PASSINGS : A. Thomas Jefferson; Pioneer in AIDS Network

A. Thomas Jefferson, 55, who set up a nationwide network supplying patients with experimental drugs. Jefferson, an art dealer, had suffered from AIDS for four years and credited those drugs with delaying his death. He was “one of San Diego’s original pioneers in working with people with AIDS,” said Dr. Keith Vrhel, who helped found the AIDS Project in 1983. He also is credited with organizing a national network to buy in Mexico and import into the United States two experimental drugs, Isoprinosine and Ribavirin. Both drugs are undergoing federal testing but were not approved for purchase in this country. In San Diego on Saturday.