*EPF506 07/14/00
International AIDS Conference Closes with Optimism
(Mandela Joins Call for Urgent Action) (730)
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Durban, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela, the iconic former president of South Africa, closed the XIII International AIDS Conference July 14, calling for both urgency and commitment in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In so doing, he provided reassurance and inspiration to the more than 10,000 AIDS practitioners and activists attending the meeting.

"There is need for us to be focused, to be strategic, and to mobilize all of our resources and alliances to sustain the effort (against HIV/AIDS) until this war is won," Mandela said in the keynote address of the closing ceremony of the meeting, which began July 9.

In a session with reporters shortly after the Mandela speech, representatives of the International AIDS Society who organized the Durban meeting expressed their enthusiasm for Mandela's remarks and their hopes that South Africa and other nations would follow the program of prevention, treatment, and community mobilization that the former president suggested.

"If we did all of what Mr. Mandela asked, I would be thrilled," said Salim Abdool-Karim, the scientific program chair of the conference and a South African AIDS physician.

Many of the thousands of delegates at the meeting came to Durban troubled by remarks that South African President Thabo Mbeki made earlier this year, expressing his doubts about what the scientific community considers to be an unambiguous link between HIV and the immune system suppression that has been named Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Some delegates described their concern that Mbeki's doubts might signify a lack of commitment to the need for aggressive programs to contain the disease, which now affects 34 million people around the world.

Mandela, who received a welcome befitting his worldwide reputation, told the crowd, "So much unnecessary attention around this conference had been directed towards a dispute that is unintentionally distracting from the real life and death issues we are confronted with as a country, a region, a continent and a world."

The 82 year old former president acknowledged the predictions that HIV/AIDS could cause a staggering number of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, "devastating families and communities; overwhelming and depleting health care services; and robbing schools of both students and teachers."

In a final analysis of the week's events, Stefano Vella, the president of the International AIDS Society, said the Durban meeting has launched a process of consensus building on the proper solutions for combatting the epidemic. "Nobody will have the courage to step down" from the commitments they have made at this meeting, the Italian physician said.

Gustaaf Wolvaart, the organizing committee chair for the South African meeting, said several trends emerged from the meeting. "We've almost de-mystified the knowledge," he said, resulting in an informed patient who becomes a powerful advocate for his own care.

Further, Wolvaart said that the meeting placed a new emphasis on the importance of access to treatment for all HIV/AIDS patients, regardless of their financial means. One final trend Wolvaart said has emerged is a need for accountability in government management of AIDS programs. "I don't think that train is going to stop," Wolvaart concluded.

Regarding the scientific findings to emerge from the XIII International AIDS Conference, Abdool-Karim highlighted three developments. He said he was impressed with some of the studies presented at the meeting about drug therapy trials in which mother-to-child-transmission of the virus was reduced through limited doses of antiretroviral drugs.

Abdool-Karim also expressed enthusiasm about the potential for structured intermittent therapy using anti-retroviral drugs, a treatment regimen which has potential to bring the benefits of these expensive drugs to developing world patients. Reports on early studies of this form of therapy were presented by U.S. National Institutes of Health officials, who said preliminary results were encouraging.

The third important scientific development to emerge from the conference, according to Abdool-Karim, was encouraging news about HIV vaccines. A U.S. scientist reported to the conference that vaccine development may produce an effective product by 2007.

The XIV International AIDS Conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in 2002.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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