Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - June 24, 1983
Ronald Sullivan
At the same time, Cornell University Medical College announced that it had received a three-year $1.3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to study the disorder. The grant, the latest in a series of N.I.H. awards to major New York medical research centers to look into AIDS, is aimed primarily at understanding what causes the breakdown of the immune defenses in the bodies of victims.
The new research group, the AIDS Medical Foundation, was commended last night by Governor Cuomo, who described AIDS as a "savage killer that struck at us without warning and which is destroying hundreds of people without mercy."
Meantime, Protestant church leaders, led by Bishop Paul Moore Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, castigated discrimination against two groups of AIDS victims - homosexuals and Haitians. Bishop Analyzes Panic
At a news conference at Cathedral House, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, Bishop Moore said: "Underneath the panic about AIDS itself is an unresolved anger and fear and a looking down upon the gay community and indeed the Haitian community. I do not know of any two communities in our New York area and in the nation who are in worse shape in terms of general discrimination."
More than 1,500 cases of AIDS have been reported nationally, about half of them in New York City, since it was discovered three years ago. The cause of the disorder, which medical experts say is eventually fatal in most cases, is not known, and a cure for it has not been found.
The major risk groups are homosexuals, people who take drugs intravenously, Haitians and hemophiliacs dependent on blood components.
The leaders of the new, nonprofit foundation held a fund-raising meeting last night at the home of Arthur J. Krim and his wife, Dr. Mathilde Krim, at 33 East 69th Street. Dr. Krim, the foundation's chairman, is head of the interferon laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr. Krim, joined by at least a dozen other leading medical researchers in the city, said they hoped to raise money to support a consolidated research effort into AIDS that concentrated on developing early diagnosis, determining what causes the disorder, and finding a successful treatment. Focus to Be on Research
Dr. Krim said: "Our intention is to see that the maximum proportion of contributions received will go directly to research. Overhead and staff expense will be kept at a minimum."
A scientific committee is headed by Dr. Joseph A. Sonnabend, a Manhattan virologist and microbiologist. It includes Dr. Donald Armstrong, chief of the infectious disease service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and a participant in Bishop Moore's news conference held earlier.
The N.I.H. has given $2 million this year to finance AIDS research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Yeshiva University's Einstein College of Medicine, New York University Medical Center, and St. Vincent's Medical Center.
In Albany, the Assembly is considering a Senate-approved bill allocating $5.25 million, most of it for AIDS research. Governor Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink said yesterday that there would probably not be enough money available to approve the measure.
New Jersey, where 102 AIDS cases have been reported, has spent $50,000 in research. Connecticut, which has had 17 cases reported, has not approved any research funds.
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