Megace (megestrol acetate), a readily available drug usually used to treat advanced breast cancer in women, showed good results in treating wasting syndrome (cachexia) in every one of 14 persons with HIV (13 of whom had AIDS) reported in an article published last month. (Von Roenn JH and others, Megestrol acetate for t
Bird droppings, a breeding ground for disease-causing fungi and other organisms, can be a health hazard especially to persons with immune deficiencies. In San Francisco, pigeon droppings have become a growing public concern. Many people do not know that there is a simple, effective repellent to keep pigeons from lighti
The use of typhoid injections as an AIDS treatment is being aggressively promoted in the media. Many physicians are concerned that general immune stimulation might also stimulate the growth of HIV and cause AIDS to progress faster; but many of the typhoid-shot advocates believe that AIDS is really syphilis and HIV does
In AIDS Treatment News #68 (November 4, 1988), we described work at the Quan Yin Acupuncture and Herb Center, and the San Francisco AIDS Alternative Healing Project. Another important San Francisco resource on Chinese medicine is the American Foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (AFTCM), a non-profit foundation.
We use the term mandate for ignorance to refer to a hidden but, we believe, enormously important problem in the effective management of clinical trials. It is widely agreed that a placebo trial (or any other drug trial in which patients are assigned at random to two or more treatment possibilities) is unethical unless
In the last two weeks we heard from two persons with CMV retinitis in immediate danger of going permanently blind because they have fallen between cracks in the red tape surrounding drug development and treatment access. Both had failed using ganciclovir (also called DHPG), one of the two experimental but recognized tr
Ethigen Corporation of Los Angeles, CA called to remind us that the name AL 721 is their registered trademark, and should not be used to refer generically to egg lecithin products. We had used it that way in recent articles. In the future we will use egg lecithin lipids to refer generically to egg lecithin products (in
Many people using antabuse (or using DTC, also called imu- thiol) as an immune modulator experience cramps and diarrhea the day after taking the medication. Bernard Bihari, M. D. asked a nutritionist about possible diet supplements to control these effects. The method suggested completely controlled the problem in seve
AIDS Treatment News often cites articles in medical journals. How can you get copies of these articles if you do not have access to a medical library? A number of commercial document-retrieval services can take orders by telephone and copy and mail the articles within a few days, usually for less than $10. They can obt
In October, AIDS Treatment News (issue #67) reported on passive immunotherapy, a treatment which consists of taking plasma from healthy HIV-positive donors who have high levels of antibodies against the core proteins of the AIDS virus, and infusing the plasma into persons who have lost the ability to produce those prot
On November 21 the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) approved use of alpha interferon to treat KS. The drug, already available by prescription since June 1986 and previously approved to treat hairy cell leukemia and genital warts, is being marketed under two brand names, Intron-A (Schering Corp.) and Roferon (Hoffm
For over two months this writer has been a founding board member of the Community Research Alliance (CRA), a San Francisco organization modeled after the Community Research Initiative in New York. AIDS Treatment News has not reported on the CRA, because the board asked its members not to publicize the organization unti
As our subscribers know, AIDS Treatment News reports biweekly on new promising treatments and related public policy developments. While we don t have the funding to operate a hot- line, we do get many phone and mail queries from people around the country asking for help finding appropriate treatment resources and socia
For over two and a half years part of the material published in AIDS Treatment News has also appeared biweekly in the San Francisco Sentinel, a gay newspaper distributed free in San Fran- cisco. Last week a dispute between members of the staff and the newspaper s new owner resulted in the resignation of the entire edit
Last week the San Francisco AIDS Foundation published issue #2 of BETA (Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS). This issue reviews 14 different antivirals, and also includes an update on AZT , the focus of the first issue of BETA (#1). BETA is exceptional because it combines openness to treat- ment options, e
