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 - October 2, 1983
Dena Kleiman
"AIDS is certainly not going away," Dr. Mary Chamberland, who is on assignment to the city department from the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said. "But there has been less of an increase than had been predicted."
Dr. Chamberland explained that initially it seemed that the number of cases of the disease, which destroys the immunological system of the body and in many cases is fatal, doubled every six months.
During the first half of 1980, for example, 9 new cases were reported in New York City, and during the second half, 15 new cases were reported. Similarly, during the first half of 1981 there were 41 new cases reported in the city, and in the second half there were 96. Trend May Be Leveling Off
For the first time, this "doubling trend" now appears to have leveled off, Dr. Chamberland said.
From July through December 1982, the average number of cases a month that were diagnosed as AIDS and reported to the New York City Health Department was 44. During the six-month period ended in June 1983 - the most recent available data compiled by the department - the average monthly number of diagnosed cases was 59. This indicates a 34 percent increase in cases, Dr. Chamberland said.
She cautioned, however, that it was still "too early to predict a disease trend."
Frances Tarlton, a spokesman for the State Health Department, agreed. "It is certainly not doubling every six months, but there still are increases," she said. "It's still too early to make a definitive statement." Steady Increase Nationwide
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there continues to be a steady increase in the number of victims of the disease nationwide. As of Sept. 12, 2,290 cases had been reported nationally, of which 926 had resulted in death. Of the reported cases, 41.4 percent were in New York City.
Meanwhile, efforts to find a cure for the disease, whose cause remains unknown, continue, as does the search for a test to identify potential carriers.
Dr. Mathilde Krim, head of the interferon laboratory at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and a member of the international AIDS task force, said that, at the institute and other medical centers, promising results had been achieved by treating patients with interferon, but that as yet there was no cure.
Dr. James W. Curran of the Centers for Disease Control reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that mild forms of the disease might exist. He cautioned that there was often a lag between exposure to the disease and its diagnosis. Panel to Distribute Funds New York State, which has allocated $4.5 million for AIDS research, recently announced the appointment of a eight-member panel to distribute the grant funds.
These are the members of the panel: Dr. Harold S. Ginsberg, chairman of microbiology, Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Beatrix Hamburg, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine. Dr. Abraham M. Lilenfield, acting chairman, behavioral science department,
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Richard A. Rifkind, specialist in hematology and chairman, Sloan-Kettering Institute. Dr. Matthew Scharff, chairman, cell biology
department, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. Dr. Gene M. Shearer, senior investigator,
immunology branch, National Cancer Institute. Dr. G. Jeanette Thorbecke, professor of pathology, New York University School of
Medicine. Dr. Daniel C. William, clinical medicine instructor, Columbia College of Physicians
and Surgeons, and member, medical advisory committee, Gay Men's Health Crisis
Inc. Mrs. Tarlton said that the state had already received more than 200 inquiries about the grants and that the grants were to be awarded by Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, the Greater New York Blood Program reported that blood supplies in the area had returned to normal after a campaign to inform the public that contracting AIDS was totally unrelated to donating blood.
"The panic has subsided," said Greg MacGregor, a spokesman for the blood program, which serves 262 hospitals in the area.
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