Timeline is a regular feature in each issue looking back to events and milestones that have helped us evolve into the community we are today.

Sept. 23, 1988

Alcoholism and AIDS

Researchers found a direct correlation between AIDS and Alcoholism. At the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Omar Bagasra reported that HIV, the AIDS virus, grows up to 250 times faster in the white blood cells of someone who has had several drinks than someone who has not been drinking. Enlisting the help of six healthy volunteers, Bagasra tested their white blood cells after they had stopped drinking for a month. Bagasra had also tested the volunteers after they had drunk the equivalent of four to nine beers.

The results showed that the AIDS virus grew 25 to 250 times faster in the cells after the volunteers consumed alcohol. Even after all traces of alcohol were gone from their bodies, the volunteer’s immune systems were still not functioning as well as when they weren’t drinking.

According to Treatment Issues, a gay men’s health crisis newsletter on experimental AIDS therapies, the use of Antabuse, a drug used for more than 30 years to help alcoholics stop drinking, was believed to perhaps increase the number of T-cells in people with suppressed immune systems.  Available by prescription to treat alcoholism, it was not clear how Antabuse actually worked. Most doctors believed it to help existing T-cells reach maturity to fight off infections. A series of questions appeared at the end of the Alcoholism and AIDS story. Here are a few.

“If you answer “Yes” to three or more questions, you probably do have a problem with alcohol.”

1. Do you lose time from work of school due to drinking?
2. Is drinking making your romantic life unhappy?
3. Have you been in financial difficulties because of drinking?
4. Do you drink more often by yourself than with others?
5. Have you ever been charged with driving under the influence?
6. Have you ever suffered shakes, restlessness anxiety or hallucinations when you stopped drinking?