Wall Street Journal - June 10, 2004
Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com

Amid the push to expand lifesaving drugs around the world, prevention measures (such as education and condom distribution) have gotten short shrift, warned Helene Gayle, who heads AIDS programs for the $26 billion foundation. The foundation this year launched a $200 million prevention program in India. No new funds accompanied release on Thursday of a 20-page report by a foundation-led Global HIV Prevention Working Group.

The report warns expanded access to lifesaving drugs could lead to resumption of risky sex in poor countries just as it has in rich countries of the world. Abandoning caution has sparked a doubling of HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom and outbreaks of syphilis and gonorrhea -- surrogate markers of AIDS risk -- in the U.S.

World-wide, prevention expenditures currently fall under $2 billion. Dr. Gayle urged that spending on prevention should be tripled to roughly $6 billion by 2005.

Five million new people contracted the human immunodeficiency virus last year, expanding to 40 million the number of people living with HIV/AIDS world-wide.

Bush Proposes Boost for Vaccine

Separately, the Bush administration won backing from major allies for a proposal to accelerate development of an HIV vaccine, and President Bush proposed spending $15 million to launch it.

The $15 million would gather scientists at a yet-to-be-determined medical center in the U.S. to advance vaccine research, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.

Group of Eight countries meeting at an economic summit this week in Sea Island adopted Mr. Bush's plan for a "Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise" -- a blueprint for speeding up development of a vaccine. The plan, Dr. Fauci said, would do the following:

* Set up HIV vaccine development centers around the world to coordinate efforts;

* Work to increase the capacity for manufacturing vaccine;

* Standardize laboratories' measurement systems around the world so that advances in one lab are usable in others;

* Build a network of clinics for trials;

* Allow regulatory authorities in different countries to recognize clinical trials across borders.

"The body has a lot of trouble handling the HIV virus, which means that there are a lot of scientific problems that we need to solve before we get a vaccine," Dr. Fauci said. "The only way we're going to do that is if everybody globally who's working on this works on it in a synergistic way."

Some 14,000 people are infected with the AIDS virus each day, five million a year. And each year three million people die of the disease, Dr. Fauci said.

-- Associated Press contributed to this report.

040610
WJ040605

Copyright © 2004 - The Wall Street Journal. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the WSJ Permissions Desk.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .