Aids Research

WASHINGTON -- The National Institutes of Health needs to improve management of its AIDS research program to deal with budget problems even as the epidemic continues to spread, says a two-year study made public yesterday by Institute of Medicine.The report by the institute, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, praised the health institutes for "unprecedented speed" in responding to the epidemic. "Never has so much been learned so quickly about any disease," said Dr. William H. Danforth, chairman of the committee that wrote the report.

Thomas McDonough of Towson, asks if U.S. taxpayer dollars sent to fight AIDS in Africa are not better used right here in Baltimore or Detroit, at least for now ("African AIDS money better spent at home," June 25). Senora McGuire of Dundalk deplores the money Michelle Obama and family have wasted on their recent Africa trip ("How can we afford First Lady's trip to Africa?" June 28). While referring to AIDS activists talking to the First lady about the plight of AIDS victims, Ms. McGuire says that AIDS will long be with us and there is no use talking about it. It is a testament to the medical community and AIDS activists that people like Mr. McDonough and Ms. McGuire can make light of AIDS this way. AIDS is treatable as a chronic illness for now. Antiviral use is more widespread, science is supplanting superstition in Africa, whole populations of people are not being decimated, and AIDS orphans hopefully will grow less staggeringly large in number.

Washington. -- Is AIDS consuming a disproportionate share of federal money for health research and patient care?Sen. Jesse Helms received a deserved barrage of opprobrium last week when he said the disease results from ''deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct,'' and that funds for treatment under the Ryan White Care Act should be reduced.The cruelty and absurdity of his remark is evident in the fact that the law, which authorizes $880 million a year for patient care, memorializes a dead teen-ager who innocently acquired the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion, as have many thousands of others.

When Joseph M. Coale III, who worked for William Donald Schaefer when he was mayor in the 1970s, first proposed exploring his ancestry two years ago, Coale was greeted with the famous blue-eyed Schaefer stare and a sense of profound indifference. "He told me, 'I don't look back, I always look forward,' " said Coale, who was sitting in the garden of his Ruxton home the other day, recalling his friendship with the colorful political figure that goes back nearly 40 years. Coale smiled when remembering the night he met then-Mayor Schaefer.

WASHINGTON -- The federal AIDS research program, long criticized by AIDS activists, would undergo a major transformation under a bill pending in the new Congress.The provision is part of the Senate version of the National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill. Until recently, the proposed change has been overshadowed by the bill's major focus: establishing safeguards for the use of fetal tissue in medical research.But the measure also would dramatically reorganize the federal AIDS program by giving a single office powerful authority over how AIDS research dollars are spent.

The government's $1.4 billion AIDS research program lacks focus, is uncoordinated and needs a major overhaul to attract new scientific talent and spur novel and imaginative ideas, a government-appointed panel said in a report issued yesterday. But the panel of 114 leading scientists and representatives of academia, drug companies, community organizations and AIDS advocates rejected the idea of an institute devoted specifically to AIDS.Although 15 years of AIDS research have brought impressive gains, the program needs more continuing scientific oversight and review by nongovernment scientists, the panel said.

They might have rested, or gone to the beach, or taken in a ball game, or done anything else on a beautiful Sunday. But nearly 7,000 Baltimoreans turned out to raise $300,000 for AIDS research by hinking 3.5 miles in AIDSWALK 91.Although most of the volunteers in yesterday's fourth annual pledge walk were not AIDS victims, many said they they recognized that everyone is touched by AIDS, which has become one one of the nation's leading causes of death."

Christine Maggiore Skeptic of AIDS research Christine Maggiore, an activist who vehemently denied that HIV causes AIDS, declined to take anti-AIDS drugs and sued Los Angeles County for stating that her 3-year-old daughter succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia, has died. She was 52. Ms. Maggiore died at her Van Nuys home on Saturday. She had been treated for pneumonia in the past six months, but her official cause of death was pending, county coroner assistant chief Ed Winter said Tuesday.

HIV Plus is a new consumer's guide to HIV treatment and research. Produced by Out Publishing, HIV Plus is different from other magazines on the subject, says Out president Henry E. Scott."

Cel-Sci Corp., which is developing treatments for diseases affecting the human immune system, said yesterday that it hopes to begin enrolling patients late this month or early next month for a small-scale human trial to test its drug Multikine on people infected with HIV.Cel-Sci, which has its research offices in Baltimore, said Food and Drug Administration clearance for the trial was received Dec. 26. The trial is to be conducted in West Hollywood, Calif.,...

