A.I.D.S virus link

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 11

A.I.D.S virus link

NZPA Sydney The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (A.1.D.5.), which is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of about 500 people, could be a human strain of African Swine Fever Virus, according to an American researcher. In a letter published in an April issue of the medical journal, the “Lancet,” Jane Teas of the Harvard School of Public Health, said that the “similarities in geography, symptoms and timing between Haitian A.S.F.Y. and A.1.D.5.” were so striking that they warranted further investigation. No cure has yet been found for A.1.D.5., which has particularly puzzled medical researchers because of its prevalence among homosexual men. Although it is believed that A.I.D.S. can incubate in the body for up to three years, patients who contract the disease are often seized by a sudden, violent infection which lowers natural defences. The victim then becomes susceptible to a range of acute and chronic infections, acute pneumonia, and some forms of tumours. Four cases of suspected A.1.D.5., one of them unconfirmed, have been reported in Australia. In her letter to the “Lancet,” Ms Teas asserted that about 75 per cent of reported sufferers were male homosexuals, and the remaining 25 per cent were recipients of blood donations, intravenous drug abusers, infants of known or suspected A.I.D.S. victims, or Haitians. “Closely paralleling the onset of the first case of A.I.D.S. in 1978 in Haiti was the first appearance of African Swine Fever Virus (A.S.F.V.), also in Haiti, in 1979,” she said. A.S.F.V. has not been known to infect humans, but she said that the strain discovered in Haiti may be different.