New York City and Elsewhere. The good news in New York and elsewhere must be tempered by continued safer-sex campaigns. Seven people with AIDS die daily in the Big Apple. Two years ago, the daily figure for AIDS-related deaths was at nineteen.

Reasons for the Statistical Drop? Nobody knows. But most credit the triple-drug therapies. Youths and others must be made aware, however, that not everyone responds to these drugs, that taking them is a cumbersome and often upsetting daily process, and that their long-term effects are unknown.

Even so, the length of survival periods have increased two-fold since 1989. Prior to that year, 14 months of life following AIDS diagnosis was all that could be hoped for. By 1993 and 1994, prior to triple-drug therapy, life spans after diagnosis had increased to 29 months.

When Should Treatments Start? Initially, it was believed that they'd be effective only if begun shortly after HIV+ diagnosis. Now, it appears there is no valid research that backs up this theory.

Semen Transmissions. There is also much disagreement as to whether semen always transmits HIV. The University of North Carolina's Myron Cohen, presented research indicating that persons recently infected are more likely (one in three) to transmit the disease than much later when, after their viral loads have decreased, their chances of passing on the disease do also.

Can AIDS eradication become complete? No one knows. It is now estimated (worse case scenario) that at least 20 years (following infection) must pass before such an eradication can be assured, no matter how difficult the virus becomes to detect. Previously the famed Dr. David Ho (Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center) had estimated that triple drug therapy could eradicate the virus in as few as two or three years. Ho was mistaken and, many feel, out of line to make this earlier estimate public. He now estimates that as many as five years may be needed for assurance.

Another researcher, Robert Siliciano (Johns Hopkins University) has shown how HIV can hide unaffected by the new treatments. "No one has been on therapy long enough for us to know," he says, addressing of eradication hopes.

The new therapies have been in use for less than three years. Most HIV positive people have been hosts to these therapies for approximately 12 months.

Triple-Drug Treatments. They vary from person to person. There are a wide variety of treatment regimens, many of which require patients to take not only three but as many as six different drugs daily. Doctors have no reliable statistics as to which drugs are most effective as starters.

Are Drugs Always Necessary? Massachusetts General Hospital's Bruce Walker presented case histories showing that some diagnosed people are able to survive for nearly two decades without taking drugs. Helper T-cells must be helped to maintain themselves soon after HIV infections take place. Then, he says, such cells will be able to perform effectively through the years.

The difference between two classes of patients—those who die quickly and those who do not—lies in the fact that the first group has killer cells while such cells are not detectable in those who live longer.

Walker's research has been based upon 11 patients at Massachusetts General. Out of the 11 studied, 11 are still alive. Walker believes that attacking a patient's killer cells shortly after diagnosis is more likely to keep those cells alive. A more effective approach, he says, is in allowing the body's natural defenses to produce HIV antibodies.

Fatty Deposits. Some patients, ranging from 6% to 60% of those being treated with protease inhibitors, are complaining of fatty deposits that gather around the base of the neck or in the belly regions. No harm seems to result from these deposits, however, and the medical researchers are presently at a loss to explain them.