Clarification: Hydrogen Peroxide

Two readers have called AIDS TREATMENT NEWS about our note on hydrogen peroxide ("Warning: Hydrogen Peroxide Might Stimulate HIV Growth," issue #132, August 9, 1991).

* One scientist was concerned that our note might be misunderstood by laboratory personnel, who often use hydrogen peroxide to clean up laboratory spills of fluids containing HIV. Hydrogen peroxide is well- accepted for this use (inactivating the free virus on a surface). Our warning only applied to drinking dilute hydrogen peroxide, or bathing in it, as an HIV treatment. We referred to preliminary findings that hydrogen peroxide, in lower concentrations inside cells, could stimulate HIV growth.

One historical note is that public-health experts considered hydrogen peroxide as an alternative to bleach for cleaning injection-drug needles (when the alternative was that contaminated needles would be re-used with no cleaning at all). Apparently both substances are about equally effective in killing the virus on surfaces. Bleach (aqueous sodium hypochlorite) was chosen because hydrogen peroxide can easily deteriorate if stored improperly, and users would not know that it had lost its potency.

* Another reader was unable to find substantiation for our concern that hydrogen peroxide can act biochemically within infected cells to increase HIV growth. One recently-published article, which we did not have when we went to press, is "Reactive Oxygen Intermediates as Apparently Widely Used Messengers in the Activation of the NF-Kappa-B Transcription Factor and HIV-1," by Ralf Schreck and others, EMBO JOURNAL pages 2247-2258, August 1991.





AIDS TREATMENT NEWS Published twice monthly Subscription and Editorial Office:
P. O. Box 411256
San Francisco, CA 94141
800/TREAT-1-2 toll-free U. S. and Canada
415/255-0588 regular office number
415/255-4659 fax Editor and Publisher:
John S. James Medical Reporters:
John S. James
Michelle Roland
Denny Smith Reader Services, Business, and Marketing:
Thom Fontaine
Keith Griffith
Laura Thomas
Tadd Tobias
Tim Wilson Statement of Purpose: AIDS TREATMENT NEWS reports on experimental and standard treatments, especially those available now. We interview physicians, scientists, other health professionals, and persons with AIDS or HIV; we also collect information from meetings and conferences, medical journals, and computer databases. 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.


Subscription Information: Call 800/TREAT-1-2
Businesses, Institutions, Professionals: $200/year.
Nonprofit organizations: $100/year.
Individuals: $100/year, or $55 for six months.
Special discount for persons with AIDS or HIV with
financial difficulties: $40/year, or $20 for six
months.
If you cannot afford a subscription, please write
or call.
Outside North, Central, or South America, add
air mail postage: $20/year, $10 for six months.
Back issues available.
Canadians add 7% Goods and Services Tax.
Bulk rate: five or more non-discount orders, 40%
savings. For larger orders, contact our office.
Please send U. S. funds: personal check or bank draft,
international postal money order, or travelers
checks.
VISA, Mastercard, and purchase orders also accepted.

ISSN # 1052-4207

Copyright 1991 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.