The White House has ordered the US National Institute for Health (NIH) urgently to produce a vaccine against anthrax, putting vital Aids research in jeopardy. The NIH says that no extra federal funding has been given for the new task and it will mean a reduction in grants for scientists working on Aids and other infectious diseases. “We’re not happy about it, but we tried to do what was least painful,” said NIH director Dr Anthony Fauci.
The French High Court has dismissed cases against 30 doctors accused of giving patients HIV-contaminated blood, ending a 10-year scandal which has rocked the country’s medical establishment. More than 4,000 people, mainly haemophiliacs, were infected with blood products tainted with HIV, and several hundred have subsequently died. Protesters outside the Paris court shouted ‘Cowards’ and ‘It’s shameful. French justice is rotten’. In 1999, a court acquitted former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix, but former Health Minister Edmond Hervé was convicted but never sentenced.
In a move directed at confronting the growing impact of the epidemic, the Chinese People’s Daily newspaper has reported the first approved marriage between two HIV positive people. Two farmers from the southwestern province of Sichuan married in front of 200 guests, following a relaxation of a law barring those with HIV from getting married.
A Swedish court last month sentenced a 27-year-old man to four years in prison for having unprotected sex with nine men without informing them he was HIV positive. Convicted on charges of assault, the man was also fined 620,000 Kroner (£50,000) despite the fact that none of his sexual partners have seroconverted. In his defence, the man said he did not think he was at risk of passing on the disease because his viral load was undetectable. He was arrested after an ex-lover reported him to the police.
“The messages the drug companies are spreading are lies. The truth is that Aids is not fun. It’s not sexy or manageable. Aids is a debilitating, deforming, terminal and incurable disease. HIV drugs can bring on heart, kidney and liver disease, as well as a host of daily discomforts.”
Harvey Fierstein, in the New York Times.
“Profit always wins over health and those who cannot pay just die. The poor of the world suffer most as health and education become commercial objects rather than rights.”
Dr Vittorio Agnoletto, of the Italian League against Aids.
“Lipodystrophy makes patients hate their therapy.”
Dr Giovanni Bianconi, of the University of Modena.
“All you have to do is observe the rules. If you are straight, you have nothing to fear from Aids.”
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, at the African Union Conference in July.
“People are so desperate that they will spend their life savings on quacks, who travel to India and return with copy cat drugs, selling them by the kilo at rip off prices without any treatment regime. The way to squeeze these briefcase pharmacies out of business is to ensure that Africa has access to HIV care including antiretroviral therapy.”
Dr Jacqueline Bataringaya, Action-Aid’s HIV/Aids director.
“I am not going to die because they want us to die.”
Zackie Achmat, the 41-year-old head of the South African Treatment Action Campaign, speaking outside the Durban Aids Conference, about his plans to abandon his pledge not to take potentially life-saving HIV medications.
