Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1984. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Tuesday, April 24, 1984
Herald Staff
A furor over who will get credit for discovering the cause of AIDS began last week after a team of French researchers from the Pasteur Institute in Paris announced that it had found evidence that a rare strain of leukemia virus -- lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) -- was present in many AIDS victims and probably caused their disease by destroying white blood cells.
Gallo's team, based in Bethesda, Md., has found almost identical evidence of the same thing -- but through a virus that they call by another name, human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-III).
Gallo, visiting in Italy at the time, returned to this country to find that his work had been virtually eclipsed by the French team. He was astounded. "There was not and never have been any differences between the NCI and the Pasteur Institute. We are, in fact, collaborating."
Gallo said that the French virus and the HTLV-III found in his laboratory may be the same virus -- and may not be. The findings are extremely similar, however.
Dr. Edward Brandt, assistant secretary of health and human services, said that the question may be more than academic for Gallo and his team. "If this turns out to be the same virus, we would give the credit to the French."he French."
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