Like others taking part in the federally funded drug trials, Fletcher sees little to lose and much to gain. Besides prolonging her own life, she hopes, the knowledge that scientists glean from the experiments may ultimately benefit others with the AIDS virus.
"I want to make it better for the next person who's coming behind me," Fletcher said.
Fletcher is among the first Philadelphia-area residents to enroll in the region's first AIDS Clinical Trial Unit, part of a nationwide network of 37
drug-trial units established by the federal government to test promising new drugs to combat AIDS.
The new Philadelphia unit, opened in April with $5.4 million in federal
funds, is jointly run by researchers at Penn and Thomas Jefferson University. It aims to enroll 560 HIV-infected people in clinical trials over the next four years.
"We are now positioned to be more on the cutting edge of AIDS research," said Dr. Rob Roy MacGregor, a Penn medical professor who oversees the program.
Although Philadelphia ranks 10th among U.S. cities in the number of AIDS cases, it is one of the few major cities that had not been included in the government's national drug-testing network set up in 1986.
Until now, Philadelphia-area residents who wanted to be in a government
drug test had to travel to Baltimore, New York or Hershey, Pa., the nearest trial sites.
"We can't fault the federal government for not setting up a trial in our back yard," MacGregor said. "They received no applications from us."
Earlier in the AIDS epidemic, MacGregor said, the city's largest teaching hospitals were reluctant to get involved in the drug-testing program for fear it would attract large numbers of AIDS patients, many of them lacking medical insurance to pay their hospital bills.
Hospital administrators also feared that AIDS patients might scare off other patients afraid of contracting the deadly virus, he said.
