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CNN Sunday Morning

AIDS Conference in Barcelona Gets Under Way

Aired July 07, 2002 - 09:02   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a closer look at our top story, the World AIDS Conference. The AIDS epidemic is spreading abroad but stabilizing at home. It's still deadly and the search for effective treatment and prevention programs is key. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live from that conference in Barcelona, Spain. Beautiful spot, but tough subject to deal with, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question, Kyra. Absolutely, 40 million people as you already mentioned have AIDS around the world, 28 million of those folks are in Africa, a million or so in the United States, of which 400,000 to 500,000 are either under diagnosed or untreated.

What's also alarming, Kyra, is that since '94 to '98, we saw a steady decrease in the number of new cases of HIV AIDS. Since '98, we haven't been seeing that anymore. It's been about plateaued at about 10,000 new cases every quarter. Interestingly as well, or sort of unfortunately as well, 75 percent of the new cases among heterosexuals are African-Americans, of which 50 percent are African-American women.

So clearly, while there are good treatments out there, while there are good medications, while we have been good in the past at preventative strategies, those messages aren't ringing as truly or as loudly as they need to be, as we see these numbers not declining any further, especially in some of those other communities -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What about children with AIDS, Sanjay, has that been addressed so far at the conference?

GUPTA: Well, we have seen children with AIDS certainly in the United States and even more remarkably around the world, a lot of children with AIDS and orphaned AIDS children as well. It has been addressed. Certainly we've heard about it from President Bush recently regarding a new initiative towards maternal child transmission.

We've also heard about importance of education, starting very young, ten years old young, before risky behavior actually starts. The studies find that if you could actually target children at that age, you might have a chance of actually intervening before the risky behavior that oftentimes leads to positive HIV diagnosis, begins at ten years old so younger than we've ever heard before -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Sanjay, what about drugs? Talk of any new drugs? GUPTA: Well that's what everyone's waiting for. No question that is the Holy Grail sort of AIDS prevention via vaccine, actually getting rid of it through a vaccine. We are hearing a little bit about that. We're going to hear more about it throughout the week. There is a vaccine that is currently in Phase III clinical trials.

What that means, Kyra, is that it's getting close to potentially being released. That doesn't mean within days or weeks, really within years still away, but there is talk about vaccine and that's certainly something a lot of people are focusing their attention on.

What we're hearing more about, at least initially, is really stepping up prevention strategies that we have seen work in the past. We've also heard, as you mentioned before, Kyra, about resistance to some of the good drugs that are out there, for example, one of the best drugs called NNRTI. The name's not important but what is important is that over the last few years, the resistance has gone from zero percent to 13 percent and that is something that has researchers very concerned as well.

So, there's lots of talks about all sorts of things. I will say it has been a rather bleak picture thus far, but we are like you, Kyra, waiting to hear about some optimistic findings with regards to a vaccine or something like that.

PHILLIPS: Sanjay Gupta, live from Barcelona, Spain. Thanks, Sanjay.

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