However, while the investment in basic research has added greatly to the store of knowledge about the AIDS virus, it has not yet led to an effective treatment: much less a cure. At the same time, more people are getting sick and living longer with the disease. And their plight threatens to control the hearts and. purse strings of society and drown out those who advocate the cause of science.
"AIDS is now a treatable disease," says Reed V. Tuckson, District of Columbia commissioner of health. "The implications of that are tremendous. Few health care systems are equipped to handle what's coming; nor is there much planning going on." Given the nation's limited resources, he adds, efforts to cope with the problem are "going to make Americans look like barbarians."
For scientists, the overwhelming need for care forebodes a potential squeeze on scarce resources. "We have a national consensus on ...
