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Dr. Anthony Pinching, an AIDS expert at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School in London, said that in learning to deal with AIDS in the long term, the world had to fight unrealistic expectations of a technological quick fix, and that scientists had to acknowledge the limits of their knowledge. Dr. Sam Broder, the head of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, warned against expecting a miracle cure for AIDS soon. He said progress was more likely to come from learning how to use combinations of existing drugs, which could be more effective and safer than using most AIDS drugs alone. PHOTO; This magnified white blood cell is infected with a new virus found in nine people who have AIDS symptoms but who aren't infected with two known AIDS viruses.; Credit: AP

The sobering reality that scientists have failed to slow the spread of AIDS, a point that became very clear at the 1992 AIDS conference in Amsterdam, is discussed and AIDS research efforts are analyzed

Dr. Anthony J. Pinching, an AIDS expert at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School in London, said that in learning to deal with AIDS in the long term, the world has to fight unrealistic expectations of a technological quick fix, and that scientists have to acknowledge the limits of their knowledge. Dr. Sam Broder, the head of the National Cancer Institute, a federal agency in Bethesda, Md., warned against expecting a miracle drug cure for AIDS soon. He said progress is more likely to come from learning how to use combinations of existing drugs, which could be more effective and safer than using most AIDS drugs alone. BLACK & WHITE PHOTO; Protesters at the international AIDS conference in Amsterdam, including one dressed as the Grim Reaper, accuse the Burroughs Wellcome drug company of profiteering with AIDS medication.; Credit: The Associated Press

Health officials at the international AIDS meeting said on Jul 23, 1992 that they would intensify research into a mysterious condition in which patients develop an AIDS-like illness but show no evidence of infection with HIV

The cost of treating people infected with HIV continues to rise precipitously. The annual treatment of an American AIDS patient cost $38,300 and the average cost of treating an HIV-infected individual who has not yet developed AIDS is about $10,000, compared to 1991 estimated costs of $32,000 and $5,100, respectively

Scientists in California reported on Jul 22, 1992 what they believed to be a new virus in a woman suffering from an AIDS-like condition. The virus had been found in a 66-year-old woman and her 38-year-old daughter, and some scientists speculated that it might have been transmitted through a blood transfusion

The lifetime cost of treating an AIDS patient in the United States is now $102,000, up from $85,333 in 1991, said Dr. Fred J. Hellinger, a federal official who has been tracking the costs of caring for infected people for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, an arm of the Public Health Service. The figure was $57,000 in 1988. The annual cost of treating an American AIDS patient is now $38,300, and the average cost of treating an HIV-infected individual who has not yet developed AIDS is about $10,000, Hellinger said. A year ago, the estimated costs were $32,000 and $5,100, respectively. ACT-UP, an AIDS advocacy and protest group, says foscarnet costs more than $20,000 a year. Astra, the world's only manufacturer of foscarnet, says it offers a 15 percent discount on all its products, including foscarnet, to more than 1,600 community health centers and other groups that treat AIDS patients in the United States

Doctors on Jul 21, 1992 added reports to earlier descriptions of people with an AIDS-like disease but no evidence of infection with the virus that causes AIDS, raising possibilities that the condition may be caused by a third variant of the virus or by a deficiency of the immune system caused by some other condition or agent

The reports raised several possibilities. The new condition, reported in about 30 patients, may be caused by a third variant of HIV, the generally accepted cause of AIDS. Or it may be a deficiency of the immune system caused by some other condition or agent. The new agent might be a microbe or some environmental factor. Dr. James Curran, an AIDS expert at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said in Amsterdam that it was not clear whether the known cases represent a new syndrome or a variety of rare medical problems that pose no threat to the nation's health. At the CDC, Dr. Thomas J. Spira has collected reports of six patients during the past three years. The patients range in age from 35 to 70 and come from four states. At least four had identifiable AIDS risks but Spira saw no pattern among them

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - European and U.S. doctors added new reports yesterday to earlier descriptions of patients with an AIDS- like disease but no detectable evidence of infection with HIV, the virus believed to cause AIDS. Several researchers have said privately that they believe they have found evidence that patients with the mysterious condition have been infected with previously unidentifed microbes or mutants of HIV, the virus linked to AIDS. But they have not formally reported their findings. James Curran, an AIDS expert at the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, said in Amsterdam that it is not clear whether the known cases represent a new syndrome or a variety of rare medical problems that pose no threat to the world's health