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1st
EMBL/EMBO Joint Conference 2000 |
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Session I |
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From Pan to pandemic HIV and AIDS |
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Robin A. Weiss, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, University College London, UK
Little did we realise when small pox was eradicated in 1977 that a
new pestilence was brewing. AIDS was first recognised in 1981; in
the past 20 years, it has claimed 19 million lives, while 35 million
people are estimated to be infected with HIV today [Piot, 2000]. Scientific
developments have been remarkably rapid. HIV was discovered in 1983,
diagnostic blood tests introduced in 1985, and the first clinical
trial of an antiretroviral drug in 1986. Since 1996, AIDS mortality
has plummeted among those who have access to treatment with drugs
rationally designed from the molecular biology of HIV. Our most pressing
problem, however, remains elusive: the development of a safe, efficacious
HIV vaccine. Society's response to AIDS is as varied as HIV's gene
sequences. Out of discrimination came empowerment, when 'activist'
gay men realised they knew more than their doctors about the disease,
and employed the internet to disseminate this knowledge. But novel
threats evoke ancient responses: stigma, blame, vengeance, and blind
denial. Conspiracy theory finds fertile ground,such as the widespread
view in Africa that HIV arose as a virus deliberately engineered in
the USA by recombinant DNA technology, tested on gay men, drug addicts
and Africans. 'Cock-up' theories are also popular, e.g., that an early
polio vaccine trial was responsible for HIV crossing hosts from chimpanzee
to human [Hooper, 2000]. The zoonosis is evident but its route remains
hotly debated [Hahn et al., 2000; Korber et al., 2000]. Was it a natural
phenomenon or was it iatrogenic? Denial that HIV causes disease, even
that AIDS is transmissible [Duesberg, 1991] seemed to be the preserve
of a few virological 'flat-earthers', until the South African government
recently heeded these siren voices that HIV is harmless - so why preach
abstinence, hand out condoms, screen blood or purchase drugs to prevent
mother-to-child transmission? With a vigorous response from the scientific
and medical community [Nature, 2000] and indeed the lay press, we
trust the tide will indeed turn. AIDS is a danse macabre of sex, drugs
and death which demands the fullest engagement of science with society.
Biography
Robin A. Weiss is Professor of Viral Oncology at University College
London. Born in 1940, he studied biology at the University of London,
and has spent most of his research career studying retroviruses,
including the discovery of endogenous viral genomes transmitted
in a mendelian manner in host DNA. He was Director of the Institute
of Cancer Research, London, 1980-1989. Dr. Weiss' research contributions
to AIDS include the identification of CD4 as the binding receptor
for HIV, the early demonstration that 'Slim' disease in Uganda was
AIDS, and more recently, research on the etiology and molecular
virology of Kaposi's sarcoma, the most frequent tumour occurring
in Africa. |
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