Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1985. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Thursday, August 8, 1985
Irene Lacher, Herald Staff Writer
Resnick, 31, wasn't planning on studying the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome when he began a year of research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in July 1984. Then a resident in dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Resnick was hoping to study drug therapy for a form of skin cancer.
But when he arrived at NIH in Bethesda, Md., the virology laboratory's resources were rapidly shifting. Researchers who had focused on cancer were retooling to study AIDS virus, which is closely linked to the virus that causes the skin cancer. In April 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo's research team at NIH was credited with being the first in the United States to isolate the AIDS virus. Resnick joined that effort and is continuing his research at Mount Sinai in collaboration with Dr. Wade Parks of the University of Miami.
"I was there in the right place at the right time with the right person. My whole life has been timing. And just as I got there, everything exploded for AIDS. It was just very fortunate."
A sense of urgency infected the researchers at NIH -- the knowledge that the timing of their work might stem the spread of a deadly disease.
"The whole year I was there I worked with the virus until late hours, in the middle of the night. We wanted to show that we could produce and that we were the best lab. It was the most exciting year and most fascinating and the best year of my life."
"I slept with the virus. Everything I do is virus, virus, virus. It's become a part of me."
NIH researchers were regularly tested for the disease, but none have developed it, Resnick said. In fact, he said, the infectiousness of AIDS is commonly exaggerated. The virus is generally spread through sexual intimacy or contamination of a person's blood.
"I have a lot of concerns about handling the virus," he said. "I had a blood test when I first arrived and when I left." The results of both were negative.
AIDS depletes the body's ability to fight disease. First recognized in 1981, it has struck 12,000 Americans and killed half of them. Even more are carriers of the virus. And only New York and San Francisco have had more cases than Miami.
AIDS has been stigmatized because it commonly strikes homosexuals and drug abusers. Because of all the emotional furor surrounding the disease, Resnick doesn't even call himself an AIDS researcher.
"I'm an HTLV-III researcher," he said, referring to another term for the virus, Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus III. "I don't like to think of myself as an AIDS researcher."
But Resnick believes the recent publicity surrounding actor Rock Hudson's infection with AIDS will increase support for funding AIDS research.
"It's unfortunate, but there usually is a well known person stricken by a given condition before society perks up and looks at it in the right fashion. The general public is unaware until they can relate to it by way of their heroes."
As more research is conducted, Resnick plans to be in the right place.
"It all boils down to holding the virus in your hand and seeing it face to face and saying, 'We're going to knock you out.' That's the bottom line." Lionel Resnick (AIDS)
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Copyright © 1985 - Miami Herald. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Miami Herald, Permissions, One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693 TEL: (305) 376-3719. http://www.herald.com.
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