International Aids Conference Opens In Toronto

HARPER STILL A NO SHOW

The world's 16th international conference on Aids will open in Canada today, as scientists continue to search for a cure for the disease.

Over 24,000 delegates are expected to attend the summit in Toronto, which will include speeches from former US president Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Based around the theme, "Time to Deliver", conference organisers claim that there is an ever-pressing need to extend access to drug treatments and boost efforts to prevent the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, which causes Aids.

Around 25 million people are thought to have been killed by the virus since it began to spread during the 1980s and some 39 million people across the world are currently thought to be infected.

Yet despite the growing number of people affected by the disease, scientists have yet to discover a vaccine or cure for it.

Scientific developments to be discussed by delegates during the conference include efforts to develop microbicides, gels or creams that women can use before sexual intercourse to help protect themselves from HIV infection.

Experts say that Aids has spread more rapidly among women than men over recent years, because the HIV virus transmits more readily from men to women and because in some countries the lower social ranking of women means that they are unable to avoid sex or protect themselves against infection by using condoms.

Attendees will hear about five different products currently being trialed in Africa, India and the US, including one which is being tested by the Medical Research Council.

The council is recruiting nearly 10,000 women in Africa to help test the treatment, known as PRO-2000, while a second gel, called Carraguard, is currently being trialed in South Africa in tests that are partly funded by the Gates Foundation, the charitable organisation established by billionaire Bill Gates.

Dr Sheena McCormack, an expert on HIV prevention who is taking part in the Medical Research Council trials, told the Independent newspaper that if the treatments proved effective enough they could receive a licence and be on the market by 2008.

"That would be very fast but there would be a huge will to do so and enormous public pressure," she said.
(Source:intheNews.uk)