European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Str four minimizing the risk for heterosexuals by Lee Siegel a science writer the average heterosexual american faces an extremely Small Chance of getting the aids virus during sex but As magic Johnson Learned even a Remote risk can become a deadly reality. Quot even if the risk is Small Why take a Chance there is no cure for this disease Quot said Nancy Padian an epidemiologist at the University of California at san Francisco. She added Quot unless you re Damn sure your partner is uninfected then use of 195,718 aids cases reported in the United states by the end of september 10,989 a or almost 6 percent a were infected by heterosexual Contact according to the centers for disease control. Worldwide the proportion of aids patients infected heterosexually is 75 percent. Other than abstaining from sex heterosexuals can minimize the Chance of getting aids by knowing their lovers Well so that they can avoid sex with people who have had numerous lovers had homosexual encounters used intravenous drugs or tested positive for the aids virus experts said. Factors that increase a heterosexuals Chance of getting aids include e sex with strangers. Quot assume that anybody you met recently and Don t know Well could be infected Quot said or James Curran director of the aids division at the centers for disease control. E sex with numerous partners. A being an inner City Black or hispanic. Curran said most americans who get and spread aids heterosexually Are inner City Blacks and hispanics who directly or indirectly were infected by drug abusers. A being female. In a recent study Padian found the Odds of a woman acquiring the virus from an infected Man were up to 17.5 times higher than the Odds of a Man acquiring the virus from an infected woman. A having another sexually transmitted disease other venereal diseases especially herpes Chancroid and syphilis which cause open sores allow the virus easy entry into the body. A improper condom use or Beth Marcus of children s Hospital in los Angeles said proper condom use Means using Latex condoms with virus killing Nonoxynol-9 putting on the condom before any sexual Contact holding the condom As the Man withdraws from the woman and avoiding Petroleum Jelly cooking Oil or other lubricants that degrade condoms some studies also suggest uncircumcised men Aie More Likely to infect their partners and that men and women Are More Likely to become infected if they have sex when the woman is menstruating % a a by Laurie Garrett new Day its pitch Black outside but the Halls of the National institutes of health s building 31, Wing a in Bethesda md., Are crowded with scientists discussing their latest Laboratory results. It s been a Long Day says or. Anthony Fauci but then every Day in the life of americans chief of aids research is Long filled with administrative details and meetings to plot the next step in the War against the elusive human immunodeficiency virus. He won t get Home until 10 ., after he addresses a banquet at a major science conference in Washington. And he has to be Back the next morning in time for a 6 30 strategy meeting with colleagues linked by Telephone around the world. Quot it s the Only time this particular group can get together. We re All so Busy. Six thirty can you imagine Quot says Fauci As he plops Down into a leather armchair his Energy belying the Lack of sleep and the daily stress he carries. Ever since magic Johnson announced he was infected with his the phones have been steadily ringing As congressmen constituents and journalists want to know what will happen to the basketball superstar. Quot people ask Why has it taken so Long to take care of his when we be taken care of All other infectious diseases so quickly a Quot Fauci says. Quot they forget it took decades and decades to get rid of polio and smallpox. His is moving along very quickly but we still Are in the Middle of an out of control As Fauci Heads off to his speech or William Haseltine gets his second wind and pushes another late night at the Dana Farber cancer Institute in Boston where his team May have identified exactly How the virus is sexually transmitted. Meanwhile drs. Gerald Myers and Flossie Wong Staal Are winding up their work Days. Myers commands a vast computerized network of genetic information at new Mexico s los Alamos National Laboratory building a map of How the virus changes and evolves. And Wong Staale a work on the Basic biology of his first at the National cancer Institute in Bethesda and now at the University of California san Diego is aimed at finding a Way to Pierce the virus formidable genetic Armor As Haseltine Parks at Home or Francoise Barre Senoussi is just starting her Day at the Pasteur Institute in Paris where she is analysing a mysterious Strain of the virus found in Zaire that seems to be an especially fast killer it was her adept touch that in 1983 finally teased the mysterious virus out from the cells of sick parisian men meanwhile in Geneva researchers from All Over the world Are in a Telephone conference Call with or David Heymann who Heads up the world health organization s Effort to coordinate global aids drug and vaccine research All of these and thousands More throughout the world Are part of the where is the cure largest medical Hunt since the discovery of a vaccine for polio. Though it left millions crippled polio rarely claimed the lives of its victims. His disease is almost always fatal. Up to 11 million people Are already infected the world health organization says and despite expenditures of billions of dollars on treatment prevention and research the epidemic is expected to hit 40 million in just nine More years. None of these scientists nor dozens of