
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990                   TAG: 9006050533
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW AIDS TREATMENT QUESTIONED

AIDS experts are noncommittal, even skeptical, about reports that a man's AIDS infection disappeared after his blood was heat-treated, but that hasn't stopped hundreds of patients and physicians from trying to learn more.

Dr. Kenneth Alonso and Dr. William Logan performed the so-called hyperthermia procedure on a 33-year-old AIDS patient with Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer commonly occurring with AIDS. The man's blood was heated for two hours in hopes of attacking the cancer, Alonso said.

Soon after, the patient's raised, red skin lesions "flattened to scars," and tests for the AIDS virus have remained negative since, Alonso said.

"We changed the disease. It's obvious that we did," Alonso said. "What the long-term prognosis is, we have no idea."

Alonso said Monday he is getting some 700 calls a day from anxious patients and doctors, following a Cable News Network report last week. Hospitals and AIDS services organizations also are reporting numerous inquiries.

Alonso is quick to note that he is not claiming an AIDS cure: "This is just what we did in a single case."

The patient, at least, is claiming victory. "I'm convinced I'm cured of AIDS," Carlton Crawford told the Daily Citizen News in Dalton, his former hometown.

AIDS specialists are reluctant to speculate about the reports. Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Infectious Disease Institute declined to comment.

"A lot of us are real cautious about this," said Alice Trinkl, spokeswoman for AIDS research at the University of California at San Francisco. "There have been so many promises made in the AIDS area."

"It is important that a scientifically balanced evaluation be given to the situation," said a statement from Project Inform, a patient advocacy group and information clearinghouse in San Francisco. "Over the years, far too many patients and their doctors have loudly announced miracle cures, raising the hopes of other patients."

Hyperthermia, commonly used to treat infections before the advent of antibiotics, is still used against some cancers.

by CNB