Time Names AIDS Scientist Man of the Year

Time magazine’s 1996 Man of the Year is AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho, who pioneered a treatment for HIV infection that has shown promise in beating back the deadly disease.

Ho, scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, has fundamentally changed the approach to combating the AIDS virus, Time said in its Dec. 30 year-ending issue.

Ho, a 44-year-old father of three, used a “cocktail” of antiviral drugs to combat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in early stages of infection.

His work included using protease inhibitors to help clarify how HIV overwhelms the body’s immune system, offering insights that helped treatment research focus on early stages of infection instead of later terms of the illness.

Ho “did not make the most headlines, but he helped make history,” the magazine said.

The cost of Ho’s “cocktail” treatment--up to $20,000 a year--puts it beyond the reach of all but the best-insured patients.

And Ho himself said he has only begun an experiment that might help a small group of men in the first three months of infection.

Still, Time said his work “might, just might, lead to a cure.”

In 1996, 3.1 million people became HIV-infected, bringing the worldwide total to 22.6 million people living with HIV or AIDS, according to the United Nations.