Reported HIV Carriers in Mideast Doubles over Past

JERUSALEM (Dec. 9) XINHUA - The number of reported HIV carriers in the Middle East has doubled over the past two years to 192,000, according to a regional conference on fighting against AIDS.

More than 40 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian health professionals and educators are holding a four-day meeting here since last Friday to explore ways to forge a joint war against the emerging common enemy: AIDS.

The conference is sponsored by the Jerusalem AIDS Project, an international non-governmental organization, and financed by Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Health Ministry of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Canadian government.

The participants are discussing ways to better overcome various AIDS education barriers in the conservative and religious settings in the region.

AIDS has yet to become widespread in the Middle East, but the pace of its transmission is alarming. U.N. AIDS official Johannes Van Dam told the conference that the HIV carriers in the region have doubled over the past two years to 192,000 and 10,000 people died from AIDS in 1995 only.

Improved reporting of the HIV cases was responsible for the higher number of known HIV carriers, but this was also due to the spread of the disease in the region, Dam said.

Statistics issued by the Israeli Health Ministry show that there are only 1,425 known cases of AIDS in Israel, which has a population of 5.7 million.

In the Palestinian self-rule areas, there have been only 28 reported cases of full-blown AIDS since 1981, according to Eyad Arafe, an expert from the PA Health Ministry's Department of Preventive Medicine.

He said that there was no new report of AIDS cases in 1996, but added that AIDS education should improve as fewer Palestinians were being tested due to fear of getting positive results.

To wage a common war against AIDS, the conference has approved the establishment of a new task force on AIDS Prevention. Inon Schenker, a spokesman for the Jerusalem AIDS Project, praised the participants' efforts to fight AIDS despite of the current difficult political situation. 09/12/96 9:2 GMT

Russia has 4,242 HIV-infected people

MOSCOW, May 15 (Itar-Tass) - There are 4,242 HIV-infected people in Russia and every day about 10 people contact the HIV virus which causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), representatives of public organizations combating AIDS told a news conference on Thursday.

The news conference anticipated AIDS Victims Day marked on May 18. Activists said preventive measures and comprehensive information for the population are the only ways to stop the epidemic.

A majority of the HIV-infected took drugs intravenously. Recent tests found that drugs often carry the virus, the activists said.

HIV-infection is widespread in the Kaliningrad and Nizhny Novgorod regions and the Krasnodar territory, according to the activists.

158 People Die of AIDS in Philippines

MANILA (May 20) XINHUA - The number of Filipinos who died of AIDS has reached 158 since the dreaded disease was first reported in the country in 1984, the Department of Health said today.

The department said in a statement that in April alone, 10 people were reported to be infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that cause AIDS.

Of the newly reported cases, six were males while four were females, with ages ranging from 23 to 50 years old, the department said.

A total of 897 people are now reported to be infected with HIV/AIDS in the country, according to the department.

The department also pointed out that over 600 of the country's total HIV infections obtained the AIDS virus from sex contact, making sexual transmission the leading cause of the spread of the disease.

Other modes of transmission such as blood transfusion, injecting drug use through needles and syringes, prenatal infection from infected mother were also reported in the department's AIDS Registry.

As the country's HIV infection cases nearing a thousand mark, the department said it is seeking new approaches in combating the spread of the disease.

Among these approaches are the declaration of this year's National AIDS Prevention Year to drum up AIDS education and awareness, and the country's hosting of the Fourth International AIDS Congress in Asia and the Pacific on October 25-29.

The congress, with the theme Partnership Across Borders Against HIV/ AIDS, will tackle latest advances in HIV research, treatment and prevention in the Asia-Pacific region.

Clinton Commits U.S. to Develop AIDS Vaccine

BALTIMORE (Reuter) - Evoking the memory of John F. Kennedy's challenge to Americans to put a man on the moon in the 1960s, President Clinton promised that the the United States would find an AIDS vaccine within a decade.

In a commencement address at Morgan State University Sunday, his first of this year's graduation season, Clinton announced that a special research center would be established at the National Institutes of Health to spur the effort.

"With the strides of recent years, it is no longer a question of whether we can develop an AIDS vaccine -- it is simply a question of when," Clinton said. "And it cannot come a day too soon."

Recalling President Kennedy's May 1961 commitment to send a manned flight to the moon by the end of the decade, Clinton said an AIDS vaccine should be the "first great triumph" of the 21st century.

