San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - Saturday, December 13, 1996 - Page A15
Dan Levy, Chronicle Staff Writer

In a history-making procedure that focused attention on experimental AIDS therapies and the issue of animal testing, doctors were preparing to kill Getty's HIV-infected bone marrow with massive doses of radiation -- and then replace it with AIDS-resistant marrow from a baboon. Even in the sometimes unorthodox realm of AIDS research, it was a breathtaking development.

Nobody knew how the baboon cells would affect Getty's body, or if some simian disease might attack his already-compromised system. But against the expectations of many medical professionals, he survived the operation.

Since then, Getty has put on 20 pounds, worked out regularly and taken up sailing again. He was virtually free of disease for 10 months, although in October he had a bout of chronic asthma. In jeans and a sweater, with a neat haircut parted on the side, he looks like a preppy ex-college jock.

"It's the best year I've had in five years," said Getty, 39, the other day in his Oakland loft. It had already been a hectic afternoon. An NBC News crew was finished filming, ABC and MS-NBC were calling in and NPR wanted him for the following morning. Even a reporter from his hometown of Waterford, Conn., was anxious to know how the man who got the baboon infusion was doing one year later.

Like a seasoned media manipulator, Getty welcomed the attention. His years as an activist taught him how to play the publicity game. With ACT-UP Golden Gate, Getty was a self-de scribed "cattle prod" trying to move the FDA and pharmaceutical companies toward more compassionate and less profit-driven policy on AIDS research.

His latest push is for access to affordable protease inhibitors, the therapies that have been shown to reduce the HIV viral load to zero in some recently infected people, although Getty believes the drugs have not helped him. He contends that protease inhibitors, which work best in HIV-infected people whose immune systems are relatively strong, do not help him. He had been taking the drugs for three months before the operation.

"I was thinking that 1997 would be remembered as the year we beat the epidemic," Getty said. "Now I think it will be remembered as the year of no access for some people with AIDS, while drug companies reaped maximum profit and AIDS-industry management gave itself more raises."

Getty's aggressive personal style has been controversial in the close-knit Bay Area AIDS community. He has also become a lightning rod of criticism for some animal-rights activists. But his bravery and devotion to the search for a cure is seldom questioned.

"I think Jeff has really moved the agenda forward," said Tad Tobias of AIDS Treatment News in San Francisco. "I have tremendous respect for him. He's been willing to put his life on the line for our community."

Getty was estimated to have less than six months to live when he approached the baboon-marrow research team at the University of Pittsburgh. "He'd heard about the protocol and read everything in print about it," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, head of the team, now at Allegheny University in Philadelphia. "Then he asked for readings not in print. Finally, he said he wanted to be our first patient."

A simian-to-human bone marrow transplant had never been tried before. Some doctors believed that if the alien marrow didn't kill him, the huge dosage of radiation before the 37-minute transfusion would.

But so far those fears haven't come to pass. The baboon cells vanished from his body two weeks after the operation and he has had no signs of baboon-related illness.

His doctors monitor his condition often, but they still aren't sure how to explain Getty's apparent good health.

"There were people who predicted that the radiation would kill Jeff, and it may have had the opposite effect," said Ildstad.

Getty himself believes that is precisely what happened. "All I know is that I got up from that (radiation) table, and I could breathe again," he said.

Before the operation, acute asthma was the illness that caused Getty the most misery. It appears to be returning. He would like to participate in a radiation protocol about to be finalized by doctors at the Gladstone Institute at UCSF.

"I'm lining myself up to do a zap in January or February. There's a lot of asthma forming in my lungs. Radiation is a good way to stop inflammation."

Getty knows that despite his run of good health, he is in an extremely precarious position. His T-cell count -- a measure of the strength of his immune system -- is 36, compared to a count of between 800 and 1,000 for an uninfected person. The shelves in his bathroom hold dozens of brown plastic pill bottles, the medicine cabinet is filled with pain relievers, and there are boxes of syringes piled on the floor. It makes for moments of subdued reflection, even for a firebrand activist.

"I have no regrets," he said. "When you're facing death, you have to take drastic action. The action doesn't actually have to work, but you have to take action. I came out of the operation, I had a good year and I'm going to do it again."
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