Matt Birk knows concussions. The Ravens center has had three confirmed in his life, the most recent of which left him in a fog on the sideline of a home game in Minnesota trying to remember how exactly to leave the field. Birk is not as knowledgeable, however, about the practice thuds and collisions that never register on the concussion meter but jostle the brain nevertheless. Those are the ones that concern him now, the ones that might come back to haunt him 20 years down the road when he suddenly forgets where he left the car keys - or the car. "What worries me," Birk, 33, said last week, "is the repeated trauma every day, the many collisions of playing offensive line.

Judith C. Gehret, a computer programmer and faculty member at what is now the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose work during her three-decade career produced valuable research assistance for both professors and graduate students, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 2 at her Sparks home. She was 76. Judith Colburn was born in Wilmington, Del., the daughter of Allan P. Colburn, a prominent chemical engineer who had served as acting president of the University of Delaware and was longtime chairman of its chemical engineering department.

After 15 years of futile search for a vaccine against the AIDS virus, researchers are reporting the tantalizing discovery of antibodies that can prevent the virus from multiplying in the body and producing severe disease. They do not have a vaccine yet, but they may well have a road map toward the production of one. A team headquartered at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego reports today in the journal Science that they have isolated two so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the action of many different strains of HIV, the virus responsible for the AIDS pandemic.

Christine Maggiore Skeptic of AIDS research Christine Maggiore, an activist who vehemently denied that HIV causes AIDS, declined to take anti-AIDS drugs and sued Los Angeles County for stating that her 3-year-old daughter succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia, has died. She was 52. Ms. Maggiore died at her Van Nuys home on Saturday. She had been treated for pneumonia in the past six months, but her official cause of death was pending, county coroner assistant chief Ed Winter said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON - A record 36 percent of U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost to mysterious causes so far this year and worse may be yet to come, experts told a congressional panel yesterday. The year's bee colony losses are about twice what follows a typical winter, scientists warn. Despite ambitious new research efforts, the causes remain a mystery. "We need results," pleaded Steve Godlin, a California beekeeper. "We need a unified effort by all." The escalating campaign against what's generically called colony collapse disorder includes more state, federal and private funding for research.

Paul Law grew up in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and always dreamed of returning one day, following in the footsteps of two generations of lay missionaries before him who built bridges and hospitals and cared for the sick. He envisioned earning a medical degree and moving back to Africa with his wife, Kiely, who is also a doctor, to treat patients. But when the Laws' eldest child, Isaac, got a diagnosis of autism on his third birthday, their well-laid plans began to shift.

BETHESDA -- Dr. David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate microbiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will lead an effort to revitalize the nation's drive to develop an AIDS vaccine, the National Institutes of Health announced yesterday.Dr. William Paul, director of the Federal Office of AIDS Research at the institutes, said Baltimore would be the chairman of a committee charged with looking for new ideas for such development, reinvigorating research that after more than a decade has failed to produce an effective immunization against the disease.

Christmas miracles are a movie staple. This year the American Foundation for AIDS Research is hoping to create a miracle through the sale of a Christmas ornament.The glass ball is inscribed with the motto "Miracles Happen" and comes in an ivory and green gift box decorated with angels and gold lettering. Of the $9.95 price, $3 goes to AmFAR to fund AIDS research and education programs, and the rest covers manufacturing and shipping costs. AmFAR is hoping to raise $100,000. The ornament was designed and is sold through Don't Panic!

The Johns Hopkins University will receive about $40 million in new federal funds over the next five years to help translate promising research into medical treatments, school officials announced yesterday. The funds, from the National Institutes of Health, will be used for a new center: the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The center will be part of a national consortium of 24 institutions that NIH began funding last year in hopes that collaboration among scientists will speed the development of medical breakthroughs.

The AmfAR fundraiser in Manhattan's Rainbow Room went off with a bang the other eve and the piece de resistance of the entire event, under the elegant head guy Kenneth Cole, was the appearance of Liza Minnelli who brought the place alive. Liza was in excellent form. The ebullient star is busy channeling her late godmother, Kay Thompson, for material she'll incorporate into a new club act. (Ms. Thompson was a creative genius of the '50s/'60s, wrote the Eloise books and influenced Judy Garland's latter-day performing style, and you may remember her as the fashion editor who sings "Think Pink" in the movie Funny Face.