"He gave us a goal of reaching the moon and we achieved it ahead of time," Clinton told graduates of the predominantly black college in Maryland's largest city. "Today, let us look within and step up to the challenge of our time."

"Let us today set a new national goal for science in the age of biology. Today, let us commit ourselves to developing an AIDS vaccine within the next decade," he said.

Clinton said to help fulfill the goal a dedicated HIV vaccine research and development center would be established at the National Institutes of Health.

Sandy Thurman, director of the White House Office of AIDS policy, said the center would be fully operational within the next several months and initially involve 40 to 50 scientists. It will add about $17 million to AIDS spending, bringing the annual total to $150 million, she said.

"We've had some breakthroughs in research, and so now we are looking at seizing this moment" to begin a focused effort, Thurman said.

But one AIDS group immediately criticized the president's declaration, saying the goal of finding a vaccine was not backed up with a committment of new spending.

"This is a sham and a hoax for Clinton to compare himself to Kennedy and then put no money behind it," Wayne Turner, spokesman for the activist group ACT-UP, said in a telephone interview. "Clinton proposed a Manhattan Project to cure AIDS in 1992. If he had started that Manhattan Project back then, we'd be well on our way to a cure now."

Clinton said also that at a summit in Denver in June, he will ask leaders of the world's other big industrial nations to support the AIDS vaccine initiative. The summit will bring together leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.

"I will enlist other nations to join us in a worldwide effort to find a vaccine to stop one of the world's greatest killers," Clinton said.

Clinton also challenged the U.S. pharmaceutical industry to increase their investment in AIDS-related research.

An AIDS vaccine should be part of the U.S. industry's "basic mission," he said.

About three million people worldwide are infected yearly with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, and an estimated 29 million people carry the virus. Without a vaccine, AIDS will soon overtake tuberculosis and malaria as the leading killer disease of people 25-to-44 years of age, experts said.

Clinton chose Morgan State, which is known for its focus on science and technology, to announce the initiative to underscore his commitment to the black community, which is disproportionately affected by AIDS.

Heroin Couple Live With Highs, Lows

HAMPSTEAD, N.H. (AP) -- Linda is 41. She is middle class and white, with a degree in psychology, a successful background in business and a raging heroin habit going back to when she was 12.

That first time, her older brother wielded the needle. "It hit me and I threw up, but I felt wonderful after. It was the best feeling I'd ever had, and I immediately fell in love with it."

Her boyfriend, Hank, is 57, a former restaurant manager and cook who struggled most of his life with alcoholism. It was Linda who introduced him to heroin three years ago, and now he is devoted to her, to her habit and to his own addiction -- and not necessarily in that order.

He's going out to find drugs, and it scares him.

"The cops are after you, the dealers are after you," he says. "There's no respect. There's no camaraderie. It's a miserable game and the guy with the money is the guy they want to kill."

Linda tries to explain why she and Hank risk so much. She has stolen from friends and family, shoplifted, been fired from jobs and busted for dealing, and sometimes gone homeless. Twice, she nearly died from overdoses.

Still, she cannot turn away from heroin.

"It's all you want, all your waking hours. You spend all your time trying to get it. ... You prostitute yourself. Not just sexually; it's a life prostitution," she said.

There is a certain dull familiarity to the lives of Linda and Hank. Through much of this century, heroin has been bane and temptation, and its users have degraded and humiliated themselves.

But experts in the field say the number of heroin addicts in the United States now is 2 million, up from about 500,000 in 1970. They are rich and poor and in between; they come in all colors and with every accent.

The rise in heroin addiction is attributed to plummeting prices (Linda says the cost of a bag has dropped from $30 to $10) and increased purity.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says Colombian drug traffickers are manipulating cost and quality to steal market share from Asian gangs.

By raising heroin's purity, from 10 percent to nearly 100 percent, they enable new users to snort and smoke the drug, making it more tempting for those who would shun needles.

Hank and Linda do not shy away from needles. And their use of the drug predates "heroin chic," recent advertising campaigns that glamorize the drawn, emaciated look associated with heroin addiction.

The lives of Hank and Linda are nothing like a blue-jeans advertisement.

Hank has been searching for hours, driving around Lawrence, Mass., but his dealers are temporarily empty-handed. One promises a new shipment from New York by evening, but that's four hours of withdrawal away.

