U.S. Health Officials Back Using AZT to Treat Patients With HIV

A federal health agency said Friday it would continue to recommend that the drug AZT be given to patients with the AIDS virus despite a new study that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the drug in preventing development of the deadly disease.

Dr. Daniel Hoth, director of the AIDS division of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the study published in the British medical magazine The Lancet gives medical workers “at this time . . . no basis for changing the current recommendations” for using AZT.

A spokeswoman said the agency will keep urging that physicians use AZT to treat patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus--which causes AIDS--whose immune cell counts fall below 500, “even if they show no symptoms of AIDS.” An immune cell count of 800 to 1,200 is typical for a person not infected with the AIDS virus.

The new research gives the results of the comprehensive Concorde trial of the treatment azidothymidine, or AZT, marketed under the Retrovir brand name and made by British drug firm Wellcome Plc.

Results indicated that there was no clear benefit in giving AZT at an early stage of HIV infection rather than waiting until symptoms set in. AZT has been shown effective in prolonging the life of patients with full-blown AIDS.

Allergy Institute spokeswoman Pat Randall said that when AIDS symptoms develop, or a patient’s immune cells drop quickly, physicians are urged to consider combining or alternating AZT with other anti-AIDS drugs. AZT is “not a perfect drug, but we knew that already,” she said.