Word: azt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...carefully as he faced the press in Washington last ! week, determined not to raise any false hopes. Despite Windom's caution, the dramatic news he reported was bound to be en couraging to AIDS victims around the world: early results of clinical tests with an experimental drug called azidothymidine (AZT) had shown that it slowed the attack of the AIDS virus and seemed to prolong the lives of many of its victims...
...results were so remarkable, Windom said, that tests in a dozen medical centers were being halted so that control groups of AIDS sufferers -- who had been receiving only placebos, or dummy drugs -- could immediately begin treatment with AZT. Furthermore, Windom has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for speedy approval to distribute the drug to thousands of other AIDS victims, but only those who have also suffered from Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a rare form of pneumonia that frequently afflicts AIDS patients. David Barry, vice president for research at Burroughs Wellcome, the pharmaceutical firm that produces the drug, stressed...
Across the country, nonetheless, the announcement set off a flurry of excitement and controversy. AIDS hot lines and doctors' offices were flooded with calls, community leaders warned about undue optimism, and doctors debated the ethical and medical issues raised by the early cancellation of the AZT study...
...bout of PCP. The remaining subjects had ARC (AIDS-related complex); although they were infected with the AIDS virus, their symptoms were not as severe as those of full-blown AIDS. Each patient took a capsule every four hours. For slightly more than half the group, those capsules contained AZT. For the control group, the capsules contained a placebo, a harmless, inactive substance. The tests were "double blind" to ensure that results would be interpreted objectively; neither the doctors administering the tests nor the AIDS victims knew who was getting the real drug. That information was known only...
Still other problems plague the researchers in their quest for an effective and non-toxic anti-viral drug--some of them not involving science. Groopman has encountered peculiar problems in the AZT study. "There is tremendous political pressure," Groopman says. He only has room for 20 patients while 60 AIDS and ARC patients want to take part in the experiment. So he will choose patients only on a "first-come, first serve basis...