Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110140
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
Shyh-Ching Lo, a virologist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, first found the organism and claimed it was a novel virus he isolated from tumor cells in AIDS patients.
"When we presented this work before, it wasn't understood," said Lo. "Now they have started a lot of work looking into it."
Lo's work caught the attention of AIDS researchers because he persisted in his studies and discovered that what he thought was a virus was really a strange microbe called a mycoplasma. Lo also was able to isolate the mycoplasma in large numbers in the brains, liver, spleen and kidneys of people with AIDS.
Many experts were convinced that Lo may have uncovered an important new infectious agent. But just what role, if any, it plays in AIDS is not known.
"It's not absolutely clear what it is doing in AIDS-related disease, but it appears to be present in many cases and seems to the sole source of pathology in specific tissues. The evidence is reasonable," said Dr. Joel B. Baseman, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. - Associated Press
by CNB