Medicine: The Deadly Spread of AIDS

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Theories are, of course, of little use for those now suffering or at high risk of contracting AIDS. Panic has set in on Greenwich Village streets and in "the Castro," San Francisco's gay quarter. Local AIDS hot lines are receiving 30 calls a day. There is evidence that at least some gays are curbing their night life out of fear.

Because of the widespread concern over AIDS, more victims are seeking medical attention at the first signs of the disease. Often these include low-grade fever, swollen glands and general malaise. Early detection makes it easier to control infections with antibiotics and to treat Kaposi's by surgical excision of lesions, chemotherapy and, more recently, the experimental use of interferon. The discovery that Kaposi's is more likely to strike a certain genetic type has made high-risk individuals easier to identify.

It is hard to find anything positive in a deadly plague, but immunologists, virologists and cancer experts agree that AIDS represents a remarkable experiment of nature. The new scourge, says New York Immunobiologist Pablo Rubinstein, "may teach us more about cancer and old, familiar diseases than we are able to fathom at this time."

—By Claudia Wallis.

Reported by Richard Bruns/New York and Joyce Leviton/Atlanta