Current Information on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

Photocopiedi at the Ro~iatd Reagan Libr3.
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o NIH and the scientific community are able to respond
to AIDS only because of our enormous investment in
biomedical research. That research has generated
important fundamental knowledge in the areas of
immunosuppression, viral agents, opportunistic
infections, blood purification and storage. It is
this science base that will allow us to vigorously
attack the mystery of AIDS.
o We must support only the best science. It is an
inefficient use of time as well -as of money to fund
poorly designed research.
NIH Response
o NIH has operating General Clinical Research Centers (GCRSs)
and center grants where established resear'chers have
readily redirected their efforts. Two of NIHs Sexually
Transmitted Disease Centers by fall of 1981 were able
quickly to initiate studies on homosexual men.
o NIH has also supplemented already on-going grants so that
researchers can expand their work to attack AIDS. NCI
reviewed its portfolio of projects, found a number of
scientists working on projects dealing with Kaposi's
sarcoma, and provided approximately $165,000 in supplements
in September 1982.
o The NIH intramural program also responded quickly. The CDC
first learned about AIDS in Spring of 1981, and by July of
that year, NIH admitted its first AIDS patient to the
Clinical Center. In fact, NIH had seen two.patients with
the disorder in 1979. In its intramural program, NIH has
the flexibility to launch multidisciplinary studies. Six
of NIH's 11 institutes are involved in the intramural
studies on AIDS. NIH intramural studies are aimed at
determining causative agents of AIDS; at evaluating the
natural history of the disease; at characterizing the
immune deficiency of the patients; and at investigating a
possible relationship between AIDS and hepatitis.
o Extramural projects are investigating causative agents for
AIDS, the sequelae of AIDS such as opportunistic infections
and Kaposi's sarcoma, and on cellular immunology and
regulation of the immune system. Other efforts are aimed
at finding animal models for AIDS and developing a
"surrogate" test for AIDS that may lead to a method for
screening blood prior to transfusion (in cooperation with
CDC and FDA).