NEWS NOTES

* San Francisco study shows longer life expectancy for people with AIDS. A study by epidemiologist Dr. George Lemp and others at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, published January 19, 1990 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that by 1987, median survival for all patients diagnosed with AIDS had increased from 12.5 to 15.6 months from time of diagnosis; patients with pneumocystis had a median survival of 17.9 months. (Later data is not available, because of the time required for survival trends to become known.) Median survival of patients treated with AZT was 21.3 months, compared to 13.9 months for those not on any anti-viral therapy.

San Francisco is generally agreed to have the most accurate data anywhere on the HIV epidemic.

* The rate of increase of AIDS in the United States slowed last year. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control reported that new cases of AIDS in the U. S. increased only nine percent in 1989, compared to a 34 percent increase in 1988 and 60 percent increase in 1987. Experts attributed the slowing increase to reduction in new cases among gay men (probably due to prevention education of years ago), and also to the use of treatments, such as AZT and aerosol pentamidine, which are preventing some infected persons from progressing to AIDS. Cases due to heterosexual transmission rose much more rapidly, however, showing a 27 percent increase last year. The region with the most new AIDS cases was the South, with 31 percent of the cases.

* Fluconazole will be donated to AIDS and cancer centers. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, the developer of the antifungal fluconazole, announced that it would donate 6,000 bottles of the drug to over 200 cancer and AIDS treatment centers in the United States. According to the February 6 announcement, the drug should be available now.

* Researchers in Kenya claim success with new drug. The director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Dr. Davy Koech, told a Nairobi press conference that a drug called Kemron, a form of alpha interferon, had been given to 101 patients with AIDS or HIV infection. Only one (apparently out of the first 40 for whom the longest followup is available) failed to show improvement. The drug is supposed to reduce or eliminate symptoms of AIDS, usually within four weeks, but not cure the disease. No independent confirmation of its effectiveness is yet available.

Amarillo Cell Culture Co. in Amarillo, Texas collaborated in this study, which used a natural interferon manufactured by Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories in Japan, where it is approved for treating certain cancers. The drug was given orally but not swallowed. Very low doses were used, 50 to 150 IU; as a result, the treatment is inexpensive. This therapy was suggested by veterinary experience in the U. S. and in Africa.

The Kemron story was carried by Reuters news service, February 7, and was reported in Japan and other countries, but apparently not in the United States.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

AIDS TREATMENT NEWS reports on experimental and complementary treatments, especially those available now. It collects information from medical journals, and from interviews with scientists, physicians, and other health practitioners, and persons with AIDS or ARC.

Long-term survivors have usually tried many different treatments, and found combinations which work for them. AIDS Treatment News does not recommend particular therapies, but seeks to increase the options available.

We also examine the ethical and public-policy issues around AIDS treatment research and treatment access.