HUP official discusses treatment of AIDS

The director of HIV services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania discussed the hospital's AIDS care and research during a speech yesterday. Rob Roy MacGregor told nearly 60 College of General Studies students that the HUP facility is a "categorical clinic" with "one-stop shopping for AIDS related problems." MacGregor said the most rewarding part of AIDS treatment is the personal relationship he develops with each patient. He said that a doctor treating an AIDS patient becomes an ally and an advisor, rather than solely a director. Since there is not a known cure for the disease, the patient often knows more about how symptoms affect the body than the doctor. As a result, he said, communication is important. The HUP clinic -- the only facility in the Delaware Valley devoted specifically to HIV -- developed as a result of what Macgregor called finger-pointing by doctors. According to MacGregor, when AIDS first became prevalent, people found it "so novel and so scary" to watch otherwise healthy people "dying like flies." Also, very few doctors wanted to be involved with the disease. Now, however, MacGregor said he and his colleagues regard the research opportunities derived from HIV treatment as the "most novel thing in the world of medicine." He likened himself to Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars clone wars, at the forefront of history. Much of the AIDS research done at HUP is clinical. MacGregor said that since the HIV virus has only been detected in humans, the patients become a "living lab." Though some prefer to avoid the risks associated with experimental drugs, most are willing to try them for the chance of recovery and medical breakthrough, he said. According to MacGregor, 18 percent of the clinic's 850 patients are women, although only 11 percent of full blown AIDS cases in the U.S. are women. The patients at HUP are 60 percent black, 35 percent white and five percent Hispanic. There is also one Asian patient. CGS student Melissa Clark said that she was excited by the opportunity to hear one of the foremost figures involved in AIDS care speak. MacGregor spoke as part of a monthly lecture series given through CGS. Melissa Times, another CGS student, said she finds the monthly optional lectures "far more entertaining than class" because of the real-world experience the speakers bring with them.