Last August, AIDS Treatment News sent a survey questionnaire to its subscribers, asking for their overall evaluation of any treatments they had used for AIDS, HIV, or any related condition. We asked subscribers to name up to three treatments that had worked best for them or for others they knew personally. We also aske
The National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is recruiting patients with CMV retinitis for a study of treatment with foscarnet. Previous uncontrolled studies have shown a 70-85 percent favorable response for treatment of CMV retinitis with this drug, which also has activity against HIV. Thi
This issue is going to press before the election, so we do not know whether Proposition 102, the AIDS reporting initiative, will pass. (For background on Proposition 102, see AIDS Treat- ment News issue # 65, page 7.) In case the measure does pass, we are including this section to address the immediate fear and confusi
Misha Cohen, O. M. D., C. A., founder and clinical director of the Quan Yin Acupuncture and Herb Center in San Francisco, has worked extensively with persons with AIDS and HIV infection for five years. We asked Dr. Cohen to outline the most important lessons from this work -- and also to suggest practical treatment opt
On October 19 the U. S. Food and Drug Administration announced new regulations to speed the development and commercial release of some drugs. Initial reaction by AIDS organizations has been mostly negative (see The New York Times, October 20, page 1). Project Inform expressed limited support. The rules essentially codi
An article in The New York Times October 14 confirmed rumors that had been circulating for weeks -- that ampligen was not proving effective in the current double-blind trials. After 20 patients in that study progressed to AIDS, the code was broken for those 20. Twelve of them were taking ampligen, compared to eight who
In a study described last June at the Stockholm AIDS confer- ence and published last month in The Lancet , researchers treated six persons with advanced AIDS by transfusing blood plasma from donors who were healthy seropositives selected for having a high level of the antibody against the p24 protein of the AIDS virus.
Since running our earlier article on the prices of prescrip- tion drugs, the following information was brought to our atten- tion by Ron English, whom we know through his work as a major fundraiser for the Community Research Initiative in New York. Mr. English is also working for Preferred Rx, of Independence, OH, the
A one-day symposium, AIDS, Immunity, and Chinese Medicine , will be presented by the Oriental Healing Arts Institute, on Sunday, October 23 from 9 AM to 5 PM, at the Marriott Hotel, near the Long Beach, CA airport. Speakers include well-known herbalist Subhuti Dharmananda, orthopedist and traditional Chinese doctor Qin
Recent conversations with leaders of the Community Research Initiative (CRI) in New York suggested several issues that a community-research organization should consider. We prepared this report, drawn from our phone notes, to help others develop similar research elsewhere. * Is the goal to do monitoring studies, prospe
The U. S. system of testing new treatments against AIDS or other diseases has become so cumbersome that many promising possibilities never even start the testing process. A new system called community-based research, pioneered by the Community Research Initiative in New York and the County Community Consortium in San F
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation has received special funding to serve women with AIDS and ARC, and their partners and children. This program, possibly the first of its kind in the nation, is already serving 80 women. Women with AIDS have faced unique, severe problems. For example, only five of the 80 clients in this
A right-wing AIDS initiative on California s November ballot would close anonymous testing centers, require doctors and researchers to report the names of anyone they believe to be HIV positive, and allow employers and insurance companies access to HIV test results. The legislative analyst s official estimate of the co
AIDS Treatment News talked with two physicians who negotiated large price reductions with testing laboratories by setting a price for panels of dozens of different tests. These examples may help other physicians make similar money-saving arrangements. (1) Positive Action HealthCare in San Francisco obtained a price of
A study of autopsy records at two major New York hospitals found that half of the persons who died of AIDS had cytome- galovirus ( CMV ) infections not suspected while they were alive. Several other opportunistic conditions were also undiagnosed; three quarters of the patients who died were found to have unsuspected AI
