Bar Ilan University scientists have developed a new drug which may prolong the lives of victims of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and cancer sufferers. According to Prof. Shmuel Salzberg, head of the university’s science faculty, the drug AS101 was used to treat AIDS patients in Mexico, whose condition appeared to have improved a year later.
Salzberg said the drug stimulates the immune system to produce lymphocytes to fight infections. Experiments with laboratory mice at Bar Ilan and in the U.S. showed positive results, he said.
According to Salzberg, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the experimental treatment of patients in the U.S with AS101 within the next few months.
Meanwhile, the police are investigating a reported case of euthanasia involving an AIDS victim in Israel. Joanna Yehiel, editor of the Jerusalem Post’s weekend magazine, described the case in her book “The Eleventh Plague.” She wrote of a man dying of AIDS, who begged friends to put him out of his agony. They suffocated him wile he slept, Yehiel reported. The book does not disclose names or where the alleged killing took place, and police are trying to determine the authenticity of the account.
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