May 7, 1985

Dr. Robert C. Gallo
Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology
National Cancer InstitutelNlN
Building 37, Room 6A09
9000 P,ozkvil!e Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20205

Dr, Luc Montagnier
Institut Pasteur
28 Rue du Docteur-Roux
75724 Paris Cedex 15
France

Dear Bob and Luc:

It was a real pleasure seeing you both in Atlanta during the

international meeting on AIDS.

As we discussed, the time has come to decide on an

appropriate name for the virus you both discovered independently,
so that the epidemic and its related disorders can be properly
defined and renamed. It seems only natural that you, more than
any other investigator, should select a name for this virus. I
am writing to express my opinion on this issue and to urge you to
agree on a name for the virus as soon as possible.

The designation *'Human T Lymphotropic Virus" (HTLV) appears

to be mnost appropiiste since 'I? i? hs., tt59r- %sed in the orlginsl
publications by both of you; 2) it reflects the biologic
characteristic of the virus; 3) it defines the type of target
cell for this viral infection; and 4) no stigma is attached to
the designation per se. I appreciate potential objections to the
use of ffIIIri, and would like to suggest letters such as:
R (Robert), L (Luc), G (Gallo), M (Montagnier), P (Paris and
Pasteur), B (Bethesda), and E (epidemic).

In my opionion, abbreviations, such as AIDS, ARC, pre-AIDS,

LA, et al,, should not be used because of the following
difficulties:

1) These abreviations are now closely associated with a

stigmatized life-sytle (homosexuality and i.v. drug use) as

Memorial Sloun-Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Avenge, New Yo&, Neui York 10021

Drs. Gallo and Montagnier
Page Two
May 7, 1985

well RS high mortality. Clinicians frequently encounter patients
who request the use of terms such as: "viral infection" instead
of "AIDS", or "idiopathic hemangiosarcoma" instead of "Kaposi's
sarcoma", on their medical records. The comnonly used terms for
the AIDS epidemic have serious psychosocial implications not only
for the patients themselves but also for their family members.
Many patients have lost their jobs and have been denied
emplo~ent and/or health insurance because of such diagnosis. As
a matter of fact, Haitians have been officially removed from the
list of high risk groups in order to decrease the impact of such
an sssoeiatioc on Haiti.

2) The use of these terms with their associated stigma is

likely to have devastating consequences on the family and social
structure in the heterosexual population, which appears to be a
slowly expanding risk group. It is very difficult for the
physician to interpret such diagnoses to the family members of
stricken patients in this group.

   3) The terms AIDS, ARC, pre-AIDS, and LA singly or
collectively do not cover the spectrum of this disease entity.
Related disorders, such as dementia, thrombocytopenia, lymphomas
and other malignancies are not included, nor are the pre-clinical
stage and asymptomatic carriers accounted for by these terms.

   On the other hand, such classification has resulted in
inaccurate data collection and reporting in this epidemic. While
it is speculated that one million persons are infected, only
10,000 AIDS cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease
Control, a definite underestimation, which also leaves out the
number of cases of ARC, pre-AIDS or LA, as well as those with the
subclinical stage of the disease. Moreover, the impression has
been created that the outcome of AIDS and its related infections
is invariably tcta!.

As we discussed in Atlanta, I will be very happy to host a

short meeting for you in New York at which you can confer and
choose the final name for the AIDS virus. Other key clinical and
laboratory investigators could also be invited to define and
rename the spectrum of this epidemic and its related disorders.

I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of this letter to

Dr. Harold E. Varmus, Chairman, Retrovirus Study Group, and the
members of this comnittee for their review and consideration for
the retrovirus nomenclature.

Drs. Gallo and Montagnier
Page Three
May 7, 1985

I look forward to hearing from you, with best personal

wishes.

Sincerely yours,

-

n

Bijan &fai, M.D., DSc
Associate Member
Sloan-Kettering Institute
Chief, Dermatology Service
Memorial Hospital

BS/emh

cc: Drs. H. Varmus
        J. Coffin
        M. Essex
        S. Oroszlan
        N. Teich
      K. Toyoshima
        A. Haase
       J. Levy
        H. Temin

R. Weiss

P. Vogt