First AIDS-Afflicted Chimp Is Put to Death
Scientists have euthanized the first laboratory chimpanzee to develop AIDS after medical tests showed his disease was untreatable.
The 15-year-old chimp, named Jerom, was put to death Feb. 13, two weeks after a researcher at the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Emory University reported that his was the first case of AIDS in a chimp.
Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the Yerkes center, said there was no evidence that Jerom was in pain. But he said it was clear to the veterinarians, the researchers and him that Jerom had reached terminal stages of the disease and was beyond the point of recovery.
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