European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 6, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 6 a a a the stars and stripes thursday september 6,1990 doctors advised not to use controversial aids treatment by the new York times Washington a after six months of speculation and controversy Over experiments to treat aids by heating patients blood a Federal panel said tuesday that they did not work and should not be tried again on humans for now. The governments chief aids researcher or. Anti ony s. Fauci added in a statement tuesday that it was theoretically possible that the treatment might actually increase the activity of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus. But or. Kenneth Alonso of the Morehouse school of Medicine in Atlanta one of two doctors who have conducted the experiments on three patients said in an interview tuesday that he would continue his work possibly in european or latin american hospitals. A the next step is to continue a he said. A i have received invitations from other governments to train people to do this As Well As to do two of the three patients underwent the treatment in Atlanta. The third who was treated by Alonso last month in Mexico City died a Day after undergoing the procedure. In the experimental treatment called hyperthermia a Catheter is inserted into an anaesthetized patient and blood is pumped out of the body and heated to 108 degrees fahrenheit. The blood is then cooled and returned to the patients body in a continuous Cycle for hours. Alonso said his Hope was that cells infected with the human immunodeficiency virus which causes aids or invaded by an aids related cancer Kaposi a Sarcoma would die during the heating More readily than healthy cells. However the Federal investigators concluded after interviewing the doctors and reviewing the records of the two patients treated at Atlanta Hospital a there appears to be no clinical immunologic or Vir logic support for the use of hyperthermia in the treatment of his disease or Kaposi a Sarcoma. Neither does there appear any support for further human experimentation in this area at this the Federal report said the first patient to undergo the treatment had a a dramatic clinical improvement after the therapy including the disappearance of skin lesions that Alonso had diagnosed As Kaposi a Sarcoma. But the Federal investigators led by or. Lawrence Deyton chief of the Community clinical research Branch for the aids program at the National institutes of health concluded that the patient never had the skin cancer. The panel said the patients improvement was probably a result of two or More other factors including his treatment with interferon and antibiotics before the hyperthermia treatment. Dying Florida dentist advises sex patients to get aids tests Tallahassee Fla. Apr a Florida dentist who May have transmitted the aids virus to a former patient has urged others he once treated to be tested for the disease. David j. Acer made the Appeal in an emotional letter released tuesday. He said he does no to believe reports by the Federal centers for disease control that he May have infected one of his patients apparently during a routine tooth extraction. The Atlanta based cd said last month it was the first Case in the nation in which a health professional had apparently transmitted acquired immune deficiency syndrome to a patient. The Agency Hasni to said How it happened. A i do not understand How such a thing could have happened and i do not believe it did happen a acer wrote. A i am a gentle Man and i would never intentionally expose anyone to this a copy of the letter which begins a dear former patient a was sent to the state department of health and rehabilitative services which released it tuesday. It was unclear How Many of the letters were sent to former patients. Acer whose Home Telephone number in Stuart is unlisted be reached for comment. In the letter acer said he is dying of aids. A i am sorry i cannot Tell you this face to face but i am dying of this disease a acer wrote. A i am very close to the acer said he consulted experts after testing positive for the aids virus and was assured he could continue practising dentistry. Some of the guidelines he followed were from the cd itself such As wearing gloves and a mask he said. A because i was aware that i had the his virus i was extremely careful in How i practice dentistry a he said. Acer did no to say when he Learned he had aids or How Long he practice afterwards. He said he stopped when he got aids related cancer. Acer said he never suffered a puncture wound or Cut that could Lead to an Exchange of body fluids. Nevertheless he said he understood that former patients could be frightened and suggested they Contact local health authorities for aids testing and counselling. A i have cared for people All my life and to infect anyone with this disease would be contrary to everything i have stood for a he wrote. A i am sorry if the news Story has caused you fear and the cd reported that a 21-year-old female College student got aids from a dentist whom the Agency Hasni to identified. A 22-year-old woman identified Only As has taken Steps to sue a a Cdr. for malpractice in Palm Beach county circuit court. A motion filed there said the woman went to the dentist in 1987 and contracted aids from him. The motion asked that the woman be allowed to testify via videotape because she is in the advanced stages of the disease. A circuit judge granted the request. The lawsuit has yet to be filed. Stateside blasts rip alaskan Oil site causing fire toxic Cloud