AZT May Help Prolong Life
NEW RESEARCH SHOWS AZT MAY HELP PROLONG LIVES OF AIDS-INFECTED PEOPLE
WASHINGTON (AUG. 17) UPI – New research shows that half of the 1 million to 1.5 million AIDS-infected Americans may live longer by taking the drug AZT, triple the previous estimate, federal health officials announced Thursday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan hailed the findings that some 600,000 people could benefit from AZT as a ”significant milestone in the battle to change AIDS from a fatal disease to a treatable one.”
Sullivan said, ”These results provide real hope for the millions of people worldwide who are infected with HIV,” the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
Until recently, AZT – the only government-approved drug to directly attack the AIDS virus – had only been recommended for the 20,000 Americans with full-blown AIDS or advanced AIDS-related complex, called ARC. AZT is not a cure for AIDS, but prolongs life.
Just two weeks ago, National Institutes of Health researchers announced that AZT appears to benefit people with early ARC, boosting the estimated number of HIV-infected people who should be taking AZT to 200,000. The new research results triple, to 600,000 people, those who can benefit from AZT.
The latest study, also directed by NIH, found that AZT could slow disease progression in some people who are infected with the AIDS virus, but who have not yet developed any symptoms of the deadly disease.
Researchers gave AZT to about 900 HIV-infected people with no obvious signs of AIDS, but whose counts of key immune cells, called helper T cells were slightly depressed – less than 500 per cubic millimeter of blood. A control group of about 450 HIV-infected people with similar T-cell counts received phony pills.
Patients receiving AZT developed AIDS or advanced ARC at about half the rate of the control group during the two-year study.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the study also found relatively low doses of AZT worked just as well as higher doses in staving off AIDS, while producing fewer toxic side effects.
In fact, except for nausea, there was virtually no difference in side effects observed in people receiving low AZT doses and those receiving dummy pills, Fauci said. The low dose was about one-third of the currently recommended dose of AZT.
One problem with AZT has been its toxic side effects. About half of AIDS patients taking AZT eventually develop severe anemia requiring transfusions or a halt of use of the drug.
A companion study is under way to determine if AZT can help people with T-cell counts greater than 500, but Fauci said it is too early to tell if the drug works in that very early stage of the disease.
AZT, made by Burroughs Wellcome Co. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., costs about $7,000 to $8,000 a year – a price that AIDS activists say is far too high. Company officials again Thursday refused to release profit information about AZT or to disclose whether they would lower prices because of an expanding market.
Mitchell Speer of the American Foundation for AIDS Research said the success of the lower dose in the NIH trial indicates that patients may be able to save money on AZT by cutting doses, in consultation with their doctors.
Richard Dunne, director of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City, called the new findings ”an important breakthrough with far-reaching implications. Access to medical care and drugs such as AZT is a life-and-death matter.”
Paying for AZT may become a major problem for the federal government because many HIV-infected people, like Americans in general, cannot afford private health insurance.
Sullivan said he directed Medicare officials to pay for AZT for HIV-infected patients with T-cell counts under 500. However, few HIV-infected people are eligible for Medicare, which requires a person to be disabled for two years or over the age of 65.
More HIV-infected people qualify for a companion program – Medicaid – but the decision on what drugs are covered under Medicaid is up to individual states. Currently, the federal government is helping states provide AZT to the needy, but so far there are no funds for fiscal 1990.
Meanwhile Thursday, in Atlanta, the Centers for Disease Control officially reported that AIDS cases in the United States passed the 100,000 mark and about 60 percent of the people have died.
CDC officials predicted another 50,000 cases would occur within a year and there could be 440,000 cases of AIDS by the end of 1992.