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AIDS Research Pioneer Speaks at WVU: Curran Has Studied Disease Since It Was First Discovered

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Evelyn Ryan, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Apr. 5--Pioneer AIDS researcher Dr. James W. Curran was there in 1981 when AIDS was just a collection of different diseases, with scientists scrambling to identify where this ailment came from and how it spread.

Medical faculty and students packed the WVU Health Sciences Center auditorium at noon Tuesday to hear Curran's personal recollection of the twists and turns in the hunt to unlock the HIV/AIDS virus.

The key proved to be surveillance -- tracking cases, assigning a cause and developing a prevention strategy, he said.

Derek Grimm, a fourth-year pharmacy student, was intrigued by the subject. "I think the idea of how an epidemic spreads, from an historic point of view, is interesting," he said.

It brought memories to Dr. Jack Riggs, a WVU professor of neurology.

"It was a reminder of what things were like for people like me who grew up through this," he said. "In AIDS, we were in the middle of it before we knew it. A flu pandemic is very different. You become acutely ill. Everyone can prepare in advance."

One of the most significant findings by AIDS investigators was very, very bad news, Curran said.

"It looked like once you were infected, you were always infected," he said. You had it for life. No cure has been discovered; only treatments.

In 1981, when it all officially began, Ronald Reagan had just become president, the inflation rate was high, unemployment was high, and a war was underway in Iran.

That year, the CDC had formed a task force to look into cases of Pneumocystis carrinii pneumonia, Kaposi's sarcoma (cancer) and opportunistic infections, all later found to be part of an AIDS diagnosis.

Curran detailed the steps taken to get information on these cases from across the nation, to find the first known case, and to develop treatments.

"The virus precedes the disease by a very long time," Curran said. "That's the secret to a virus like HIV -- it gains a toehold before it develops. And not only are you infected for life, it seems to be progressive over time."

In the U.S., cases have stabilized because of the emphasis on prevention and new medical treatments, he said, but the medical watch on AIDS has relaxed. Internationally, cases are increasing.

"The things he talked about, I lived through. Much of the audience couldn't relate to this" because they are so young, said Dr. Robert D'Alessandri, vice president of the WVU Health Sciences Center.

"They take treatment for AIDS for granted. They don't appreciate how scared people were back there. I think we've come a long way in West Virginia."

He remembered seeing AIDS patients served food on paper plates because of fear a regular plate would carry the AIDS virus.

WVU is the center of treatment and counseling for AIDS in West Virginia, D'Alessandri said. While there are cases in this state, it's not as bad as in other states, he added.

Curran's visit was sponsored by the WVU Department of Community Medicine. Department Chair Dr. Alan M. Ducatman said 10 community medicine students got a chance to meet privately with Curran, who also met with students studying nursing and infectious diseases.

Curran is dean and professor of epidemiology of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and director of Emory's Center for AIDS Research. Before that, he was with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His visit is the first 2006 presentation in the WVU Health Sciences Center Grand Rounds series, which brings distinguished experts from all fields of health care and health research to speak on campus.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

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Source: The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

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