NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY CLINICAL TRIALS DIRECTORY

A very complete list of AIDS/HIV clinical trials in New York and New Jersey has been published by AIDS Treatment Registry (ATR), a New York AIDS service organization. About 40 different drugs and 40 different trial sites are listed, and the directory is republished six times a year to keep the information current.

ATR's Directory of AIDS/HIV Clinical Trials Open in New York and New Jersey does not describe the drugs themselves, except in a glossary; it recommends the AIDS/HIV Experimental Treatment Directory, published by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), for this information. But ATR's directory gives very complete coverage to all-important details of each trials, such as inclusion and exclusion criteria, trial sites with contact persons and phone numbers, whether hospitalization is required, whether PCP prophylaxis is allowed (almost always the answers is yes, at least with aerosol pentamidine), and where to get further information.

ATR has published a companion volume, Deciding to Enter an AIDS/HIV Drug Trial. Besides general background, this booklet includes checklists of dozens of questions which potential volunteers may want answered before they decide to enter a study. These questions are relevant anywhere in the U. S., of course, not only for the New York/New Jersey trials.

Note: ATR urgently needs financial help. Potential donors should know:

* ATR has been instrumental in building the knowledge base which enabled the AIDS community to be effectively represented in the DDI/parallel track negotiations;

* It's founder and scientific director, Iris Long, Ph.D., was honored in "A Salute to Everyday Heros" published in Newsweek, July 10 of this year;

* In one case, the trial information saved the life of a patient. The patient's hospital did not know that it had the experimental drug trimetrexate. ATR proved that it did, and the patient received the treatment.

Copies of the directory, or the booklet on deciding whether to enter a trial, can be obtained from AIDS Treatment Registry, P. O. Box 30234, New York, NY 10011-0102, phone 212/268-4196. There is no charge, but contributions, which are tax-deductible, are requested from those who can afford them.