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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993                   TAG: 9306090343
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BERLIN                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY SAYS EARLY AZT USE DOESN'T HELP

A major study of the leading anti-AIDS drug, AZT, has found that giving it to people in the early stages of infection provides no measurable benefit.

The study - the largest and longest ever conducted on AZT - calls into serious question the prevailing AIDS treatment strategy in the United States.

The common U.S. practice is to prescribe AZT to patients as soon as they are found to be infected with the AIDS virus, and before they show symptoms of illness.

Dr. Maxim Seligmann, the French researcher who coordinated the extensive European study, known as Concorde, said the trial compared patients who began taking AZT early with patients who only started taking it after the onset of AIDS-related illness.

Over a three-year period, he said, both groups went on to develop AIDS or to die at roughly the same rate. - Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB