people with AIDS

History

On February 7th, the FDA announced that it was going to approve an aerosol form of the drug Pentamidine for the treatment of PCP (a type of pneumonia) in people with AIDS.⁵⁹ Much of the data that led to this approval was collected by CCC, the County Community Consortium of San Francisco, with further data collected by another community research organisation called CRI, the Community Research Initiative of New York.⁶⁰

By March 1st, 145 countries had reported 142,000 cases of AIDS to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO regarded this as under-reporting, and estimated the actual number of people with AIDS around the world to be over 400,000. It was predicted that this figure would rise to 1.1 million by 1991. It was also estimated that 5-10 million people were already infected with HIV.⁶¹

On April 2nd, Hans Verhoef, a Dutch man with AIDS, was jailed in Minnesota under the federal law banning travellers with HIV from entering the USA.⁶² In June a protest against the law took place at the opening ceremony of the Fifth International Conference on AIDS in Montreal, when 250 protestors with placards stormed the stage.⁶³

Zidovudine, better known as AZT

In August, there were more developments with respect to treatment, when the results were announced of a major drug trial known as ACTG019. ACTG019 was a trial of the drug AZT, and it showed that AZT could slow progression to AIDS in HIV positive individuals with no symptoms at all. The findings were considered extremely exciting, and on August 17th a press conference was held, at which the Health Secretary, Louis Sullivan said:

"Today we are witnessing a turning point in the battle to change AIDS from a fatal disease to a treatable one."

The result had enormous financial implications for the makers of the drug, Burroughs Wellcome. The day after the press conference, the value of the company's stock rose by 32 per cent.⁶⁴ The high price of AZT angered many people; with a year's supply for one person costing about $7,000, Burroughs Welcome were accused of "price gouging and profiteering".^{65 66}

In September, the cost of the drug was cut by 20%.⁶⁷

In October the second drug for the treatment of AIDS, dideoxyinosine (ddI), started to be made available to people with AIDS, even though only preliminary tests had been completed.

"It become clear that ddl was not just another drug in terms of need: it was a life-and-death matter, said Richard L. Gelb, chairman of Bristol Myers."⁶⁸