On Sat, 22 Jul 2000 10:15:41 +0200 "A. P. Dampha" 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:


> Anyway as far as I am informed there is currently no drug available that
> could cure or protect from AIDS. But isn’t it that the pharmaceutical
> industry wants to sell their products?
> Haven’t we hared such tunes before? (I think of the baby food).

The current drugs in the market are quite effective but no 
body is claiming they are a cure.
 

> For quite some time I see the US campaign on AIDS in Africa in way that it
> is
> used as an advertising campaign against Africa.
> 
> Aids is in all countries of this world. And in some it is even more rampant
> (Asia).
> So why do they point their fingers on Africa?

The current estimates from UNAIDS, the UN body charged with 
HIV/AIDS is that 95% of HIV/AIDS are in developing 
countries and 2/3 of this is in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Asia 
is catching up fast but the proportion of infected people 
is far less than in Africa.
 
> And the pharmaceutical industry?
> They are spending a lot of money developing medication and injections,
> knowing that the formula they develop are designed to evolve resistancy from
> the parasite soon, if treating at all. Such research programs are easily
> sponsored. But I have not yet heard from research in the field of
> eradicating Malaria in Africa.

The fight for the eradication of Malaria has been going on 
for over 50 years.  One of the main research interests for 
the MRC in its 50 years of existence in the Gambia is the 
research on Malaria.

 I recently hared about a drug, that is to
> cure Malaria safely. It is a traditional Chinese treatment extracted from a
> plant called "Artemisia". First this was kept secret from the Chinese for
> political reasons. Now it is currently tested by WHO. But as it can not be
> produced technically but must be extracted directly from the plant (as far
> as I know) I have not seen any company being prepared to make this drug
> accessible to people. It is not an interesting market.

This drugs has been around for some time now.  It is only 
used where others have failed so as to reduce the chance of 
resistance.

I hope my comments are helpful

MMC
 

----------------------
Dr M Mansour Ceesay
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