DOCTORS TO LEAVE JOURNAL ASSAILING AIDS STUDIES.Byline: Lawrence K. Altman The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Two members of the New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. Journal of Medicine's editorial board, both internationally recognized experts on AIDS, are resigning in protest over the content and handling of articles criticizing the ethics of a number of federally funded AIDS studies in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere. Third World countries have undertaken the studies to seek a drug regimen less costly than those used in the United States to thwart transmission of the AIDS virus AIDS virus n. See HIV. , HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. , from mothers to infants. In the trials, which involve more than 12,000 pregnant women infected with the AIDS virus in Africa, Thailand and the Dominican Republic, some women receive a drug, AZT AZT or zidovudine (zīdō`vy  dēn'), drug used to treat patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS; also called , that has worked in studies in the United States, while others receive dummy pills. The journal's attack on the experiments has led to widespread discussion, including harsh criticism of the journal itself, and focuses attention on the role of the 25-member editorial board, including the two who are resigning, Dr. David Ho, a virologist virologist microbiologist specializing in virology. at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center is a medical research institution dedicated to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. It is headed by prominent scientist Dr. David Ho, and located in New York City. in Manhattan, N.Y., and Dr. Catherine M. Wilfert, a pediatrician at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Dr. Jerome P. Kassirer, the journal's chief editor, said the board's function is to give advice on major issues and suggestions of authors for editorials and reviews, but that the board is not routinely consulted. Ho and Wilfert are the journal's chief advisers on AIDS. Ho and Wilfert said in separate interviews that they had resigned independently largely because the journal had not consulted with them before publishing an editorial that likened the new experiments to the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which poor African-American men suffering from syphilis were left untreated. Ho, Wilfert and many others have taken issue with the comparison with the Tuskegee study because, among other differences, the subjects in the AZT studies are told that some will get dummy pills. In the Tuskegee study the men were not told that penicillin had became available while the study was under way, and thus did not know that effective treatment was being withheld. Ho said he was deeply concerned how the editorial would affect the future of studies to evaluate experimental AIDS vaccines in developing countries. |
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