AIDS meeting. South African leader declines to join the chorus on HIV and AIDS.
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Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Biomedical subjects
J Cohen
Publications and source records attributed to J Cohen.
Ground zero: AIDS research in Africa.
More and more European and North American AIDS researchers are coming to sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to a whopping 70% of all HIV-infected people. These investigators are collaborating with local researchers on projects that aim to slow both HIV's spread and the course of disease in the millions already infected. But most African countries--constrained by limited resources, weak infrastructures, social mores, and political inaction--have grave difficulties translating research insights into prevention and treatment strategies.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Is AIDS in Africa a distinct disease?
In Africa, opportunistic infections, transmission patterns, and viral subtypes differ from what is seen in the AIDS epidemics of the United States and Europe, yet 2 decades into the epidemic, AIDS researchers have only a shaky handle on the fundamental question: What accounts for these differences? The answers have potentially important implications for both prevention and treatment strategies.
AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
Balancing the collaboration equation.
Most African countries can't afford to support much research themselves, so the vast majority of studies of HIV/AIDS are being conducted in collaboration with scientists from the developed world. These partnerships have brought major benefits, but inherent inequalities can cause tensions and require constant give-and-take from both sides. An inside look at three veteran marriages between African AIDS researchers and foreign colleagues illustrates the benefits--and stresses--of partnership.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Major international AIDS research collaborations.
Science lists the major collaborative research projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This list will be updated periodically at www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/africacollaborations.shl. Please send additions and changes to science_news@aaas.org.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Profile: building a world-class lab from scratch.
In 1996, Projet RETRO-CI, a U.S.-Ivoirian collaboration funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hired virologist John Nkengasong to build a virology lab from scratch. Now Nkengasong runs one of the best equipped HIV labs in sub-Saharan Africa and has published dozens of papers helping to clarify properties of specific strains of the virus.
Cote d'Ivoire↗
Profile: restarting Rwanda's research engine.
When ethnic tensions between Rwanda's Hutus and Tutsis erupted in April 1994, one of Africa's most vibrant scientific communities suddenly vanished. Now molecular biologist Etienne Karita has returned to head the Belgian-funded National Reference Laboratory for Retroviral Infections.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Profile. The risks--and rewards--of war zone research.
Gulu, about 4 hours north of here by car, is in an "upcountry" region torn by armed conflict. So upcountry clinical researchers like Matthew Lukwiya, a native of the Gulu district, play a critical role--and win high praise from their colleagues.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
The mother of all HIV challenges.
AIDS researchers are finding cheaper and simpler ways to slow the spread of HIV from mother to child, and more pregnant women, even in the poorest countries, have access to anti-HIV drugs and formula--thanks to the largesse of donors, discounts from industry, new trade laws, and the tenacity of individual clinicians. But just as researchers offer ways to clear one enormous hurdle--drug availability--they run smack into other ones, ranging from social stigmas that discourage testing to disinterest on the part of cash-strapped health authorities to a deeply ingrained culture of breast-feeding--often supported by government policy for otherwise sound health reasons.
AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
Profile. Preventing infections with today's tools.
With no vaccine in sight powerful enough to halt the spread of HIV, Africa is left with one strategy to combat the epidemic: prevention. The University of Manitoba's Frank Plummer, who oversees a large research collaboration in Nairobi, Kenya, says his group has identified a half-dozen effective interventions to lower HIV transmission rates, but "the scale at which they're implemented is tiny."
Canada↗
Profile. An ambassador of research.
Elizabeth Ngugi, a nurse and social worker with a collaborative AIDS research program based at the University of Nairobi, plays a role that is crucial for many AIDS projects throughout Africa--but one that seldom receives credit in scientific circles. Like an ambassador of research, Ngugi connects ostracized communities that have little education and even less money to an international team of AIDS scientists.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Profile: McIntyre and Gray have a will and a way.
At the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital here, where HIV infects more than 20% of the 17,000 pregnant women who give birth here each year, pediatrician Glenda Gray and obstetrician James McIntyre aggressively try to help HIV-infected pregnant women stop the virus from infecting their babies.
Anti-HIV Agents↗
Searching for the epidemic's origins.
Theories about the origin of AIDS all suffer from a dearth of data. For more than a decade, researchers have recognized the close genetic links between SIV from sooty mangabeys and HIV-2, a type of the virus that is mostly confined to west African countries, but to date, there are scant data that closely link HIV-1, the predominant human AIDS virus, to SIVs found in primates.
Africa South of the Sahara↗
Africa boosts AIDS vaccine R&D.
Efforts have recently heated up in several African countries to tailor-make preparations that many believe offer the best hope yet for stopping HIV cold. But all are at the earliest stages, which means it will take years before a vaccine might prove its worth.
AIDS Vaccines↗
Profile: a native son comes home to help.
In December 1996, Omu Anzala returned to Kenya after completing his Ph.D. work in Canada on HIV's interactions with the immune system to work with a collaborative AIDS research project started by researchers from his university and the University of Manitoba. Now the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative has funded Anzala and his collaborators to fashion an AIDS vaccine based on a strain of HIV circulating in Kenya.
AIDS Vaccines↗
South Africa's new enemy.
Many South Africans long dreamed of the day when the oppressive apartheid system would end. That day has come, but now the country faces a new disaster: one of the world's worst HIV epidemics--and most confusing government responses.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Profile: a research renaissance, South African style.
Shortly after the news broke this winter that President Thabo Mbeki had doubts about the link between HIV and AIDS, Malegapuru William Makgoba, the first black president of South Africa's Medical Research Council, launched a high-profile, frontal assault, including sharply worded editorials in leading South African newspapers and in Science. It's not a particularly comfortable position for a man who shares many of Mbeki's political views.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Confronting conference complexities.
Next month, Hoosen "Jerry" Coovadia will chair the XIII International AIDS Conference here, the first time this high-profile gathering has been held in a developing country. Coovadia and the other organizers have gone to great lengths to make the conference work smoothly. Photos by Malcolm Linton
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