Pubdate: Mon, 29 Aug 2005
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2005 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Jonathan Bor

UM INSTITUTE TO AID CHINA IN ITS FIGHT TO HALT AIDS

Pact To Further Expand City Center's Global Reach

Already a force in the fight against AIDS in Africa, the University of 
Maryland's Institute of Human Virology is expanding its reach to Asia with 
an agreement to help China keep its emerging epidemic from exploding into 
one of the world's largest.

Under the agreement, to be signed today at its annual conference in 
Baltimore, the institute will assist China in finding appropriate drug 
treatments and efficient ways of getting them to patients.

The pact also calls for Baltimore doctors to train Chinese physicians in 
the care of people with AIDS and for China to send young researchers to 
work in the institute's laboratories on West Lombard Street.

Scientists from both countries will join forces in finding a long-sought 
AIDS vaccine as well as new treatments that could include combinations of 
Western drugs and traditional Chinese medicines.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful for the long-term peace, prosperity and health if 
both parts of the globe came together to solve this problem?" said Dr. 
Robert C. Gallo, the institute's director and co-discoverer of the virus 
that causes AIDS.

Gallo said the center also plans to sign a commercial agreement next month 
with the Chinese government and CK Life Sciences, a Hong Kong 
pharmaceutical company. The parties hope to develop marketable therapies 
and share in royalties.

Today's agreement comes as Chinese health authorities increasingly reach 
out for expertise in grappling with a disease that arrived more than a 
decade later than it did in the United States, Africa and some other parts 
of the world.

China documented its first case of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in 
the mid-1980s, but the epidemic took off in the mid-1990s - fueled then by 
the sale of contaminated blood products. More recently, intravenous drug 
use, prostitution and general sexual activity have abetted the epidemic.

The World Health Organization estimates that fewer than eight out of every 
10,000 Chinese are infected with the AIDS virus - a tiny fraction of the 
rates seen in some African countries. Chinese authorities estimate that 
840,000 people there are infected with HIV.

But experts fear that the disease could overwhelm China if the country 
doesn't develop effective strategies to contain it soon. Some predict that 
the world's most populous nation - with more than 1.25 billion people - 
could also have the world's largest AIDS caseload within the next decade.

"Control and prevention is not just a short battle, it's a long war," said 
Dr. Yiming Shao, chief expert with China's National Center for AIDS/STD 
Control and Prevention. "With scientific support we can sustain the war 
against AIDS."

Gallo and Dr. Wang Yu, director of China's Center for Disease Control, are 
scheduled to sign the pact this morning in a ceremony at the Baltimore 
Marriott Waterfront.

Founded by Gallo in 1996, the institute is the latest of several U.S. 
research institutions to join China's fight against AIDS. Others include 
the Johns Hopkins University, University of North Carolina and Harvard 
University.

"They are looking for top, world-class advice from different sources," said 
Joel Rehnstrom, who heads China programs for the United Nations AIDS effort.

UNC's program focuses primarily on public health measures to control the 
spread of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. Hopkins is testing a 
medication designed to get addicts off heroin and, consequently, to keep 
them from spreading the human immunodeficiency virus through the sharing of 
dirty needles.

Today's pact may be the first between an entire institution and Chinese 
health authorities, Shao said. Most of the others "are scientist to 
scientist in different areas."

Critics say the Chinese government came late to the battle, refusing to 
publicly acknowledge the epidemic until just a few years ago.

But Dr. Myron Cohen, a UNC researcher who works with the Chinese government 
on AIDS issues, rejected that view. He noted that U.S. reaction to AIDS was 
far from swift in the early 1980s and that China's epidemic didn't take off 
until much later.

Cohen said Gallo's involvement is important because of his eminence as an 
AIDS researcher. Also, he said, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the 
institute's clinical program, is a world authority in the management of 
patients on anti-HIV drugs. "The Chinese will benefit enormously," he said.

The collaboration will cost about $7 million over three years, with funding 
from the Chinese and U.S. governments, and outside sources that have yet to 
be found, according to Dave Wilkins, the institute's chief operating officer.

One of the institute's central roles will be to help China find drug 
combinations that are most suitable for its population, Redfield said. In 
the U.S., therapy often consists of three-drug "cocktails" chosen from more 
than 20 drugs now available. China has access to a half-dozen anti-HIV 
medications, although more might soon be available.

Although U.S. doctors often delay the start of antiretroviral therapy until 
the virus has suppressed a patient's immune system, that might not be the 
right answer in China, Redfield said. A key consideration is how to keep 
patients from developing resistance to one or more drugs, a problem that 
can force doctors to prescribe other drugs.

 From the start, the Institute of Human Virology's main focus was on basic 
research into HIV infection and the development of treatments and vaccines.

But over the past two years, its scope broadened considerably with the 
federal government awarding more than $77 million to help deliver drugs to 
patients in hard hit areas of Africa and the Caribbean.

The pact with China further expands its international focus, although the 
institute intends to function more as a scientific collaborator than as a 
relief group.

Gallo said it is difficult to say how far the institute's relationship with 
China will grow.

"It would be wonderful to say this is going to be enormous and big and 
historical. I don't know what will happen," he said, explaining that 
funding could determine the extent of the partnership.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman