The Role of Drugs in AIDS

1/10/93 Ms. No. T1867

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nausea appeared in the 500 mg AZT-group and 72 such cases appeared in the
1500 mg AZT-group. This indicates cytocidal effects of AZT on hemopoiesis
and on the intestines. Although these AZT group-specific diseases were not
diagnosed as AIDS, neutropenia, a shortage of lymphocytes, generates
immunodeficiency and thus AIDS. Moreover, 10 of the placebo groupspecific AIDS diseases were cancers and dementia, of which only 3 and 2 were
observed in the 500- and 1500 mg AZT-groups. This suggests a selection bias
in favor of more healthy subjects for the AZT-groups. The study is further
compromised by the failure to report and to consider the recreational drug
use histories and the AZT-treatment adjustments of the subjects analyzed.
In addition an ongoing government study conducted by a Veterans
Administration Hospital showed that about the same percentage (14%) of
asymptomatic HIV-carriers as of AIDS patients (11%) died during AZT
treatments that lasted from 1 to 3 years (65, 66).
(v) The annual lymphoma incidence of AZT-treated AIDS patients was
reported to be 9% by the National Cancer Institute and was calculated to be
50% over 3 years (67). The lymphoma incidence of untreated HIV-positive
AIDS risk groups is 0.3% per year and 0.9% per 3 years, derived from the
putative average progression rate of 10 years from HIV to AIDS (3, 48, 49) and
the 3% incidence of lymphoma in AIDS patients (4). Thus the lymphoma
incidence is 30 to 50 times higher in AZT-treated than in untreated HIVpositive counterparts. In addition, "during the past three years [of AZT
therapy] a progressive increase in the number of [AIDS] patients dying from
lymphoma..." to currently 16% was noted in 1991 in a group of 346 AIDS
patients in London, most of whom were on AZT (68).
It is likely that the chronic levels of the mutagenic AZT, at 10-30 gM
(500-1500 mg/person/day), were responsible for the lymphomas. The