Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pm US/Central
Stroger, Doctors Disagree About HIV Vaccine
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Cook County Board President Todd Stroger
CBS
A plan to test a possible new HIV vaccine in Cook County has run into a roadblock.
Doctors at Cook County's CORE center don't support the project. Board President Todd Stroger disagrees. And Monday, Stroger tells CBS 2 he wants the county board to hold public hearings
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery explains.
It's the kind of medical policy dispute that usually stays in the back rooms. Those with the biggest stake are 6,000 people getting treatment for HIV/AIDS at Cook County's CORE center.
Fernando Blasco has been getting treatment for his HIV/AIDS for 12 years at Cook County's Stroger Hospital and its CORE Center.
One pill once a day now keeps Blasco's disease under control, as it does for Peter McLoyd. He almost died of AIDS 19 years ago. He now works at the county medical campus, and he supports the hospital's decision not to have AIDS patients here test a vaccine that might one day be a cure.
"I think that we would really be sending mixed messages to them when we tell them to stop taking their medication to take a vaccine that we don't know much about yet," McLoyd said.
County Board President Todd Stroger, though, wants Cook County to participate in the federally approved AIDS vaccine test. Stroger and his deputies suggest politics played a big role in the decision to reject the vaccine test.
"I think that politics is at issue with everything that happens in the county," he said. "That's just a sad fact of life."
Stroger's once-close ally, County Commissioner John Daley, chairs the panel that made the decision. In a phone conversation, Daley ridiculed Stroger's complaint about political motivation.
Robert Weinstein, the chief operating officer of the CORE Center, said it was strictly based on science. He said medical officials there discussed it health experts, board members and researchers.
"None of these individuals gave us any encouragement to move ahead on the therapeutic vaccine," Weinstein said.
Stroger said he's undeterred.
"I think that the public ought to have more information about this, and they should let the foundation and the board know what they think," Stroger said.
Stroger said he's contacting members of the county board to schedule a public hearing on the AIDS vaccine. It could be every entertaining to watch county commissioners wrestle with the latest details of modern microbiology.
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