AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - A REFLECTION BY GENETIST REVEREND SIMPORE FOR WORLD DAY AGAINST AIDS: HOPE AND FEAR: DO WE LET PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES ACCUMULATE DRUGS IN THEIR STORE HOUSES WHILE THE POOR DIE FOR LACK OF TREATMENT?

AFRICA/BURKINA FASO

A REFLECTION BY GENETIST REVEREND SIMPORE FOR WORLD DAY AGAINST AIDS: HOPE AND FEAR: DO WE LET PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES ACCUMULATE DRUGS IN THEIR STORE HOUSES WHILE THE POOR DIE FOR LACK OF TREATMENT?


Ouagadougou (Fides Service) - May 1983: twenty years ago, Dr Luc Montagnier and his collaborators isolated for the first time the retro-virus responsible for AIDS, namely LAV (Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus) now known as HIV (Human Immune-deficiency Virus). September 1983: Dr Montagnier took out a patent in order to test the new virus.
On returning from Johannesburg where he attended a meeting for researchers on AIDS, malaria, and drepanocitosis organised by the World Health Organisation, WHO, Father Jacques Simporè M.I., Genetist Molecule, PhD, Consultor General of the Camillians, sent an article to Fides as his contribution for World Day Against AIDS December 1, 2003.
“Twenty years of war and fighting the retro-virus in every field: drugs research, laboratory testing, research on vaccines; all manner of surveys: psychological, sociological, theological and health-pastoral to help those stricken with HIV, their families and society. In these years countless congresses, meetings discussions have been organised to mobilise funds, inform people, to fight at all levels to eliminate this scourge.
To mark the World Day Against AIDS, civil and religious events were planned all over the world. In Burkina Faso the state organised with CNLS (national council for fighting AIDS), a meeting on AIDS at Tenkodogo, 280 km from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. In the religious field the archdiocese of Ouagadougou, organised a special meeting in Gounghin.
Today the situation of AIDS in the world is a tragedy: 42 million infected with HIV and of these 29 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. But there are signs of hope. For example research for treatment and vaccine makes steady progress. From 24 to 27 November in South Africa, in Johannesburg, WHO hosted a meeting for all HIV/AIDS researchers on the continent in view of harmonising research for drug treatment based on plants: phytotherapy. Some phytotherapy centres in Africa have produced encouraging results. Patients gain weight and energy: viral infection decreases and CD4 increases during treatment with natural substances. In the field of modern drug research, certain effective molecules are being tested in various laboratories and will soon be put on the international market, but, unfortunately, only for people who can afford them. But the main problem for our world today is this: the patients are in the south of the world and the drugs are in the north. In this era of globalisation we have a great challenge for justice and solidarity: do we let pharmaceutical industries accumulate drugs in their store houses while the poor die for lack of treatment?
Today some research projects for a vaccine against AIDS are still at the early stage of laboratory testing on animals; some are at the pre-clinic stage and others will soon be tested on humans HIV positive and negative. A UNESCO research for an anti-HIV/AIDS therapeutic vaccine, in collaboration with Tor Vergata University in Rome, International Foundation for Research on AIDS CNR-Italia and Cooperazione Italiana, is being developed in Ivory Coast, Cameroon and at the San Camillo Medical Center in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. We hope and we pray. In the field of scientific research it is better not to talk too about results before they are published in international reviews.
This year we celebrated World Day Against AIDS with fear and with hope. Certainly the path which science has to travel to defeat this retro-virus appears still to be long and full of traps; but our hope is in the Name of the Lord.” (AP) (2/12/2003 Fides Service; lines:52 words:667)