‘AIDS Without End’

To the Editors:

I read with great interest “AIDS Without End” [NYR, August 18] by Johnson and Murray. This review of the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic (James D. Watkins, chairman) and And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts was informative and well-balanced. I should like to point out, however, that contrary to what Johnson and Murray state, influenza virus does not carry its genetic information in the form of DNA. The genome of the influenza virus consists of eight RNA segments. A DNA virus which would have served as an illustrative example of such for Johnson’s and Murray’s review is herpes simplex.

Joseph M. Colacino, Ph.D.

School of Medicine in Shreveport

Louisiana State University

Shreveport, Louisiana