AIDS Virus Found in Teardrops, Researchers Report
Chicago Tribune (CT) - Saturday, August 17, 1985, Page: 3
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WASHINGTON - The virus believed to cause AIDS has been found in the teardrops
of at least one patient with the disease, but it is not known whether the
disease can be transmitted through contact with tears.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health said they found low levels of
the AIDS virus, HTLV-III, in the tears of one AIDS patient and possibly in
those of three others.
Scientists say it is unlikely that tears could be a route for transmitting AIDS
(acquired immune deficiency syndrome), but a spokesman for the U.S. Public
Health Service said the agency has not addressed what precautions should be
taken with tears because the findings are new.
The virus is known to be passed from person to person through intimate contact
with blood and semen, but no other bodily fluids have been implicated so far.
Government sources said public health officials might add precautions to be
taken during eye examinations to the list of guidelines for dealing with
patients with AIDS-related conditions. These could include wearing rubber
gloves and sterilizing instruments, they said.
Although the virus also has been found in the saliva of some patients with AIDS
and with a related, but less severe, immunity disease called AIDS- related
complex, not one case of transmission through saliva has been reported,
according to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Biologist S. Zaki Salahuddin of the National Cancer Institute, working with Dr.
Leslie Fujikawa of the National Eye Institute, found the AIDS virus in tears
from a 33-year-old woman with AIDS and inconclusive evidence of low- level
viral activity in tears from three other AIDS patients.
Salahuddin, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Gallo, one of the
discoverers of the AIDS virus, said the germ previously has been found in
blood, semen, saliva, lymph fluid and fluid from the brain and spinal column.
AIDS, which has no known cure, destroys the body's immune system, leaving
victims vulnerable to infections and other diseases. It has proved fatal in
about half of the more than 12,000 cases reported in the United States since
1981.
In related developments:
-- Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley signed into law a city ban on discrimination
against AIDS victims and those suspected of having it. More than a dozen cities
throughout the nation have asked for copies of the ordinance, which bans
discrimination in hiring, housing, education and other services.
-- U.S. District Judge James Noland in Indianapolis declined to rule on whether
a 13-year-old AIDS victim should be allowed back into public school, saying the
boy must first pursue administrative remedies in seeking admission to fall
classes. Ryan White, a hemophiliac who contracted the disease through a blood
transfusion, had tried to force the Western School Corp. to allow him to attend
classes in Howard County. Ryan has been out of school since December.
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