Letter: AZT never claimed to be a miracle cure for Aids

GIVEN the media hostility to anything scientific, you are to be congratulated for printing two scientific items (on plastics and AZT) in the Sunday Review (2 May). I hope it will not seem ungracious if I correct certain errors. First, Bakelite cannot be produced 'in a rainbow of colours'. It is restricted to black, dark brown and dark green. Second, polythene was not 'invented in the United States'. It was discovered by our very own Imperial Chemical Industries and patented in February 1936.

In the AZT article, Simon Garfield admits that 'it was never claimed to be a cure'. The remarkable thing about AZT is that it has remained the leading anti- HIV drug for seven years in spite of hugely expensive research programmes to replace it. It is hardly fair to criticise AZT for not being the miracle drug it never claimed to be and for not yet being replaced by something better.

B G Reuben

South Bank University

London SE1