The New York Times - November 10, 1985
John J. O'Connor

The researchers, participants in a recent three-day conference on the disease, say the European authorities could identify people exposed to the AIDS virus and educate them about the hazards of certain sexual activities and intravenous drug use.

AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, has stricken 1,200 people in the 10-nation European Economic Community, or Common Market. The disease can be spread by intimate sexual contact and use of contaminated syringes.

The Common Market has designated centers for AIDS research, such as the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which has played a leading role in work on the ailment. But according to Luc Montagnier, head of the viral oncology unit there, "We are having trouble getting the money we need." $8 Million in Research Funds "The virus is spreading much faster than the money," said Andre Baert, secretary of the Common Market's working group on AIDS and one of the organizers of the conference. He said governments in Western Europe provided only $8 million in special AIDS research funds during 1984, and the number has not increased significantly this year.

"The money being spent in Europe is piddling when compared with the United States," says David Taylor-Robinson, head of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at London's Clinical Research Center. "There's a good deal of burying one's head in the sand. It's just crazy."

In the United States, with about 14,000 AIDS cases, Congress approved $200 million in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, up from $109 million the year before.

Comprehensive Proposal

The working group on AIDS, formed in early 1984 to draw up a European approach towards the disease, proposed a comprehensive plan on a par with American efforts. But the four-year $153.8 million program was turned down by the strapped Common Market members. When budget discussions begin next year, the group will submit another proposal.

Doctors here have much more information about the disease than American doctors had when it broke out in the United States in the early 1980's.

But the lack of money restricts measures that doctors or public health authorities can take. For example, Dr. Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute recently produced a 94-page pamphlet about AIDS, but the glossy booklet is being sold at four dollars a copy to recoup production costs. Some people who need the information may not be able to afford it.

Exposure to Virus

Jonathan Gold, associate director of the special studies laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a participant in the conference here, said he believed it might be possible to halt the spread of AIDS in Europe because only about 20 percent of European homosexuals have AIDS antibodies in their blood, an indication of exposure to the virus that causes the disease. In some parts of the United States, up to 80 percent of homosexuals have the antibodies.

Researchers say the relatively small number of AIDS patients in Europe makes it doubly important for doctors to coordinate their clinical tests. Participants at the conference here decided that the Common Market's working group on AIDS should join forces with the European Organization for Research on Treatment of Cancer, also based in Brussels, to analyze test results and foster cooperation between researchers in different countries. But doctors say the effort's success largely depends on how much money is available from the Common Market or national governments.

Some doctors assert that if governments and Common Market health officials cannot find the funds now, an expanding caseload of AIDS patients will force them to take action later.

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