More haste might not mean less A.I.D.S.

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 16

More haste might not mean less A.I.D.S.

From “The Economist,” London

Why so fast? France’s extraordinary speed in announcing a treatment for A.I.D.S. suggests a rash concern to be first. Rivalry with American scientists for the financial spoils,that finding a remedy would bring,is no doubt a leading motive. Only a week after trying the treatment on the first of half a dozen patients, doctors at the Laennec hospital in Paris announced on October 29 that they might have found how to block A.I.D.S. (though not to cure it). The French Government quickly gave the discovery a provisional seal of approval, saying it offered “reasonable hope.” Coming from France, this will indeed raise hopes among A.I.D.S. victims, in spite of the scant testing of the proffered remedy. The French have built up a reputation in the field. It was the Pasteur Institute in Paris which isolated the A.I.D.S. virus in 1983. Credit for this breakthrough was also claimed by American scientists, however, and a wrangle over

priority continues, making French researchers doubly keen to get in first when they can. The Laennec doctors skipped the established international research practice of announcing ’ their discovery in a learned medical journal, arguing that other hospitals could begin using their treatment all the quicker. The Laennec treatment is based on cyclosporin A, an immunological drug discovered in the late 1960 s which is now used to prevent the rejection of transplanted body organs. Oddly, cyclosporin works, not unlike A.I.D.S. itself, by knocking out part of the immune system. The French doctors says that, without destroying the A.I.D.S. virus, it stops the disease spreading within the body. They got what they called spectacular results from tests begun last week on two far-gone , A.I.D.S. sufferers, a woman and a man. Tests on four others were under way. Copyright, “The Economist.”