Doctors Find AIDS-Like Disease Without H.I.V. Virus Is Growing - New York Times

New York Times: "European and American doctors added new reports today to earlier descriptions of patients with an AIDS-like disease but no detectable evidence of infection with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The reports raised several possibilities. The new condition, reported in about 30 patients, may be caused by a third variant of H.I.V. Or it may be a deficiency of the immune system caused by some other condition or agent. The new agent might be a microbe or some environmental factor.

American health officials appealed to doctors today to report any similar cases to the Federal Centers for Disease Control. They said the case reports would be used in an intense effort to determine precisely what factors were shared by the men and women with the AIDS-like illness. They said the cases might not be linked. 5 Cases Described

Several researchers have said privately that they believe they have found evidence that patients with the mysterious condition have been infected with previously unidentifed microbes or mutants of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. But they have not formally reported their findings.

If a new microbe is involved, a screening test to protect the blood supply can be developed after it is isolated, the health officials said.

'We do not know of any evidence of transmissibility,' Dr. James Allen, who directs the National AIDS Program Office in Washington, said at a news conference. He said that because the mysterious cases are rare and because the blood supply is subjected to rigorous testing, transfusions are safer today than ever.

But Dr. James Curran, an AIDS expert at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said here it was not clear whether the known cases represent a new syndrome or a variety of rare medical problems that pose no threat to the nation's health. It is also possible that some longstanding, rare disease of the immune system is being identified now because doctors concerned about AIDS are giving new attention to their patients' immune systems."

Note that this is a news article from 1992.