Rather than wait, Hank visits Cathy, a 39-year-old prostitute addicted to heroin and cocaine. Her apartment serves as a shooting gallery.

Hank joins Cathy at her kitchen table, which is littered with razors and traces from lines of cocaine. She looks tired and her arms are swollen and bloody; she's been shooting up most of the day.

Normally, her apartment is a safe haven for a dozen addicts who store their drugs and use them there.

But the night before, Cathy's husband was arrested for dealing. The police didn't take any of the drugs, however, which Cathy says is a sign they're staking out the apartment.

"The pleasure here is we like the high. But it's scary. There's consequences," Hank says -- but he admits the risk adds to the excitement.

Cathy nods in agreement as she persuades another addict, a homeless man dying of AIDS, to shoot her up. It takes him 20 minutes to find a vein in her arm, probing with dirty hands and a needle he licked clean.

"You never know when you're gonna get busted," Cathy says, leaning her head back as the rush hits her.

Linda's apartment is in Haverhill, Mass., just over the border from Hank's home in Hampstead. It is meticulously decorated. Lace doilies cover every piece of furniture and porcelain cats crowd every table and shelf. The outside is not so nice -- it is Haverhill's drug zone, a neighborhood of decaying homes, blaring music and car alarms.

She gets money from Supplemental Security Income payments for disabled addicts and earns extra cash from odd jobs.

Linda's childlike face belies the needle tracks on her arms and neck. Her life has mirrored the highs and lows of the drug she abuses.

The same brother who introduced Linda to heroin also had raped her when she was 9 -- an attack her abusive mother accused her of inviting, Linda says. After that, drugs and alcohol were her escape.

"At first, heroin made me happy. It lies to you and tells you you're wonderful, you're beautiful, you're confident. It gives you some of those things, but only for a little while," Linda says.

On the surface, Linda appeared successful for many years. She owned successful hair styling and catering businesses and held good jobs.

But through it all, she used heroin.

Whenever she stopped, she'd be overwhelmed by depression and would start using again to numb her emotions. At the height of her addiction, Linda says she was shooting up about 20 bags of heroin a day at a cost of about $200.

But after realizing she didn't feel a thing even as she watched someone stabbing a friend of hers to death, Linda decided it was time to stop.

For five years, Linda successfully controlled her addiction. She went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and even got a job as an addiction counselor. But the lure of the drug proved too strong and she lapsed again.

In fact, Linda met Hank at the addiction clinic where they both worked.

Like Linda, Hank grew up in an abusive home. He was kicked out of the house when he was 16. By then, he knew he was an alcoholic, like his mother. "I was abused by alcohol for the first 16 years of my life, and I abused alcohol for the rest of it," he said.

Ten years ago, he nearly was crippled by a strain of pneumonia that damaged his knees and ankles and left him with chronic pain.

After his health insurance company denied him surgery that could have relieved the pain, a doctor gave him a prescription for Percocet, a synthetic opiate. But the pills quickly lost their effect.

Then Hank met Linda, and heroin.

"Within two days, I was hooked. But it was the first time in years I was without pain in my body. ... Within several months, (Linda and I) were like everyone else, doing whatever we had to do to get it," Hank said.

But not forever, Linda said. Six months ago, she decided once again to aim for sobriety and began weaning herself down to four or five hits a day.

"I'm going to stop tomorrow. When I had my five years (of sobriety), it started on the 25th of March. And I have a lot of hope today will be the last day I use and keep my old sobriety date. It seems as good a time as any," she said.

Hank returns to Linda's apartment hours later than expected, and enters smiling nervously. Cathy's connections came through; he pulls a handful of tiny heroin bags from the lining of his coat.

Moving into the bedroom, Hank and Linda begin the ritual that will be repeated every 30 minutes until their supply runs out.

Sitting in front of a coffee table draped with a silk cloth, Linda lines up the half a dozen ceramic boxes in which they store their "works." Hank lifts the cover of one and reveals two silver teaspoons, about a dozen syringes and tiny balls of cotton.

After dissolving the powder in water, he draws the solution into a syringe through a cotton ball. Linda mistakenly believes the cotton will filter out bacteria and impurities.

