AEGiS-AP: Evidence indicates virus causes AIDS Associated PressImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 1984. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Evidence indicates virus causes AIDS

Associated Press - Thursday, November 29, 1984

BOSTON - (AP) -- The case of a woman who caught AIDS from a transfusion provides some of the strongest evidence yet that a virus called HTLV-3 is the sole cause of the disease, a researcher says.

The 60-year-old social worker received four pints of blood during a hysterectomy. One pint was donated by a drug-abusing homosexual man who carries the virus in his body.

Although many believe that HTLV-3 plays an important role in acquired immune deficiency syndrome, some speculated that another virus -- such as Hepatitis B virus, Cytomegalovirus or Epstein-Barr Virus -- must also be present for AIDS to develop.

But detailed analysis shows that the victim had not been exposed to any of those other germs. "This is probably some of the strongest evidence that this virus is indeed the cause of AIDS," said Dr. Jerome E. Groopman, an AIDS researcher at New England Deaconess Hospital.
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