[Pharm-policy] Gina Kolata in NYT: Who Owns Your Genes

[James Love]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/051500hth-aids-gene.html


-- May 15, 2000


         A SPECIAL REPORT

         Who Owns Your Genes?

         By GINA KOLATA

             rich Karl Fuchs had his first
             AIDS test in 1988. The
             test, he thought, would
         confirm the inevitable -- it would
         show he was infected with the
         AIDS virus. 

         Mr. Fuchs, who is gay, had had
         unprotected sex over the years
         with men who carried the virus. It
         stood to reason that he, too,
         would be infected. 

         But, to his astonishment, the test
         showed no evidence of the virus.
         "I said, 'This has got to be
         wrong,' " Mr. Fuchs said. "Then I
         took the test again and I took it
         again." The results never varied. 

         Over the next six years, Mr.
         Fuchs repeatedly got in touch
         with AIDS researchers and
         asked them to study him and
         figure out why he seemed to be
         immune to the virus, H.I.V. But,
         he said, the scientists told him
         they were not interested. 


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James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
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