Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

World AIDS Conference Wraps Up in Barcelona

Aired July 12, 2002 - 08:35   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A major international AIDS conference closes up today in Spain. The message repeated over and over at the summit, the world must do much, much more to wipe out the pandemic that kills someone every ten seconds.

Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with today's "House Call," and is coming long distance from Barcelona, Spain -- hello, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: How you doing, Leon. Yes, it is the last day of the conference here in beautiful Barcelona. It's been a conference for the most part that has been short on breakthroughs and long on controversy.

Certainly one of the big things that we have heard over and over again is how much it is going to cost to actually take care of the world's HIV problem, $10 billion a year is what they are estimating. And that -- we are very short of that right now, with only about $3 billion in the coffers.

And certainly, there has been a lot of controversy over that. United States Health Secretary Tommy Thompson actually was here in Barcelona, and actually went to the podium to give a speech about the United States' commitment to global AIDS. Quickly, his speech was taken over by protesters. They were blowing whistles, they were holding placards, pretty remarkable placards. These placards stating things like "Wanted: Bush and Thompson for the murder and neglect of persons with AIDS." So, pretty remarkable. They certainly can hear them chanting, took over the stage for about 15 minutes while the health secretary stood sternly by and watched the 15 minutes, and then gave a largely inaudible speech for about ten minutes after that.

Just over the last couple of days, certainly the visibility of the conference has gone way up. Both former President Clinton and Nelson Mandela are here in Barcelona as well. In fact, they walked to a world leaders conference last night, and then again today, they're closing the session off. You can hear the applause. Certainly welcomed very, very warmly. President Clinton actually put things into a lot of perspective, especially for the young viewers and old viewers alike. Here's a bit of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How could we explain to a visitor from outer space this situation? The world is being consumed by a disease that is preventable, with drugs that turn a death sentence into a chronic illness, and prevent mother-to-child transmission, with example after example of nations that have reversed the infection. How could we explain that to someone who had not lived through it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Forty million people have HIV/AIDS in the world today. Twenty million have died over the last 20 years, 70 million more are expected to die over the next 20 years. That is more than all the wars and all the natural disasters combined, Leon.

So certainly, those are some of the messages that we are hearing. Bleak numbers, but very important reminders of just how devastating AIDS has been, and can be.

HARRIS: Yes, those numbers are bleak, certainly, and definitely sobering, but is there any optimistic news coming out of this conference?

GUPTA: Certainly, a lot of people are hanging their hats on new medications and new vaccines, and we did hear about some of that. First, in the form of vaccines, we heard about the largest trial -- a vaccine for HIV to date in Thailand, actually, a little later on this year, 16,000 people will be enrolled. And it is an important vaccine trial. A lot of experts are very optimistic about this particular vaccine. We've had others in the past, but a lot of people are really looking to this one to maybe actually provide the ultimate vaccine. We don't know. It is going to be several years before that vaccine would be available, and it takes several years to analyze the data and get FDA approval, even after the trial has been completed. So, it is not any time soon.

We have also heard about a new medication. It is called T-20, and the medication name isn't that important, but basically it's an important thing because these medications are a welcome time, as we are starting to develop some resistance to other medications. So some optimistic news, Leon.

HARRIS: All right. That's good. Glad to hear the news isn't all bad coming out of Barcelona. Dr. Sanjay Gupta making the "House Call" for us today. Sure appreciate it. Take care, and safe travels back to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com