J.D. Hamilton, P.M. Hartigan, M.S. Simberkoff, P.L. Day, et al., "A controlled trial of early versus late treatment with zidovudine in symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus infection," New England Journal of Medicine, 326[7]:487, 1992.
John D. Hamilton (Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Durham, N.C.): "The results of the V.A. Cooperative Study on AZT (zidovudine)--which compared early vs. later AZT treatment in patients with symptomatic HIV infection and demonstrated a delay in the onset of AIDS but no additional benefit in length of survival--were not welcome to many. Certainly, they were a major disappointment on a personal level to infected patients, their families, and their private health care providers, all of whom hoped for additional survival with early AZT. As an additional perspective on the most important new cause of serious morbidity and mortality in the United States and abroad, the results were not welcome news to officials in public health ...