other leading aids experts interviewed recently Are optimistic about finding a cure for the deadly disease because the virus acts on the most Basic human level and can change its form faster than science can . An effective vaccine some Way to prevent the virus spread is probably decades it s incurable Quot Wong Staal says without hesitation of his Quot because it is a things be worse right now. Nothing is panning out the current drugs Arentt working. We also know that everything in the pipeline is turning out to be a Dud. So we re in major major Larry Kramer aids activist a retrovirus and it integrates into the chromosomes of the Host. And once its there it cannot be because there is no Way to destroy the virus once it Worms its Way into the human cell the search is on for what Fauci and others Call a functional a As opposed to an actual a cure for aids. The virus would survive but would be kept at Bay by a combination of drugs that is relatively non toxic and can be taken for years. Some drugs would boost the beleaguered immune systems and others would control infections by microbes that take advantage of the patient s weakened state. Quot that for me is a reasonable goal to shoot for in the next decade Quot Fauci says. In the first decade of the aids epidemic scientists discovered that his caused the disease by destroying cells in the body a immune system. As the numbers of the cells a called cd4 to cells decline the body s ability to stave off opportunistic infections shrinks. People succumb to a wide Range of secondary diseases such As tuberculosis yeast infections and pneumonia. There Are few weapons in Medicine s Arsenal that Are effective against any viruses As seasonal flu sufferers Well know. His is orders of magnitude More difficult to tackle than a Garden variety virus because it is one of Only three known human retroviruses. The usual viruses Are essentially tiny packages of genes usually in the form of Dan or doxy ribonucleic acid. Human cells also contain Dan genes which Are the blueprint for growth. To make proteins a the building blocks of cells Edna must be translated into smaller rna blueprints viruses containing Dan Are usually a Large because their genes have to include All sorts of directions regulating their own reproduction. Their Bulky size makes Dan viruses relatively easy targets for the body s immune system. But in the mid-1960s Howard Temin and David Baltimore discovered some viruses pulled a sneaky genetic trick to evade the defences of animals and plants they infect. These viruses dubbed retroviruses contain tiny pieces of rna rather than Bulky Dan. When retroviruses infect cells they literally insert their genes into the Host Dan. Once inside the viral genes can hide for years or commandeer the cell s genetic and protein production systems to make tens of thousands of More viruses. The immune system barely has a Chance to see the enemy before the body is overrun. The human immunodeficiency virus like All retroviruses cannot be removed from a person s Dan once it has infected the individual s cells. So scientists say it is incurable. Quot we be Learned enough about the virus to know there will be no easy cure no magic Bullet Quot Haseltine says. Quot ultimately the effective treatment will come from. An class of so far three drugs have been discovered a two of them licensed by the food and drug administration a that offer Hope of giving some patients additional months of life All three a at Del and dec Block the ability of the virus to reproduce. Unfortunately their blocking effects Are both fairly toxic to the body and fail after a while because the virus overcomes the drugs by mutating. His becomes resistant to a we be Learned enough about the virus to know there will be no easy cure no magic Bullet. Ultimately the effective treatment will come from. An entirely new class of or. William Haseltine aids researcher these drugs within a mat some patients months u Quot by now scientists lv., almost All the drugs Avan. Chemicals which have of. Drugs Quot Haseltine says Quot things could t be a says aids patient and k activist Larry Kramer n panning out. The current working. We also know to the pipeline is turning it or of Days in others. 0 tested be and Many potential to be a it night now Quot 1 Imp new York n no is it is Aren t it everything in 11 be a Dud so we re in major major the picture is not Only gloomy for people such As Kramer who already have aids but also for those such As magic Johnson who Are in the Early. Stages of his infection. Haseltine doubts any of the therapeutic approaches considered promising just a year ago will pan out. Science has eliminated the easy options and can now focus on those that require greater intellectual leaps Hasltine says. Scientists have Quot also examined extracts of hundreds of thousands of plants including the ingredients of the traditional medicines of China India and South America. Despite this massive Effort of traditional drug discovery we still Don t have drugs that do anything but slow the progression of the gazing from his office window at a Crisp autumn Boston Sunset Haseltine Heads the world s Only academic division of Retro viral research staffed by nine senior scientists and 51 other researchers. Nearly All Are working on what they Call Quot the aids their weekdays begin at 7 . And rarely end before 11 Most of the staff also works saturdays and sundays. Even As his group works Haseltine is training the next generation of potential aids researchers. Harvard graduate students Munch Tortilla chips and gulp diet cokes As they listen to Haseltine describe his latest findings. Scientists such As those in Wong Staale a modern facilities in la Jolla calif., Are trying to outsmart the virus by figuring