'Saint' lightens gloom of Aids conference

DURBAN - the gloom over the Aids disaster facing Africa lifted partly yesterday with breakthrough results in drug trials to combat mother-to-child transmission, and a new initiative to develop a vaccine.

The announcements were made at the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban when South African scientists disclosed the results of a breakthrough study that shows that the anti-retroviral drug, South African Interpartum Nevirapine Trials, also known as Saint, can halve the number of babies born HIV-positive - at a cost of R25 ($7) each.

If approved for use in preventing mother-to-child transmission, Nevirapine would save the lives of 20,000 South African babies each year.

If all pregnant South African women received the treatment over the next five years, up to 110,000 HIV infections of newborns could be avoided.

Nevirapine has been approved for use by HIV-infected pregnant women in Uganda and Senegal.

UNAids statistics show that infants born to HIV-infected mothers have a 15-35 per cent chance of being infected without medical intervention. In 1997 alone, some 590,000 children around the world were infected with HIV at, or soon after, birth.

A pilot project funded by International Solidarity Therapeutical Fund (ISTF) will be launched next month, in which 18,000 women in South Africa will receive Nevirapine. An agreement was signed this week to launch the programme, which will start in Soweto, where an estimated 5,000 pregnant women are expected to be treated.

Scientists congratulated the South African researchers for their work , which showed that the small dose had no adverse effects in the 652 women and children given it.

The findings fly in the face of government statements expressing concern that Nevirapine could be toxic.

Boehringer Ingelheim's medical director, Dr Lynette Boshoff, confirmed that the company's five-year offer to provide free Nevirapine would extend to all women who could not afford to buy it.

Health Department director-general Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba said he was encouraged by the outcome, but that registration and further studies into questions about the single dose increasing drug resistance would still have to be studied before the government could reach a decision on whether to provide it.

Dr James McIntyre, director of the perinatal unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, said of the project: "We know that it works...(this) project is to determine what we need to do to make it accessible, the supervision of the dosages, counselling and follow-ups."

At the same time, it was announced that the first candidates to find a vaccine against Aids designed specifically for Africa will be recruited for human trials this year.

The trial will start in Oxford, England, next month; in Nairobi, Kenya, six months later; and in Durban and Johannesburg by the end of the year or early next year.

Making the announcement on the Oxford and Nairobi trials, the vice-president of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, Dr Wayne Koff, said the goal of a protective vaccine against HIV/Aids was now in sight.

"We are increasingly confident that a protective vaccine will be ready in five to 10 years."

- THE STAR (JOHANNESBURG)