Durban (dpa) – South Africa has a population of 40 million. But if the deadly
AIDS epidemic continues at its current pace there will be 10 million fewer by
2015.
In Botswana, where a third of all adults have contracted the human
immunodeficiency virus HIV that can lead to full-blown AIDS, average life
expectancy has sunk from 70 years at the beginning of the 1990s to just
41.
“What’s happening there is not an illness – it’s a catastrophe that can lead to
the collapse of society,” said AIDS researcher, Professor Reinhard Kurth,
Director of the renowned Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin.
Experts see the need for a massive information and prevention campaign to bring
home the facts about AIDS which destroys the body’s natural ability to combat
disease.
Western countries have made some real progress in fighting the disease using
sophisticated drug cocktails yet most African countries cannot afford such
expensive treatment.
The motto of the six-day 13th World AIDS Conference which opened in the South
African city of Durban on Sunday with 10,000 delegates taking part is “Breaking
the Silence”.
At the biggest international conference Africa has ever seen scientists and
experts will be meeting on the continent worst affected by AIDS to discuss ways
to stop the rapid spread of the disease.
It’s ironic but Africa, which has the largest number of HIV infections, has
been the scene in recent weeks of a bizarre debate about what actually causes
AIDS.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki has seized on the theories of a group of
AIDS sceptics who believe the illness is caused not by HIV but by drug
addiction and poor diet.
The scientists have issued their reply in the form of a pre- conference
declaration. More than 5,000 of them, including the man who discovered HIV 17
years ago, Luc Montagnier of Paris, and RKI chief Kurth, stressed in
their “Durban Declaration” that HIV alone is responsibly for triggering
AIDS.
“We must convince governments that they need to undertake more measures in
order to prevent a catastrophe,” said Kurth and pointed to Uganda as a positive
example of what can be done. Thanks to an intensive education campaign the rate
of new infections in Uganda has fallen dramatically.
There is still no sign of an effective vaccine against AIDS, at least not one
which the poorer countries could afford. Trials with about 20 substances using
animals and in some case clinical studies are underway but none of the doctors
involved is close to a breakthrough, said Kurth.
The best results so far have been achieved with so-called combination vaccines,
for which a genetic extract of the HIV virus and various viral proteins are
injected in order to stimulate an immune reaction and prevent the virus from
attacking healthy cells.
Kurth believes vaccination with Tat protein is the most promising treatment on
the horizon.
A group of French scientists is currently testing the Tat protein vaccine on
volunteers and initial results are promising, said Kurth.
Hopes were once pinned on creating AIDS immunity by using a solution of so-
called cytotoxic or killer T white blood cells first found in the blood of a
group of Kenyan prostitutes but the effects these generated proved to be to
short-lived.
“The fact that it is possible to stimulate any kind of immune response in
humans gives rise to hope,” said Stephen Norley, who is charge of AIDS research
at the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen, Germany.
Since the 1998 AIDS conference in Geneva there have been improvements in the
complex medicine cocktails which most sufferers have to take. Researchers are
still working mainly with substances comprising various enzyme
suppressors.
Sufferers used to have to swallow anything up to 30 tablets and follow a strict
regimen but the combination of various substances in one pill has reduced the
number to be taken and enhanced the quality of life for patients.
The effectiveness of combination therapy, which does not eliminate the HIV
virus but can suppress it over a long period, has increased the life expectancy
of HIV and AIDS patients in the western countries although drastic side effects
are still a problem.
“This is no panacea – but compared to what’s happening in South Africa, we’re
in a blissful state,” said Kurth.
