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From: Robbie.Bates@p1.f381.n634.z3.fidonet.org (Robbie Bates)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Australian AIDS News
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Date: 20 Jan 90 20:51:24 GMT
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DOCTORS LIE FOR PATIENTS' AZT

Entire contents (C) 1990 Oz Media Ltd., Melbourne Australia.  All rights  
reserved. Reproduced by permission.

Some doctors have been forced to lie about their patients' T cell counts in  
order to qualify them for treatment with AZT, according to National President  
of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) Dr David Plummer.

He said that experienced doctors were being prevented from prescribing AZT  
(Zidovudine), the only drug with a proven effectiveness against HIV, by Federal  
Government restrictions.

Under current Government policy, AZT can only be prescribed by authorised  
medical practitioners and only to people with HIV infection and T cell counts  
below 200, a third of the normal "healthy" count.

He said that to get around the restrictions, some doctors were falsely claiming  
their patients had T cell counts lower than 200.

Trials in the US have proven shown that treatment with AZT helps to slow the  
progression of the virus and that it can be is beneficial to people with T cell  
counts of 400 or more.

A person's T cell count is recognised as a measure of the progression of the  
syndrome, and the body's success in battling it.

Recent US trials of AZT on people with HIV infection were abandoned on  
humanitarian grounds when it became clear that AZT was helping to arrest the  
development of the syndrome, and that those in the trial programs who were  
taking placebos (innactive pills) should be taking AZT.

"People in the US now have greater access to AZT," said Plummer, "but so far,  
nothing is being done here.

"The government should not be sitting back and awaiting further results whilst  
people are dying. It is unnacceptable in the light of current evidence to  
prolong the current practice of only allowing AZT for people with a T cell  
count of under 200," he said.

Referring to the current Australian trials of AZT on people in the early stages  
of HIV infection, Plummer said "Many people who are at risk of progressing to  
AIDS are still being given placebos or do not fit the narrow [trial] criteria,"  
he said.

Plummer argues that any HIV infected person who is in danger of progressing to  
full AIDS should not be denied the choice of having active treatment. He said  
AZT should be prescribed following agreement between doctor and patient.

He said that there was a growing number of doctors with the expertise to  
prescribe the drug who were being prevented from doing so, having to refer  
their patients to large hospitals instead.

Plummer conceded that there was a "grey area" when dealing with HIV patients  
with normal T cell counts and no symptoms.

"Current research indicates that AZT is of no benefit in such cases," he said.

* AFAO has also called on the Federal Government to make the promising new  
treatment DDI available in Australia the same way that it is available in the  
US.

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