Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 47 502 850 on Thursday July 4 2002.
A New Zealand company said this week that United States authorities had approved extended trials of a new drug it claimed “gobbles up” the virus that causes Aids.
The Virionyx Corporation of Auckland said its HRG214 drug had successfully completed trials involving 18 volunteers with HIV/Aids at the Harvard University medical school. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved further trials, during which 48 patients will be given twice-weekly injections of the drug, which is based on goat plasma.
UN report: The United Nations released a grim report this week warning that the Aids pandemic is still in its early stages. The report says that Aids has already caused economic growth to fall by as much as 4% in sub-Saharan Africa. With fewer people available to do agricultural work, malnutrition and hunger will follow.
The study says that Aids has rapidly weakened the economic stability, national security, agricultural output and the capacity of governments to function adequately. Of the 40-million HIV-infected people in the world, it said only 700 000, or 1,75%, were receiving anti-HIV drugs at the end of last year. In Africa, fewer than 30 000 of the 28,5-million infected people were receiving anti-HIV treatment.