HIV / AIDS ARTICLES AND UPDATES

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report
Posted 6/26/99

Tripranavir, a new protease inhibitor developed 18 months ago by Pharmacia & Upjohn, appears able to thwart the rising viral resistance among patients for whom protease inhibitors are proving increasingly ineffective, according to findings presented at the Third International Workshop on HIV Resistance and Treatment Strategies in San Diego.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the drugs "may someday become an unexpected and important new weapon in treating HIV." Scientists at Pharmacia & Upjohn and Vicro, a Belgian biotechnology company, tested the drug against 107 mutated strains of HIV, which have been able to overpower the four protease inhibitors currently on the market.

Only three of the strains proved fully resistant to the new drug, while eight others were mildly resistant. Brendan Larder, vice president of research at Vicro, said, "There's reason to believe tripranavir is a more flexible chemical than the other drugs." The Bridgewater, NJ-based pharmaceutical company hopes to conduct more human trials to prove its "effectiveness and safety" -- a process that may require several years.

By BETH J. HARPAZ
Associated Press Writer
6/28/99

NEW YORK (AP) - More than a third of homosexual men in New York City don't use condoms when they have sex, but most of those who have unprotected sex are trying to reduce the risks of HIV infection in other ways, according to a new study.

The survey of more than 7,000 homosexuals, conducted last year by the Gay Men's Health Crisis, is the biggest of its kind in the nation's largest city.

As in recent surveys of other cities with large homosexual populations, the New York survey found a substantial group of men had unprotected anal intercourse in the past year - 39 percent. The rest said they either are having sex with partners whose infection status matches their own or are limiting their sexual activities to certain practices that reduce the risk of infection.

Fifteen percent overall said they abstained from anal sex altogether and 35 percent said they always use condoms for anal sex.

Only 11 percent of men who have unprotected anal sex said they do so with a partner whose HIV status they did not know.

Only 2 percent admitted being HIV-positive and having unprotected anal sex with someone whose HIV status was not known to them.

About 5 percent also acknowledged having unprotected sex with women.

The survey, first reported on Monday, has been accepted for presentation at a conference in Atlanta this summer by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey was compiled from 7,065 questionnaires handed out at bars, clubs, bathhouses, street corners, beaches and other venues where homosexual men gather. To reach blacks, Hispanics and other minorities, a peer system was used in which volunteers attempted to reach out to men of similar ethnic backgrounds.

The survey is not as scientific as a random poll that is then weighted to reflect the actual population by age and ethnicity. White, middle-aged, educated men were overrepresented in proportion to their actual numbers. Young black and Hispanic men were underrepresented. But the methodology - using volunteers enlisted by a gay organization to reach out to their peers - has been used in other cities.

In January, the CDC cited as significant the findings of a similar street survey by STOP AIDS, a San Francisco-based advocacy group. That survey of nearly 22,000 homosexual men found that 39.2 percent reported having unprotected anal sex in 1997, up substantially from 30.4 percent in a 1994 STOP AIDS street survey.

Other alarming trends were also reported earlier this year, such as increases in rates of other sexually transmitted diseases in some cities and a rise in risky behavior like sex parties for HIV-positive men where condoms are banned.

Data from New York City, however, have been scarce. Although a law has been passed requiring clinics to report HIV infection rates, the regulations have not yet been implemented, and the city Health Department, unlike other Health Departments around the country, does not issue monthly reports tracking other sexually transmitted diseases.

The GMHC study, being the first of its kind, does not indicate whether risky behavior here is increasing, decreasing or remaining steady.