Faculty Bibliography

Dr. [Fakhry Assaad] said he is seeking ''novel ways'' to tell the public about AIDS, particularly in Africa, because ''we have nothing to combat AIDS except education.'' No effective treatment has been developed for the disorder, which is transmitted through blood and sexual contact and attacks the immune system, leading to death from infections that the body cannot fight off. He said he felt ''considerable anxiety'' about the lack of scientific knowledge about the long-term effects of the AIDS virus on individuals and society. ''Do we have a willingness of the best scientists in the world to work together so that all areas will be able to benefit from their cooperation?'' Dr. [Halfdan Mahler] asked, without answering his question. Dr. Mahler, who spoke before word had arrived from Kenya, also criticized leaders of countries in Africa and elsewhere who have avoided reporting cases of AIDS. ''Credibility is essential'' to keep ''undue alarm and fear of AIDS under control,'' Dr. Mahler said

Only one of 41 people with leprosy, or 2 percent, had evidence of infection with the AIDS virus. These people had been cared for in a leprosy hospital for more than three years. Because they had been isolated from society, Dr. Hira said he interpreted these findings to mean that the AIDS virus was introduced into Zambia only recently. He also said that the tests could have falsely yielded negative results because of leprosy's immunology. To further determine how long the AIDS virus has been in Zambia, the researchers plan to test 300 blood samples that had been kept in a freezer since 1981 or 1982. To make older comparisons, Dr. Hira said, he has been ''hunting very desperately'' for blood samples stored from the 1970's. Some researchers theorize that the AIDS virus may spread more easily among heterosexuals in Africa who have sores from syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to the theory, breaks in the skin from the sores allow the AIDS virus to enter the body more easily than through intact skin. Dr. [Subhash K. Hira] said that 51 of the 125 had had sexually transmitted infections in the past

Professor [Raymond Dedonder] said that after months of fruitless negotiations with American officials over recognition of the institute's contributions to AIDS research and related commercial rights, the institute was suing to have its ''rights recognized in the name of the scientific ethic.'' ''They didn't receive a patent because they didn't have a working blood test,'' Dr. [Robert Gallo] said. Professor Dedonder asserted that in filing for the patent on the blood test, Dr. Gallo's team of researchers ''did not even give any citation of the work done by the French scientists.''

Now, on returning to Africa as a medical reporter for The New York Times, I am reminded of what I often heard on my first trip: ''Africa always offers something new.'' And indeed, a new menace, AIDS, confronts much of the continent now. If the number of cases continues to rise unabated, and if effective preventions and treatments are not found soon, AIDS might become as much of a scourge in Africa as smallpox once was. Shortages of the technology that American and other Western doctors consider indispensible to their practice is evident throughout Africa. Dr. Michael Cinnamond, a surgeon from Ireland returning as a visiting professor in Lusaka, asks Dr. K. Mukelabai, the dean of the University of Zambia Medical School, if two infants still share one incubator. ''Sometimes more,'' Dr. Mukelabai says. ''Things are not perfect.'' So far, a total of 15,172 cases have been reported in the United States. No one knows what the numbers of AIDS cases are in Africa. A physician who wanted to measure the impact of AIDS where he practiced in Africa said he had considered having his team examine each patient in his hospital on one day, then having doctors in Europe test a blood specimen from each patient. But the doctor did not carry out the plan, he said, because he was ''too frightened, and preferred not to know what is going on.''

Generally forgotten today is Dr. [Moriz Kaposi]'s description of an ''8- to 10-year-old boy from Zurich'' who died within a year of the development of skin lesions. Dr. Kaposi suspected the child was afflicted with Kaposi's. And several experts on this cancer interviewed were astonished to learn of Dr. Kaposi's original descriptions of the rapid course of the disease and of his mention of the child as being a victim. Drug Treatments That Don't Work There may be no more dramatic way of observing the change in Kaposi's sarcoma in Africa than through the experience of Dr. [Anne C. Bayley] of University Teaching Hospital, who seems to carry on a kind of missionary spirit that she says motivated her to go to medical school. She has seen most cases of the disease treated at the hospital. In 1982, when she read the first reports of untreatable Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients in the United States, she said she was startled. The reports did not make sense, she told herself: ''This isn't the Kaposi's sarcoma I see in [Lusaka]. Don't the Americans know how to treat it? I can get rid of Kaposi's. They must be using the wrong drugs.'' As the months went on, colleagues baffled by the deteriorating condition of several patients asked her: ''Why are they so ill?'' In many, Dr. Bayley found evidence of Kaposi's sarcoma or AIDS. Now, she notes, that question is ''almost the diagnostic feature.''

Yet the frequency of the presence of the AIDS virus in blood donors makes it ''imperative'' that African countries develop a strategy for a safe and reliable blood bank system, Dr. [J. Desmyter] said. With rare exception, donor blood in Africa is not tested for evidence of the AIDS virus, a process that demands expertise and technology that many countries cannot afford. ''If we are concerned about the public health of the peoples in Africa and all over the world, we cannot pretend that AIDS is not here,'' Dr. [Robin Weiss] said, ''and any individuals or countries that hope that by ignoring AIDS it will go away would be putting their people to hostage and suffering.'' The African group also urged that scientists who have reported high rates of infection among certain tribes and areas in African countries should correct their reports because many of the test results reflected ''a high false positivity rate.'' The reports, the Africans contended, give the impression that Africa is suffering ''an alarming epidemic'' of AIDS