02-14-2005, 10:15 PM
Just this weekend i was talking to a friend. His cousin's husband has got HIV now. Accidently at that. He had gone in for some other test.. Dunno if the lady has got it or not.. <!--emo&
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...019722.cms
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COUNTERVIEW: Potential to counter the lethal virus
With five million people already infected by HIV/AIDS, the news that the clinical trials of a potential vaccine have begun is enormously encouraging for India. Here at last is hope that the HIV/AIDS pandemic can be contained. Thirty volunteers have been injected with the vaccine in phase I of the trials. The AACO9 vaccine must undergo seven trials before it can come on to the market. There is reason for hope that the vaccine will be effective because similar trials begun in Belgium and Germany last year have shown positive results. Many will argue that the trials are prohibitively expensive. But such is the enormous socio-economic cost of the pandemic that no effort must be spared.
As we have seen, levels of awareness about prevention are very poor in developing countries, which are most affected by the virus. So India cannot afford to rely on the prevention route. By the end of this year, India will have the highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS and by 2010 the figure will go up to 25 million. The cost of anti-retroviral treatment for each person infected will come to Rs 26,500 a year if the government were to subsidise it. This is out of reach for most people. So the only practical solution would be an effective vaccine. The trials are being conducted in a transparent manner with the full consent of the volunteers. It is also important that the trials be conducted here because this way we will eventually have a vaccine tailor-made for the particular strains that infect people in India. In the short-run, the costs may seem high, but in the long-term the vaccine will prove cost-effective for us.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...019722.cms
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
COUNTERVIEW: Potential to counter the lethal virus
With five million people already infected by HIV/AIDS, the news that the clinical trials of a potential vaccine have begun is enormously encouraging for India. Here at last is hope that the HIV/AIDS pandemic can be contained. Thirty volunteers have been injected with the vaccine in phase I of the trials. The AACO9 vaccine must undergo seven trials before it can come on to the market. There is reason for hope that the vaccine will be effective because similar trials begun in Belgium and Germany last year have shown positive results. Many will argue that the trials are prohibitively expensive. But such is the enormous socio-economic cost of the pandemic that no effort must be spared.
As we have seen, levels of awareness about prevention are very poor in developing countries, which are most affected by the virus. So India cannot afford to rely on the prevention route. By the end of this year, India will have the highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS and by 2010 the figure will go up to 25 million. The cost of anti-retroviral treatment for each person infected will come to Rs 26,500 a year if the government were to subsidise it. This is out of reach for most people. So the only practical solution would be an effective vaccine. The trials are being conducted in a transparent manner with the full consent of the volunteers. It is also important that the trials be conducted here because this way we will eventually have a vaccine tailor-made for the particular strains that infect people in India. In the short-run, the costs may seem high, but in the long-term the vaccine will prove cost-effective for us.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->