Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner - Wednesday, May 14, 1997
Lisa M. Krieger of the Examiner Staff
Last November, Montagnier and Mayor Brown announced that The City would be the site of a combined research and treatment center for the study and prevention of AIDS. Montagnier, who first isolated HIV in 1983, returned to the Bay Area in March to visit Kaiser Medical Center, Ralph K. Davies, California Pacific Medical Center, UC-San Francisco and Stanford.
Since then, there has been silence.
"I know nothing," said Dr. Edmund Van Brunt of the French Foundation for Medical Research, who accompanied Brown on a goodwill trip to Paris where the collaboration was announced. "He indicated (in March) that if there were any further action, he would contact people himself. I didn't find out about it until I read it in the New York Times."
Brown spokeswoman Kandace Bender said she was equally puzzled.
"I don't know," she said. "I know that The City couldn't match the $4.5million" that a Queens College alumnus has promised.
The new S.F.-based center was to be part of a worldwide network of centers set up by Montagnier's World Foundation for AIDS Research, similar to those in Paris and the Ivory Coast.
But from the beginning, many AIDS experts here were skeptical. When plans were announced, the lab had no site, no money and no staff. There were few details about its mission or the size of the undertaking. Few San Franciscans had been consulted. There were worries that Brown had underestimated the enormous effort it takes to build an AIDS lab - and overestimated the Bay Area's ability to support one financially.
This week, the journal Science reports that Montagnier was lured to Queens by college alumnus Bernard Salick, former chief executive of Salick Health Care, a chain of 24-hour cancer care and kidney dialysis outpatient clinics. Salick is said to be donating $4.5million of his own money to start the center. In addition, Salick and Queens officials will attempt to raise $15million from the state of New York and matching funds from private sources.
The center will hire five prominent researchers, who will be appointed senior-level professors of Queens College, according to Science. It will take two years to construct.
Treatment news
*Researchers have long worried whether HIV hides in the tonsils and lymph nodes long after it has disappeared in the blood. A study in the journal Science alleviates some of those fears.
Dr. Ashley Haase of the University of Minnesota sampled the tonsils of 10 people during treatment and found that within six months, the therapy eliminated more than 99 percent of cells actively producing HIV. The amount of HIV stored on the surface of other cells also fell by more than 99 percent. The stockpile of stored HIV "clears much more rapidly than we would have expected," Haase said.
*The drug nelfinavir, sold as Viracept, has been approved under the California AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which is federally funded and helps indigent patients obtain life-prolonging HIV-AIDS drugs.
The drug has fewer side effects than some currently approved protease inhibitors. It also seems less likely to produce resistance and thus has major appeal as an initial treatment when combined with 3TC and AZT.
It adds a choice for patients who are resistant or intolerant of other agents. The drug is not expected to significantly boost program costs. Patients are expected to switch to nelfinavir from other protease inhibitors rather than add it to their existing regimen.
For information, call the San Francisco AIDS Foundation hotline, (415) 863-AIDS in San Francisco and (800) FOR-AIDS outside San Francisco.
*A study that included a large number of HIV-infected women revealed that a combination of the anti-viral agents delavirdine and AZT resulted in a 1.8 times higher drug concentration in women than men. Although the clinical impact is unknown, the difference underscores the importance of discovering the disparate ways in which men and women respond to new treatments.
Events
* "Advocacy Training for Women," a free workshop to prepare women for AIDS Lobby Day in Sacramento on June 2, will be Saturday. Call (415) 291-5454 for details.
* "Thinking About Returning to Work?" - a discussion sponsored by the AIDS Health Project, will be Saturday. Call (415) 476-6448 for details.
* "Benefits and Improving Health," a free forum co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church and Kaiser, will be Monday, 7 to 8:30 p.m., at the church, 150 Eureka St.
* "HIV Update: Why All The Hype?" - a free Kaiser forum with Dr. Kathleen Clanon, will be Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in the Hospital Building, 280 W. MacArthur Blvd., Room 1200 C.
* "Approaches to HIV: Post-Exposure Prophylaxis in 1997," a free Community Consortium forum featuring Drs. Julie Gerberding and Bernard Lo, will be next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., Mission Center Building, Room 126, 1855 Folsom St.
The toll
Rich Wilson, 40, owner of the popular Russian River Resort ... Thomas N. Gamble, 46, a Michigan native and graduate of Michigan State University who became supervisor of the quality control lab at Syntex Corp. in Palo Alto ... Bernard Johnson, 60, a dancer, choreographer, costume designer and professor of dance and design at UC-Irvine, in New York City ... Carld Jonaissant, a native of Haiti who performed with the Dance Theater of Harlem and American Ballet, performing principal roles in Balanchine's "Square Dance" and John Taras' "The Firebird," in New York City.
Date
reported / Cases / Deaths
S.F. 4/1 23,974 16,692
Calif. 4/1 99,908 64,137
U.S. 4/1 548,102 343,000
WHO(rprtd) 4/1 8,400,000 6,400,000
Figures are cumulative since June 1981.
To contribute to AIDSWEEK, call (415) 777-7867.
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