Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 51 827 376 at 5.48pm on Wednesday April 30 2003.
Contradicting pronouncements by HIV co-discoverer Luc Montagnier, Chinese Aids experts have said they believe people with Aids are less vulnerable to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Laurie Garrett, a respected medical reporter specialising in HIV and emerging infections, reported that experts are investigating why no Aids patients treated on the same floor of a Guangzhou hospital as Sars patients had contracted the disease, despite regular traffic between the two wards by health-care workers who later succumbed to Sars. Speculation has centred on the potential protective effect of immunosuppression. So far corticosteroids are the most effective treatment identified for Sars.
Guidelines: The British HIV Association’s draft treatment guidelines will advise against the use of d4T and Trizivir in first-line therapy. The new guidelines suggest that d4T (stavudine) is to be avoided because of toxicity and that Trizivir alone is not recommended.
Source: www.aidsmap.com