Russian, Treated For Aids In Armenia, To Have Blood Tests In Germany
Interfax
08/13/1999
YEREVAN. Aug 13 (Interfax) - A resident of the Russian city of Kaliningrad Nikolai Kolesnikov, 19, who has been treated with a new anti- AIDS drug called "Armenikum," undergoing a course of therapy in the Armenian capital Yerevan, intends to travel to Germany in the next few days to have blood tests there.
Kolesnikov intends to be checked in Germany because he will be examined by independent experts there. The Russians confirmed that after five months of the medical treatment in Yerevan he shows no
sign of the disease and is feeling well.
According to his doctor, Levon Mkhitarian, the patient has no complaints today. After the therapy, he no longer exhibits any symptoms of furunculosis and herpes. He put on weight, many lymphatic cells have shrunk, and his earlier expansion of the liver is not observed.
In Yerevan, 96 patients are undergoing treatment with Armenikum. They come from Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Cambodia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran.
Mkhitarian says that they regularly leave to go home and then come back to Armenia once every three months for medical check-ups.
The Yerevan clinic cannot accommodate large numbers of patients. By the end of September another clinic with 50 beds will be rehabilitated and reequipped for this purpose.
"No patient's condition today worsened during the Armenikum treatment. Some 10 or 12 patients remained in steady satisfactory condition, while the rest felt markedly better," stressed Mkhitarian.