Face To Watch

AIDS Doc Redirects Treatment

When Dr. John Mellors '75, DAIS '78 began working with AIDS and HIV patients in the mid- 1980s, he suspected that the amount of virus in a patient's body—the "viral load"—was related to the severity of the illness. But virus quantities are tiny. There was no way to measure the minute variations in viral load. "I would watch people in clinics crash and burn, and I would think, 'Their viremia must be going through the roof.' But I had no way of proving it," recalls Mellors, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. Many leading researchers argued that viral load had no impact on the progression of the illness. Common therapies focused on bolstering the immune system.

That has changed, thanks in part to Mellors. With the help of a device developed in the early 19905, Mellors was finally able to measure hepatitus C virus levels. His findings, announced lastvear, show that the more virus a person has in his or her body shortly after being infected with HIV, the faster chat person will develop AIDS. His work has helped redirect AIDS and HIV treatment toward suppressing the virus with such substances as AZT and protease inhibitors, and gives researchers a means of tracking these drugs' performances. While additional knowledge is always cause for hope, the researcher is upset when his and others' work is touted as "the end of AIDS." The countries with the biggest HIV/AIDS problems are still struggling to stem the spread of the virus, he points out. And, in any event, they can't afford the tests and treatments being developed in the U.S. Says Mellors, "Everyone is so enthusiastic about my work and other people's work, but it's a small victory in a much bigger war—that's being lost."

Mellors