Science in the Triangle

North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park area has been an epicenter for AIDS research for almost as long as HIV, the virus that causes the disease, has been on America’s mind.

For a closer look at what this means, Science in the Triangle talked to four North Carolinians familiar with battling HIV:

• Dr. Charles Hicks, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University who started his career in San Francisco in 1979.
• James Hayes, who has been HIV-positive since probably 1982 and is part of research at Duke to develop a vaccine.
• Dr. Michelle Collins Ogle, who first encountered the disease in African-American babies in the late 1980s and has treated HIV/AIDS patients in rural North Carolina for about 10 years.
• John Paul Womble, HIV-positive and the interim executive director of the Alliance of AIDS Services in Raleigh.

RTP researchers have been at the forefront of developing breakthrough treatments since the early 1980s - from AZT, the first drug on the market, to current attempts of developing a vaccine. (More on the R&D efforts in RTP here.)

Watch Hicks talk about the early days, before AZT came to market in 1987 and drug cocktails marked a turning point in 1996, and why a cure is becoming possible. Part 1 and part 2.

Among the treatments discovered and developed in RTP is Fuzeon. Now, the injectible drug is being replaced by newer, oral medicines, but in 1999 Fuzeon changed Hayes’ life. He was one of the first patients to receive Fuzeon while it was still being tested. Watch Hayes talk about why HIV/AIDS is not like other chronic diseases. Part 1 and part 2.

Ogle treats about 250 HIV-positive patients at her clinic in Henderson, a rural area about 40 miles north of Durham. Two-thirds of her patients have no health insurance. Many read below an 8th-grade level. The number of HIV-positive women is rising, especially among 18- to 24-year-olds. Watch Ogle talk about dealing with HIV/AIDS in rural North Carolina. Part 1 and part 2.

John Paul Womble is one of Collins-Ogle’s patients, but he’s very different from the people she usually sees. Womble has health insurance, political influence and the means to get the best care available. He agrees with his doctor that being open and up-front about HIV/AIDS is paramount to corralling the spread of the disease. Watch Womble talk about finding out he was HIV-positive, the challenges of dealing with HIV/AIDS in the South and Jesse Helms’ granddaughter. Part 1 and part 2.

The interviews were videotaped in November and shown Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, at RTP headquarters during an event co-sponsored by RTI International and Triangle Global Health Consortium. The interviewer was Sabine Vollmer, the videographer was Jordan Mendys.