Wherever possible, citations for information sources are provided, so that the motivated reader will be able to find additional information. Background information has been taken from various texts on disease, pharmacology and immunology. Thanks to the New York Academy of Medicine for their great help in providing resource material. See also ARIC's PWA Resource Guide for full contact information on the best AIDS service and information groups, and ARIC's AIDS Links Index for extensive links to many more useful AIDS-related resources available through the Internet. Unfortunately, many of the therapies listed herein are not in any clinical trial or are not covered by most medical insurance.
Access is therefore a problem.
Assessing therapies tells us if what people are doing is helping or hurting. And if they are helping, to get an idea on the strengths, limitations, problems, dosing, scheduling and other types of questions that help achieve the maximum benefit. In addition, if the NIH performs these studies and shows efficacy, it may open physicians' minds to use of many currently ignored treatment options while convincing insurance companies and Medicaid programs to cover these treatments. The first issue is what to study. There are many anecdotal reports, scientific evidence and other rationales for reviewing a variety of alternatives.