United Press International - Sunday, September 25, 1983

Scientists are trying to find the cause -- and from that a cure -- for AIDS, which kills almost half its victims by stripping them of their immunity against common diseases.

Dr. Bruce Evatt of the national Centers for Disease Control said he and other researchers had discovered that a significant number of apparently healthy hemophiliacs have leukemia virus antibodies similar to those observed in victims of AIDS.

Hemophiliacs -- along with homosexuals, intravenous drug users and recently arrived Haitian immigrants -- are considered high-risk groups for AIDS.

Discovery of the leukemia virus antibodies in 13 of 93 hemophiliacs, the researchers said, was part of a "growing chain of evidence linking the abnormalities seen in AIDS" to leukemia-type viruses.

Evatt said the hemophiliacs had antibodies indicating that they had had T-cell leukemia virus, called HTLV. He said that none of the hemophiliacs actally contracted leukemia and that persons with HTLV do not necessarily develop the disease.

"What role HTLV plays in the development of AIDS still remains the focus of intensive investigation," he said, "for the vast majority of hemophiliacs who have antibodies to HTLV show no manifestation of AIDS."

Some, he said, have had the antibodies since 1978 -- although the healthy hemophiliacs with antibodies to HTLV also have a defect in their immune systems seen in victims of AIDS.

Evatt said both groups had reduced numbers of white blood cells called T-helper lymphocytes. These lymphocytes play a vital role in the body's ability to resist infection.

HTLV, he said, is known to attact the T-helper cells.

At least 16 American hemophiliacs without any of the other known risk factors for AIDS have developed the disease within the last year and a half. Hemophiliacs, researchers have said, are apparently risk the disease through blood transfusions.

Other researchers earlier this year reported HTLV virus in homosexual victims of AIDS.

As of Sept. 12, there have been 2,290 cases of AIDS reported to the CDC and 926 deaths.

Evatt said, "I think there is some evidence to suggest there may be an association with HTLV and some problems with the immune system." But he said this did not mean the virus is the cause of AIDS.

"It would be safe to say that there may be a number of candidate viruses identified in the future and the most difficult problem will be to demonstrate which, if any, have a causal relationship to AIDS."
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