NATION IN BRIEF : GEORGIA : Blood of Another AIDS Patient Heated

A second AIDS patient underwent an experimental blood-heating treatment in Atlanta in the hopes of ridding his body of the deadly virus. The patient, identified as Tony Mascio, 38, of Chicago, was in intensive care for precautionary observation and was listed as stable. The hyperthermia therapy has been studied as an experimental treatment for cancer. It will take at least a day to detect any effect on the patient’s AIDS-related cancer and several weeks to study the effect on the AIDS virus, Dr. Kenneth Alonso said. The first patient reportedly has been free of the virus since his treatment for AIDS-related cancer in February. The therapy circulates the blood through an apparatus similar to a dialysis machine and heats it from the normal 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to 115 degrees. The blood then is funneled back into the patient.