Knickmeyer, E. AIDS Battler Rolls the Dice. (1995, July 10). San Diego Union Tribune.

Following public hearings on cross-species transplants, the FDA will decide whether to allow a risky plan to inject baboon marrow into AIDS patients. AIDS activist Jeff Getty of Oakland, California, who lived a record 15 years with AIDS, hoped to be the first human injected with the baboon marrow. The transplant was Getty’s last hope in a long battle against his illness, which was diagnosed in 1986. "It was either say you have AIDS, or perish. I learned the lesson the hard way," he says.

Getty successfully battled drug companies and the FDA for the chance to use experimental AIDS drugs. Doctors credit these treatments for keeping Getty, 37, alive for 15 years. However, his immune system was so ravaged that doctors feel he has only a year to live.

Baboons do not get HIV-1, the type of AIDS virus most prevalent in the United States. AIDS destroys blood cells, and in particular, immune cells. Bone marrow manufactures new blood cells. Success in the baboon marrow transplant could have boosted Getty’s immune system and lead to progress toward cross-species transplants for a wide range of ailments. However, the study was put on hold to determine whether the transplant could kill Getty or spread dangerous animal viruses to humans. A virus of this kind could have layed dormant for years or merge with a germ in Getty’s body and form a potent hybrid, according to Dr. David Cooper, research director at the Oklahoma Transplantation Institute in Oklahoma City.

Getty became a candidate for the transplants because, as an AIDS patient and activist, he had early access to some promising medications such as growth hormones, which were still generally unavailable to AIDS patients. Getty met the transplant criteria of a one-year life expectancy. He admitted the procedure was "a long shot," and that it would "probably do more to answer questions...than help me..."

Jeff lost his battle with AIDS in 2006.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What do you think about risky procedures such as this for combatting AIDS?
2. How would you vote on this procedure if you were a deciding power in the FDA?

IMPLICATIONS

1. With no major breakthroughs in the battle against AIDS and continual increases in the number of cases, researchers are turning to new and perhaps more risky treatment options.
2. AIDS sufferers, many of whom are willing to try experimental therapies, are becoming pioneers in the war on the disease.