The New York Times - December 21, 1985
Lawrence K. Altman

This week Kenya became the first country in black Africa to officially report cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome to the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations with headquarters here. Kenya reported 10 cases of AIDS; six involved Kenyans and four were patients from three other African countries whose diagnosis was made in Kenya. Eight of the 10 patients are dead.

President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire said at a recent news conference in Kinshasa that he would act forcefully against AIDS in accordance with recommendations being drafted by medical experts in that central African country. A few days ago, doctors and health workers began distributing educational pamphlets about AIDS to their patients in Kinshasa.

Such public acknowledgments follow repeated denials of the presence of AIDS by government leaders in Kenya and Zaire. Kenya confiscated the Nov. 9 issue of The International Herald Tribune, which contained a New York Times article on AIDS in Kenya and other African countries.

New Cases Unreported

The prevailing thesis that the deadly disease originated in Africa has drawn widespread objection from officials there, who are concerned that irrational fear might jeopardize tourism and who perceive themselves as being blamed for starting an insidious ailment linked to taboo practices.

Dr. Fakhry Assaad, the World Health Organization's official in charge of AIDS activities, called Kenya's action "significant" because it opens the door for other countries in central and eastern Africa to do the same. Zaire, for instance, has not reported its AIDS cases to the World Health Organization.

In other central and eastern African countries where government officials still deny that AIDS is present, doctors are diagnosing several new cases of AIDS each week.

The health organization plans to create a unit at its headquarters that will be devoted to AIDS and to staff it with two medical experts, Dr. Assaad said in an interview.

Methods of Education

W.H.O., a specialized United Nations agency, is seeking $30 million from developed countries to help developing countries pay for the epidemiological, laboratory and other technical support needed to build a health system designed to detect AIDS, Dr. Assaad said. He said a main task for the two new physicians will be to stimulate and coordinate public health efforts against AIDS in Africa and other areas where the disease has become epidemic.

Dr. Assaad said he is seeking "novel ways" to tell the public about AIDS, particularly in Africa, because "we have nothing to combat AIDS except education." No effective treatment has been developed for the disorder, which is transmitted through blood and sexual contact and attacks the immune system, leading to death from infections that the body cannot fight off.

He said he would welcome suggestions from advertising and marketing executives, expressing the hope that imaginative workers would create jingles, catchy tunes and slogans to deliver messages through newspapers and posters and, most particularly, over transistor radios to reach people living in remote areas.

The new push was stimulated in part by a meeting here this week of about 60 health officials and experts from 27 countries who agreed to help W.H.O. develop a stronger program against AIDS.

Russian Doctor at Meeting

One sign of the mounting concern was the participation of Soviet and Hungarian health officials in a W.H.O. meeting on AIDS for the first time.

Dr. Maja I. Parfanovich of the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology in Moscow said that two cases had been diagnosed in Central Africans living in Russia but none among Russian citizens.

Dr. Istvan Domok, who is deputy director general of the National Institute of Hygiene in Budapest, said that though doctors have not diagnosed any cases of AIDS in Hungary, they had detected evidence of the AIDS virus in the blood of about 30 homosexual men, who are the main risk group for AIDS in developed countries.

Dr. Halfdan Mahler, the World Health Organization's Director-General, pleaded with the world's scientists and health officials, including those of his own group, to "sacrifice their own vanity conflicts" to develop the coordinated program needed to fight AIDS.

He said he felt "considerable anxiety" about the lack of scientific knowledge about the long-term effects of the AIDS virus on individuals and society. "Do we have a willingness of the best scientists in the world to work together so that all areas will be able to benefit from their cooperation?" Dr. Mahler asked, without answering his question.

Situation in Europe

Dr. Mahler, who spoke before word had arrived from Kenya, also criticized leaders of countries in Africa and elsewhere who have avoided reporting cases of AIDS. "Credibility is essential" to keep "undue alarm and fear of AIDS under control," Dr. Mahler said.

Dr. Jean B. Brunet of the Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris, which collaborates with W.H.O., said that "the AIDS situation in Europe is growing worse" with an increase in cases of 160 percent over the past year and with the number of cases doubling every nine months. Fifteen European countries had reported, as of Sept. 30, a total of 1,428 AIDS cases as against 559 in October 1984.

Meanwhile, the number of cases in the United States has continued to increase, though the doubling time has slowed slightly to every 13 months, reported Dr. James W. Curran of the Federal Centers for Disease Control.

As of Dec. 16, doctors in the United States had reported a total of 15,581 cases of AIDS and 8,002 deaths.

Of particular concern in Europe, Dr. Brunet said, was the "very rapid spread of AIDS among drug addicts," who contract the blood-borne disease through the sharing of hypodermic needles.

Spread Among Addicts

Dr. Friedrich Deinhardt, the director of the Max Pettenkofer Institute for Public Health in Munich, said that AIDS had "spread like wildfire" among some groups of drug addicts in West Germany.

Many European countries have begun to follow the lead of the United States in testing blood for evidence of the AIDS virus before using the blood for transfusions or injections as blood products for hemophiliacs and other people. W.H.O. has scheduled a meeting to develop ways to improve the safety of blood and blood products for the week of April 14, 1986.

Participants at this week's meeting said that such drugs as suramin, foscarnet and ansamycin, which are being tested against AIDS, have shown notable toxic effects. Researchers in the United States expect to move into the second stage of experiments in AIDS patients with two drugs, azidothymidine and Ribavirin, in accordance with the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration.

The participants also urged further study of AIDS-related viruses in animals and humans to help determine the origins of AIDS, their relevance to human diseases of unknown cause, and their potential in developing a vaccine against AIDS.

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