United Press International - July 29, 2005
Dan Olmsted, UPI Health Editor

For the first years of the AIDS epidemic, there was almost no good news. Now the life-saving effects of drugs are clearer than ever -- that is, for people who know their HIV status and can afford to get treated.

This week brought news that treating HIV patients with the most aggressive form of medical therapy is "transforming" the disease, according to researchers.

A study by Jonathan Sterne at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and colleagues found that highly active anti-retroviral therapy, or HAART, cut the progression to AIDS or death by 86 percent over those who received no treatment.

"This result confirms the view of every clinician, that the short-term to medium-term prognosis of HIV-seropositive patients has been transformed," said Dr. Brian Gazzard in the new issue of the British medical journal The Lancet.

The results are so positive, in fact, that more testing for HIV is now starting to seem like a moral imperative.

"This transformation in outlook requires a re-evaluation of present policies about HIV testing. Gone is the equipoise requiring detailed consulting about the pros and cons of an HIV test. Knowledge of one's HIV status can be life-saving."

With an outcome like that, the failure to reach so many with what is obviously life-saving treatment becomes even more disturbing, the researchers noted.

"The very large benefits of HAART that are achievable in developed countries should remind us of the urgency of providing treatments for the millions of people who could benefit in other parts of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa," Sterne said in a statement.

On another front, the prospect of startling medical advances provoked Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate majority leader, to break from President George W. Bush and support an expansion of stem-cell research.

Frist was careful to cast his decision as a logical step given the increasing signs that stem cells could provide treatment for dozens of devastating diseases.

"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," said Frist, a medical doctor and heart surgeon.

"Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified. We should expand federal funding (and thus NIH oversight) and current guidelines governing stem cell research, carefully and thoughtfully staying within ethical bounds."

Frist noted the complexities of being pro-life and advocating broader stem-cell research, adding that "stem cell research presents the first major moral and ethical challenge to biomedical research in the 21st century."

It is safe to say, not the last, however..

End notes: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic are creating a tiny heat spreader that can be implanted in the brains of people with epilepsy. It is part of a device designed to detect the onset of a seizure and cool that part of the brain, heading off the seizure. ... The drug rulizole, used to treat Lou Gehrig's disease, shows promise against obsessive-compulsive disorder, Yale researchers said.

E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com

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