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CNN Live Sunday
Interview With Dr. Jaco Homsy
Aired July 07, 2002 - 17:06 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Spain, the topic is AIDS. the 14th International Conference on AIDS is under way in Barcelona, and the news coming out of it so far is ominous. Among the findings, 40 million people worldwide have HIV or AIDS. And in the U.S., after years of decline, the number of new cases has neither increased nor dropped. CNN medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is covering the conference.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Yeah. It's the end of the day here, the first day of the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. First day is over, and experts spent much of the day actually painting the picture, as you say, of AIDS, of the scourge of AIDS both in the United States and around the world.
Starting off the day, officials from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States actually talked about the fact that between '94 and '98, new diagnosis of HIV and AIDS did decline, and that was a good sign. However, over the last three years now, it has not changed. It has stabilized. That certainly has a lot of researchers, a lot of experts concerned.
They point toward an apathy toward the disease. They point to a complacency with the medication as possible reasons. They've also pointed to some interesting trends, some drastic trends sort of within heterosexuals and AIDS. They have pointed to 50 percent of the new HIV infections occurring now are occurring in African-American women; 25 percent of the new infections occurring in African-American men. Fully making up 75 percent of all new infection are occurring in African-American communities. That certainly has a lot of people very concerned.
And that is in comparison to, really, the rest of the world, where the United States certainly has its share of problems, but nowhere near compared to the rest of the world, where the picture is truly abysmal. People are painting an abysmal picture, and they're making a request.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): It's a time of frustration for those fighting AIDS. Twenty years into the epidemic, the disease is showing no signs of leveling off, and the money needed to contain it in the countries hardest hit just isn't available. DR. PETER PIOT, UNAIDS: The world needs $10 billion per year to treat those with HIV in the poor nations, to make sure that the number of new infections is going down dramatically, and to take care of orphans. We are today at the $3 billion mark.
GUPTA: Without treatment, the disease means certain death. Worldwide, it's already killed 20 million. Another 40 million are currently infected.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit the hardest, and the disease continues to spread in places bike Botswana, which has the highest problems in the world -- almost half the adults are infected with HIV.
PIOT: This has huge implications for the economic and social development of the whole continent.
GUPTA: And what Africa is seeing now could be foreshadowing for countries where the epidemic is just beginning.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIH: It's a very serious problem in China. It is also potentially quite explosive in other Asian countries, such as India and countries in the Southeast Asia.
GUPTA: It's spreading most rapidly in the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia. One of the most pressing needs, experts say, access to treatment. In the West, half a million people are receiving HIV treatment, and last year, 25,000 died from AIDS. Compare that to Africa, where only 30,000 are receiving treatment, and last year, there were 2.2 million deaths.
PIOT: Without expanding prevention and treatment efforts in the developing world, that over the next decades, tens of millions of people are going to die. We estimate about 70 million people will die over the next 20 years. That whole economists will collapse in Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: And I don't think there's any place around the world that has become immune to this. Just to reiterate, 70 million people are expected to die of this over the next two decades.
Certainly the focus of the meeting here in Barcelona is how to prevent that from happening in an area of limited resources -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much from Barcelona.
Now, sub-Saharan Africa has 10 percent of the world's population, but 70 percent of the world's HIV cases. Dr. Jaco Homsy is field physician and HIV/AIDS adviser for Doctors Without Borders, an organization in the trenches of the battle against AIDS in Africa. And he joins us now from San Francisco. Thanks for joining us.
DR. JACO HOMSY, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Thank you. WHITFIELD: All right. Well, one of the issues that these researchers in Barcelona plan to tackle is what to do with the resources or money available for AIDS, whether that money should be going to developing the treatment of existing patients, HIV and AIDS patients, or if the majority of that money should be going toward research. What do you believe is at the heart of this argument?
HOMSY: Well, obviously, what's at the heart of the argument is the lack of commitment of the money needed to do both. There is division between prevention and treatment has only been brought about by the fact that there's not enough political will, not enough commitment for those who have the money -- that means the donors in the West, the governments in Europe and the U.S. and the private institutions and foundations who can make this possible.
WHITFIELD: Why not divide the money for both needs, though?
HOMSY: Excuse me?
WHITFIELD: Why not divide the money for both needs?
HOMSY: Because if we do take for granted the fact that there is not enough money, we think, as doctors working in the field, that we're just bending over to an acceptable and unethical position toward our patient. If we just had to say to our patients, I'm sorry we can do either or because we only have that money -- and we, at Doctors Without Borders, are not a very rich organization, yet we have found ways -- and there are ways -- to make this treatment accessible even with reduced resources.
I think it's very important to not fall into the trap and saying, OK, we only have this money, what are we going to do only with this? We have done this up to now by showing that it is possible to treat. We have released in Barcelona a report called "Overcoming the Treatment Deficit," that shows that in about seven countries in the world, treating about 1,000 patients -- I mean, showing result in 1,000 patients, we have reached extremely good results in terms of treatment efficiency, in terms of cost efficiency, and that we have shown that the people in Africa are completely able to follow these treatments without...
WHITFIELD: Let me ask you one more thing, real quick...
HOMSY: ... putting an additional...
WHITFIELD: ... before we run out of time. Let me ask you one more thing. You're in San Francisco, where researchers have already revealed that they're finding a strain of HIV that is resisting any of the treatments on hand.
HOMSY: That's right, I read that this morning.
WHITFIELD: OK. Now, how can that be approached? Is this a sign of what is to sweep the nation, or is it the finding that this only seems to be confined to San Francisco right now, and why? HOMSY: It took us -- it took 10 years for the major donors, the major powers of this globe to recognize that AIDS was not just a local African problem or Asian problem, but a global problem.
Now we have treatments that are effective since about six years ago. We have delayed and dragged our feet to provide these treatments. Resistance to treatment is nothing new in infectious diseases, nothing. Talk about staphiloccocos (ph) from AIDS to HIV, it's something that will happen, and it will not happen because it's Africa or because it's the United States. It's something that we expect to happen. It should not and is not an excuse for us to not provide treatment. Treatment -- I want to really make a very important point here.
WHITFIELD: Make it quickly, because we're running out of time.
HOMSY: OK. We've been hearing this discussion, what should we do, this money, prevention, treatment, research -- we really think that it's only an artificial discussion, artificial division between these aspects that should be really an integral component of one singular approach that makes it very effective.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Jaco Homsy, with Doctors Without Borders, thank you very much. We're going to have to bring you back when we have enough -- have a little bit more time to commit to the topic. Thank you very much.
HOMSY: You're welcome.
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