Legions Of Life Scientists Will Be Called To The Front, As War On AIDS Intensifies

With the pandemic mounting and no sure remedies in sight, experts foresee the growing recruitment of skilled researchers On May 21, the World Health Organization announced that 14 million people have been infected with HIV so far, and the global figure could hit 40 million by the year 2000. And the ninth international AIDS meeting in Berlin earlier this month yielded little startling information beyond the general agreement among scientists that they have been, in effect, stymied thus f

Ricki Lewis

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With the pandemic mounting and no sure remedies in sight, experts foresee the growing recruitment of skilled researchers

But science's pursuit of a magic bullet--or arsenal of heavy artillery--to battle the scourge is picking up speed. And, while fundamental questions about AIDS remain unanswered, preparation for vaccine trials is under way worldwide, and the need for scientists in AIDS research will skyrocket, experts from diverse fields agree.

Although a precise counting of AIDS researchers is nearly impossible, the number is probably in the tens of thousands, according to several estimates and extrapolations. "For fiscal 1992, 1,894 principal investigators were on [National Institutes of Health] AIDS-related grants and contracts," says Robert Eisinger, senior program analyst in NIH's Office of AIDS Research. That support amounted to more than $1 billion of the agency's $10.3 billion 1992 budget, with $450 million going to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

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