All the drugs used carry FDA "black box" warnings. A black box is "the sternest warning by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that a medication can carry and still remain on the market in the United States." Some of the trials were for "safety" as well as "efficacy" -- that is, their safety was unknown. A table of common side effects is available here.
We don't know all the side effects the children suffered, because the State of New York and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center refused to release their medical records to the investigators. But we do have a few examples from the investigative media reports:
- A care worker described one boy as bleeding from every orifice in his body. "He was in such pain. He would scream when he had to go to the bathroom. They put him on a respirator. They induced a coma with drugs so they could put him on a respirator," she said. "He got all dry and scaly; he shriveled up a like a snail -- and he died." There is no comparable AIDS-related condition on the CDC's list.
- A previously healthy six-year-old girl went blind from a stroke, and then died about three months after arriving at the Incarnation Children's Center orphanage. "She was the most delicate little flower -- beautiful, polite, full of life. Her family never gave her meds," said the care worker.
- Several children suffered a "rash" after taking nevirapine. This is Stevens-Johnson syndrome (see photos contained here), a known side effect of the drug in which the skin literally burns off the patient's body, exposing them to opportunistic infections and death. Did the doctors describe these as AIDS-related infections?
