Faculty Bibliography

NEW YORK - British scientists have found the first evidence of individual genetic differences in susceptibility to infection with the virus that causes AIDS. Examining blood samples from homosexual men, some of them AIDS virus carriers and some not, the scientists also found that people with a different genetic variant of the same protein were highly susceptible to AIDS infection and disease

The two scientists whose talks opened and closed the scholarly meeting were not AIDS experts but specialists in molecular biology and virology. The two, Baltimore and Dr. Howard Temin of the University of Wisconsin, shared a Nobel Prize for discovering an enzyme, reverse transcriptase, that characterizes retroviruses, and Baltimore said more 'amateurs' like himself should turn their attention to AIDS

''You don't gain very much by keeping the device in, and you have that added risk of infection,'' although that risk is small when ''reasonable care is taken,'' Dr. [William S. Pierce] said. Dr. [Bartley P. Griffith] said he thinks of a bridge patient's human heart transplant's beginning when the patient gets the mechanical heart implant. ''The first incision commits me to that individual who, at that point, becomes the sickest individual on our list,'' Dr. Griffith said. ''He does not become any less sick when he has the artificial heart in.'' For patients dying of heart failure, Dr. Griffith's team spells out the potential complications. ''A small stroke would not prevent us from going ahead with transplantation,'' Dr. Griffith said, because a patient with a stroke is better off with a human heart than an artificial heart. ''But we clearly outline there is a chance this may be a permanent situation.''

''The competition that is involved in trying to get there first, both academic and non-academic, is often an extremely positive driving force,'' Dr. [David Baltimore] said. He also noted ''a negative side,'' saying the commercial involvement aggravated the pernicious effects of traditional competition. Dr. Baltimore urged the participants ''to minimize secrecy'' and to share every bit of information that might be relevant'' to the battle against AIDS. The two scientists whose talks opened and closed the scholarly meeting were not AIDS experts but specialists in molecular biology and virology. The two, Dr. Baltimore and Dr. Howard Temin of the University of Wisconsin, shared a Nobel Prize for discovering an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that characterizes retroviruses, and Dr. Baltimore said more ''amateurs'' like himself should turn their attention to AIDS

Dr. [Max Essex] said yesterday that while it was ''too early'' to determine what Dr. [James L. Mullins]'s study meant, he would ''be objective and investigate the possibility of contamination.'' Dr. Essex said Dr. Mullins's team had not shown ''clear evidence of contamination.'' Dr. Essex said that some research over the last year tended to rule against contamination of the conventional type - from cell to cell in a laboratory - but that the airborne contamination of virus cultures in the laboratory had not been ruled out. Dr. Essex said, however, that he considered that possibility to be ''remote.'' Dr. Essex said that because of the possibility of contamination his team began ''about a month ago'' to try to identify ''new and different isolates from people'' of the HTLV-4 virus

Dr. [Robert C. Gallo] said the settlement was ''like a piece of lead off my shoulder.'' In an interview Monday, Dr. Gallo added that he celebrated his 50th birthday on March 23 in Frankfurt with Dr. [Luc Montagnier] as they ''worked out the final aspects'' of a chronology of the key events leading to the discovery of the AIDS virus. Dr. James Wyngaarden, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said researchers were ''happy to have the dispute settled'' because ''it was bad for science'' and it ''was eroding the warm relationships'' American and French scientists had developed. ''We want an all-out campaign,'' Mr. [Reagan] said, responding to questions at a state dinner for Prime Minister [Jacques Chirac]. Asked whether children should be taught about the dangers of AIDS, Mr. Reagan said, ''Yes, I think so - as long as they teach one of the answers to it is abstinence.''

Last week, leading AIDS researchers from around the world met here at the National Institutes of Health to discuss the state of AIDS vaccine development and especially the difficult next steps: experimenting with potential vaccines on humans and eventually bringing to market any that prove effective. A vaccine is widely believed to be the only sure way to curb the global spread of AIDS, but no one is even sure whether it is possible to develop one. ''Where is the Basil O'Connor for AIDS?'' Dr. [Jonas Salk] asked, referring to the lawyer who organized the March of Dimes as the principal group financing research that produced a polio vaccine. Given the more prominent role that the Federal Government plays today in financing medical research, it may be that such direction can now come only from the Government. If every serious medical problem that affects the volunteers is attributed to the AIDS vaccine, ''it'll make swine flu look like a picnic,'' Dr. [Osborn] said, recalling the millions of dollars sought in lawsuits filed by those who developed a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre as a complication of the swine flu immunization in 1976

Officials described the findings as worrisome but said it was still unclear how significant prostitutes were in the spread of AIDS. Most of the infected prostitutes were intravenous drug users. Scientists are not sure how frequently prostitutes have been infected because of their multiple sexual contacts, or how often they have infected their customers, although the available evidence from the study of AIDS patients indicates that this has not occurred on a large scale. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control, which conducted the survey, said they had no good data on how many men have been infected with the AIDS virus from prostitutes but added that the number of cases of AIDS that might be traced to the source was small. Evidence from Africa, however, including new data revealed here today, shows that prostitutes can definitely spread the disease to customers, scientists said. Counseling and Testing Urged Dr. Harold Jaffe, an AIDS expert at the C.D.C., said that his agency could not estimate how many had been infected through intercourse with prostitutes. However, he said, a number of men with AIDS who had no identified risk factor, such as intravenous drug use or homosexual intercourse, have told interviewers that they had been clients of female prostitutes. ''But we don't know what that means'' in terms of how they got AIDS, Dr. Jaffe said in an interview

The Greater New York Blood Program has assigned a staff of counselors to answer questions from those who call their information number, (212) 570-3400. Yesterday a caller was told that the program ''did not advise you to go to your own doctor for the test.'' The reason, the counselor explained, was deep concern over potential breaches in confidentiality if the name of an AIDS-infected-individual ''got on a list.'' Dr. Peter Pasternack, a cardiologist at New York University Medical Center, said he had been ''deluged'' with calls from patients who had had coronary by-pass and other types of open-heart surgery in which they received blood transfusions before the mandatory AIDS screening test was adopted in the spring of 1985. Dr. Michael Nevins, a cardiologist who practices in Woodcliff Lake, N. J. and who has had many patients who have had transfusions for heart surgery, said ''my phone hasn't rung'' from calls from worried patients and ''it isn't a problem for physicians in this area.'' For physicians who have received such calls, the tendency is to talk to the patients and ''to gently discourage the testing'' unless there was good reason to have it done, Dr. Nevins said.