Treating AIDS The drug AZT was the first drug that seemed

Chapter , Problem R10.5

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Treating AIDS The drug AZT was the first drug that seemed effective in delaying the onset of AIDS. Evidence for AZTs effectiveness came from a large randomized comparative experiment. The subjects were 870 volunteers who were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but did not yet have AIDS. The study assigned 435 of the subjects at random to take 500 milligrams of AZT each day and another 435 to take a placebo. At the end of the study, 38 of the placebo subjects and 17 of the AZT subjects had developed AIDS. (a) Researchers want to test the claim that taking AZT lowers the proportion of infected people who will develop AIDS in a given period of time. Carry out a test of this claim at the A ? 0.05 level. (b) The experiment was double-blind. Explain why this is important. (c) Describe a Type I and a Type II error in this setting, and give the consequences of each. Which is more serious? s Determine whether the conditions for performing inference are met.