Hank prepares and inserts another needle into his arm. When he releases his grip, it jerks in rhythm with the beat of his heart. As the time between tremors shortens, heavy drops of sweat roll down his forehead.

After injecting 22 cubic centimeters of cocaine -- twice his normal dose -- he withdraws the syringe from the crook of his elbow and inserts another, this one filled with heroin.

"If I do a (hit) of coke, I'll have a heroin made up ... and ready to go. (The heroin) will bring me down fast and bring me back to normal," he explains, panting and gripping the sides of the armchair.

Linda, kneeling on the floor, keeps one eye on Hank and the other on the needle in her own arm. Drawing the plunger back and forth, she mixes the heroin with her blood inside the syringe.

"I'm getting too high. My heart's pounding and my head's swirling. I've got to come down quick," Hank says, giving Linda a panicked look as he strains to breathe.

Linda runs to the kitchen and comes back with a handful of ice to swab his neck and chest. "The ice cools the system down, slows your heart rate, slows your pulse," he says.

When his breathing slows, Linda relaxes and returns to her own needle. Another overdose averted; time for another hit. When they are done, they promise each other that they will stop using heroin, once and for all.

A week later, they are at Hank's house in Hampstead, which he shares with his wife. She knows of her husband's relationships with Linda and the drug, but seems to have stopped trying to end either one.

They still are using, and they are disappointed with themselves. Linda asks him to go to Lawrence to get more drugs. Hank thinks doing so may kill them both.

He wonders: Is he holding Linda back, keeping her from getting clean?

"The drugs are holding me back," Linda says, staring at the floor.

"You know I'd go out and (cop) for you. But I don't want to. I don't want to do drugs without you. I don't want to do drugs with you, either. I can't take it anymore. I hate myself," Hank says.

Linda nods: "I want to have a life. Because right now, when I'm in full-bloom addiction, that is my life. That's all there's room for. I feel horrible ... I don't want to lose any more."

HIV Drug Available at Pharmacies

NEW YORK (AP) -- Crixivan, the protease inhibitor most often prescribed to patients with the HIV virus that until recently was in short supply, will now be sold at pharmacies nationwide, Merck & Co. said Wednesday.

The drug has been taken by 85,000 patients in the United States and an additional 55,000 overseas since the Food and Drug Administration approved it in March 1996. But its supply was limited largely to one pharmacy company because the approval came before Merck finished its main factory, leaving some patients waiting weeks for their prescriptions.

The Elkton, Va., production plant has now met its original capacity goal, but is being expanded further to meet expected demand, Merck spokesman Michael Seggev said. More than 27,000 participating pharmacies will now be able to order the drug, Merck said.

Protease inhibitors are the most powerful AIDS drugs yet developed, credited with saving thousands of lives. They cripple an enzyme vital to the late stages of the AIDS virus reproduction. The newer AIDS drugs have not been compared, but doctors generally agree that Crixivan is the most potent.

Merck expected to finish the plant in the fall, but the drug was approved in 42 days, still an FDA record and six months earlier than anticipated.

Fearing it couldn't meet demand, Merck last year chose Pittsburgh-based Stadtlanders pharmacy as Crixivan's main distributor until full manufacturing could begin. The company felt one pharmacy was able to better track supply to make sure patients who had started the drug could get it in the event of shortages.

"The other choice was to wait six months and that was not acceptable," Seggev said. "People needed this life-saving drug."

Just a handful of patients could get Crixivan from any other pharmacy, mostly those with special Medicaid contracts.

Having a steady supply is important because the disease might develop a resistance to the drug if it is not taken regularly.

A smooth supply flow is also important to Merck. Wider availability of the drug makes Crixivan more competitive with other protease inhibitors, said Hemant Shah, an industry analyst in Warren, N.J.

"There are other products on the market, so it is very important to Merck to make sure it is easily accessible and widely available because every time Merck is not able to meet the supply, somebody else is taking that market share," Shah said.

The Stadtlanders arrangement became controversial after AIDS activists accused the company of price-gouging, although 80 percent of Stadtlanders customers received a discounted rate of $13.70 for a day's supply. Merck charged Stadtlanders $12.

Merck said it can now supply 240,000 patients but is expanding because it expects doctors to prescribe Crixivan to many more patients.

There are an estimated 1 million HIV carriers in the United States. Of them, one-third have been diagnosed and are being treated, one-third have been diagnosed but haven't yet been treated, and the remainder have not yet been diagnosed with HIV, Seggev said.

