Word: viruses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...AIDS patients may be on its way. It is a generation of ) hope -- not for a cure anytime soon but for a longer and more productive life despite the disease. One of its heralds is a 30-year-old housewife named Belinda Mason, who was infected with the virus when she received a transfusion of untested blood during delivery of her second child. She lives in Tobinsport, Ind., a heartland town where AIDS services are scarce and discrimination against patients is all too common. Yet Mason, who is chairwoman of the National Association of People with AIDS, is convinced...
...possible. Said New York City Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph in Montreal: "We are very close to turning the corner on this epidemic." But there is a price tag to this success. Medical bills for the growing pool of infected people will be staggering. And a surprising number of AIDS-virus carriers are returning to high-risk behavior that could spread the infection to others...
...AIDS deaths result from Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. But studies reported in Montreal confirm that pentamidine inhaled directly into the lungs is dramatically effective in preventing the pneumonia from developing. Federal health officials are so impressed by the drug that they will recommend that those infected with the virus start monthly aerosol treatments as soon as their immune systems begin to weaken...
Like all AIDS care, other drugs showing promise in the lab will be expensive. At typical dosages, AZT costs each patient about $7,000 a year, and pentamidine up to $1,200. Since more than 1 million people in the U.S. are believed to be infected with the virus, the national AIDS medical bill is expected to soar to between $4.5 billion and $8.5 billion a year by 1991. Moreover, the demand for outpatient services, nursing homes and housing for AIDS patients is expected to overwhelm health care systems in the hardest-hit cities...
Despite all the progress, the AIDS virus still takes a terrible physical and emotional toll. Each day at New York City's Montefiore Medical Center, women infected with the AIDS virus ask if they can still have children. Patients are told that chances are greater than 1 in 4 that their child would be born with the virus. The prognosis for these children is bleak, especially since they may be orphaned...