One of our subscribers wrote to his Representative, Congresswoman Patricia Saiki of Hawaii, about delays in AIDS drug trials. Congresswoman Saiki forwarded the letter to NIH, and received a reply dated July 18, 1988 from James C. Hill, Ph.D., Deputy Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)
The kinds of studies which we believe are appropriate for community-based trials (such as the antiviral herb study above, or the kinds of trials proposed by Leland Traiman, interviewed in AIDS Treatment News #64, September 9, 1988) have sometimes been dismissed by establishment scientists, who have argued that only the
Keith Barton, M. D., C. A., a Berkeley, CA physician who is also a certified acupuncturist trained in Chinese herbal medi- cine, has prepared a combination of six traditional Chinese herbs, all of which have shown anti-HIV activity in laboratory tests. (See Chinese Herbs Screened for Anti-HIV Activity , AIDS Treatment
John Alan Fox, one of the founders of the Healing Alterna- tives Buyers Club, died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on August 26, 1988. He had had AIDS since October 1986. The immediate cause of death was never diagnosed. John was a leading organizer and president of the board of directors of the buyers club (now The Heal
The major article in the last issue of AIDS Treatment News concerned hypericum (St. John s wort), a medicinal herb containing an ingredient which showed strong anti-retroviral activity in animal tests. Hypericum, considered moderately safe but not totally safe by herbalists, has long been used for other medicinal purpo
Are you getting the best prices for prescription drugs? Could you save money by using a mail-order pharmacy? AIDS Treat- ment News called pharmacies in seven cities, and also two mail- order pharmacies, to see how much prices varied. We found some great variations -- in one extreme case, a ten fold variation in price f
Leland Traiman, a nurse practitioner now working as clinical research manager for Marcus Conant, M. D. and managing Dr. Conant s trial of the experimental treatment TP-5 (thymopentin), discussed what makes the difference between a good or poor clinical trial, at the weekly public meeting of The Healing Alternatives Fou
(I.) Quan Yin Acupuncture and Herb Center in San Francisco will sponsor a new herbal program and study for 100 persons who are HIV positive. The 12-week program, which is partially subsidized and offered in conjunction with the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Portland, OR, and the Oriental Healing Arts Institute i
Alan Levin, M. D., of Positive Action HealthCare in San Francisco, asked us to warn people about possible gastrointestinal side effects of large doses of dextran sulfate. In recent weeks he has seen at least six people with explo- sive bloody diarrhea after taking 3000 mg or more of dextran sulfate per day. Two of them
A one-day conference on nutrition and AIDS, organized by the ARIS Project (an AIDS service organization) and the Stanford AIDS Education Project, will take place at the Dinkelspiel Auditorium on the Stanford campus, Saturday September 10. Registration at the door is 7: 30 to 8: 30 AM; a talk by Donald Kotler, MD, gastr
The 1988 International Symposium on Medical Virology, spon- sored by the Department of Pathology, University of California Irvine Medical Center, will be at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in San Francisco, Sept. 22-24. Registration is $225.00 ($125.00 student), and credit is available. Scientists will provide a comprehen
A chemical in a common plant used in herbal medicine (St. John s wort), and previously tested in humans as an antidepres- sant, has been found to strongly inhibit retroviral infections in animal and laboratory tests. Researchers writing in the July 1988 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (abbreviated PNAS)
Issue #60 of AIDS Treatment News described the new PCR test, a very sensitive biochemical test for HIV. After reading the article, Joseph Sonnabend, M. D. called to alert us to the con- troversy over whether this research test is ready for clinical diagnostic use, because of the unknown risk that it could produce false
An article in the August 9 San Francisco Chronicle first reported that Genentech , a biotechnology company in South San Francisco, had been granted permission for human tests of CD4, its genetically engineered AIDS treatment. The company applied for permission in January. In the week before the article, two people who
The following comments were edited from an August 5 telephone conversation with Nathaniel Pier, M. D., a New York physician treating several hundred patients with AIDS and related con- ditions: We have lost something in the struggle to find therapies for AIDS. The individual patient with the counsel and guidance of his
