In South Africa, where eight percent of the population was infected with HIV last year, the government official in charge of medicines, Humphrey Zokufa, said he was not even aware of the WTO agreement. But in Rwanda, Agnes Binagwaho, secretary of the national committee for combating AIDS, said the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment had tripled from 800 to 2,500 in two months, thanks to the efforts of the Clinton Foundation. The foundation hopes to make drugs available to two million AIDS patients in Africa and the Caribbean by 2008.

    In Chad, Hassan Salim, director of the state drug procurement office, said that the price of antiretrovirals had come down sharply thanks to Access, a program set up jointly by six large international pharmaceutical companies, UNAIDS, the WTO, and UNICEF. According to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, Access today reaches 80,000 patients, three times as many as in 2000, when it began work.

    In Kenya, Krista Cepuch of Doctors Without Borders said the government was now distributing antiretrovirals to 10,000 people, far short of the 2.5 million infected with HIV.

    Peter Orr, Doctors Without Borders representative in Ivory Coast, warned that in the struggle to fight AIDS, "obscure" but equally deadly diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness were being ignored because "they are not an attractive market" for drug companies in the rich countries.

PROTEIN BLOCKS HIV REPLICATION

WASHINGTON

Researchers have identified a protein able to block the replication of the HIV virus in monkeys, a key discovery that sheds light on halting the spread of AIDS among humans.

    Humans have a similar protein, but it is not as effective at stopping HIV, according to the researchers. Nevertheless the identification "of this HIV-blocking factor opens new avenues for intervening in the early stage of HIV infection, before the virus can gain a toehold," said National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director (NIAID) Anthony Fauci.

    "Basic discoveries like this provide the scientific springboard to future improvements in therapies for HIV," he added.

    The research, published in Nature, was carried out at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by a team headed by Joseph Sodroski and supported by the National Institute of Health's NIAID. Researchers have learned over the years "quite a bit about how HIV enters cells," Sodroski said. "More recently, we've developed a picture of the late stages of the viral lifecycle as it leaves the cell. However, the steps between virus entry and conversion of the viral RNA into DNA have been a black box."

    A key stage in the process is the loss of the coating that protects genes from the virus. This coating must be shed so that HIV can insert its genes in the DNA of the host cell and begin his replication. The discovery of this protein called TRIM5-alpha helps researchers understand how the coating is lost. The protein in the monkey stops the HIV's attempt to remove the coating, thus preventing the virus from replicating.

FDA OKAYS RAPID HIV TEST

WASHINGTON

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on has approved marketing a rapid oral test for HIV/AIDS, calling it an alternative for people averse to blood testing.

    "This oral test provides another important option for people who might be afraid of a blood test," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said at the launch of OraSure Technologies's test called OraQuick. "It will improve care for these people and improve the public health as well," he said.

    OraQuick, which the FDA says is 99-percent accurate, furnishes results in about 20 minutes, detecting antibodies produced by the subject in reaction to an infection by one of the two HIV strains.

    The new test, which must be administered by a health professional, analyzes a sample of cells swabbed from the subject's mouth. Once the sample is taken, the swab is inserted in a small testing device with a window that signals a positive result.

GELS TO UNDERGO TRIAL

LONDON

British scientists are to launch trials in five African countries for special new gels that may help prevent HIV transmission. "Experts say around 60 gels known as microbicides are now in development with 14 in clinical trials," the British Broadcasting Corporation reported. Laboratory trials of the drugs have proved successful.

    A total of 12,000 women are expected to take part in the three-year trials in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Cameroon. "If the results are positive, the products could be on the market before the end of the decade," the BBC said.

    An expert said that the gels, developed through a government-backed study by the Medical Research Council and London's Imperial College, could save up to 2.5 million lives in just three years.

    Hillary Benn, Britain's minister for international development, said that the gels could prove to be especially beneficial for women. But she cautioned that even if the gels proved successful there remained difficulties in making them affordable and accessible to those that needed them most.

UNAIDS CHIEF DOWNPLAYS VACCINE HOPES

SYDNEY

An HIV vaccine is not likely to be developed in the next decade, according to UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot who said that any breakthrough would be the result of a long process of trial and error and authorities should not pin their hopes on a vaccine providing a quick fix to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

    Researchers are carrying out human trials of HIV vaccines in Italy, Germany, and South Africa but the only full-scale trial conducted mainly in the United States and Thailand ended in failure last year.

    "I'm not optimistic about these trials," Piot said. "I applaud them, they are necessary because that's how we'll make progress but for all practical purposes UNAIDS does not believe there will be an effective vaccine in the next 10 years," he said.

    Piot said research on an HIV vaccine was likely to be slow, even with increased interest in the area from pharmaceutical companies.

BUT ITALY BEGINS HUMAN TESTING...

ROME

Clinical testing on humans has begun in Italy of a possible vaccine against AIDS. The Italian-made prototype of the AIDS vaccine is being administered to volunteers in Rome and Milan, the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) said.

    This first-stage of testing is intended to establish whether the vaccine developed by a team headed by virologist Barbara Ensoli is harmless. Valeria Fiorelli, a member of the team, said recruitment of test subjects began in November. She did not say how many subjects were participating in the test or what their state of health was.

    The Italian vaccine, unlike other versions, focuses on the use of a protein that regulates the reproduction of the HIV-1 virus in humans. Other vaccines have targeted the outer layer of the virus itself.

    "Experimental studies on animals have shown that the administration of this Tat protein has no toxic effect and induces a complete immune response capable of blocking the replication of the virus and, as a result, the development of the disease," the ISS said.

SO DOES CANADA

OTTAWA

Canadian have started clinical trials for a new anti-AIDS/HIV vaccine aimed at replacing so-called drug cocktails. The trials are being run in cooperation with the French pharmaceutical firm Aventis Pasteur and the Immune Response Corporation, a US company co-founded by Jonas Salk.

    The government-backed trials, scheduled to run for 18 months, will involve 60 patients from Ottawa and Montreal. They are being conducted by the Canadian Network for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics (CANVAC).

    Canadian Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard said the 60 patients "have been on effective therapy and have had no detectable HIV in their blood for at least two years."

    According to CANVAC, the hope is that "therapeutic vaccination" against HIV could reduce drug dependence, "thus gaining a reprieve for the important side effects" of drug cocktails.

    Aventis Pasteur said it produced 1.4 billion doses of vaccines last year.

    The Immune Response Corporation already produces REMUNE, an immune-based therapy designed to boost the body's natural defense mechanisms as a way to slow the progression of AIDS.