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Health Officials Announce Plans for $36 Million Trial of an AIDS Vaccine

Aired July 09, 2002 - 06:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Health officials here in the United States have announced plans for a $36 million trial of an AIDS vaccine. The announcement comes as international health workers meet in Barcelona, Spain for the 14th Congress on AIDS. The U.S. health plan is the largest such trial to date. It will take place in Thailand. The announcement comes amidst grim warnings about the spread of the disease. The World Health Organization says $10 billion a year is needed to fight AIDS.

And there is perhaps no continent hit harder by the AIDS virus than Africa.

For more on that part of the story, CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault joins us from Durban, South Africa, where African leaders are gathered for the creation of a nationalized African union.

You're sitting there with the majority of the heads of state of Africa. What are they saying about the AIDS problem?

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, Carol, they're talking about poverty and trying to eliminate poverty, which, of course, exacerbates any health issue you have, but especially AIDS.

I was just in Malawi, where one of the many southern African countries experiencing drought. And those people normally have droughts and people get sick. But so many are dying now because AIDS has compromised their immune systems in ways that they've never experienced before. And so as a result far more people are dying.

Now, you hear in the background a bunch of people who are from Durban, South Africa. This is one of the hardest hit areas, too, higher than any other place in this country. One of the problems you get here also is infrastructure. I mean many of these people live in conditions that are without water, without proper sanitation. So that makes it even worse.

But it's not just poor people at the bottom. It's civil servants. It's people who will have to carry out the programs that these leaders are devising here. And many of them are being hit -- professionals, teachers of all kinds, and, of course, the families. The extended families are just being decimated, and that's been the heart of African society for generations -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, Charlayne, in saying that, I don't think many people realize just how bad it is in Africa, I mean the AIDS problem. The life expectancy in parts of Africa are below 40, isn't it?

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, in some of the countries -- in fact, I just mentioned Malawi and the life expectancy there has gone down below 40. And, of course, that takes out many of the mothers, actually the future of these nations. And they are, many of them are leaving behind infants, small children and, as I said, the extended family is over taxed and you don't have enough orphanages or other facilities to take care of these children.

So the crisis is already upon many of these African countries and their predictions are that this epidemic has not yet reached its peak -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And the major problems on why the AIDS epidemic is so widespread in Africa -- education, and they're just not getting the drugs they need, right?

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, it has to do with a lot of different things. I mean in some areas there are highly mobile populations. You have miners, people who are moving in and out a lot, people on the road. But as I said earlier also, you have terrible conditions of poverty, conditions of people living in cramped housing without sanitation, without proper water.

Now, even if they get the medications, many of which are being offered free now, but if they do get those medications, they still may prove ineffective because if you take a pill with water that's contaminated with cholera or some other disease, you know, you'll be sick and may die in any event.

So you have to improve the infrastructure of these countries in order for these medicines that have proven somewhat effective -- I mean, as you know, there's no cure for AIDS. But some of them have extended the lives of people. But also just proper diet. I mean that is also in places where people have access to a proper balanced diet, that kind of thing has also increased the lifespan of people with HIV/AIDS.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes, you can understand from...

HUNTER-GAULT: But if you're a...

COSTELLO: You can understand from the horrible pictures we're seeing about just how thin some of the people are in the hospital.

HUNTER-GAULT: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, reporting live for us from Africa this morning. Thank you for that.

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