*EPF506 07/14/00
International AIDS Conference Closes with Optimism
(Mandela Joins Call for Urgent Action) (730)
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Correspondent
Durban, South Africa -- Nelson
Mandela, the iconic former president of South Africa, closed the XIII
International AIDS Conference July 14, calling for both urgency and commitment
in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In so doing, he provided reassurance and
inspiration to the more than 10,000 AIDS practitioners and activists attending
the meeting.
"There is need for us to be focused, to be strategic, and
to mobilize all of our resources and alliances to sustain the effort (against
HIV/AIDS) until this war is won," Mandela said in the keynote address of the
closing ceremony of the meeting, which began July 9.
In a session with
reporters shortly after the Mandela speech, representatives of the International
AIDS Society who organized the Durban meeting expressed their enthusiasm for
Mandela's remarks and their hopes that South Africa and other nations would
follow the program of prevention, treatment, and community mobilization that the
former president suggested.
"If we did all of what Mr. Mandela asked, I
would be thrilled," said Salim Abdool-Karim, the scientific program chair of the
conference and a South African AIDS physician.
Many of the thousands of
delegates at the meeting came to Durban troubled by remarks that South African
President Thabo Mbeki made earlier this year, expressing his doubts about what
the scientific community considers to be an unambiguous link between HIV and the
immune system suppression that has been named Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome. Some delegates described their concern that Mbeki's doubts might
signify a lack of commitment to the need for aggressive programs to contain the
disease, which now affects 34 million people around the world.
Mandela,
who received a welcome befitting his worldwide reputation, told the crowd, "So
much unnecessary attention around this conference had been directed towards a
dispute that is unintentionally distracting from the real life and death issues
we are confronted with as a country, a region, a continent and a world."
The 82 year old former president acknowledged the predictions that
HIV/AIDS could cause a staggering number of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa,
"devastating families and communities; overwhelming and depleting health care
services; and robbing schools of both students and teachers."
In a final
analysis of the week's events, Stefano Vella, the president of the International
AIDS Society, said the Durban meeting has launched a process of consensus
building on the proper solutions for combatting the epidemic. "Nobody will have
the courage to step down" from the commitments they have made at this meeting,
the Italian physician said.
Gustaaf Wolvaart, the organizing committee
chair for the South African meeting, said several trends emerged from the
meeting. "We've almost de-mystified the knowledge," he said, resulting in an
informed patient who becomes a powerful advocate for his own care.
Further, Wolvaart said that the meeting placed a new emphasis on the
importance of access to treatment for all HIV/AIDS patients, regardless of their
financial means. One final trend Wolvaart said has emerged is a need for
accountability in government management of AIDS programs. "I don't think that
train is going to stop," Wolvaart concluded.
Regarding the scientific
findings to emerge from the XIII International AIDS Conference, Abdool-Karim
highlighted three developments. He said he was impressed with some of the
studies presented at the meeting about drug therapy trials in which
mother-to-child-transmission of the virus was reduced through limited doses of
antiretroviral drugs.
Abdool-Karim also expressed enthusiasm about the
potential for structured intermittent therapy using anti-retroviral drugs, a
treatment regimen which has potential to bring the benefits of these expensive
drugs to developing world patients. Reports on early studies of this form of
therapy were presented by U.S. National Institutes of Health officials, who said
preliminary results were encouraging.
The third important scientific
development to emerge from the conference, according to Abdool-Karim, was
encouraging news about HIV vaccines. A U.S. scientist reported to the conference
that vaccine development may produce an effective product by 2007.
The
XIV International AIDS Conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in 2002.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN