No image available
/ 18 October 2004
There was both a tragic and a timely element in the way that last week’s death of the Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve — best known for his leading role in the Superman films — has focused attention on a topic on which he became an ardent campaigner after being paralysed in a riding accident: the use of embryonic stem cells in research. His death coincided with two heated political debates around the issue.
There was both bad and good news for delegates preparing for the International Aids Conference in Bangkok. The bad news took the form of yet another warning of the potential threat of the disease to developing countries, and of the dangers of complacency. The good news came from two papers in the scientific literature, both indicating that the costs of treating Aids patients need not be as high as widely feared.