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AIDS has become the leading cause of death among all Americans aged 25 to 44, new federal data show. The data were reported at a scientific meeting here Monday. AIDS surpassed unintentional injury, the government's category for accidents, which dropped to second place in this age group, said Dr. Harold W. Jaffe, a top AIDS official at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Cancer and heart disease were third and fourth, followed by homicides and suicides. 'AIDS was expected to rise to the top of the list eventually, but no one had predicted which year,' Jaffe said at a meeting on human retroviruses and related infections

AIDS has become the leading cause of death among all Americans aged 25 to 44, new federal data show

AIDS has become the leading cause of death among all Americans aged 25 to 44, new federal data show. The data were reported for the first time at a scientific meeting here Monday. The federal data on mortality showed AIDS surpassed unintentional injury, the government's category for accidents, which dropped to second place in this age group, said Dr. Harold W. Jaffe, a top AIDS official at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Cancer and heart disease were third and fourth, followed by homicides and suicides

Newton Butler is a 41-year-old resident of the San Francisco Bay area who has been infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, for 10 years, possibly even 15. In the early 1980s, after the disease was recognized but before the virus was discovered, it was regarded as inevitably fatal within a few years. Those who lived with HIV infection for several years were seen as long-term survivors. Now there is evidence that 5 percent to 10 percent of HIV-infected people live for 10 years, perhaps even 20 or more, without developing any AIDS-related symptoms or having any laboratory evidence of progression to AIDS, experts said. The study of such individuals is a quickly growing area of AIDS research, spurred in part by advocates for people with AIDS. Many researchers now distinguish between long-term survivors - those who develop AIDS and live for many years with a damaged immune system; and long-term 'non-progressors,' those who are infected with the virus for 10 years or more without progressing from infection to AIDS, while their immune system shows little or no evidence of damage

The expression of FGF3 has recently been detected in 55% of fresh Kaposi's sarcoma lesions, but not in uninvolved skin for the same donors. Nude mouse transplanted with NIH3T3 cells transformed by human FGF3 cDNA developed KS-like tumors. These data suggest that FGF3 may be involved in the pathogenesis of KS. The expression of a splice variant of the FGF receptor 2 (FGF-R-2) which has recently been identified as a specific receptor for FGF3, was also detected in KS tumors. The mRNA transcripts of FGF3 and FGF- R-2 were detected in fresh KS tumor biopsies by the RT-PCR method, and confirmed by Northern blot analysis. The expression of the FGF-R-2 receptor is also studied in the FGF3 transformed NIH3T3 cells in vitro and in the mouse- induced tumors

Many of the exaggerated claims seen these days are made in news releases and press conferences by public-relations officials who get carried away with enthusiasm. Sometimes scientists become willing partners with institution officials and say things in releases they wouldn't dream of saying in a scientific paper. Sometimes releases describe human- interest elements, which journals generally proscribe and which may capture the public's attention

No one knows for sure how many others are like [Newton] Butler, chiefly because too few studies have gone on long enough. But as other leads on this baffling disease have failed to yield quick progress, researchers are turning to the long-term survivors of the AIDS virus in hope of finding some critical key to the riddle. If the survivors differ in some aspect of their immune system or of the variety of infecting virus, the knowledge could lead to better therapies or even a successful vaccine. In the early 1980s, after the disease was recognized but before discovery of the virus, it was regarded as inevitably fatal within a few years. Those who lived with HIV infection for several years were seen as long-term survivors. Now, there is evidence that 5 to 10 percent of HIV-infected people live for 10 years -- perhaps even 20 or more years -- without developing any AIDS-related symptoms or having any laboratory evidence of progression to AIDS, experts said. The study of such individuals is a fast-growing area of AIDS research, spurred in part by advocates for people with AIDS. Many researchers now distinguish between long-term survivors, those who develop AIDS and live for many years with a damaged immune system, and long-term ''nonprogressors,'' those who are infected with the virus for 10 years or more without progressing from infection to AIDS while their immune system shows little or no evidence of damage

NEWTON L. BUTLER is a 41-year-old resident of the San Francisco Bay area who has been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, for 10 years for sure, and possibly 15. Now there is evidence that 5 to 10 percent of HIV-infected people live for 10 years - perhaps even 20 or more years - without developing any AIDS-related symptoms or having any laboratory evidence of progression to AIDS, experts said in interviews. The study of such individuals is a fast growing area of AIDS research, spurred in part by advocates for people with AIDS. Many researchers now distinguish between long-term survivors, those who develop AIDS and live for many years with a damaged immune system, and long-term 'non-progressors,' those who are infected with the virus for 10 years or more without progressing from infection to AIDS while their immune system shows little or no evidence of damage

As other leads on the baffling disease of AIDS have failed to yield quick progress, researchers are turning to the long-term survivors of HIV in hope of finding a key to the riddle of why some HIV-positive individuals do not develop AIDS or AIDS-related symptoms. If the survivors differ in some aspect of their immune system or of the variety of infecting virus, the knowledge could lead to better therapies or even a successful vaccine

The smallpox virus got an unexpected stay of execution Wednesday from the governing board of the World Health Organization. In 1980, after a worldwide vaccination program, the World Health Organization declared the eradication of natural smallpox, one of the biggest killers in history. But samples of the virus have been kept frozen in laboratories in the United States and Russia. The World Health Organization asked for another review, and last September it voted unanimously to destroy the virus. It set June 30, 1995, as the date for simultaneous destruction of the samples in the United States and in Russia, although two of the 10 members of the review panel favored delaying execution for five years