Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Thursday, November 28, 2002
About 42 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the most recent figures from the United Nations.
Anti-HIV medicines can keep people alive for years by suppressing the virus, but people in poor countries, including hard-hit areas of Asia and Africa, cannot afford the drugs. Efforts are under way to make the drugs accessible to poor patients.
Reducing drug prices can partly solve the problem of cost, the authors wrote.
"But the infrastructure necessary for performing follow-up of patients during treatment will be costly and difficult, and the duration of such treatments will make them ultimately unaffordable for patients in poor countries," they said.
AIDS drugs must be taken according to complex regimens, or resistant strains of the HIV virus can emerge. Also, the medicines can have toxic side effects.
"It is imperative to launch clinical trials to test additional treatments that are less toxic and less expensive," the scientists said.
They also called for "a transfer of technology from the North to the South, and a two-way exchange of information."
"Scientists and clinicians in developed countries must contribute to the creation of infrastructure in the countries worst hit by AIDS. They need to train health care specialists in these countries, help to conduct clinical trials and set up laboratories to analyze viral strains," they wrote.
Gallo heads the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland. Montagnier is president of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention in Paris.
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