AIDS Conference to Hear Progress Report on New Treatments

In Boston on Monday, 4,000 specialists started a week of work studying the latest advances in the battle against HIV, which now affects 42 million people around the world.

Many of the 800 studies to be discussed concentrate on new therapies that could help patients who get no benefit from current treatments. The results of tests on three new drugs will be the highlight. One is a protease inhibitor that prevents the spread of viral particles in AIDS patients whose bodies resist other treatments. The second is a monoclonal antibody that protects healthy cells, preventing HIV's spread. A new generation of fusion inhibitors, which stop the virus membrane from merging with the target cell, is also in the spotlight.

The spread of the pandemic around the world will be the subject of several studies. One is on the "Internet Effect," as cyberspace has opened up new alternatives for sexual encounters. Other work is on the spread of AIDS in the United States, where about 1 million people live with HIV/AIDS.

Experts will also discuss the complications of antiretroviral therapies and the impact of people with HIV who contract other infections such as hepatitis G, which appears to slow the spread of AIDS. Researchers will outline their work in RNA interference therapeutic strategies for people with HIV. The research is at an early stage, but the treatment could hit certain strains of the disease.

The conference will see several presentations on how therapies are being applied in the world's poorest nations where the spread of AIDS has been most drastic, especially in southern Africa, which accounted for 3.5 million of the 4.2 million new cases of AIDS around the world in 2002.

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