dead horse Alaska up a a series of chemical explosions rocked an Oil Field service facility near Prudhoe Bay setting off a fire and releasing a toxic Cloud that forced hundreds of workers to flee Early wednesday. There were no reports of injuries and no disruption to Oil production at the North slope Oil Fields. The fire started late tuesday in a shop operated by Dowell Schlumberger a company involved in preparing Oil drilling Sites according to witnesses and authorities. A originally the fire was our concern. Then the explosions were our concern. Now the chemicals Are our concern a said Caribou inn manager Meg Halsey who took in 100 of the 500-plus workers evacuated. A a we re just waiting for the Cloud of bad things to pass us a she said. _ six work Camps were evacuated said Gary Greener a dispatcher for Veco an Oil Field service with legs and feet designed for use in forests Washington apr a new vehicle that is being developed with legs and feet instead of wheels to prowl forests will soon undergo Field tests the agriculture department said tuesday. The vehicle a will soon be strolling about the Woods of Southwest Virginia near Blacksburg Home of Virginia polytechnic Institute and state University one of the machines developers the department said. The machine could solve some Forest management problems while helping protect Forest ecosystems said a Forest service spokesman. Currently Forest managers depend on rubber tired vehicles which can cause soil compaction rutting or damage to vegetation the Agency said. Wheeled vehicles also Are limited by terrain that is too rough Steep wet or soft. The machine called a the robotic walking vehicle a May alleviate such problems. For example it can move sideways a Man Euver Koeppen said May help drastically reduce damage to Forest soils and vegetation. A Public unveiling of the machine is scheduled for tuesday at Virginia polytechnic with Field tests to begin later this ought be a Law against badly tuned cars Eureka Calif. Apr police who scrambled to find a gunman after a flood of callers reported gunshots got their Man a but it turned out to be a car. The reports that shattered the labor Day Calm in this Small coastal town turned out to be backfires from Wayne Elliott Richards ill tuned old red Chevrolet. About 40 people called to report what they thought were gunshots. It seems Richards 21, is going to need a lawyer As Well As a Mechanic. Police did no to find any weapons when they caught up with him. But they arrested Richards for investigation of speeding evading an officer and failing to provide proof of links chronic fatigue syndrome to virus Philadelphia apr chronic fatigue syndrome a mysterious disabling disease sometimes dismissed As psychosomatic a Yuppie flu a has been linked to to family of viruses that disrupts the immune system researchers said tuesday. Evidence of a retrovirus was found in i he blood of 23 of 30 patients suffering from the disease and in Many of their healthy relatives and close fiends the scientists said. That suggests the disease is contagious. A if it turns out to be the agent causing this then we learn something about treatment and something about prevention a said Walter j. Gunn who Heads the investigation into chronic fatigue syndrome for the Federal centers for disease control in Atlanta. A it has the potential to be a very important the disease which May affect millions of americans usually starts with flu like symptoms and can develop into overwhelming fatigue. Other symptoms include muscle and joint pain headaches fever sore Throat memory lapses and depression. Chronic fatigue syndrome is often misdiagnosed because the symptoms Are similar to other diseases. The symptoms however linger for months or years. The findings were presented tuesday at a Neur pathology conference in Kyoto Japan by Elaine Defreitas of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and or. Paul Cheney of Charlotte n.c., and or. David Bell of Lyndonville . Defreitas said the researchers still done to fully understand the disease or the role of the retrovirus. Nevertheless other researchers were excited by the findings. A a it a very encouraging very important a said Marya Grambs director of the chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome foundation in san Francisco which estimates 3 million to 10 million americans have the disease. A a it a so critical that this disease is recognized by the government and medical Community so it can be aggressively researched so people who have it can be validated and not told they re some physicians unable to pinpoint a cause told Many patients their problems were All in their Heads Grambs said. The condition can Lead to depression and suicide she said. Because it was widely reported among Well educated women in their 30s and 40s, chronic fatigue syndrome was dubbed a Yuppie using a new Laboratory technique Defreitas found that nine of 11 adults and 14 of 19 children had blood cells with a viral sequence similar to the human to cell Lymph Tropic retrovirus specifically a Tiv ii. The a Tiv family of viruses is linked with leukaemia chronic diseases of the Central nervous system and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Defreitas also checked 10 healthy adults and 10 healthy babies As a control and none showed the presence of such virus positive blood cells. The researchers checked outwardly healthy relatives and close friends of the patients. They found that 43 percent of those exposed to the sick adults tested positive and 29 percent of those exposed to the sick children tested positive
