Chicago Tribune (CT) - Sunday, June 30, 1985, Page: 3
Ronald Kotulak, Science writer
"Individuals have the power to protect themselves more than science currently can," said Dr. George D. Lundberg, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Although most of the victims have been homosexuals and bisexuals, intravenous drug abusers and people receiving contaminated blood products, there is growing concern that AIDS may be spreading to the heterosexual population, Lundberg said.
"Not since syphilis among the Spanish, plague among the French, tuberculosis among the Eskimos and smallpox among the American Indians has there been the threat of such a scourge," he said.
The number of cases of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is doubling every 10 to 12 months, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Since it first was diagnosed in 1981, the disease that destroys a victim's immune defense system has affected more than 10,000 people in this country, killing more than half of them. There is no effective treatment for the disease.
Because more than 70 percent of the AIDS cases seem to have been transmitted sexually, the first line of defense would be to practice monogamous sex, Lundberg said.
"Until a technological method of prevention and treatment can be developed, it will be necessary to contain this virus by changing the lifestyle of many people--by no means all of them homosexual men," he said.
Scientists last year identified the HTLV-III virus as the cause of AIDS and found that it can be carried in blood, semen and saliva. A blood test to detect antibodies for the AIDS virus became available in March.
Governmental agencies should consider requiring the blood test to identify people who may be infected with the virus before issuing marriage licenses, Lundberg said.
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