Merck shares rose 75 cents to $93.25 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading.

Lady Di Cleans Out Her Closet

LONDON (AP,17May) -- Diana is cleaning out her closet.

The Princess of Wales released details Saturday about 80 formal dresses she is putting up for sale to benefit AIDS and cancer charities, a fund-raising idea championed by 14-year-old son Prince William.

The list of high-fashion frocks Diana wore during her marriage to Prince Charles is topped by her favorite British designer, Catherine Walker, who made 42 of the evening, dance and cocktail dresses.

Other designers include: the Emanuels, Bruce Oldfield, Zandra Rhodes, Victor Edelstein, Murray Arbeid, Yuki, Bellville Sassoon and Lorcan Mullany, Hachi, Jacques Azagury, Gina Fratini, and Christina Stamboulian.

The dresses, to be auctioned June 25 in New York, span Diana's 15-year marriage to Charles, which ended in divorce last summer.

Moore Hosts Aids Gala in Cannes

CANNES, France (AP,17May) -- Elizabeth Taylor decided to stay home while she recovers from brain surgery, so Demi Moore stepped up to lead the annual AIDS fund-raiser at the Cannes Film Festival.

Moore asked for a moment of silence for AIDS victims and made an impassioned plea to keep up the fight at Thursday's dinner, which raised $500,000 for research.

"Collectively we make an enormous difference," the actress said. Recent advances in treating the disease are proof, she said.

Lauren Bacall, Mira Sorvino, Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant, Sean Penn, Geena Davis and Johnny Depp were among those attending the $2,500-a-plate dinner of foie gras and braised beef.

Taylor usually leads the annual gala.

N.Y. AIDS Walk Brings Memories

NEW YORK (AP,19May) -- Parents, friends and lovers left behind in the AIDS epidemic were among 35,000 people who took to Central Park on Sunday to honor the dead and raise millions of dollars.

"It's such a beautiful day and such an important cause," said Eva Friedman, who walked the six-mile charity route with two teen-age goddaughters.

"I lost a very incredible and wonderful friend to AIDS. He was on 29," said Friedman, 43.

Walking with about 50 other Sony employees, George McGlinchey, 64, remembered his 41-year-old son, who died of AIDS two years ago.

"If everybody did more, it would be a much better world," he said.

The 12th Annual AIDS Walk in New York benefits Gay Men's Health Crisis, which provides services to AIDS patients, operates prevention programs and does advocacy work.

Organizers said they hoped to raise up to $5 million through the walk, about what was raised last year.

Nell Carter, Tony Randall and other entertainers rallied the crowd before the walk, but there seemed to be fewer stars this year.

"A lot of people in our industry have jumped on to other causes and have forgotten this one," actress Rosie Perez said. "I've had a dozen friends die of AIDS. This is about them and a commitment to a real problem in the real world. It's not just another fashionable cause."

Over 5,400 HIV/AIDS Cases Detected in Vietnam

HANOI (May 12) XINHUA - Vietnam had detected 5,401 HIV/AIDS carriers in 50 of the total 61 provinces and cities nationwide by April 26, Vietnam's National AIDS Committee said today.

About 760 cases have developed full-blown AIDS. almost all of the hiv/aids are carriers drug addicts in the age between 20 and 49, said the committee.

SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS EPIDEMIC RUNS RIOT IN SOUTH AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG, (May 12) AIA/GIN - The latest HIV/AIDS surveys in South Africa show that the epidemic is spreading fast, outpacing efforts by health workers still trying to work out a comprehensive policy on how to tackle the disease.

"We are working hard to develop a detailed plan to deal with this scourge. The situation is serious. The sooner our people realize this the better," said Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma.

Desperate health workers have stepped up the distribution of 120 million male and 90,000 female condoms to areas the government says are most affected. "An alarming feature of the results of the survey this year is a rise in infection in the North-West Province. Here, 25 percent of pregnant women are HIV positive, contrasting sharply with 8,3 percent in 1995," said Zuma.

Nationally, a runaway rate of infection has pushed the number at risk to 2.5 million, threatening the nation's active population and a health sector already burdened by limited resources.

