Faculty Bibliography

The combination yielded the best immune responses recorded in vaccine experiments to date, the seventh international AIDS meeting was told, increasing hopes that a vaccine might be developed by the turn of the century. As the meeting ended, the urgent need for a vaccine and improved treatment for AIDS was underscored by the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, who told the nearly 10,000 participants that AIDS had become a 'public health threat of unprecedented magnitude.' The first vaccine was made by genetically engineered techniques. The gene for a protein on the outer coat of the AIDS virus known as gp160 was put into live vaccinia virus, which once was used to vaccinate against smallpox

While costs of treating people with AIDS have been estimated in other analyses, the new study is the first to assess the economic impact of treating both those with AIDS and those who are infected but lack symptoms, federal health economist Fred Hellinger told the seventh International Conference on AIDS. Previous estimates have understated the costs of medical care because they were limited to AIDS, he said. But, he added, the costs have increased significantly because people with AIDS are living longer because of the introduction of new treatments. Such therapies are being used by 25 percent of individuals infected with the AIDS virus but without symptoms

An estimated $5.8 billion will be spent in 1991 in the US to treat people infected with the AIDS virus, including those with the disease, a federal health economist told an international meeting on AIDS in Florence Italy on Jun 19, 1991. The cost is expected to rise to $10.4 billion in 1994

Though costs of treating people with AIDS have been estimated in other analyses, the new study is the first to assess the economic effect of treating both those with AIDS and those who are infected but lack symptoms, the economist, Fred J. Hellinger, said. The estimated annual cost of treating a person with AIDS is $32,000 and the lifetime cost is $85,333, said Hellinger, who works for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in the Department of Health and Human Services. Other studies have put the lifetime costs at $40,000 to $75,000

A rapid new test can reliably detect the AIDS virus in infants as young as three to six months and cost less than existing tests, NIH scientists reported Jun 18, 1991 at an international meeting on AIDS being held in Florence Italy

Although doctors know how to treat AIDS in children, they are often forced to make educated guesses as to whether a child born to an HIV-infected mother is infected, [Thomas C. Quinn] said. The reason is that routine tests for evidence of HIV in adults and older children do not work in infants. Because tests cannot distinguish between the IgG produced by an infant and mother, positive IgG tests in infants do not necessarily mean that an infant is infected. The new test for IgA detects actual HIV infection in infants, Quinn said. Many laboratories also test for the IgA protein for conditions other than infection by the AIDS virus. Scientists adapted the standard IgA test to detect AIDS antibodies by using different chemicals

The standard drug to treat HIV in children and adults is AZT. Also, federal health officials have published guidelines for treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a respiratory infection that develops when the immune system is severely impaired. This form of pneumonia is a prime killer of AIDS patients. Although doctors know how to treat AIDS in children, they are often forced to make educated guesses as to whether a child born to an HIV-infected mother is infected, [Thomas Quinn] said. The reason is that routine tests for evidence of HIV in adults and older children do not work in infants. HIV or human immunodeficiency virus causes AIDS, a disease which disables the body's immune system, making it incapable of mounting a defence to other infections and diseases such as influenza or cancer

Although rates of AIDS infection appear to be slowing in industrialized countries, they are rising rapidly in many developing countries. By the year 2000, 40 million people are expected to be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, up from an earlier estimate of 25 million to 30 million, said a World Health Organization official

The US government came under sharp attack at the opening of the seventh international AIDS conference in Florence Italy on Jun 16, 1991 for its policy on restricting entry of travelers infected with the disease

Vasso Papandreou, commissioner for health and social affairs of the European Community in Brussels, said her organization had made a point of congratulating Italy for providing unhindered entry for HIV-infected people, including participants at the meeting. Papandreou said she would write the health and human services secretary, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, to express her organization's concern about the travel restriction