Battling AIDS: More misery, less mystery

On a brighter note, casual contact with AIDS victims, even over long periods of time, seems relatively safe. Newark Pediatrician James Oleske studied the foster families of nine newborns infected with AIDS and found that none of the foster mothers or siblings showed any signs of infection. Other research presented in Atlanta offered an intriguing clue to the mystery of how AIDS began. Dr. Myron Essex of the Harvard School of Public Health believes that the virus may have originated in a species known as the African green monkey and spread to humans only in recent decades. Essex has found that about 70% of African greens studied by his lab show signs of infection with a virus closely related to that which causes AIDS in humans. The monkeys, he notes, abound in the very regions of central Africa where human AIDS is believed to have begun. "I'm told they hang around settlements almost the way that bears hang around picnic grounds in national parks, trying to scavenge food, sometimes fighting and biting people."

The green monkey may be more than a clue to AIDS' past, says Essex; it may hold a key to future treatment. Despite evidence of infection with an AlDS-like virus, the monkeys are perfectly healthy. This is not true of rhesus monkeys, which develop AlDS-like symptoms when infected. Says Essex: "The African greens may have evolved a mechanism to control the virus." This mechanism of immunity, once understood, could help scientists in their all-out battle, particularly in the search for a vaccine. Nonetheless, most researchers believe that AIDS will remain a threat for decades. Says Peter Fischinger of the National Cancer Institute: "We have here a very tough opponent." --By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Christine Gorman and B. Russell Leavitt/Atlanta