New bid to cure A.I.D.S.

Press, 6 December 1983, Page 4

New bid to cure A.I.D.S.

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

Doctors in Sydney have begun treating a New Zealand A.I.D.S. victim with new antibiotics after previous treatment failed to have any affect. The patient, whose name is being kept secret by Australian health authorities, was described yesterday as being in a “fairly serious but stable condition.”

A spokesman for St Vincent’s Hospital said the new treatment began during the week-end after the victim failed to respond to other antibiotics being tried by; the team of doctors treating him. The doctor said the patient, aged 29, was weakened by his condition and mostly bedridden. She could' not speculate on his chances of recovery.

A.I.D.S. victims overseas are reported to have only a 50 per cent survival rate. A hospital spokesman said last week that the bowel infection the victim was suffering would cause no more than mild diarrohea in normal circumstances, but in the A.I.D.S. victim it resulted in “an overwhelming problem” because of his lack of immunity. ■ Nurses and doctors treating him wore masks, gowns, and gloves — more for the patient’s protection than their own, the spokesman said.

The r <)k!tim has been in about six weeks.