Public Patience Sought as AIDS Research Continues

Top federal health officials Wednesday pleaded for public patience in the battle against AIDS, saying no cure is imminent but that several experimental drugs are promising.

Research on the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome is by “trial and error,” and the government is determined to avoid “snake oil and nostrums,” Dr. James O. Mason, acting assistant secretary for health, said at a briefing for reporters.

With 13,834 diagnosed cases--and amid predictions that the number will increase dramatically for years--the government has come under increasing pressure to demonstrate that it is committed to finding a cure for AIDS.

At the same time, however, the disease has baffled researchers, a point highlighted by Mason and two other officials who outlined the latest findings on AIDS patients.

The officials described as promising four drugs that have been shown to suppress the AIDS virus. It is known, however, that all the drugs are toxic and that the one studied most extensively induces serious side effects.

Growing Concern

At the same time, Mason repeated his assertion that it is difficult to contract AIDS. Concern has grown over transmission of the disease, which afflicts primarily male homosexuals and intravenous drug users, and on Wednesday the nation’s largest teachers union proposed guidelines on allowing AIDS patients in schools.

“Some progress has been made, but we are still far short of an effective treatment for AIDS,” Mason said. Until a breakthrough is achieved, he added, “this is an approach of trial and error. We could send out snake oil and nostrums, but that isn’t what this nation wants. We want effective therapies.”

In AIDS, a virus attacks the immune system, making the patient vulnerable to diseases that ordinarily would not be fatal. Researchers hope to discover a drug that will keep the AIDS virus, HTLV-III, suppressed long enough to allow the body’s immune system to spontaneously recover from the viral attack.

Alternatively, they also hope to find a drug to use in combination with other therapy, such as bone marrow transplants, to build up the victim’s immune system.

Suramin, the most thoroughly studied of the four anti-viral drugs used in laboratory experiments, is being tried on about 150 AIDS patients in six medical centers, including UCLA, USC and San Francisco General Hospital.

No Patient Improvement

Although suramin suppressed the virus’ ability to reproduce itself, it did not improve the patients’ conditions, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Nonetheless, the government is expanding research on the drug and will use it on 50 patients with AIDS and 400 with an AIDS-related complex, or ARC, a condition in which patients exhibit many symptoms but not the disease itself.

Like Mason and Fauci, Dr. Harry M. Meyer, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drugs and Biologics, noted the promise of several drugs, including suramin. He added, however: “They all have toxicity, though, and clearly, none of them are going to wipe out the virus in any quick treatment.”

The officials said that suramin’s side effects include neurological problems, abnormalities of the liver, fever, rash, urinary tract disorders and severe malaise.

The other three drugs that have suppressed the AIDS virus in experiments are ribavirin, azidothymidine (Compound S) and a French drug called HPA-23. Not enough human experiments have been conducted yet, however, to determine the degree of toxicity or optimum dosages, the officials said.

School Proposals

Meanwhile, the 1.7-million-member National Education Assn., amid continued concern over whether children and others with AIDS should be allowed to attend school, Wednesday proposed:

--Barring from school infected students who cannot control their bodily functions, who bite or who have open sores. AIDS is transmitted through exchange of body fluids.

--Requiring tests on students or employees suspected of having AIDS but not on anyone simply because he is homosexual and thereby a member of a high-risk group.

--Protecting the identities of infected individuals.