Re: Discoverer of HIV/ AIDS researchers gets Nobel Prize

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

The long standing feud between who discovered the AIDS HTLV retrovirus, was put

to rest yesterday. In 1981, Pastuer Institute and American Dr R Gallo were in

a battle. (Read the book 'And The Band Played On')

I came to scene a lot later in 1991(though I was infected in 1981(it has an

incubation period of 10 years)), was teaching at Columbia University, and on the

Board of Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of HIV/AIDS.

In Greenwich Village in NYC, in St 's Hospital, young men, among them my

Taiwanese friend, were hooked to drips which they walked about in, trying to

save their eyes from viruses (CMV). Glancyclovir was not available in oral form

then.

I am glad that the truth has come out and am sorry for all those bright young

men who lost their lives, including the writer of the musical RENT who received

the TONY Award posthumously, and was a patient at St 's.

They saved my Taiwanese friend's life and eyesight, and I visited him in 1997,

in Greenwich Village and had tea, a stones throw from St 's.

Thank you,

Sincerely yours,

Priyadarshi Datta, PLWHA

e-mail: <pdatta@...>