Miami Herald - Saturday, December 5, 1992
Michael Crook, Herald Staff Writer

"I have a lot of hope in the ability of this country and the world to come up with a vaccine," said Jerome Horwitz, who developed AZT, which is used to inhibit the spread of the AIDS virus in the human body.

"There are a lot of people who are pessimistic, but I remain optimistic."

Horwitz gave the keynote address to the "AIDS -- A Community Commitment" conference in West Palm Beach at the end of World AIDS Awareness Week.

A pioneer in the development of cancer-fighting drugs three decades ago, Horwitz saw AZT put on the shelf as ineffective against cancer. He said he knew then that AZT would one day serve in the fight against a major illness and, indeed, it is now the most prescribed anti-AIDS drug.

But the use of AZT is not without controversy.

Studies have shown that people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, live longer when treated with AZT, but at least one study showed HIV-infected people taking AZT died faster after being diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. Still other research links AZT with side effects such as anemia and a severe form of cancer.

A Ph.D. chemist, Horwitz recounted how AIDS researchers put out a worldwide call for drugs to test against the virus in 1984. By 1986, research showed AZT was reducing deaths among people infected with HIV, which attacks the body's ability to combat infections.

In April 1987, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT for AIDS patients. Does it prolong life?

"I think so," Horwitz said, "when it's given in the proper dose."

Turning to current research, Horwitz expressed optimism.

"We've heard a lot of criticism over the lack of progress toward a cure or vaccine," Horwitz said. But more progress has been made against AIDS in less than a decade than against any other disease, he said.

"There is no parallel," Horwitz said, "but we still have a long way to go."

Scientists are frustrated by the HIV's ability to mutate within the human body and evade the effects of anti-viral drugs, he said, calling it an "insidious adversary."

Progress toward a vaccine has been slow because doctors fear testing vaccines similar to those used to prevent mumps or measles. Children are injected with dead or weak forms of those viruses, triggering the immune system to produce life-long virus-killing antibodies.

"We are very hesitant to give a weakened form or dead form of HIV to an individual for fear of giving them AIDS," Horwitz said. The next step is to test mixtures of AZT and other AIDS-fighting drugs in human patients.

"I believe that with drugs used in combination, much in the way we use them in cancer patients, we can extend life much like we can control diabetes," he said.

CAPTION: PHOTO Jerome HORWITZ
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