jgpo@iwu1c.UUCP (John, KA9MNK) (04/24/84)
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute announced today that they have identified what they believe to be the virus that causes AIDS. A spokesman for the Institute said their results parallel those of a laboratory in France, and the two labs may get together to see if they have identified the same virus. Given this discovery, it is anticipated that there will be a blood test for AIDS available within six months (to be given initially to blood donors) and possibly an AIDS vaccine within two years. Good work, folks! John Opalko AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, IL P.S. I may have the details wrong, because I just pulled the story off the 10:00 news, but the one important fact is correct: AIDS may just have been conquered.
dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (04/24/84)
The discovery of the HTLV-3 virus (human T-cell leukemia virus, strain 3) associated with AIDS patients *IS* a breakthrough, but one which presently has more promise for public health than for those striken with the disease. A couple of facts: 1.) It has not yet been shown in vivo that HTLV-3 causes AIDS in experimental animals. 2.) It does seem to promise a screening procedure for blood and blood products with a year or so. 3.) Once HTLV-3 can be shown to cause AIDS in animals, it should then be "easy" to start developing a vaccine (meaning 2-3 years away.) 4.) Nothing mentioned in the reports addresses how to treat patients with AIDS. As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca
gary@rochester.UUCP (Gary Cottrell) (04/24/84)
Obviously, AIDS has NOT "just been conquered". It may have been *identified*. This is not the same thing. Finding a safe vaccine is the next step. A *cure*, as with most viruses, is not in sight. gary cottrell