Word: treatment
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...individual's fundamental privacy and liberty right to be free of government extends to medical treatment decisions," the legal brief nobly argued. But when this "fundamental right" clashed with the income of doctors, the AMA chose the low road...
...bonus for being a particularly petty bureaucrat. Perhaps she resents foreigners and their privileges. A Chinese train's best accommodations, the "soft sleeper" compartment, in which two bunk beds actually sport linen, are reserved for foreigners and high party and government officials. I could understand her hating such preferential treatment, but then again, she and her colleagues do pretty well because of it. For notwithstanding my status as a foreigner, the "soft sleeper" car was "sold out" until a kind official laid a carton of cigarettes and a small cash "bonus" on the ticket agent. "Funny...
...hope. The drug blocks the AIDS virus from reproducing, thereby cutting dramatically the amount of virus circulating within the blood. At the same time, a victim's ravaged immune system can replenish some of its chief defenders, called helper T cells, which may double in number during AZT treatment. Yet the drug has two notorious drawbacks. One is its side effects, which can include severe anemia. But the more bitter issue is its cost. A year's supply for a person who takes twelve capsules a day has run upwards of $8,000. For patients who lack full health insurance...
Critics argue, however, that AZT should not be subject to the usual practices of the pharmaceutical industry. The drug was first synthesized in 1964 by a Government-funded scientist in Michigan who was searching for a cancer treatment. Although that application never panned out, investigators at the National Cancer Institute, along with scientists from Burroughs Wellcome, discovered in 1984 that the drug blocks the AIDS virus from reproducing. By some estimates, the help provided by the Government scientists eventually allowed Burroughs to hold its development costs to less than $100 million, in contrast to $125 million for the average drug...
Even if Burroughs refuses to reduce its price further, some patients may begin paying less for AZT treatment. Doctors are discovering that combining the potent antiviral drug with such other formulas as interferon (an immune- system booster) or probenecid (an antigout drug) lowers the dose of AZT necessary for effective treatment. In addition, people who are infected with the AIDS virus but show no symptoms need only about half the full-strength dose to slow the course of the disease...