Hope for Aids Cure as Prostitutes Defy Virus in the Slums

[DUreader]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1091353,00.html




John Carlin reports from Nairobi on the
inspirational doctor who turned his back on
Oxford and dedicated his life to the desperate
search for a drug that will spell the end of a
continent's holocaust

Sunday November 23, 2003
The Observer



snip



'We are at the cutting edge,' said Dr Omu Anzala,
project manager of the Kenyan Aids Vaccine
Initiative (KAVI). 'Earlier trials in the US looked at
the possibility of finding a vaccine using
antibodies, but that has not worked. We're
pursuing the cellular route, which is the way to
go. We are in the world vanguard.'

This is no idle boast. KAVI, in collaboration with
the researchers at Oxford, receives funding from
the world's leading non-governmental organisation
in the field, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative
(IAVI), to which Bill Gates has contributed mightily.
'When we first contacted IAVI in 1998 they were
sceptical,' said Anzala, 'arguing that vaccine trials
of this kind had not been done before in Africa. I
said, "Yes, but give us a chance." And they did.'

The Americans have put up the money for an
impressively modern research unit, labs equipped
with the latest technology in Nairobi University's
otherwise Spartan medical faculty.

With a PhD from Canada and a post-doctorate
degree from Oxford, Anzala has the confidence of
a man who has overcome great obstacles to get
where he has. Brought up in a family of 13, his
mother died of asthma when he was 19. Appalled
that she died of an illness so innocuous, he
decided that his country needed more and better
doctors.


snip

[xchrom]

1. bless the good doctor

and his efforts.
it's been disapointing to see the established medical community give up so easily on a vaccine.
there are probably many different ways to attack the virus -- but until a well funded, long term commitment can be made to that effort it will remain an exercise in frustration.
shame, that.

[DUreader]

2. Our exercise in frustration is Big Pharma exercise in Profit$

more than a shame it is criminal

[NashVegas]

3. Why Make a Vaccine?

When you can continuously bilk the fornicators, gays, and drug addicts?

[dwckabal]

5. I was under the impression

that the "established medical community" was still working on a treatment/cure for AIDS.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. His findings will be co-opted by a pharmeceutical

and he will end up with nothing -- and if he's black, he won't even get a footnote in history for his trouble and compassion.

Sorry. I'm really grumpy this morning. Well, more than usual.