Is Azt A False Hope?

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PEOPLE INFECTED WITH HIV, THE AIDS VIRUS, MAY not show overt symptoms for years. Even so, they are often given AZT, a drug believed to lengthen the lives of those with full-blown AIDS. Several studies have shown that AZT can delay the onset of symptoms, though it doesn't prevent or cure the disease.

Now the largest and longest-term investigation ever done has come to exactly the opposite conclusion. A three-year Anglo-French study reported in the current issue of the Lancet found that patients infected with HIV follow about the same course into disease and death whether or not they take AZT early on. The finding doesn't question AZT's benefits for those who already have symptoms. And it is being viewed cautiously by AIDS researchers; a single study won't change standard therapeutic practice. It does, however, call into question the prescribing of an expensive drug, and guarantees that the search for new treatments will be pursued more urgently than ever.