Today in History-April 23
The HTLV-3 virus is a variant of a known human cancer virus1984: Scientist finds Aids virus
England have
The discovery of a virus which may cause Aids, the fatal disease sweeping
through America, has been hailed as a "monumental breakthrough" in medical
research.
The development was announced in Washington by US Health Secretary Margaret
Heckler.
She said the virus was a variant of a known human cancer virus called
HTLV-3. A blood test has also been developed, which, she said, would be
available within six months, preventing the tragedy oftransfusionpatients
contracting the disease through tainted blood products.
To hear that there is a possible vaccine that could come out in two or
three years is no good news for these people.
Aids sufferer Bob Scheckey
She also suggested that a vaccine to prevent Aids might be ready for
testing in two years' time.
"Today's discovery represents the triumph of science over a dreaded
disease," she said.
Aids, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, weakens the immune system,
leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases. Those people who
appear to be more at risk of contracting Aids include homosexuals,haemophiliacs,
drug users and those who have received blood transfusions.
It has been causing widespread panic in the United States, where 4,000
people have been infected since the discovery of the disease in 1981. Almost
half have died.
The findings in the United States are similar to the discovery in France
last week of a virus called LAV, although French researchers stopped short of
saying it was definitely the one which causes Aids.
Reaction to the news among victims was philosophical. Bob Scheckey has
lived with the disease for two years - far longer than his doctors predicted. He
welcomed the news from Washington, but said a possible vaccine was too far off
to offer comfort.
"I am working with people with Aids on a daily basis," he said. "To hear
that there is a possible vaccine that could come out in two or three years is no
good news for these people. Most of the people we're working with now will be
dead by that time."
James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years for Martin Luther King's
murder
1998: Martin Luther King killer dies
Artificially 1969:
The James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of the black American civil rights
leader Martin Luther King, has died, aged 70, still protesting his
innocence.
Officials in the Tennessee prison department said he died in hospital where
he was being treated for terminal liver disease. He had been treated in hospital
several times in the last 15 months.
Dr King died from a single rifle shot as he stood on the balcony of the
Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, on 4 April 1968.
The assassination sparked race riots in more than 100 cities and set off
one of the biggestmanhuntsin US history.
Ray, an escaped convict, was captured in London more than a year later.
He pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison
for the murder to escape the electric chair, but three days after his jail
sentence began he withdrew his confession.
Campaign to clear Ray's name
His case was taken up by the King family, which has campaigned for a new
investigation into the assassination in the belief that it may have been plotted
by senior officials in the US Government.
The King family issued a statement expressing grief over the death of Ray
and renewed its call for a fresh inquiry.
Events marking the anniversary of Dr King's assassination in Memphis last
month were dominated by a debate over the viability of claims that new evidence
points to a vast government conspiracy to kill him.
Some black leaders regard the campaign for a new inquiry as a distraction
from the search to put Martin Luther King's vision into action.
Ray was known to have a fanatical hatred of black people. Even while
serving his sentence in Missouri, he rejected a move to an open farm prison
where conditions were better on the grounds he could not live with black
inmates.
Vocabulary:
transfusion:the transfer of whole blood or blood products from one
individual to another(输血，输液)
haemophiliac:血友病患者
manhunt:an organized,extensive search for a person,usually a fugitive
criminal(对逃犯等的搜捕，追捕等)
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