Inclusion Criteria

Concurrent Medication:

Allowed:

• Short-course therapy (7 days) with oral acyclovir or ketoconazole.

Patients must have:

• Evidence of HIV infection as measured by a confirmed positive antibody test.
• A confirmed or pending HIV blood culture, and serum p24 antigen test.
• The ELISA test confirmed by a licensed Western blot analysis if they are asymptomatic.

Exclusion Criteria

Concurrent Medication:

Excluded:

• Aspirin or acetaminophen beyond 72 hours without contacting investigator.
• Chemoprophylaxis for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).

Patients with the following are excluded:

• AIDS.
• AIDS related symptoms or with advanced ARC and < 200 CD4 cells/mm3 and at least two of the following:
• Weight loss in excess of 10 lbs or 10 percent of body weight within a 6-month interval.
• Temperature > 38.5 degrees C with or without night sweats, persisting for more than 14 consecutive days or more than 15 days in a 30-day interval.
• Diarrhea defined as = or > 3 liquid stools per day, persisting for more than 30 days without definable cause.
• Recurrent oral candidiasis as documented by morphology or by response to antifungal therapy.
• Patients cannot have active oral candidiasis at the time of entry into the study; they must be free of candidiasis from baseline 1 to enrollment.
• Multidermatomal herpes zoster within the past 2 years.
• Hairy leukoplakia within the past 3 years.

Prior Medication:

Excluded within 14 days of study entry:

• Other biologic response modifiers.
• Corticosteroids.
• Systemic antibiotics.
• Excluded within 30 days of study entry:
• Other antiretroviral agents.
• Excluded within 60 days of study entry:
• Ribavirin.
• Zidovudine.

Concurrent neoplasms other than basal cell carcinoma of the skin.

Active drug or alcohol abuse.