A behind-the-scenes effort to reform the Federal drug-approval process has recently become public through an editorial in The Wall Street Journal (August 2), and a major article in The New York Times (August 7). The effort, spearheaded by Vice President George Bush and his Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief,
Positive Action HealthCare in San Francisco (see AIDS Treat- ment News January 1, 1988) has arranged for a supplier in Japan to ship small quantities of dextran sulfate for personal use. Delivery should take 10 to 14 days -- compared with four to six weeks usually required in the past, when people had to collect orders
The American Foundation for AIDS Research ( AmFAR ) awarded $30,000 to New York s Community Research Initiative, and $50,427 to San Francisco s County Community Consortium, for testing AIDS treatments through patient volunteers in physicians private practices. Such community-based trials can be set up much faster than
An autovaccination treatment developed at the University of Dusseldorf in West Germany has shown impressive results in the 14 AIDS/ARC patients treated so far, according to a letter published last month in The Lancet. 42 additional patients have now entered the study. The 14 patients started the treatment in 1985 and 1
Two researchers, one at the University of California at Davis and the other at the Chinese University of Hong Kong , have screened 27 herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine for treating infections. Five of the herbs almost completely stopped HIV in laboratory cells; six others also showed significant activity (see
In a surprise announcement on July 23 to the Lesbian and Gay Health Conference and AIDS Forum in Boston, U. S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Frank E. Young told an audience of several hundred people that the FDA would allow patients to import small quantities of unapproved medicines for personal use. The po
(Statement distributed at the Lesbian and Gay Health Conference and AIDS Forum, Boston, July 1988) For over two years we have published biweekly articles on experimental and alternative AIDS treatments and research, in the San Francisco Sentinel and as AIDS Treatment News. We could not come to Boston this July, so we p
A major lawsuit over substandard care of persons with AIDS in Dallas may establish national precedents on whether indigent patients have a right to health care. Parkland Memorial Hospital, the large county hospital comparable to San Francisco General here, treats over 1,000 patients with AIDS, ARC, or who are HIV posit
An article in the July/August issue of San Francisco: The Magazine traces the history of the suramin drug trial in 1985-- the first multicenter test of an antiviral AIDS drug in the United States . This disastrous trial killed some of the participants and became a major setback for AIDS research, delaying the progress
A new HIV test far more sensitive than any other is now available commercially to physicians. The new test, called PCR (polymerase chain reaction), often detects HIV infection months before the antibody test; in one case reported at the AIDS conference in Stockholm, it detected HIV three and a half years before serocon
The Stockholm AIDS conference will continue to be a major theme for the next several issues of this column. But due to reader requests we are also starting a theme of affordable treatment options--whether they were discussed in Stockholm or not. The list below shows some of the treatments we plan to investigate; we don
--Stockholm conference abstracts available (1) In San Francisco: A copy of the abstracts of all three thousand presentations at the Stockholm conference is kept at the library of The Healing Alternatives Foundation (formerly the Healing Alternatives Buyers Club), 273 Church Street, in San Francisco, open Tuesday throug
On AIDS presents unusual difficulties--problems which help explain why treatment developments received less press coverage than they deserved. Reporters faced a huge mass of information with no organizing principle, and no help in deciding what was important other than following the conventional wisdom of what was in s
Dozens of treatment possibilities appeared somewhere among the three thousand presentations at Stockholm. Most were largely ignored, however, with their poster sessions usually empty; the scientists just walked by. Usually no evidence suggested that these treatment prospects were any worse than the ones getting the att
The IV International Conference on AIDS , June 12-16 in Stockholm, Sweden , included over three thousand scientific presentations--more than twice as many as last years meeting in Washington, D.C. We covered these conferences to gather information on promising treatment possibilities and related scientific research. T
Just before going to press we received the recommendations of Retired Admiral James D. Watkins, Chairman of the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic, to be considered by the full Commission before it issues its final report. This important document includes hundreds of specific recommendations for better managem
