A Utah infectious-disease specialist and AIDS activists are skeptical of a controversial blood-heating procedure some claim cured a Georgia man of the the deadly disease.
In fact, Dr. Andrew Pavia, a University of Utah assistant professor with the Division of Infectious Diseases, confirmed there are certain lab conditions under which the HIV virus proliferates when heated.Pavia's views echo those of the the San Fransico-based AIDS information foundation Project Inform, which claims data published in two medical journals suggests heating cultures that contain the virus actually causes it to proliferate. Simply put, that means "the heating treatment could make things worse for patients trying it."
The blood-heating procedure gained international press in June when Drs. Kenneth Alonso and William Logan of Atlanta Hospital reported Carl Crawford, an Atlanta waiter, no longer tested positively for the AIDS virus following the hyperthermia (blood warming) treatment. Crawford remains "HIV-free" four months later, according to media reports.
Still not everyone is buying into the treatment.
In fact, Project Inform warns that if blood-warming were to destroy AIDS infected cells, it would have to do so without harming other uninfected cells.
"Even if by some miracle it (blood warming) were able to differentiate infected and uninfected cells, and kill only infected, there should be obvious signs of this activity in the patient," the group says. "There would be serious potential for brain injury, evident as dementia or even coma."
The group also says a patient would experience flu-like symptoms, aches and pains, as his or her body responded to the treatment.
Pavia said the chances that Crawford was cured of AIDS "are very slight."
"The best the doctors may have done is to clear the virus from his blood stream," he said. "But it's unlikely the virus was cleared from other sites in his body."
"I certainly would recommend that none of my patients even go near the treatment," Pavia added.
Utah AIDS Foundation Executive Director Ben Barr said he's not surprised the treatment isn't a panacea for AIDS.
"I've seen a lot of treatments come and go; people need to discuss treatments with their physicians," he said.
AIDS advocates at Project Inform are even more skeptical.
Director Martin Delaney said "there seems no credible evidence that his (Crawford's) viral status has changed."
Delaney blasted media claims that the patient is cured and the treatment has eradicated the virus from his system, as "false, false, false."
A report issued by the agency says the treatment may destroy the AIDS virus in the blood, but has little or no impact on the overall infection because the AIDS virus attacks billions of body cells and is integrated into the genetic material of those cells.
Alonso and Logan say they never claimed the treatment was a cure for AIDS; it simply retarded its progress.
And some think that's good enough.
Officials from the Atlanta Hyperthermia Alliance - a foundation designed to raise monies to support the treatment - are forging ahead in their efforts to make the treatment available to as many AIDS-infected people as they can.
The alliance plans to perform the $35,000 procedure on several West Coast patients in Mexico City later this month, and told the Deseret News they will be training medical teams from 11 hospitals nationwide to perform the risky procedure that requires heating a patient's blood to 108 degrees.
The non-profit foundation has also been contacted by French President Francois Mitterrand, who asked for assistance in treating France's AIDS patients, said Joe Guzman, a clinical profusionist with the group.
Meanwhile, the state of Georgia has announced plans to revoke the license of Atlanta Hospital, the site of the blood-heating experiments.
Margie Smith, a spokeswoman for Georgia's Office of Regulatory Services, confirmed the state has moved to revoke the 60-bed hospital's license to perform medical and surgical procedures.
However, the move was not related to the hyperthermia experiments, and it was "coincidental" that the state moved for the license revocation near the time of the experiments, Smith said.
She said the hospital's licensure inspection came after several complaints and two deaths resulting from the practice of questionable medical procedures.