The Nation - News from Oct. 23, 1988

Needless delays in testing and research have prevented people with AIDS from gaining access to experimental drugs, a congressional report charged, the most graphic example being the failure to test the drug aerosolized pentamidine to treat a type of pneumonia that strikes AIDS patients. Many of the problems causing delays have been at least partly remedied, however, health officials said. “I think that report accurately reflects serious problems that existed in April,” Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told the Washington Post. “But the National Institutes of Health have not been static in its response. To one degree or another, most of the findings have been addressed,” he said.