out which genes Are most crucial to All his and to find a Way to shut them off. There Are several possible targets she says and theoretically a Long list of ways to get at them. But the key word is theoretically. Such approaches that target his genes Are called Gene therapy. Fauci says Quot Gene therapy is obviously exciting to everyone because of the potential Quot of completely reversing viral infection Quot but there is a Large leap Between theoretical possibility and the reality of making genes inside cells in the human Haseltine puts it More bluntly Quot although we have Gene dreams or Star wars there Are fundamental problems we Don t understand and can t uppermost he says is the confounding ability of his to mutate around virtually anything thrown its Way. And nobody knows How to effectively get such genetic weapons inside the cells of living human beings. Within two years scientists from private government and corporate centers throughout the world Are hoping to conduct Field trials of his vaccines in four developing countries while none of the candidate vaccines Are considered effective at this Point the Hope is that such trials will provide researchers with the crucial information needed to Lead to a second generation of useful vaccines though that could take decades our holy grail is vaccines because an effective vaccine would truly save the world Quot Haseltine says Quot every Day we done to vaccinate we re signing the death certificates of 5,000 More people Quot magic Johnson announces to journalists that he has the aids virus. Answers on aids q by . Colen new Day magic Johnson said he is his i positive but does not have aids. What s the difference a acquired immune deficiency syndrome is the end Point of a process that begins when a person is infected with his. A person who has aids is fatally ill a person who is simply his positive is not sick. Q How do people know they Are hiv-positive7 a their blood is tested Tor antibodies to his. If an initial test called an Elisa indicates the presence of antibody a and thus that the virus has infected the individual a a second test called a Western blot is done to confirm the first test magic Johnson said his wife tested negative for his. Does that mean that she and the fetus she is reportedly carrying Are not infected a according to or. Jack Dehovitz director of the aids prevention Center at new York state University s health sciences Center there has never been a report of an his infected baby whose father was infected but whose Mother was not. If Johnson s wife is not infected her baby will not be infected either Dehovitz said because there is a Quot window Quot of three to six months after infection during which a person May be infected but test negative experts such As Dehovitz recommend a second his test six months after the last sexual encounter with an infected individual. Q in most viral infections a person gets sick within about 10 Days of infection. How Long after his infection does a person get aids7 a estimates of the median period from infection to what is called Quot full blown aids Range from seven to 12 years that Means half of those infected will get aids sooner that and half will take longer q How does the infection progress7 a shortly after his infection most people develop a flu like illness they generally ignore As they Are unaware they have been exposed to his and the symptoms quickly disappear with no apparent Long term effect about three quarters of newly infected people also develop a red rash that covers the body and can last up to a week then his positive individuals May go several years with no warning sign of disease according to or. Mark Kaplan chief of infectious disease at North Shoie University Hospital in Manh sett n y alter that tie said they May Quot experience five of six years of Subtle symptoms a instead of one cold and sinus attack a year they May have three or four then they May have tour or five or six minor this increase in infections is caused by the generally slow collapse of the immune system which is attacked by his the virus infects and destroys the to Helper cells keys to the body a defense system and when the number of Helper cells Falls below about 500, the infected individual is in trouble. Q at what Point does the person actually have aids a until recently a person was said to have aids when he or she tested positive for his and developed one or More of a number of so called opportunistic infections including pneuma Cystis Carinio pneumonia toxoplasmosis in the brain and Kaposi s Sarcoma a form of skin cancer such conditions pose Little risk to people with healthy immune systems recently however the Federal centers for disease control broadened the definition to include everyone who is his positive and has a Helper to cell count below 200 q once a person has aids How Long does he or she live a while there have been isolated cases of individuals with aids surviving As Long As 10 years people with aids survive a median of two to 2v? years Dehovitz said q does everyone with his infection eventually get aids7 a based on current medical evidence the answer is Quot probably Quot q if magic Johnson had chosen to continue playing basketball would he have posed any danger to his teammates or opponents7 a not unless he had sex or shared Needles with Thorn his infection is not transmitted by breathing on sweating on or touching another individual it is not transmitted by sharing towels or soap in the Shower his is a blood borne viral infection Attiat is spread toy the transfusion of infected blood and blood products sharing contaminated Needles and by sexual activity Page 14 b the stars and stripes tuesday november 26. 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 15
