A
French scientist who shared this year's Nobel prize for medicine said on
Saturday he believed the transmission of AIDS could be eliminated within
years.
Luc Montagnier, director of the
World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, told a news conference
together with this year's other winners for medicine that halting the
transmission of AIDS would make it a disease much like others.
"Our job, of course, is to find complementary
treatment to eradicate the infection. I think it's not impossible to do it
within a few years," Montagnier said.
"So I hope to see in my lifetime the eradication
of, not the AIDS epidemic, but at least the infection," the 76-year-old
said. "This could be achieved."
Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, of the
Institut Pasteur, shared half of the 2008 prize for discovering the virus
that has killed 25 million people since the early 1980s.
There is no cure for AIDS, which infects an estimated
33 million globally, but cocktails of drugs can control the virus and keep
patients healthy.
There is no vaccine either, although researchers are
trying to find vaccines that either prevent infection or would control the
virus so that patients are less likely to transmit it -- a so-called
therapeutic vaccine.
Montagnier said he hoped such a therapeutic vaccine
could be developed within about four to five years, noting he and colleagues
had already been working on this for a decade.
German scientist Harald zur Hausen of the University
of Duesseldorf won the other half of the 10-million-Swedish-crown ($1.2
million) award for finding the cause of cervical cancer.
The three scientists said that since the announcement
in early October they had found themselves constantly giving interviews and
speaking with world leaders.
"There's obviously a belief in many of the
politicians and some other people ... that you know everything, which of
course is nonsense. But in a way indeed I think one cannot ignore
this," zur Hausen said.
Barre-Sinoussi, who had come from Senegal following a
meeting with the African country's president, agreed.
"Of course I have the same feeling. I think I
feel that we have responsibility to try to influence, especially, the
politicians."
She feared the global financial crisis could lead some
countries to water down their commitment to the fight against diseases such
as AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, so it was important Nobel winners tried to
use their influence.
The three are in Stockholm for "Nobel Week,"
when laureates come to the Swedish capital for a barrage of news
conferences, interviews and events, culminating with a gala dinner which
this year takes place on Wednesday.
Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi expected to use the
prize money to further their research. They also said the award was
important in that it shed a bright light on the issue of AIDS.
"Still, 25 years after the HIV discovery, (there
is) discrimination, stigmatization against HIV-infected individuals, even
criminalization. This is not acceptable. This is really not
acceptable," Barre-Sinoussi said.
(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox in Washington;
editing by Michael Roddy and Keith Weir)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1
(Reuters) - The United Nations on Monday urged countries across the world to
expand screening of newborn infants exposed to the virus that causes AIDS,
saying it could save the lives of countless children.
"Without appropriate
treatment, half of children with HIV will die from an HIV-related cause by
their second birthday," Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N.
children's fund UNICEF, said about a new U.N. AIDS report launched in
New York
on the 20th World AIDS Day.
"Survival rates are
up to 75 percent higher for HIV-positive newborns who are diagnosed and begin
treatment within their first 12 weeks," she said in a statement.
The report said there was
visible progress in the fight against AIDS -- some 3 million people worldwide
are currently receiving treatment and the number of new infections and AIDS
deaths has dropped. But negative trends remain.
The report -- prepared by
UNICEF, the U.N. AIDS program UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the
U.N. Population Fund -- warned that pregnant women were not receiving
sufficient counseling and other services necessary to teach them about
contraception and safer infant feeding.
It said many children
less than a year old were dying of AIDS-related illnesses before they are even
tested for HIV.
But there are ways of
dealing with infants that have the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome, or AIDS.
The report cited the
example of
South Africa
, where babies born to HIV-positive mothers were being tested for HIV at six
weeks of age. Many of those who test positive receive anti-retroviral
treatment, it said.
"A recent study
found increased survival rates among infants who were provided with
antiretroviral therapy as soon as they were diagnosed with HIV," the
report said.
CHALLENGES
It said early infant
testing was being expanded in other countries hit hard by AIDS, including
Kenya
,
Malawi
,
Mozambique
,
Rwanda
,
Swaziland
and
Zambia
.
The report also
recommends increased access to tests assessing immune functions of
HIV-positive mothers to determine their stage of HIV infection.
This will help them make
decisions about their own health and treatment needs and reduce the chance of
the virus being passed to their babies.
There are other
challenges in the fight against AIDS. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said
it was important to continue to fund efforts to eradicate the disease, despite
the global financial turmoil.
"We have to maintain
this momentum, especially during the time of financial crisis," Ban said
at a conference on the crisis in
Doha
. "Funding shortages could take a deadly toll."
Separately, the United
Nations said it has appointed Michel Sidibe of
Mali
as the new head of UNAIDS. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria said French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has agreed to serve as an
ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against AIDS.
HIV has infected some 33
million people worldwide -- 22 million in sub-Saharan
Africa
alone -- and AIDS now ranks among the world's top 10 killer diseases. An
estimated 25 million people have died of the incurable condition, the No. 1
killer in
Africa
.
By Laura MacInnis Laura
Macinnis – Mon Dec 1,
4:15 pm ET
Reuters – Phanice
Nyandoya (L), 2, and Antony Ochien (R), 4, both living with HIV/AIDS
listen to their class teacher …
GENEVA (Reuters) – The body's initial response to
contracting HIV could provide the answers scientists need to develop a
vaccine for the AIDS-causing virus, a Nobel-winning expert said on Monday.
The AIDS epidemic has killed about 25 million people,
and about 33 million worldwide are now infected with HIV.
Cocktails of drugs can control the virus but so far there is no cure.
