Surviving AIDS

Founder of People With AIDS and a pioneer in promoting ``safe sex,'' Callen has survived eight years since being diagnosed with AIDS. And he is not alone. He argues that the numbers of those who survive three years or more would be much greater if AIDS patients took simple prophylaxis against the pneumonia that is most likely to cause their deaths. Callen cautions that the drug AZT is highly toxic, stops DNA synthesis and in many cases actually weakens immunity. As an alternative to AZT, he recommends antiviral and immunomodulative drugs of more manageable toxicity. Among the long-term survivors he interviewed for this valuable, hope-giving manual were an intravenous drug user, a bisexual man who embraced a macrobiotic diet, gay black and Puerto Rican men and several persons with Kaposi's sarcoma. (Nov.)