccination coverage as part of the Primary Health Care  Programme.  In  1984,
42  percent  of  children  were  fully vaccinated.  Now it is approximately 70
percent.

               SECOND CASE OF HIV-2 AIDS VIRUS REPORTED IN U.S.

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  A second case of infection by the HIV-2 strain of  the  deadly  AIDS  virus,
still  very  rare  in the Western Hemisphere,  has been reported in the United
States, doctors in Massachusetts said on Wednesday.

   Virtually all victims of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in  the
United  States have been infected by the HIV-1 virus.  HIV-2 is much harder to
detect and treat than the more common virus,  and in Africa  has  been  spread
primarily through heterosexual contact.

   HIV-1  is  primarily  found in the homosexual community or intravenous drug
users.

   HIV-2 was first identified in west Africa in  1985  and  since  has  spread
rapidly  through Africa and Europe.  In April,  doctors reported that at least
five cases of HIV-2 have been identified in Brazil but,  until now,  only  one
case of HIV-2 infection had been found in North America,  in an immigrant from
west Africa.

   Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard  School  of  Public
Health,  both  in  Boston,  reported in a letter to the New England Journal of
Medicine that they found the virus in  a  second  west  African  immigrant  in
January 1988.

   The  39-year old man had come to Massachusetts in 1983 and the doctors said
he was probably infected before he left his homeland, suggesting an incubation
period for the virus of at least five years.

   When the patient went to the  hospital  he  reported  symptoms  of  nausea,
diarrhoea and severe weight loss for the past four months, all common symptoms
of AIDS.

   "He  reported  no intravenous drug use or blood transfusion but he noted he
had had multiple heterosexual contacts in West Africa," the doctors said.

   The patient tested negative for HIV-1 and his symptoms subsided  with  drug
treatment after two days.  However,  five months later the man fell ill again,
and this time the doctors said  they  tested  him  for  HIV-2,  with  positive
results.

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