Controversy ethical one year in clinical trials of AIDS seemed headed toward a resolution today, the government US unveiled data from Thailand show that the short-term treatment with the antiviral drug AZT halved the rate at which HIV, the AIDS virus is transmitted from mother to child at birth. This statement was released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, which sponsored the trial in Thailand.
The results suggest that it may be possible to reduce the rate of HIV infection in infants in poor countries with a cheap version of AZT therapy more elaborate currently used in the United States and Europe . "This is very important," says epidemiologist Ken Nelson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. " Is about to become real "" This means that the ability to deliver this kind of therapy "in the developing world
The new Thailand can also provide relief of another kind - ending debate emotional that raged in the public health community. critics, led by Sidney Wolfe public Citizen Inc. Ralph Nader Washington attacked CDC-sponsored studies in Thailand and Africa because some participants received only placebo while others have received AZT. Because the long-term AZT treatment is known to reduce the transmission rate in the United States and Europe, Wolfe argues, it is unethical to refuse such processing study participants in the developing world. the researchers have devised protocols that way, however, because they feared the effects of AZT therapy in the short term might be obscured unless they were compared directly with the results of an untreated group.
This debate is now moot. According to the official CDC Phillip Nieburg, Thai data show that HIV-positive pregnant women who received a daily dose of AZT for only 3 to 4 weeks before delivery were significantly less likely to transmit the deadly virus to their child than the were those who received no medication. The HIV transmission rate for women who received AZT was 9.2%, according to CDC, compared to 18.6% for the placebo group. For this reason, Nieburg said, the CDC decided that placebos should not be used in such tests, and Thai researchers have agreed not to include more women in the placebo group. Nieburg confirms that other leaders AZT studies sponsored by the United States, the United Nations and France also decided to give placebos.
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