Saturday
20 February 1999
NEWS BRIEFS
RFL/RL
Doctors Puzzled By Magical 'AIDS Cure' Announcement.
Health officials in Armenia refused on Saturday to comment on a
statement by Interior and National Security Minister Serzh Sarkisian
that a vaccine curing the AIDS disease has been developed in
Armenia.
Sarkisian told state television on Friday that a group of doctors working in Armenia have produced the cure following a long research. Sarkisian said the vaccine has already been successfully tested on 13 individuals, infected with AIDS, until now deemed incurable. In his words, all of them have been ridden of the deadly disease. Sarkisian refused to give details saying only that the new medicine will be registered on Tuesday with a government agency dealing with drugs.
He said the research, kept secret, has been "sponsored" by himself and unspecified entrepreneurs.
However, officials in the Armenian health ministry did not hide their confusion with the influential minister's sensational announcement saying that they are totally unaware of any discovery.
Lev Zohrabian, director of the National Center for AIDS Prophylactics, also refused to comment. According to him, the Center has identified twenty cases of AIDS in Armenia to date. Seven individuals have died, he said.
Meanwhile, an informed source told RFE/RL that a secret research on AIDS has taken place in Armenia in the last two years and it was led by Levon Mkhitarian, the country's chief infection doctor. The source said the research's secrecy has been carefully guarded by national security officers.
(Hrach Melkumian)