"By June last year, our surveys showed that 1.7 million people were at risk. Today, that figure has risen to 2.5 million, of whom 90,000 will develop full-blown AIDS by the end of the year. These results are of great concern, as they indicate that despite our efforts, the HIV epidemic is still on the increase," says the health minister.

Independent researchers say that up to 800 people are infected every day. That means 16 percent of South Africa's workers already have the HIV virus. The figure, says Prof. Ronald Green-Thompson, would rise to 20 percent by the year 2,000. By then, the cost of Aids to South Africa's economy was expected to rise from US$25 million to US$2.3 billion.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has moved in swiftly to assess South Africa's response to its international guidelines on dealing with the epidemic. WHO researchers are currently touring provinces to select sites which would be used by assessment teams in July, the first such exercise in South Africa.

Rose Smart, the director of the national HIV/Aids program, said: "Yes, we have a problem here. But although these WHO periodic reviews are common elsewhere, South Africa until recently was cut off from them."

The government has in the last three years tried to find ways to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS. But inexperience and ignorance of disease, compounded by international isolation and years of neglect of the black population, appear to have hampered the development of a sustained program.

"We need to make more people aware of the dangers of infection. We need to change attitudes," says a spokesman for the Gauteng public health department. "But we do not have manpower that is sufficiently trained to do that. We need to declare this disease a national disaster."

Dr Liz Floyd, head of the HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases unit, says although US$6.1 million has been set aside to fight the disease -- US$2.3 million more than last year -- the situation is so serious that new measures have got to be found to contain the high infection rate. "We need a lot of support. As things stand today, an infection rate of one in five young women may be reached by the end of the year," she said.

The unit conducts surveys every year among women attending public pre-natal clinics. Although the degree of infection varies, a pattern is emerging linking the spread of the disease to poverty, migration, family breakdowns and prostitution. The surveys also show that the greatest increase has been among women aged 20 to 24 years.

Floyd says the government must operate much more intensively to reverse the spread of infection. The supply of condoms is still uneven and unreliable, especially in high density peri-urban settlements and shanty towns. Primary care for the youth and home-based schemes are poorly coordinated and erratic.

Zuma says she believes AIDS workers should target schools in their prevention and awareness programs, discouraging children from being sexually active early. "My ministry has begun to work with the education department on a life skills scheme to educate school children about AIDS," she says. "We hope to reach 7,400 secondary and 13,500 primary schools under this program."

Donor agencies, churches, workers and business people are being drawn into the fight. Already Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Nelson Mandela and other prominent personalities are appearing on radio and television, urging South Africans to use condoms. The impact of such efforts has not yet been assessed, given the fact that South Africans are highly religious.

"Our people do not want to hear messages about HIV/AIDS. They believe it does not affect them," says Christiana van der Walt, a public health consultant with the government. "Condoms are unpopular, especially among migrant workers and people in our numerous squatter camps."

Testing Blood Levels of HIV Improves Treatment of AIDS

WASHINGTON (May 11) XINHUA - A test that counts AIDS viruses in blood should be routinely used on newborns with HIV-positive mothers for an early treatment, U.S. scientists said.

The test, until now used only to adults, offers hope that infants infected with HIV can be identified quickly and their lives extended, perhaps until they are able to respond to newer and more effective drugs, according to a news letter from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

"Measuring viral RNA in the blood more accurately reflects the level of infection" and the test shows within a month after birth whether a baby is also infected, chief researcher professor Thomas Quinn said.

Until now, doctors measures anti-HIV antibodies to determine whether a baby was infected. Because most antibodies newborns have are those they get from their mother in the womb, doctors had to wait several months before the mothers' anti-HIV antibodies in the baby disappeared.

Measuring virus RNA with a technique called polymerase chain reaction, the Hopkins team also found that virus levels in adults fall quickly after infection while in infants the level falls slightly after a few months and remains much higher than in adult.

"These viral kinetics demonstrate why young children die faster with this disease than do adults." Quinn explained. "This study shows that if you treat babies early and keep their virus load below 70,000 per milliliter, you have a good chance of preventing an early death."

The researchers studied 106 infants for at least one year, or until infants younger than one year died of AIDS, said the news letter. The study was also published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Today In History

AP Online 20 May 1997

In 1991, the American Red Cross announced measures aimed at screening blood more carefully for the AIDS virus.

Thought for Today: "We must have ... a place where children can have a whole group of adults they can trust." -- Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (1901-1978).