the desperate search for an effective Aids treatment. But the Israeli doctors see their own work as just one part of an enormous, fiendishly difficult, jigsaw puzzle. While the Israeli treatment reduces the ability of the AIDS virus to spread, other researchers can now concentrate on tack- ling the problem of reviving the patient's devastated immune system in order to combat the myriad ailments which typical- ly ravage an AIDS victim. "It is the same story with all these dreadful diseases," says Professor Meir Shinitsky, who discovered and developed AL-721 at his Department for Membrane Research at the Weizmann Institute. "There is no single, magic bullet. The cure, when it comes, will be a team effort. "We are encouraged by the results we have achieved so far;' he says, "but we have to test it on many more patients before we can evaluate it effectively. I would guess that a cure, and a vaccination, for AIDS is still three to ten years away." Professor Shinitsky, 42, stumbled on the AIDS treatment almost by accident. From the early '80s, he and his researchers had been working on a product designed to restore lost function in aging tissue, par- ticularly brain tissue. They had discovered that a lipid corn- pound extracted from egg yolk reduced the level of cholesterol in human tissue (as op- posed to cholesterol in the bloodstream) and caused a decrease in the "rigidity" of cell membranes, which is a symptom of the aging of cells. The AIDS connection came from a study conducted ten years ago at the University of Virginia, where researchers found that certain viruses need a high level of cell Hoping Beyond Hope PHIL JACOBS Special to Jewish News he drugs that have been manufac- tured to relieve the symptoms and pain associated with the dreaded disease AIDS come with names such as AZT, AL-721, DNCB, lentinan, aerosol pentamidine, fu zheng, coenzyme Q BHT, naltrexone and ribavirin. And while they all have success and failure stories attached to their treatment records, one thing seems certain: these drugs are the focus of a wide range of emo- tions, not the least of which are skep- ticism, desperation, hope and frustration. "People who have AIDS will grasp at any straw;' said one Detroit Jewish homosexual. "Even if the supposed cure has not been perfected, I don't know of any person who wouldn't be willing to try something new "I know half a dozen gay people who would be willing to go anywhere and do anything. They know their lives are hang- ing by a string, and if they know that the string can be strenthened to a rope to hang on to, they'll try just about anything. "Also people with AIDS are usually per- fectly willing to be experiment& They have, of course, self-saving purposes in mind, looking for anything that will help them, whatever the treatment is. Yes, there is skepticism, but it's overridden to try anything at any cost." According to a San Francisco-based publication called AIDS T-eatment News, the great frustration over AL-721 is that the FDA hasn't approved it for use yet in this country, even though it is being used in Israel. It's no secret that many gay Americans have made the trip to Israel and that many gays in this country have obtained and used the drug. Indeed, in one of its issues, the newsletter recounted a story of a gay man who near death, visited Israel and returned to the U.S. T 26 FRIDAY DECEMBER 4. _ 1987 healthy and a firm believer in AL-721. In its survey, the AIDS Reatment News reported that 110 respondents in- dicated that they had used AL-721, and that about 50 percent found the treatment helpful while 15 percent indicated it was not helpful and 35 percent said they were uncertain. "My thinking is that people are mostly skeptical about any new treatment;' said John James, publisher of AIDS Treat- ment News. "They really aren't as eager as you might think to go out and try something new Of course if they're within a few days of death, they'll try anything. But most people with AIDS are healthy enough in the early stages to begin study- ing and doing their own research on what's best for them. And I find that generally people are very skeptical." "My thinking in general is that the federal government is still extremely remiss," said Daniel Najjar, founder of the National Jewish AIDS Project. "They should be testing as many drugs as possi- ble. They should be rushing new treat- ments in through the system. AL-721 is just an example of how slowed up and backed up their system is. "New medications get reported through the AIDS grapevine very quickly," Najjar continued. `AIDS activists have been pleading with the federal government to put into trial anything they can. There is absolutely no excuse for delays except for human inefficiency" Don Miller, a Baltimore activist who was diagnosed as having AIDS in 1983, said that his partner, who also has AIDS, is using the egg derivative to com- bat his illness. "From everything we've seen so far, it's been good for him," said Miller, who once conducted a much publicized survey to see which area funeral homes would not ac- cept people who had died of AIDS. Miller, who is receiving treatment for an AIDS-related lung problem, said that he would also consider taking AL-721 down the line if he needed to But after more than four years since his diagnosis, Miller said he's adjusted his attitude in an at- tempt to live with AIDS instead of die from it. "Personally, I've conditioned myself to accept any good treatment that is shown not to have any bad side effects," Miller said. "Sometimes the side effects are worse than the disease. I'm at a relative- ly healthy level at this point. But I could see how if a person got really bad, they might start grasping for medications. I really don't like to take medications to begin with. "Some people," he continued, "are diagnosed in one day and they go crazy. It's like initial shock and they want to take every drug that's out there. For me, it's been more of a roller coaster. Sometimes I'm emotional and I don't want to talk about AIDS anymore, and other times I'm fighting it like hell. I'm a little skep- tical about drugs, so I try to avoid them. And I think that if I ever got to the point of really suffering, I'm not going to main- tain myself. I'd rather work myself into a heart attack." Or as Steve, a gay Jew who works in the medical field here in Detroit, said, "Peo- ple are experiencing a great deal of wishful thinking. Maybe this medication will be the one to do it all for me. You have to remember that people in this situation will grasp at anything. "I know a person taking the drug AZT who got really sick:' Steve continued, "And now he's living by a macrobiotic diet and he looks wonderful, but God only knows what's happening to his insides. One day there's hope and another day there's none. Look, didn't Rock Hudson go to France to do anything he could? I know people who are going to gurus, hoping to pray the disease away. It's all so tragic."