 Dr.
Kenneth Sell was among the first to recognize the early threat
of AIDS. As scientific director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the early 80s, he quickly
allocated researchers and resources to fight this disease.
"We made the decision to look for every viral and bacterial
infectious agent that we possibly could," he said. "We
used every kind of technique and culture method we could trying
to isolate the culprit." Dr. Sell started a program to
gather blood and other bodily fluid samples from people with
AIDS in order to store them for research.
Some people have criticized government scientists for not responding
quickly enough to AIDS. Dr. Sell disagreed. "Our understanding
of the disease, the agent, and the epidemiology developed more
rapidly than any other new infection in the history of biomedical
sciences," he said. "Furthermore, I never saw anyone
refraining from the pursuit of this scientific investigation
because they thought that the people at risk weren't worth studying.
This is another claim that's made sometimes."
Dr. Sell left the NIAID in 1985 to head the Winship Cancer Center
at the Emory University School of Medicine. He died on October
17, 1996. |
