Japanese scientists say they havedeveloped a material which can help detect the killer disease
Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
    Leading Japanese AIDS scientist professor Naoki Yamamoto
told Reuters he and other scientists working at Yamaguchi
University in southern Japan have been testing the material's
ability to filter the AIDS virus from blood since last April
and produced successful results.
    He said the material, a tube made from a cellulose
membrane, could only be used to diagnose AIDS sufferers and not
cure them.
    The share price of Asahi Chemical Company&lt;ASAT.T>, which
plans to market the product in about a year's time, rose
sharply but ended the day only 27 yen higher at 905 yen a
share.
    The cellulose tubes, which Asahi will market under the name
Bemberg Microporous Membrane (BMM), can also separate the virus
of the kidney ailment hepatitis and may be applied to
diagnosing polio sufferers, vice-president of Asahi Chemical,
R. Yumikura said. Ashai will supply BMM for research purposes
soon.
    Shares of companies even remotely related to the fight
against AIDS have risen on the Tokyo stock market since the
first Japanese woman died of the disease in Kobe in January.
 REUTER
