AIM: Armenian International Magazine 04-30-1999 V.10; N.4 p. 28 Word
Count: 1003
Armenicum: A cure for AIDS?
Author Hughes, John
Article ARMENICUM: A CURE FOR AIDS?
With the exception of political intrigue or outright war, few news events
have stirred talk in Yerevan like the recent announcement that a group of
Armenian researchers have discovered a cure for AIDS.
During a nationally televised appearance on February 19, Interior and
National Security Minister Serge Sargsian made the dramatic announcement
using the word "cure," a term even the most aggressive AIDS scientists
around the world have cautiously avoided.
The announcement was front page news throughout Armenia and was met with
cynicism, perhaps partly because of its timing. Sargsian's dramatic
statement came at a time when his office is under scrutiny following three
assassinations of high level government officials in the past eight months,
including the killing of his own deputy in February.
And the announcement itself came in response to a reporter's question of
whether Sargsian is a member of one of Armenia's most powerful economic
clans. To illustrate his commitment to helping honest businessmen in
Armenia, Sargsian said that a collaboration of researchers privately
financed by Armenian businessmen had found this "cure."
The Minister said that tests over a period of months had been conducted on
13 AIDS patients who volunteered for the experiment. (Officially, Armenia
reports having only 20 cases of AIDS, with 75 HIV-infected patients.) All
13, Sargsian said, showed no signs of the disease or of the HIV virus at
the conclusion of the treatment.
Sargsian concluded his comments by saying that sales of the new drug would
have a dramatic impact on Armenia's struggling economy.
Within three days of the announcement, at least one Yerevan daily reported
that a Russian business tycoon has offered $10 billion for the formula to
the drug, which is being called Armenicum.
At the same time, the Director of Armenia's Drugs Agency, Emil Gabrielian,
told reporters that Armenicum would be worth "billions of dollars to
Armenia."
"Thirteen patients were cured," Gabrielian said. "The conditions of three
of them were quite severe. These people feel healthy now and thorough
laboratory tests did not reveal the immunodeficiency virus in their blood.
"Of course, there have been many cases in the history of medicine when the
results were excellent at the experimental stage, but became useless for a
larger number of patients. The investigations should surely continue, but
the results gained so far are absolutely clear," Gabrielian announced.
What is not clear as AIM goes to press, is how the tests were conducted,
who the patients were, whether the drug is similar to the protean
inhibitors (known as the "AIDS cocktail") which have shown dramatic success
in AIDS cases in Europe and the US.
Details remain unknown because of a virtual media blackout of specifics.
Neither researchers nor patients have been made available to journalists,
and officials -- from the Minister of Health to the director of Yerevan's
Institute of Hygiene -- say they are not allowed to give interviews due to
"national security."
The Yerevan daily Azg quoting "semiofficial" sources said the drug was
invented by an Armenian scientist who was doing AIDS research in
Kazakhstan. When money ran out in Kazakhstan, the doctor and his research
team found financial backing in Armenia.
The newspaper also reported that the principal element in Armenicum is a
chemical that splits the protein in the AIDS virus.
Only after Russian physicians and patients arrived in Armenia, followed by
a delegation of the World Health Organization, did cynicism begin to yield
to a healthy skepticism in the buzz about Armenicum.
Prime Minister Armen Darbinian said he believes the claim to be true and
announced that Russia and France have sent proposals suggesting joint
clinical testing.
Stories circulated, and not just from a Turkish newspaper, that Ervin
"Magic" Johnson, who several years ago tested HIV positive, has applied for
a visa to visit Armenia.
Until Johnson arrives, the most visible trial of Armenicum is on a
20-year-old Russian soldier who has been HIV positive since last year.
Nikolay Kolesnikov arrived in Yerevan March 4 to begin a treatment that
Gabrielian and others say is effective after five to 10 injections in a two
week period.
After treatment in Armenia, Kolesnikov will return to Moscow to be examined
by a group of Russian doctors and specialists.
Meanwhile, in Yerevan, the joke on the street is, "You have a cold? What a
shame. If it were AIDS, at least you could be cured."