Issue #57 of AIDS Treatment News published part I of our interview with Dr. Steve Morin, legislative assistant to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Part II continues here. (We commented to Dr. Morin that the staffing problem could also explain the inability to investigate the suspicion that the AL 721 now being used in NIH (
The guerilla clinic movement, best known for its interest in DNCB as a possible AIDS treatment, has collected and distributed evidence that sunlight or other ultraviolet light might stimulate the growth of HIV and be harmful to persons with HIV infection. Now a new laboratory study, published May 5, 1988 in Nature, gre
At a meeting on May 14 and 15, People With AIDS Coalitions in six states issued a call for AIDS organizations to work toward a unified approach with more attention to treatment access issues. The Desert and Mountain States Regional Conferences of People With AIDS Coalitions, representing PWA coalitions in Albuquerque,
Persons who have had pneumocystis in the last six months may be able to receive aerosol pentamidine without charge, in a study by the Institute for HIV Research and Treatment at the Davies Medical Center in San Francisco. Patients may continue using AZT or other antivirals during this study. No placebo will
Delays as long as 12 days in diagnosis of pneumocystis have become a major problem. Recently the AIDS/ARC Interest Group of the Golden Gate Nurses Association (Region 12 of the California Nurses Association) published a statement on the problem. Their statement may help AIDS service organizations elsewhere obtain more
The first issue of the Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS (BETA), published by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, is now in press and will be available soon. Copies can be ordered now (see below). BETA is published as an educational resource for people considering experimental treatments for AIDS, ARC and HIV
A short, 12-page report published in April by a conservative think tank and now widely circulating in Washington, DC provides perhaps the best call ever written for major reform of the FDA drug-approval process. The AIDS community might consider using this proposal as a rallying point. It suggests a workable, politica
Octreotide, a synthetic substitute for the naturally-occurring hormone somatostatin, is a new designer drug with the same general structure as peptide T. (Both are artificially created peptides with eight amino acids.) Octreotide would be expected to provide symptomatic relief for severe diarrhea, such as that caused b
A well-informed source recently told us that researchers are excited about a designer drug being developed by major pharmaceutical companies. We have NOT been able to confirm this report, but chose to publish what we heard, in case any of our readers have more information about this project and can help us assemble a c
Last September 25 AIDS Treatment News published a full report on fluconazole, an experimental drug which seems to be a major advance in treatment of systemic fungal infections, especially cryptococcal meningitis. Unlike amphotericin B, the conventional treatment, fluconazole is given orally, freeing the patient from lo
On April 28 and 29, Representatives Ted Weiss (D-NY) and Nancy Pelosi (D-SF) held hearings on AIDS research delays and treatment-access problems. These hearings were held in Washington, D.C. by the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Government Operations Committee, chaired by Mr. Weiss. Witnesses included top
Political funerals occur in many parts of the world, for example South Africa and the Middle East. Now this form of protest is being discussed for AIDS. We first heard the idea several months ago, as plans to scatter human ashes on the White House lawn as a protest of the Reagan Administration s mismanagement of AIDS e
On April 28, The Healing Alternatives Foundation (THAF, formerly named Healing Alternatives Buyers Club, or HABC) gave a $1500. emergency grant to ACT NOW to help in coordinating the Spring AIDS Actions of 1988. ACT NOW is a national network of ACT UP and similar local organizations throughout the country (including th
The American Foundation for AIDS Research is publishing the latest edition of its important treatment directory this month. Formerly called the AmFAR Directory of Experimental Treatments for AIDS and ARC, it will now be titled AIDS / HIV Experimental Treatment Directory. This new edition will include background informa
The major scientific AIDS conference of the year will take place June 12-16 in Stockholm, Sweden . The IV International Conference on AIDS is the fourth in this international series; last year s was in Washington, D.C. in June 1987. Thousands of scientific papers on all aspects of AIDS will be presented. AIDS Treat
