The San Francisco Examiner - Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Lisa M. Krieger of the Examiner Staff

The AIDS summit is being called to examine the challenges and opportunities from recent advances in AIDS / HIV treatment and to recommend policy changes so that The City responds well to the evolving AIDS environment.

Over the past several months, committees appointed by Brown have studied key issues in preparation for the summit, on topics such as access to treatment, adherence to treatment, re-entering the workplace, testing and reporting of HIV infection, insurance coverage and others.

About 1,500 people will be invited by Brown to participate in the summit. There also will be seating for the public. A system to distribute tickets will be announced later. The event is expected to be televised.

Send ideas to: Mayor's AIDS Summit, 401 Van Ness Ave., Room 416, San Francisco, CA 94102.

Vaccine test in Thailand

The world's first mass test of a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS may be held in Thailand, possibly as early as 2000, medical experts at an international AIDS congress said this week.

They said tests would be voluntary and conducted among people most exposed to the danger of acquiring AIDS, such as prostitutes and intravenous drug users.

It is too early to say exactly when such a mass trial could be carried out because initial tests on small groups, to test vaccine safety, had not been completed.

"It will probably involve many thousands of people, high-risk individuals. ... The numbers will probably be in several thousands," said Dr. Margaret Johnston, scientific director of the U.S.-based International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. It is a private group of scientists and medical experts trying to develop a vaccine that would immunize people against HIV.

Prasert Thongcharoen, a Thai virologist and director of the Collaborating Center on AIDS of the World Health Organization, said Thailand was willing to host the first anti-HIV vaccine mass test. Many Thais were willing to volunteer for such a trial, he said.

Thailand, which had about 800,000 HIV cases as of last year, is one of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic.

United Nations experts predict that Asia will overtake Africa in a few years as the region worst-hit by HIV - and Asians should not be lulled into complacency by new drug developments.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS, has estimated that up to 7 million Asians, including 3 million to 5 million people in India, may be HIV carriers - and the number is projected to double by 2000.

By comparison, about 14 million Africans live with HIV or AIDS.

Globally, about 23 million people were afflicted with HIV or AIDS as of the end of 1996; of them, 12.6 million were men, 9.2 million were women and 833,000 were children.

News briefs

*Researchers in an AIDS drug study in Ethiopia have decided not to give fake pills to a group of pregnant women with the AIDS virus.

The Johns Hopkins-based study - and more than a dozen like it - have come under heavy criticism because the researchers planned to give AZT to some pregnant women with HIV, while others with the disease would get placebos.

The women set to receive the placebos have been dropped from the Ethiopian study, meaning all the remaining women will get the real drug. Researchers said the placebo part of a study planned for Ethiopia was abandoned after a similar study in Thailand by Harvard University was conducted with all participants getting the drug.

*In a discovery that eventually could lead to powerful types of AIDS drugs or even a vaccine, researchers have identified in the laboratory another natural molecule that prevents HIV from infecting cells.

The molecule was discovered by a team led by famed AIDS researcher Robert Gallo, announced in the journal Science. The molecule works against HIV by physically blocking the portal used by the virus to invade lymphocytes and other types of blood cells.

Three similar molecules, all called chemokines, were found earlier by Gallo's team at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. But Gallo said the new molecule is much more effective because it protects all the cell types attacked by HIV.

The toll

Paul Emory, a former manager of The Woods Resort at the Russian River, in Guerneville . . . Louis I. Martinez, 43, who worked at Pacific Bell in Concord . . . David Steger, 41, former commissioner for his native town of Cotati and a early volunteer at Food for Thought / Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank.

. . . . . .Date

. . . . . .reported. . Cases. . Deaths

S.F.. . . .10/1 . . . . 24,682 . 16,900

Calif.. . .10/1 . . . .103,056 . 65,744

U.S.. . . .10/1 . . . .612,078 .379,258

WHO(rprtd) 10/1 . . .8,400,000 6,400,000

Figures are cumulative since June 1981. Government officials now compile and release statistics quarterly, not monthly.

To contribute to AIDSweek, call (415) 777-7867. AIDSweek columns are available on the Internet at www.examiner.com / aidsweek / aidsweek.html
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