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SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 7/1993
LOWG TERM SURVIVE
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DAVID STANLEY
Drug research still not last enough
When I was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985,
there was nothing, absolutely nothing, avail
able for medical treatment. Many times, I
have heard angry protests about how slow the
progress has been, and how few options arc
available for treatment. These protests are all
justified. If more money had been allocated
by the Republican administrations in the eight
ies, we could have been much further along
in the nineties. Many thousands of lives might
have been saved with more action and com
passion from the Reagan and Bush adminis
trations.
At the same time, we should be thankful
for the progress that has been made. No longer
will a new AIDS patient hear the words I
heard, “We’ll take things, infections, as they
come. We’ll treat each infection the best we
can, and we’ll try to make you as comfortable
as we can.” My only hope in 1985 was to die
comfortably. In 1985, a diagnosis of AIDS
was a death sentence.
There have been many breakthroughs
since then in knowledge of the virus, if not in
ways to combat it. We have prophylaxis drugs
that help prevent some of the opportunistic
infections that used to be among the largest
killers of AIDS patients. I’ve talked to doc
tors who said that it had been years—years—
since one of their patients had had
pneumocytis carinii pneumonia.
We have people with zero or near zero T4
cell counts, who go to work, who exercise,
and who feel fine. They are rare, but they do
exist, and their numbers are growing. Better
treatments have continuously been discov
ered and progress is being made.
All this progress does not mean, however,
that we should be happy or satisfied with this
progress or with the directions in which most
research has been heading. Too much research
seems to be rehashing things we already know.
AZT is still being studied. Granted, compar
ing a new drug to AZT is preferable to using a
placebo, but there is still research in the US
and Europe of the mechanisms of what AZT
actually does.
Most of the new drugs being studied are
in the same class of drugs as AZT. These
drugs all do the same thing, differing prima
rily in their toxicides. Even if one of these
drugs is discovered to be totally nontoxic, the
vims will one day adapt and mutate so that
the drug will eventually be useless.
Other direcdons of research arc slowly
coming around and should be encouraged.
Interleukin-2 was looked at early in the epi
demic, abandoned, and now it’s being looked
at again.
Alpha Interferon is thought of by most
doctors for its anti-tumor characteristics. In
terferon, however, is primarily an anti-viral
agent. It is produced naturally by cells when
they are attacked by a virus. I got rid of my
Kaposi’s Sarcoma over five years ago, yet 1
still take a daily shot of alpha Interferon. I
don’t take it now because I fear Kaposi’s
Sarcoma. I take it because it helps me fight
HIV. It is an and-retroviral, and it works
differendy than AZT. Combining these two
drugs is the primary reason I’m alive today.
More attendon needs to be drawn to Inter
feron.
Cell therapies are getting new attendon,
as are Protease inhibitors. It has been noted
that patients who take andoxident vitamin
supplements “seem” to do better than pa-
dents who don’t take the supplements. Re
search needs to be done in this area. I’ve
mendoned before that long-term survivors
need to be studied more. It needs to be deter
mined what we are doing that keeps our thera
pies working, when other padents on the same
therapies die.
A diagnosis of AIDS in 1993 is no longer
a death sentence. Progress has been made in
some areas, but some of these areas appear to
be overworked, while other areas have been
shoved aside or even ignored, due to lack of
funding or misguided thinking. With new
funding, we can start looking in these new
direcdons and find ways to keep more people
alive and healthy longer. Don’t let your rep-
resentadves think that research spending has
been enough. Health care reform should not
be used as an excuse to cut back on research.
More research dollars need to be spent, and
we need to let our representatives know this.
Unique South Beach T-shirt
raises money lor AIDS in Florida
Community Research Iniuadve of South
Florida (CRI), a non-profit HIV/AIDS re
search organizauon has created a unique T-
shirt to raise funds for AIDS research.
The letters “OUT” in SOUTH BEACH
are highlighted in red ink, symbolizing the
fact that many openly gay men and lesbians
have made South Beach their vacadon desti-
nauon, and the ideal location to open then-
new businesses. The tee shirt concept is the
creadon of Bemie Teeple, Director of Devel
opment for CRI. “The OUT tee shirt is a
natural, not only for South Beach gay visi
tors, but for the local community as well,”
Teeple said. “It makes a very strong state
ment in a very subtle way.”
According to CRI Exccudvc Director Ri
chard Siclari, funds raised from the sale of the
shirt have enabled CRI to enroll more than
950 padents into their clinical trials. “Funds
will enable CRI to expand access to our stud
ies to the ever increasing number of padents
who are interested in participating in promis
ing new therapies,” Siclari said.
CRI is taking phone orders (MasterCard/
VISA) for the OUT shirt by calling (305)
667-92%. The shirt is $10, with a two shirt
minimum and a $4 shipping and handling
charge.
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