MM-1 is an antiviral drug developed and tested by a team of physicians in Egypt and Zaire . Several hundred people so far have received the drug, which is given as a series of 20 intramuscular injections over several weeks, and the results from several dozen persons have been reported. The developers have made impr
A new kind of AIDS clinic and treatment research center is seeing its first patients this week in San Francisco. We interviewed its founder, Robert E. Anderson, M.D. ViRx Medical Group, Inc. aims to bring together patients seeking the latest AIDS research information and access to experimental treatments, with pharmace
Part I of this interview (SF Sentinel, April 8) concerned the activities and plans of the County Community Consortium. Part II concerns dextran sulfate, imuthiol, and other clinical trials at San Francisco General Hospital in which Dr. Abrams has been an investigator. Dextran Sulfate JJ: How did the dextran sulfate tri
Ryan White, diagnosed with AIDS three years ago at age 13, has become well known to the nation through media coverage of his situation. White, exposed to AIDS through a hemophilia treatment, was banned from the local school and forced by prejudice to move from Kokomo, Indiana to Arcadia, Indiana, where he and his famil
Future historians will decide whether AIDS was an epidemic that was allowed to happen in America or an example of the biomedical community s ability to respond promptly to a crisis. Perhaps both are true. (From Howard M. Termin, M.D., in An Academic s Perspective On AIDS Research , Issues In Science and Technology, pu
On April 28 and 29, Representives Ted Weiss, Nancy Pelosi, and others on the House Subcommittee on Human Resources grilled Federal officials on AIDS treatment research delays. The New York Times reported in a page-one story (April 30) that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Many U.S. physicians and scientists believe that AL 721 could not work, because it would be digested and not have any effect except as a nutrient. Shortly before going to press we found published information bearing on this question. We could not reach Shinitzky for his comments, however. In the laboratory, according t
The experimental AIDS treatment AL 721 continues to be controversial. Recently we spoke with the principal developer of AL 721, Meir Shinitzky, PhD, a cancer researcher and Professor in the Department of Membrane Research at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel . Dr. Shinitzky gave us new information ab
On April 20, Donald Abrams M.D. presented early results from the world s only clinical trial of dextran sulfate as a potential HIV treatment to the County Community Consortium, a group of several dozen physicians in San Francisco. The same data had already been presented to the federal government s AIDS Clinical Treatm
This article will appear simultaneously in ACT UP LOS ANGELES newsletter (213-668-2357), and in AIDS TREATMENT NEWS (415-255- 0588). ---------- Today we know that hundreds of thousands of people will die of AIDS in the United States alone over the next several years-- unless effective treatments become available. Yet
A friend of ours who is a medical professional (not a physician) recently called a number of physicians and research centers to find out about treatments for MAI, for his lover who has AIDS. He suggested that we pass on what he learned to our readers. He heard that a year ago there were no good treatments, but today th
A San Francisco immunologist has proposed using immunotoxins, a technology already tested in humans as an experimental cancer treatment, in the treatment of AIDS and ARC. Alan S. Levin M.D. of Positive Action Healthcare in San Francisco, who is presenting the idea this week at a meeting of the AIDS Medical Resource Cen
A network of AIDS advocacy organizations including ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power--chapters in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Rochester, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New Orleans, and elsewhere) and similar organizations such as AIDS Action Pledge and the ARC/AIDS Vigil (San Francisco), MASS ACT OUT (Bo
A new program at Columbia University for care for HIV-positive students could provide a model for universities and other institutions as well. The clinic will offer anonymous antibody testing and counseling. Lab work for the antibody test will be done by New York City; counseling by the Gay Health Advocacy Project, whi
San Francisco s Director of Health, David Werdegar, M.D., M.P.H., departed from his prepared testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic to call for much faster clinical trials of drugs to reduce illness and death from HIV infection, at hearings on March 25 in San Francisco.
