University receives AIDS research grant
Five-year investigation now underway
By Beth Laski
Staff Writer
University researchers are now working to find a cure for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) under the largest single grant ever awarded to combat the disease, which concentrates itself in homosexuals and drug users but is recently causing worry among all groups.
In fall of 1984, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institute of Health awarded a S23.9 million research contract to the University of Southern California School of Medicine for a five-year study of AIDS — the deadly viral disease that impairs the body's immune function.
The Transfusion Safety Study, directed by Dr. James Mosley, a USC professor of medicine, examines what happens to blood donors who have AIDS antibodies
and what consequences face those who receive the infected blood.
"The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has given high priority to protecting the public against possible transmission of AIDS through transfusions of blood and blood products, " Mosley said in a press conference at the university.
"For the purpose of understanding the disease in the United States, certain diagnostic criteria were set, based on its most severe form," Mosley said. "But the same virus in some persons probably causes milder changes that don't necessarily lead to the same crippling of the immune system."
"The disease's fatal consequences are
not caused by the AIDS infection itself but by susceptibility to other diseases," Mosley said.
The AIDS virus destroys the body's "helper" T-cells, which stimulate the immune system to fight diseases. The impaired immunity function leaves AIDS victims vulnerable to other infections.
The series of studies on the transmission of AIDS through blood transfusions will focus particular attention on patients with hemophilia.
"This research project is a continuation of its many efforts in recent years to ensure that safe blood is provided for medical use," Mosley said.
One of the project's primary objectives
is to evaluate a blood screening test that has been under development since the virus thought to cause AIDS was identified last April.
The screening procedure was developed this April and is currently being used by blood banks throughout the country to test samples of blood for antibodies that show whether the blood contains the AIDS virus.
The screening test is used to eliminate the donation of blood by infected persons.
The researchers involved in the project headed by Mosley are using the screening test to test samples of blood previously given by 200,000 donors.
The researchers' next step will be to follow as many as 400 recipients of blood transfusions containing antibodies for the (Continued on page 2)
Cure for AIDS found? See UPDATE, page 2.
dMEw trojan
Volume XCIX, Number 22
University of Southern California
Wednesday, October 2, 1985
Missing: One plaque
Zumberge plans word on S. Africa
By Nancie Mack
Assistant City Editor
The university's position regarding its investments in South Africa should be a lead topic at this morning's meeting of the Board of Trustees.
At his faculty breakfast on Sept. 14, President James Zumberge said that he expected to be able to announce the board's decision concerning the investments immediately following the meeting.
The Commission on University Policy Regarding Investments in Companies Doing Business in South Africa met between March and July to make recommendations regarding the investments.
The committee's report, submitted in August to the president and the Board of Trustees, presented three options: total divestment, selective divestment and no divestment of university funds.
These choices were considered by the board's executive (Continued on page 6)
‘Careless’ teacher causes spill
By Corii Berg
Staff Writer
An unmarked beaker containing approximately 100 milliliters of an unidentified acid was the cause of a chemical spill yesterday in a sixth-floor laboratory in Vivian Hall of Engineering, said Michael Bass, chairman of the electrical and electrophysics engineering department.
The spill, which sent four security officers and a professor of electronic physics to the hospital for a short time, was the result of an "obvious mistake on the part of a careless professor," Bass said. He said that the accident was not the fault of Steve Forrest, the injured professor.
"I had been cleaning up the lab and was trying to sort out some old chemicals," Forrest said.
"When the water dripped into the beaker containing the acid, it spurted up and I got some on me. I had no idea what the acid was because nobody had labeled the beaker," he stated.
"It's unfortunate that the person using the lab had not been responsible enough to clean up after himself, but procedures don't mean anything unless everybody follows them," Bass said.
"It's always been assumed that when you enter the lab you are going to have to clean up a bit for the person who was before you," Bass added.
"Unfortunately, the cleaning up was too hazardous in this case."
"I know who was responsible for the lab before Forrest, but until I find out more information concerning the event I will not release the name, primarily because it may have not been his or her fault," he stated.
After Forrest had been splattered by the acid, he evacuated the lab, where some of his graduate students had been working.
"There were a lot of fumes that got dispersed into the ventilation system, which caused the odor. I knew I had better clear the building just to be safe," Forrest said.
"Although I cannot verify this fact until the tests come back, I would have to say that the chemical must have been nitric acid," he said. "Nitric acid is the only acid I know of that would produce those fumes."
The spill closed the building from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., when a safety officer determined that the substance had been contained and that the building was safe for re-entry.
"I would have to say that the whole incident was fully contained quite quickly and that the whole ordeal had lost its excitement once the (fire) engines left," Forrest said.
Freshman minority enrollment increasing
By Matthew Gaven
Staff Writer
Over the past few years there has been an upward trend in the percentage of minority students in the university's incoming freshman class and this year was no exception.
Minority students represented 29 percent of the fall 1985 freshman class, a figure which exceeds the national average by 10 percentage points.
Seventeen percent of the incoming students at the university are Asian, sevem percent are hispanic, and five percent are black.
"We have maintained a stable minority enrollment, with the exception of a one percent decline in black student enrollment," said Kathryn Forte, director of admissions.
Forte said the drop in black student enrollment concerns her, and said she would "like to restore black enrollment to six percent or seven percent by next semester."
"This is a very serious national problem," Forte said.
"More black students are graduating from high school, but are not continuing to college," she said.
Forte added the decline results from several factors, including federal financial aid cuts and social barriers.
To help alleviate this problem, the university has implemented various recruitment programs, including the use of direct mailing and personal outreach programs.
"Minority recruitment is very important to USC," Forte said.
(Continued on page 2)
TOM WOODALL DAILY TROJAN
The fire department in full force handled a chemical spill Monday that has been attributed to carelessness.
Still missing after a year, the university doesn’t seem to think we will ever recover the above stolen plaque commemorating President Kennedy's speech here in 1960. Now only an empty space in front of Doheny Library, administrators plan to replace it.