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Journal Marks 20th Anniversary of First AIDS Report
By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - On the 20th anniversary of the first published report of AIDS (news - web sites), the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites) on Tuesday called for a multibillion-dollar campaign to stem the spread of the disease in developing countries.
``Soon the number of deaths from AIDS is likely to exceed the estimated 25 million caused by the Black Death in the 14th century,'' Journal editor Dr. Jeffrey Drazen and deputy editor Dr. Robert Steinbrook warned in an editorial.
The AIDS epidemic in the United States was brought to the attention of the world by Dr. Michael Gottlieb's June 5, 1981, article in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ``Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.'' It detailed the cases of five young homosexual men with the then-rare infection, pneumocystis pneumonia.
The Journal marked the 20th anniversary of the article's publication ``Pneumocystis Pneumonia -- Los Angeles'' with an editorial that said ``the paltry international effort against AIDS so far has been disgraceful.''
Drazen and Steinbrook said less than $5 is being spent each year on every person infected in sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the 36.1 million infected people live.
``The United States and other rich nations must contribute the billions of dollars needed for treatment and prevention in poor countries,'' they said.
To date, more than 21.8 million people have died from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, including more than 438,000 in the United States.
INVESTMENT IN LONG-TERM INTERESTS
They argued that ``for the trillion-dollar economies of the world's wealthiest countries, these costs (of tackling the disease in developing countries) are not high,'' and ``in a world that is increasingly linked by commerce, travel, and electronic communication, expenditures on drugs for developing nations are undoubtedly in the long-term interests of the wealthiest countries.''
Although first recognized in 1981, evidence of HIV (news - web sites), the virus that causes AIDS, has been found in blood collected in 1959 in the Belgian Congo. It apparently originated in chimpanzees.
In the past 20 years, doctors have given up their fears about caring for people with AIDS, transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies has become rare in developed countries, and better treatments have dramatically reduced the death rate.
In another Journal article, Gottlieb, who predicted in 1981 that the mysterious illness was ``possibly a bigger story than Legionnaires' disease,'' said AIDS has helped doctors rediscover the importance of compassion in their practice, hastened the approval process for drugs, and made health-care professionals realize the dangers of handling blood and body fluids, ''something that should have been obvious.''
But the quest to discover an AIDS vaccine has remained elusive. ``Barring a miracle,'' Gottlieb said, ``millions will die of AIDS in developing countries during the next decade.''
Unless the United States and other developed countries lead the global battle against the epidemic, he warned, ``HIV will cause incalculable human suffering and breed global social unrest for many generations to come.''
By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - On the 20th anniversary of the first published report of AIDS (news - web sites), the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites) on Tuesday called for a multibillion-dollar campaign to stem the spread of the disease in developing countries.
``Soon the number of deaths from AIDS is likely to exceed the estimated 25 million caused by the Black Death in the 14th century,'' Journal editor Dr. Jeffrey Drazen and deputy editor Dr. Robert Steinbrook warned in an editorial.
The AIDS epidemic in the United States was brought to the attention of the world by Dr. Michael Gottlieb's June 5, 1981, article in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ``Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.'' It detailed the cases of five young homosexual men with the then-rare infection, pneumocystis pneumonia.
The Journal marked the 20th anniversary of the article's publication ``Pneumocystis Pneumonia -- Los Angeles'' with an editorial that said ``the paltry international effort against AIDS so far has been disgraceful.''
Drazen and Steinbrook said less than $5 is being spent each year on every person infected in sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the 36.1 million infected people live.
``The United States and other rich nations must contribute the billions of dollars needed for treatment and prevention in poor countries,'' they said.
To date, more than 21.8 million people have died from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, including more than 438,000 in the United States.
INVESTMENT IN LONG-TERM INTERESTS
They argued that ``for the trillion-dollar economies of the world's wealthiest countries, these costs (of tackling the disease in developing countries) are not high,'' and ``in a world that is increasingly linked by commerce, travel, and electronic communication, expenditures on drugs for developing nations are undoubtedly in the long-term interests of the wealthiest countries.''
Although first recognized in 1981, evidence of HIV (news - web sites), the virus that causes AIDS, has been found in blood collected in 1959 in the Belgian Congo. It apparently originated in chimpanzees.
In the past 20 years, doctors have given up their fears about caring for people with AIDS, transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies has become rare in developed countries, and better treatments have dramatically reduced the death rate.
In another Journal article, Gottlieb, who predicted in 1981 that the mysterious illness was ``possibly a bigger story than Legionnaires' disease,'' said AIDS has helped doctors rediscover the importance of compassion in their practice, hastened the approval process for drugs, and made health-care professionals realize the dangers of handling blood and body fluids, ''something that should have been obvious.''
But the quest to discover an AIDS vaccine has remained elusive. ``Barring a miracle,'' Gottlieb said, ``millions will die of AIDS in developing countries during the next decade.''
Unless the United States and other developed countries lead the global battle against the epidemic, he warned, ``HIV will cause incalculable human suffering and breed global social unrest for many generations to come.''