* Naltrexone Safety Note: Dosage Error A typographical error in the October 1987 AmFAR Directory of Experimental Treatments for AIDS and ARC caused the recommended dose of naltrexone to be listed erroneously as 1.75 mg/kg . The intended dose was 1.75 mg per day. The erroneous dose was over 50 times too large and is pot
On February 16 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) approved the first-ever treatment IND for early release of an AIDS treatment--trimetrexate with leucovorin for pneumocystis. The AIDS community rightly welcomed this step forward--the first
On January 15 we published a short article, Ribavirin Available By Prescription? . We have since heard from Roberts S. Smith, a director of ICN Pharmaceuticals (the manufacturer of ribavirin), and of Viratek (the ICN subsidiary which developed the drug). He asked us to make it clear that ICN had nothing to do with the
This reporter obtained previously-unpublished information comparing persons with ARC who chose to use or not use ribavirin after finishing major clinical trials conducted at four medical centers in 1987. The numbers look very good, but they are not conclusive because of the way self-selection worked in this case. After
(March 15) On March 2 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) ordered Houba, Inc. of Culver, Indiana to stop manufacturing and selling its lipid product EL 1020 (which some have compared to AL 721). The letter said that ...promotional activities which accompanied the initial shipment of EL 1020 suggested that the
During the last two years I have published 50 articles on experimental AIDS treatments and the public policy issues around AIDS research. This work has illuminated critical gaps in advocacy for medical, research, and treatment-access concerns of persons with AIDS, ARC, or asymptomatic HIV. Many AIDS deaths are in fact
It has been widely reported that the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic has greatly improved after getting off to a bad start. We agree with this assessment. The current chairman, retired admiral James D. Watkins, is very good at running this kind of commission, and has approached the task without preconceptio
The biweekly newsletter AIDS Treatment news began as volunteer research and writing for an AIDS archiving organization in San Francisco. In little over a year it has grown to a circulation of over 3,500 almost entirely by word of mouth--an unexpected public response which illustrates the critical dearth of practical tr
On January 27 U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was widely quoted as saying that he didn t believe a cure for AIDS would ever be found. Koop was speaking at a London conference of health officials from 148 nations. We called Koop s office to find out what information that report was based on, and learned instead tha
Disclaimer: We interviewed several physicians in researching this article, but were unable to get them a draft copy to review before press time. Any mistakes are our responsibility, not theirs. We must also emphasize that information is changing rapidly, and this article may soon become obsolete - and in any case canno
AIDS Treatment News No. 049 (San Francisco Sentinel) - January 29, 1988
John S. James
DHEA (covered in AIDS Treatment News number 48) is sold by a number of suppliers all over the world. But some of these products are not intended for human use and may contain toxic hormones or other harmful by products of the manufacturing process. The best way to assure that a product is safe is to use pharmaceutical
More Seminars by Tom O Connor. Tom O Connor, author of the excellent book Living with AIDS: Reaching Out (available in most gay bookstores) is continuing his one-day seminars in San Francisco. All seminars are 9 am to 5 pm, saturdays, at the Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka St., in the Castro. * This Saturday,
Cryptosporidiosis is a serious, sometimes fatal opportunistic infection which causes severe diarrhea. Persons with a normal immune system can get the disease, which seems to be responsible for many cases of ordinary diarrhea, but recover in a few days or at most about two weeks. However, persons with a serious immune d
AIDS Treatment News No. 048 (San Francisco Sentinel) - January 15, 1988
John S. James
DHEA, a hormone already present in the human body and related to the male hormone testosterone, has been tested secretly for several months with a few AIDS patients in Paris. Word of the study leaked out; but those who know the most are not talking, and an aura of intrigue and confusion surrounds the research. No other
On January 1 Alan S. Levin, M.D., an immunologist in private practice in San Francisco, will open Positive Action Healthcare, one of the first outpatient clinics focused on treating healthy seropositive persons to attempt to prevent progression to AID or ARC. Typical patients will be HIV-positive persons usually with s
Nathaniel Pier, M.D. has about 300 AIDS/ARC patients in his private practice in New York. He also works with New York s Community Research Initiative (CRI), a project of the PWA Coalition. The CRI has obtained State and Federal approval to design and conduct clinical drug trials, providing unique opportunities for pers
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.