Word: azt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. Since that time, he notes, the cause of AIDS has been discovered, the virus cloned, a blood- screening program implemented and development of a vaccine begun. Possibly most remarkable, the FDA is soon expected to approve the first therapeutic drug: azidothymidine (AZT), manufactured by Burroughs Wellcome...
...AZT, which has already been given to more than 3,000 AIDS patients, is a source of optimism to AIDS researchers. "The drug has taught us that it is possible to make significant inroads against the virus," says Broder, "even in patients who are quite advanced." AZT not only prolongs survival, he explains, but produces "clinical improvements: weight gains, increased energy, neurological improvements." It can reverse one of the most disturbing symptoms of advanced AIDS: dementia and loss of mental function...
Unfortunately, AZT is not a cure and has a number of serious drawbacks. It must be taken every four hours around the clock to be effective, and can cause severe bone-marrow damage and anemia in some patients. "It's not an answer, and it's very toxic," says Polk, of Johns Hopkins. "Probably half of our patients on AZT will require weekly or bimonthly blood transfusions...
Perhaps the most promising of the dozens of other AIDS drugs under development is dideoxycytidine (DDC), which belongs to the same category of drugs as AZT. Like AZT, it works by interfering with viral reproduction, but researchers hope it will prove to be less toxic. Hoffmann-La Roche expects to receive a license to manufacture the drug within the next few months...
Even more distressing is the certainty that AZT will be in short supply, at least for a while. Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the Hastings Center at Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., calls the shortage a "classic triage" situation. "Who do you give it to?" he says. "You're not going to throw the drug away on someone who is so desperately ill that he will die anyway." He is also inclined to withhold it from drug abusers, who, along with homosexuals, are the principal AIDS sufferers and might waste the treatment by reinfecting themselves. Nor does he feel anyone...