Subject: AIDS-Like Virus Not Found in Study By Health Agency
Date: Published: 9/30/92 (47 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health:
    AIDS-Like Virus
    Not Found in Study
    By Health Agency

    GENEVA (AP) -- Experts who reviewed a series of unexplained
 AIDS-like cases found no evidence that they were caused by a new
 virus, the World Health Organization said.
    Most of the cases, which involved a collapse of the body's
 defense against disease, were linked to cancer, tuberculosis, drug
 abuse or genetic defects, Michael Merson, head of the organization's
 AIDS program, told a news conference.
    The announcement followed a WHO-sponsored meeting of 22 AIDS
 experts.  They reviewed reports on fewer than 100 people who showed
 signs of the illness without having HIV, the virus that causes
 acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
    "There is no evidence of a new HIV-like epidemic," Dr. Merson
 said after the two-day meeting.  "This is a rare condition ...and
 it pales when it comes to the problem of AIDS.  "
    However, more research is needed, including studies to make sure
 no new contagious disease has developed, WHO said.  The Centers for
 Disease Control in Atlanta came to a similar conclusion in August.
    Reports of AIDS-like cases allegedly linked to a new virus
 surfaced before and during an international AIDS conference in
 Amsterdam last July.  WHO said its expert panel agreed that nothing
 suggests there is a new HIV-like virus or any other source of
 infection that could be transmitted by blood or other means.
    In a very small number of the patients, initial findings suggest
 the presence of several different germs, but their existence hasn't
 been confirmed by other laboratories and their possible role is
 unclear, the United Nations agency said.
    Two members of the WHO panel -- Sudhir Gupta of the University of
 California and David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in
 New York -- cited evidence of an apparently new virus earlier this
 year.  But they backed the unanimous final statement.
    Up to 13 million people world-wide carry the AIDS-causing virus,
 WHO says.  More than 500,000 adults have developed the disease,
 according to the organization's figures, but the agency says that
 because of underreporting the actual total may be 1.7 million.

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