Faculty Bibliography

The ninth international AIDS conference ended in Berlin on Jun 11, 1993 without much positive news to report. There has been little progress in finding a cure or vaccine for the deadly disease

'Our progress seems desperately slow,' Dr. Michael H. Merson, the director of the World Health Organization's AIDS program, said at the close of the weeklong meeting. His remarks to the more than 14,000 participants also reflected gloom about the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in many areas of the world. Faced with a relentless epidemic, attitudes began to change after a report from scientists at the New England Regional Primate Center in Southborough, Mass., who made an attenuated vaccine by removing a gene from the simian AIDS virus, which is related to the human AIDS virus and inflicts a disease that closely parallels AIDS in humans. The resulting vaccine offered the strongest protection to date

'Our progress seems desperately slow,' Dr. Michael H. Merson, the director of the World Health Organization's AIDS program, said at the close of the weeklong meeting. His remarks to the more than 14,000 participants also reflected gloom about the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in many areas of the world. Faced with a relentless epidemic, attitudes began to change after a report from scientists at the New England Regional Primate Center in Southborough, Mass., who made an attenuated vaccine by removing a gene from the simian AIDS virus, which is related to the human AIDS virus and inflicts a disease that closely parallels AIDS in humans. The resulting vaccine offered the strongest protection to date. Last month, a European study that its authors described as the largest, longest and statistically most powerful to evaluate the widely used AIDS drug AZT, found that its use in the early treatment of HIV did not delay the onset of AIDS or prolong life

New research indicates that people with other sexually transmitted diseases are at a much higher risk of being infected with AIDS, and many experts say that expanded efforts to curb all sexually transmitted diseases would therefore curtail the spread of the HIV virus

At the ninth international AIDS meeting in Berlin on Jun 9, 1993, Jonas Salk's team reported on his experimental immunotherapy for people infected with HIV. Experts at the meeting, including Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, expressed serious caution about the significance of the findings

An air of enthusiasm rose over the ninth international AIDS meeting before Dr. Jonas Salk's team reported Wednesday on his experimental therapeutic vaccine for people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. [Anthony S. Fauci] was among the experts who expressed serious caution about the significance of the findings, saying that the differences were small and that they were not certain about the meaning of the results of certain tests. His reservations were apparently a surprise to the Salk team; Dr. Dennis J. Carlo said he had discussed the data at length with Fauci

A look is taken at a study of a small number of Kenyan prostitutes who appear to have avoided infection with HIV, the AIDS virus, despite frequent, unprotected sex with infected men. The study was discussed at an international AIDS meeting on Jun 8, 1993

Michael H. Merson, the official who heads the World Health Organization's program on AIDS, said that the key to controlling the rampant spread of AIDS is a wider application of preventions measures and increased spending in developing countries

The AIDS epidemic galloping through much of the world could be curtailed if known preventions were more widely applied and if an additional $1.5 billion to $2.9 billion a year were spent in developing countries on AIDS prevention, a World Health Organization official said Monday in Berlin at the ninth international AIDS meeting. The greater efforts would 'save millions of lives, billions of dollars and immeasurable pain and suffering,' [Michael H. Merson] said. By the year 2000 it would be possible to cut in half the number of people who otherwise would be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, he said. Americans show improved knowledge about AIDS as well as increased personal acquaintance with victims of AIDS, and half of all adults now say they have acted to avoid getting AIDS themselves, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll