Word: viruses
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...prognosis for carriers of the virus seems bleaker than previously imagined. While public health officials first believed that perhaps 10% of those infected would go on to develop AIDS, evidence now suggests that at least 50% of them will progress to the full-blown disease. As more cases are reported, researchers have come to realize that the chances of developing AIDS are greater in the second five years after infection than in the first. "As time goes on," says Dr. James Curran, a top AIDS epidemiologist at the CDC, "only a minority of infected people will remain healthy. I feel...
...talking about a disease that was recognized from a practical point of view only in 1981," says Dr. Samuel Broder, who oversees the development of anti-AIDS drugs at the 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...
...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...
Doctors generally agree that they will need a two-pronged approach in order to treat AIDS effectively. In addition to eliminating the virus, they must rebuild the patient's ravaged immune system. That may turn out to be the most difficult goal to achieve; researchers have had little success so far with such natural immune boosters as alpha and gamma interferon. Indeed, AIDS therapy may ultimately prove to be most effective in patients whose immune systems are not yet destroyed -- those who show only early symptoms of the disease or perhaps are symptomless carriers. With drugs like AZT, says Broder...
...work on a vaccine, Genentech, of South San Francisco, Calif., appears to be one of the furthest along and may begin tests of a prototype vaccine on humans as early as this year. But vaccinemakers face several daunting obstacles. Perhaps the most formidable is the fact that the virus mutates and changes its outer coat so rapidly that no single vaccine is likely to be effective against all strains. Researchers are seeking a section of the viral coat that remains unchanged despite the mutations, hoping to use it as a basis for a vaccine...