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To: Henry Niman who wrote (6023)	2/1/1999 10:26:00 AM
From: Oliver & Co	Respond to of 6136

"Researchers Trace AIDS Virus to a Subspecies of Chimpanzee" New York Times (www.nyt.com) (02/01/99) P. A1; Altman, Lawrence K. An international team of scientists, led by Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, reports that they have traced the roots of HIV-1 to a subspecies of chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes, in Africa. The researchers, who announced their finding at the opening of the sixth annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Chicago, said that the discovery could help lead to HIV control therapy. The chimpanzee subspecies has been able to survive with the virus SIV cpz--which is 98 percent similar to HIV-1--without becoming ill. Researchers may focus on why HIV-1 causes death in humans, even though SIV cpz does not appear to cause illness in chimpanzees. The finding may also aid in the future detection of viruses that could possibly jump from animal to human hosts. Hahn and colleagues added that chimpanzees are being extensively hunted; the monkeys are sold in the "bushmeat" trade, which may be placing people at risk for cross-species transmission. Dr. Thomas M. Folks, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also noted that the number of infected chimpanzees in captivity is too small to conduct extensive research, and the animals in the wild are endangered and slowly nearing extinction. Hahn et al. will publish their findings in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

To: Henry Niman who wrote (6023)	2/1/1999 10:27:00 AM
From: Oliver & Co	Respond to of 6136

Some AIDS Patients Restored by Drugs Suddenly Decline" Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (02/01/99) P. B1; Tanouye, Elyse Despite the initial success of AIDS drugs to reduce viral levels to below detectable levels in many patients, researchers say an increasing number of patients who have benefited from the drugs for several years are developing resistance to the drugs and experiencing an increase in viral levels. Indeed, findings set to be presented at an AIDS conference in Chicago show that only about two-thirds of patients using a drug regimen including Merck's Crixivan had very low levels of virus copies in their blood after three years, compared with about 90 percent of patients earlier in the study. Researchers have said they did not expect the drugs to be effective forever, but they cannot explain why some patients are suddenly not responding. One theory suggests that the low viral levels in the body trick the immune system into thinking the threat is gone and that the body stops fighting the virus.

To: Henry Niman who wrote (6023)	2/1/1999 10:28:00 AM
From: Oliver & Co	Respond to of 6136

"Abbott Laboratories to Present Findings of Viral-Reducing AIDS Drug Today" Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (02/01/99) P. B8; Burton, Thomas M. Abbott Laboratories plans Monday to release clinical findings that show its experimental AIDS drug, ABT-378, reduced viral loads to below-detectable levels in 90 percent of patients when the drug was combined with an existing AIDS drug, Abbott's Norvir. Because the study, which is to be reported in Chicago at the Sixth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, only involved patients who had never received treatment with other protease-inhibitors, researchers said they were unsure how the treatment would affect patients who previously used other protease drugs. The researchers also noted the drug caused minimal short-term side effects, such as headache and diarrhea, and that no patients stopped participating in the trial because of side effects, which they emphasized is very unusual. Abbott said the drug was about half way through clinical trials and that it expected to submit a marketing application to the Food and Drug Administration in mid-2000.