Armenian Reporter, The 02-27-1999 V.32; N.22 p. 25 Word Count: 406
Chief Drug Official Adds Weight To "AIDS Cure" Announcement
Article Chief Drug Official Adds Weight To "AIDS Cure' Announcement
The head of a state agency authorizing distribution and sales of drugs on
Monday endorsed the credibility of claims by Interior and National Security
Minister Serge Sarkisian that a vaccine curing the AIDS disease has been
developed in Armenia.
Sarkisian told state television on Friday that a group of doctors has
produced the cure following lengthy secret research, which he and unnamed
businessmen have "sponsored." "The results are more than encouraging. They
are incomparable with the results obtained by the most effective drugs used
in the [outside] world," Emil Gabrielian, director of the Drug Agency, told
reporters. Gabrielian confirmed Sarkisian's assertion that the new cure has
been successfully tested on 14 individuals suffering from AIDS, four of
them begin in critical condition. He said their condition improved
dramatically after "several injections" and it took them about two months
to fully recuperate.
But Gabrielian, who was Armenia's health minister during the late Soviet
era, cautioned that the Vaccine must undergo an international examination
before it could be deemed utterly successful. "We must make sure it is
utterly effective. We must again check the credibility of facts," he said.
Gabrielian added, nevertheless, that the drug will be registered and
patented by his agency in the coming days. He said the research lasted for
one year and was conducted by Armenian medics, but refused to give details.
With only about 80 registered HIV carriers, Armenia has largely avoided a
massive spillover of AIDS from other parts of the world, plagued by the
deadly disease. There have been seven officially known cases of death so
far.