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who shared the 2008 Nobel
prize for medicine with Luc
Montagnier for their discovery of HIV a quarter-century ago, told a World
AIDS Day event that the human body reacts very distinctly -- and
quickly -- to HIV infection.
The nearly immediate cellular responses seen in the
gut and elsewhere could point scientists toward a vaccine that keeps HIV
from taking hold and morphing into the immunity-destroying disease, the
French expert said.
"Everything is decided very early after exposure
to the virus ... When I say very early after, it is a matter of days,"
she said in a speech at the World
Health Organization.
"If we know better the early events of the acute
infection, we can think about developing a better vaccine strategy,"
she said, warning: "If we don't make progress in this basic knowledge,
we will never have a vaccine."
Recent efforts to develop a vaccine by jump-starting
immune-system cells that tackle the virus -- such as one last year by Merck
-- have yielded disappointing results.
Barre-Sinoussi said such "conventional"
vaccines would not be enough to tackle HIV, which is a retrovirus, meaning
it copies bits of its own genetic
code into the DNA of its host.
"We have to consider the conventional approach
together with another approach that considers the pathogenic signals,"
she said. "We need to understand better the role of genetics."
The Institut Pasteur expert also called for more
research into co-infections between HIV and tuberculosis,
and hit back at those who say the billions of dollars that have been
funneled into AIDS projects have drained funds needed for other diseases.
"I am a little bit surprised to see an opposition
between the fight against HIV and other primary health issues. It is a total
misunderstanding and a major mistake," she said. "I do not
understand why these people cannot work together."
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The results of
small study suggest that radiotherapy can be safely used to treat prostate
cancer in HIV-infected men. Treatment appears to have no long-term effect on
CD4+ cell count or viral load.
When considering radiotherapy for prostate
cancer, there is no reason that HIV-infected patients should be treated
differently than their HIV-negative peers, senior author Dr. Anthony M. Berson,
from St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, and colleagues conclude.
The study, reported in the medical journal
Urology, included 14 HIV-infected patients with prostate cancer who were
treated with external beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy, a method in which
radioactive "seeds" emitting continuous radiation are implanted in
the tumor. Some patients received both treatments.
Levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a
protein detected in the blood that increases with prostate cancer risk or
progression; CD4+ cell count, immune system cells that decline with HIV
disease progression; and HIV levels were assessed at the beginning of the
study and again at the latest follow-up, which ranged from 8 to 73 months.
During follow-up, only one patient had a PSA
level that was still above 1.1 ng/mL, the report indicates. PSA levels between
0.0 and 2.5 ng/mL are considered low.
The average CD4+ cell count rose slightly
during follow-up from 523 to 577 cells/microliter. Normal CD4+ counts range
between 500 and 1600 cells/microliter. The lowest final count was 200 cells/microliter,
the investigators note. When CD4+ cell counts drop below 200 cells/microliter,
HIV infection has progressed to AIDS.
Only two patients experienced an increase in
viral load, indicating HIV disease progression.
Radiotherapy was not associated with any
unusual urinary, rectal, or sexual complications, and no infections were seen
in the study group, Berson's team states.
The researchers call for larger studies to
definitively assess the possible adverse side effects for HIV-infected
patients who undergo prostate cancer treatment.
AFP/POOL/File – The head of the Global Fund to fight AIDS dismissed
criticism by support groups of a possible 25 percent …
DAKAR (AFP) – The head of the Global Fund to fight
AIDS on Saturday dismissed criticism by support groups of a possible 25 percent
funding cut, saying that international donors are honouring their commitments.
Michel Kazatchkine told AFP during an AIDS
conference in Senegal
that he was "cautiously optimistic" there would not be large funding
cuts despite the global economic downturn,
after warnings of devastating results from campaigners.
"In my discussions with leaders up to
now I have not heard of any donor that is not ready to honour their commitments
to the Global Fund," Kazatchkine said.
"If the replenishment (of the fund)
allows it, we will cut on the cut. The 25 percent could become 10 percent, or
five percent or even zero. The cut is not a final irreversible decision."
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria,
created by the G8 group of industrialised nations in 2002, accounts for one
quarter of all international donations to fight AIDS.
Earlier on Saturday, non-governmental
organisations warned of drastic reductions in the availability of HIV testing or
medicines if the Global Fund pushed ahead with a proposed 25 percent funding cut
in two years' time.
The cut would come on top of a 10-percent cost
reduction in funding which the Global Fund announced it would aim for in
its last round of grants.
While Kazatchkine also said he had not heard
of any donors willing to increase their contributions, he said that Western
governments acknowledge the importance of healthy populations to economic
vibrancy.
"People have understood that health is
key to development. There can be no economic growth of you do not have healthy
people," he said.
"A further 25 percent cut will be
disastrous," Peter Bujari of the Tanzania Health and Development Trust
earlier told a press conference
in Dakar at the 15th ICASA conference on AIDS
in Africa, which runs until Sunday.
Bujari calculated that a 25 percent cut would
lead directly to 341,000 people being denied HIV tests in 2013 in Tanzania
.
"Our cry is: if money can be found to
solve the credit crunch, if
money can be found to save companies manufacturing toys for rich people (and)
manufacturing cars, surely money can be found to fund HIV/AIDS in full,"
Sam Kapembwa, of the Zambian National AIDS network, added.
Kazatchkine said the current 10 percent
reduction is to come from "efficiency gains."
"I do not know how difficult it is but I
believe (the 10 percent reduction) will be feasible without actually decreasing
the number of people getting the services at the end level," he added.
A
French scientist who shared this year's Nobel prize for medicine said on
Saturday he believed the transmission of AIDS could be eliminated within
years.
