The Role of Drugs in AIDS

1/10/93 Ms. No. T1867

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hepatitis B virus from 1978 to 1980. It is the same group for which the 50%
"progression rate" from HIV to AIDS was calculated to be about 10 years (48,
49) and reported to be relevant for "the population as a whole" (48).
The nitrite inhalants in particular are preferred by homosexuals as
aphrodisiacs because they facilitate anal intercourse (33, 47, 50). The first five
AIDS cases diagnosed in 1981 with pneumocystis pneumonia and
cytomegalovirus infection, before the discovery of HIV, were male
homosexuals who had all consumed nitrite inhalants (51). One had also used
intravenous drugs (51). Early CDC data indicate that in 1985 75% of male
homosexuals with AIDS had used oral drugs at least once a week and 97%
occasionally (23). The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports correlations
from 69% (52) to virtually 100% (33, 53) between nitrite inhalants and
Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumonia, which are diagnosed as AIDS in the
presence of antibody to HIV (3, 5, 6).
About 80,000 Americans with and without AIDS use AZT. Since 1987
the cytocidal DNA chain terminator AZT is prescribed to symptomatic (6, 54 -56) and since 1989 to asymptomatic carriers of HIV (57, 58) including babies
and hemophiliacs in an effort to inhibit HIV DNA synthesis. Currently about
125,000 sick and healthy HIV-positives worldwide take AZT, including about
80,000 Americans (3). Thus an unknown, but possibly a high percentage of
the 30,000 Americans that currently develop AIDS per year (4) have used AZT
prior to or after the onset of AIDS. For instance, 249 out of 462 HIV-positive,
AIDS-free homosexual men from the above multicenter study are on AZT or
DDI (59).
Drug use necessary in HI V-positives, and sufficient in HI V-negatives for
AIDS diseases.
To distinguish between HIV and drugs as causes of AIDS, it is necessary